Cologne – On the occasion of Gamescom 2023 we got to try it in preview Mortal Kombat 1, the new upcoming chapter of the historic Beat ’em up saga. Specifically, we got to thoroughly test the Story Mode and Invasions Mode that will characterize, among other things, this new title.
While the first, self-explanatory, allows us to navigate the storyline of Mortal Kombat 1new and partially unpublished, the second introduces a new single-player experience with a tactical map, combat, items to equip and a new way to develop a sub-story.
But let’s start in order.
Mortal Kombat 1 Story Mode preview
One of the characteristics of Mortal Kombat 1 is definitely the way the plot and characters have been developed. We are facing a real reboot of the saga in which the characters we have come to love over the years are presented to us in a totally new way. This is in line with the events of Mortal Kombat 11 and the actions of Chronicle. The plot of this new chapter develops, precisely, in the story mode in which the fights, which still represent the soul of the game, are interspersed with interesting Cinematics.
During our test at Gamescom 2023, we saw the first minutes of the story mode After a short video sequence with Shang Tsung and the mysterious appearance of Chroniclethe story moves on Raiden e Kung Lao, shown here as two friends recounting their adventures at the old woman Madam Bo’s inn. The two will engage in a friendly fight before being interrupted by the Lin Kuei clan who have come to extort money from the inn. Then start a fight against Scorpion e Sub Zero.
Beyond a streamlined and effective combat system that now sees the participation of Kameo fighters that will help us at the push of a button, the story mode gave us the impression of having been done in the best way. In addition to presenting a good pacing between cinematic scenes and gameplay, the direction seemed attentive to detail and storytelling and we can’t wait to discover more in the full game.
Mortal Kombat 1 Invasions Mode preview
The story is also accompanied by the Invasions Mode, an evolution of other single player modes introduced over the years. This mode develops on a “tactical” map in which our fighter will move to pre-established points to face an ever new challenge, a bit like on a board game plan. Every week the location of Invasion will always be different so as to offer us new settings, new stories, battles and objects.
During our test we played as Kenshi and Cyrax as Kameo (both roles can be changed at any time) and the scenario was Johnny Cage’s very expensive villa. Here we have faced many more or less interesting challenges that have kept this mini-plot going: investigating Johnny Cage’s house and verifying the mysterious presences that he complains about and that prevent him from selling it. The “quests” are quite simple, from recovering the house keys from a Tarkatan warrior and receiving training and lecturing on the gameplay variations introduced by this chapter.
However, this mode is enriched with interesting innovations such as the seller of objects or the blacksmith, distributed on the map, which will allow you to buy items or improve them. Each item will provide interesting buffs and power-ups, which are necessary to overcome some obstacles in this mode. In fact, the fights will become increasingly difficult with alterations to the arenas (with flying sprites capable of spitting flames), new gadgets to acquire and the right combinations of characters to use. Here, in fact, each character has an element, ice, fire, physical and so on, which is opposed to the opposite element, a bit like in the classic rock-paper-scissors.
Scorpion possesses, needless to say, the fire element and will be “super effective” against fighters like Frost or Sub-Zero, of the ice element. This translates into a “strategic” mechanic that we did not mind.
Our test of Mortal Kombat in a nutshell
Mortal Kombat 1 seemed to us to be in excellent condition, gameplay, graphics and animations seem to be those of a game that is already complete and available. The story mode seems to want to give something more than a classic fighting game that allows us not only to test the available characters, but also to discover the story of this new Mortal Kombat.
Although the Invasion mode seemed more detached and ironic than the atmosphere of the main game, it is a way to keep the game alive even after you have completed the main story thanks to the continuous updates and changes of scenarios that we do not see the time to find out.
Mortal Kombat 1 will be released on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X / S, Microsoft Windows on September 13th.