Let’s find out together, in this dedicated preview, what were our first impressions deriving from the Beta Preorder on Mortal Kombat 1: how does the NetherRealm Studios game behave?
Making a sequel or starting from a reboot? For insiders in a particularly long and profitable series, both in terms of reception and, more purely, economics, this must be a great question mark on the occasion of a new iteration. And it was also for NetherRealm with Mortal Kombat 1, where in this case the second option was chosen, the chapter following that enormous success that was Mortal Kombat 11. No twelve, in short, but a restart. We had the opportunity to try the Beta Preorder in recent days and we did it with joy. And we talk to you here, in preview, of Mortal Kombat 1: here are our first impressions!
Fighters and Cameo | Mortal Kombat 1 preview
Thus taking up the first cabinet chapter of the series, NetherRealm has given life to Mortal Kombat 1, which will arrive on September 14th on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X | S and Xbox One. In reality, a similar operation was fielded by the same company as early as 2011, when Mortal Kombat 9 arrived on the market, the real first reboot of that chapter which in 1992 made heads and blood fly into the childhood of all the lucky ones old enough to be able to do it. put hand. In anticipation of the release, a Beta Preorder was released that went live from Friday to Monday last weekend.
A beta where they were available six playable characters (Li Mei, Johnny Cage, Kitana, Liu Kang, Sub Zero e Kenshi), Quattro Kameo (Jax, Sonya, Frost e Kano) and two distinct modes, singleplayer with Klassic Towers and multiplayer with 1v1 mode. The first, in this case as in any other existing fighting game, is mainly used to get a handle on the command scheme and the timing of the various characters’ abilities, in a series of clashes with the game’s AI of gradually increasing difficulty.
Skills and schemes that longtime fans of Mortal Kombat will perhaps find well in their hands, but whose timing and reactions have definitely changed. In Mortal Kombat 1 we noticed a greater spectacularity that goes hand in hand with an equally greater slowness of the inputs. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, you just need to get used to it and study well a combat system which, as in its predecessors, is damn functional and fun to learn in this reboot too.
Fatality! | Anteprima Mortal Kombat 1
Also very interesting is the addition of the Kameos, iconic characters from the Mortal Kombat roster that are not playable in this instance, but who act as helpers during the clashes. In practice, in the selection of the Kombattente, you will also select a Kameo character, which will be recallable during the fight by pressing a single button (on PS5 it is R1). In this way, the Kameo will take the field and perform a move that could be useful to you to get out of rather dangerous situations, interrupt kombos or, even better, end a fight in style (in addition to the always eternal Fatalities, of course).
The only doubt that arises on the front of this mechanic is more of a problem that could involve the fans. If a character belongs to the Kameo roster, according to what we have seen at least in this Beta, he shouldn’t be able to belong to the Kombattenti one, thus undermining the use of iconic characters from the franchise. We’ll see.
1v1 | Preview of Mortal Kombat 1
Setting aside the single-player component, the focus will obviously be online. As already mentioned, in this beta version it is only possible to access 1v1 matches and there are no rankings or other types of score, only a counter of wins and losses visible under the player’s nickname. As far as online battles are concerned, we have not noticed any particular problems: no crashes or slowdowns of any kind, and the rollback netcode does its good part by making the clashes usable and fluid. We will have to see, once we have the full game in hand, if the servers will behave so well even with the amount of players expected for day one.
From a purely aesthetic point of view, Mortal Kombat 1 differs from the prequels for the use of a much more saturated color palette, compared to the darker colors of the past. Furthermore, at first glance all the characters seem markedly younger: we are curious to see how this will have repercussions on the history of the title and on the relationships between the various Kombattenti.
Let’s wait!
We don’t have much more to say in this preview of Mortal Kombat 1: we reserve the space for more technical and in-depth analyzes in the review that you will find on our pages in September. For now, the reboot of the NetherRealms franchise seems to work quite well both in technical and purely playful terms, although we still have some doubts about the functioning of the Kameos and, in reality, very little has been seen of the various modes that the game will have to offer. We’ll find out more in a few weeks!
Mortal Kombat 1 will be available from next September 14 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X | S. Let us know what you think below in the comments, whether you have tried the Beta or not, we will continue to keep you updated with all the videogame and tech news, guides and reviews! And if you are interested in game keys at advantageous prices, we suggest you take a look at the Kinguin catalogue!