Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns' story somehow makes anarchy boring

Back in 2020, WB Games and NetherRealm Studios tried something new for Mortal Kombat 11. It was the first time they had attempted story DLC that explored the events following the core game's narrative. It was a fascinating experiment and one that shaped the series' future. Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath set the table for what was next by taking the franchise's characters in an interesting new direction, one that raised many questions right up until the reveal of Mortal Kombat 1.

By comparison, Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns' story DLC does none of that and instead relies on a by-the-numbers narrative that comparatively offers no excitement. For a story that focuses on the rise of chaos and raises the notion of anarchy across all realms, the end result is something that's disappointingly predictable. It ends up being the antithesis of anarchy.

Khaos Reigns' story follows the events of Mortal Kombat 1's final battle and post-credits scene. The battle for all timelines is done and Fire God Liu Kang's realm has survived the assault from Shang Tsung, who survived his own Aftermath fate in a brilliant plot twist. However, a new threat has risen in the form of Titan Havik, a version of Havik who has defeated MK11 big bad Kronika and turned his realm into one of pure chaos. The idea of a realm of total anarchy spreading and sharply contrasting the order that Liu Kang has worked tirelessly to build could have been a compelling tale. How does Liu Kang fight against someone who doesn't stand for anything other than complete disorder? Don't think about it too much, because it's never addressed to any satisfying level.

Instead, Khaos Reigns is bogged down by the secondary story, which involves the continued conflict between Bi-Han (Sub-Zero and later Noob Saibot) and Kuai Liang (Scorpion). Adding to their rivalry is the introduction of Sektor and Cyrax, who are noticeably different from their previous incarnations. Instead of robotic ninjas, they're instead gender-swapped ninjas clad in technologically advanced armor. Who these new characters are, how this armor was developed, and how the Lin Kuei wound up going down a path of Iron Man-like mech suits over the cybernetic ninjas of previous MK timelines is never explored. Instead, players are given a brief introduction to Sektor and Cyrax at the start of the story and given no reason to care about them by the time the credits roll. Their characters don't feel fleshed-out (har har, it's a cyber ninja joke) over the course of the two-hour runtime at all.

As for the main story, Titan Havik is presented as a lord of chaos, but NetherRealm doesn't even scratch the surface of this idea's potential. Instead, the good guys get sent on a MacGuffin chase, there's a series of fights, and the cutscenes between fights give players nearly two hours of filler. Even the potential presented by the end of Mortal Kombat 1's main story, where players are pitted against characters from across multiple timelines, is pretty much abandoned in favor of fights against characters from Havik's chaos timeline. If that sounds like it could be exciting, it isn't.

If there's a positive to the Khaos Reigns story, it's that NetherRealm continues to make the most of the latest hardware in developing its stories. There's a sequence between Tanya and a dragon, specifically, that's presented beautifully and briefly shows the heights that Mortal Kombat is capable of reaching from a visual standpoint. Havik's citadel from within his chaos timeline is also a fascinating realm that would have been interesting to visit, but the time spent there is all too brief.

What bothers me most about Khaos Reigns is that I can still vividly remember my brain running a mile a minute after the credits rolled in Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath. NetherRealm presented major plot twists, two distinct branching paths (brilliantly presented in such a way that both became canon), and raised some major questions about many of the franchise's most beloved characters. Within days, it begged for speculation over what would come next.

By comparison, Khaos Reigns offers none of that. It inspires no such speculation. It raises no such questions about any of the series' characters. Only a few are going to get any kind of status quo change, and the changes feel so negligible that it's a wonder why NetherRealm even bothered at all.

By its very nature, chaos can be many things. It should never be boring. In what world is chaos boring? As it turns out, the answer to that is the world of Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns.

These impressions are based on a DLC code provided by the publisher. The Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns expansion is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch for $49.99 USD. It is rated M.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?