Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns Review

It’s been just over a year since the we thwarted the plans of the Deadly Alliance that was of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi and saved Liu Kangs timeline from invasion in Mortal Kombat 1, which was the start of a new era for the franchise. Now with the release of the Khaos Reigns expansion we have a new threat to deal with. 

Titan Havik steps up to the plate to be the latest villain to try and conquer and add Khaos to all timelines out there. To do this he needs Geras, from Titan Liu Kangs timeline to do this as he was there from the beginning with Kronika. If this sounds a tad confusing to you then I’d advise you go back to MK11 and relive the story, but as you’re reading this, I’m going to assume you are following along nicely. 

After clicking to install MK1 and its expansion, I went to bed excited, knowing that when I get back from work the next day and I could then spend the next couple of days working through the expansions campaign. Unfortunately, the reality didn’t live up to my expectations: the expansion campaign, in my humble opinion, is way too short.  

There’s been a lot of discourse on social media over the last couple of years about games being overpriced for the length of story content you get. In this instance if I paid the £39.99 launch price then I’d be feeling a little disappointed with the offering. The story expansion took just over 2 hours to complete the 5 additional chapters. Titan Havik had the potential to be a great villain with his unique character traits and abilities, and even though I enjoyed what I played it ended all too soon. I will say though that the cut scenes are gorgeous and you really get a feel for the Khaos realm that Titan Havik resides in. A lot of characters got a Khaos realm makeover, with 2 of my favorites being Kitana and Mileena who looked like 90’s punk rock kids!  

In the story you get to play a chapter with each of the three new characters that you unlock with the expansion; Sektor, Cryax and Noob Saibot. There are an additional three characters that will be released at a later date (Ghost Face, Conan the Barbarian and the T-1000). 

Some free content that came with the expansion is Animalities which have been absent from the Mortal Kombat for some time. They look as gruesome and as awesome as you’d expect 2024 Animalities to be and these can be practiced alongside normal fatalities under the ‘Learn’ tab on the main menu so there’s no need to win a fight to try these out. 

Conclusion

For a 2-hour story extension and 6 unlockable characters, 3 of which are only available at some point in the future, £39.99 seems a steep price to pay. So, unless you’re desperate to play the fun but way too short expansion story and try the new characters out, in the meantime the free Animalities will be fun to play with until the inevitable sale down the road.