Shortly after Mortal Kombat 1 launched last September, I walked away with mixed opinions on the fighting game juggernaut. While I enjoyed the single-player campaign and reimagined origin stories for every fighter, I wasn’t a huge fan of the constant grind and repetition of the Invasion mode. I also felt that the overall total package still lacked additional content.
Fast-forward to approximately one year later and the release of Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns, a new expansion featuring more story content, the return of animalities, new towers/arenas, and new fighters with guest combatants coming later. Does all of this content make Khaos Reigns the ultimate package for MK fans? Keep reading to find out.
A Mad Titan Appears
Khaos Reigns picks us up immediately after the events of the fourth act and revolves around Titan Havik emerging as the new threat to Fire God Liu Kang’s peaceful era. While he attempts to throw every realm into complete and utter chaos, there is also an ongoing feud between Scorpion and Sub Zero which serves as an origin story for Noob Saibot. Cyrax and Sektor are introduced as students to both brothers and are therefore caught in the middle of this drama. This results in an action-packed story filled with betrayal, corruption, morality, death, hope, and anarchy.
Khaos Reigns is the fifth act of the story campaign and follows chapters 16-20 across 28 blood-soaked mini-chapters. While I enjoyed the 90-minute extended storyline, the ending felt rushed and incomplete. There is usually a tease of what’s next at the end of these recent Mortal Kombat games and I didn’t get that indication once the credits started rolling. For this reason, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get one more story expansion release in 2025 to further set the course for the next main title in the series.
Noob Saibot, Cyrax, and Sektor are great additions to an already stacked roster. While the original Cyrax and Sektor appeared as Kameo characters before this DLC, the reimagined versions are highly trained female Lin Kuei warriors using powered suits. Noob Saibot is once again Bi-Han but created by Titan Havik. All three fighters are simply unstoppable badasses with devastating moves, bone-shattering x-ray attacks, and vicious fatalities, brutalities, and animalities.
Speaking of animalities, every playable fighter in the game now has one courtesy of a free patch update. Fans of these animal-stylized finishers will appreciate their return as another way to annihilate their opponent. For those who enjoy the Towers of Time, this mode continues to have in-game events and daily challenges with four new arenas from the story campaign. Some new story-related character skins are also available and I’m sure there will be even more cosmetic skins released later as NetherRealm continues to support the game.
Looking towards future content as part of this expansion, fans can expect Ghostface (Scream film franchise), T-1000 (Terminator 2: Judgment Day), and Conan the Barbarian to show up at some point. With Halloween right around the corner, it would be ideal if we got Ghostface this month. In any event, stay tuned for our impressions of these characters as soon as they are released.
Final Verdict
If you missed out on Mortal Kombat 1 when it launched last year, then now is the perfect time to jump in. Khaos Reigns adds even more story, carnage, and mayhem to an already solid fighting game package. I look forward to seeing how NetherRealm continues supporting this franchise from here on out.
This review was written based on a digital review copy of Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns for PlayStation 5 provided by Warner Bros. Games.
