Good day gamers! All characters for the Kombat Pack 1 for Mortal Kombat 1 have been released as of last month and I decided to go through them all and write a short review for each of the playable characters. As well, Kombat Pack 2 was just announced recently and it introduced a secondary part to the campaign mode featuring Havik as the big bad. As well, it revealed some gameplay for the new upcoming characters and new fatalities that will be part of the DLC as well. MK1 has been out for over a year and I bought it on day one hoping for a similarly polished experience to MK11 and it just does not hold up like the previous entries in the franchise, but here we are still talking about it because there are some good things to say amongst the massive negatives the game offers. Here are my thoughts and mini review for Kombat Pack 1 and Kombat Pack 2 announcement.

Quick Fighter Breakdown and Mini DLC Review

1. Omni-Man – Released on November 9, 2023

Omni-Man is a monstrous fighter in MK1 and he brings with him all the memorable moments from the Invincible animated tv show. He is my favorite of this bunch and quite honestly he saved this game for me. His move set involves a lot of precise timing to connect moves but overall he is just fun to play. The sound affects and his animations do justice to his character as he feels powerful and intimidating to go up against. NetherRealm did a fantastic job translating his character into a 3D model / space. Not to mention his over the top fatalities which are ripped straight out of the Invincible anime, absolutely incredible. 5 out of 5.

2. Quan Chi – Released on December 14, 2023

Quan Chi is a staple villain in the Mortal Kombat universe. He was already introduced in the campaign so seeing him return as a playable character again was not surprising. His move set is a mixed bag of ranged attacks that also require some precise timing to actually do real damage. He is kind of a juggle / trap type character and uses his portals to bring out monster tentacles and skulls to attack. Sadly, Quan Chi’s fatalities are the weakest of all the DLC characters and they don’t really add any super notable shock factor. Overall he is a 3 out of 5.

3. Peacemaker – Released on February 28, 2024

Peacemaker is my second favorite from this bunch and seeing John Cena take the role of this character again in a video game is pretty awesome. His move set includes ranged attacks with his guns, his pet bird Eagly, and blasts from his iconic helmet. His abilities include a ton of highlights from his own Peacemaker tv series, very much like Omni-Man. While he is a bit heavy and slow he is still fun to play and his fatalities also do him justice as they also include elements from the show. My favorite fatality is his hidden secondary where he uses his jetpack and helmet blast to obliterate his foe, then proceeds to feed what’s left to Eagly. Overall he is a 4 out of 5.

4. Ermac – Released on April 16, 2024

Ermac is another staple villain in the MK universe. He was also revealed in the campaign and was playable for a few matches as well, so again, seeing him as a fully playable character was not surprising. However, this new version of Ermac isn’t like the evil red suited green eyed ninja we remember him as from the previous entries. This time he has a more sinister look to him as he features a darker undead sorcerer vibe. His move set features a mixed bag of range attacks, ranged grabs, and teleportation moves. He is definitely fun to play but also feels more technical so he needs time put in to fully understand his play style. His fatalities are pretty simple and don’t feel well thought out in comparison to his previous fatalities from past games. Overall he is a 4 out of 5.

5. Homelander – Released on June 4 2024

Homelander is the fifth character to be released and he was definitely my least favorite out of this pack. His look overall is pretty much identical to the actor from The Boys tv series which is awesome. However, I found his move set more complicated than the rest of the fighters in this pack. He has grapple and teleport type moves that don’t seem to work well, for me at least. Thankfully though, his fatalities are ripped straight from the tv show as well, which does his character justice. Overall he is a 2 out of 5.

6. Takeda Takahashi – Released on July 23, 2024

Takeda makes his return to the MK series as the final DLC character for Kombat Pack 1. This time around he features a more aggressive and advanced set of blade whips and a new costume. His move set is a mixed set of ranged attacks and quick maneuverability to close the gap and slam your opponent. Takeda is my third favorite out of this pack although I found his moves to be a little confusing to tie in together as well. Unfortunately, his fatalities are both pretty mid as they are definitely in line with the MK tradition in terms of brutality, but they don’t have much shock factor. Overall he is a 3 out of 5.

Khaos Reigns Kombat Pack 2 DLC Announcement

The Khaos Reigns trailer came out about 3 weeks ago in July and I have to say it has cool ideas, however, I’m not impressed with that they revealed. In the trailer you can see the campaign will be centered around the villain Havik and it looks like the heroes of MK will need to find a way to put an end to him. While the campaign seems interesting enough, I was confused by the remainder of the trailer as they revealed a major change of two classic MK characters Sektor and Cyrax. For some reason NetherRealm has gender swapped both of them from male cyborg ninjas to human females wearing their cybernetic armor. Sektor and Cyrax are iconic Mortal Kombat characters and I felt it was a disrespect to fans that they made this decision. Perhaps it was because the two characters are already in the game as assist / cameo characters, however, with the way the game industry has been pushing “diversity” and “inclusion”, this may be their attempt to appease the non existent “modern audience” which is very concerning for the future of the game and Mortal Kombat as a series overall.

Besides this major change, the rest of the characters looked pretty cool. The trailer also revealed that Animalities were coming back into MK1. These animal transformation fatalities looked very gimmicky and feel like they are taking away the serious tone of fatalities in favor of a silly / humorous death animation instead. I’m not super crazy about these new features coming to the game, and I was also not a big fan of the way they altered Noob Saibot’s hood / headgear. Its a weird new look for the character, but I was excited to see he will be returning to the game. As well, the additional 3 bonus characters will be Scream, the T-1000 (Terminator 2), and finally Conan the Barbarian (based off Arnold Schwarzenegger’s’ Conan). Another strange batch of characters in my opinion. In previous games, Arnold’s model was used as the T-800 Terminator, and they are bringing him in again as Conan. This time he can now face off against the T-1000 which will be a completely weird match up, but it will still be cool to see them in a battle against each other. I’m hoping to see some additional DLC down the line that will add a Terminator skin for Conan so there can actually be 2 Terminator movie based characters in one game.

Final Thoughts

The overall state of the MK1 experience is still very mediocre at this point in time. While the DLC characters have helped the game considerably (mainly Omni-Man who saved in my opinion), it still doesn’t change the fact that MK1 has just been different from the start. While I credit the game for having brilliant graphics and fantastic level design, there is something about the game that feels off. Its mechanics feel much slower than previous games and it feels like some of the magic that made Mortal Kombat so special had been removed. Now I’m not sure if its because they reset the timeline so MK1 is starting back at the beginning again, resulting in the game featuring more tame animations and limited characters, but it all felt a bit toned down from what Mortal Kombat would normally feel like.

From the beginning, I noticed many fatalities were stripped down from their normal over the top style in favor of more modest / reserved animations (modest for normal MK standards). Now this is not to say that it’s all gone since there are still some brutal fatalities and x-ray moves, but as a long time player of the series, you can just tell that things are different in MK1. Elements are toned down and it feels almost as if the game is hiding itself or like its holding in a sneeze, or something to that effect. Warner Bros. (the publisher for MK1) has announced previously that it is trying to keep up with its diversity, equity, and inclusion agendas, and I worry that this sort of ideology is bleeding into Mortal Kombat and all of the video game content that is being made within their development studios. Unfortunately activists and social political agenda pushing have ruined gaming and I think these weird changes are a result of trying to destroy what the original games used to be. Honestly I hope I’m wrong here, but this new Khaos Reign DLC which is gender swapping original characters, feels like an attack on the game and its fanbase. While I don’t mind having female MK characters, I don’t think its right to alter the original roster in any way, especially since these characters are so iconic and mean a lot to the dedicated fans who’ve been playing and supporting MK for decades. So far the overall sentiment is that this change is an attempt to keep up with DEI injection into normal games, but we’ll soon find out what is going on when the first part of the DLC releases next month on September 24.

As always gamers, if you made it down here to the end thank you so very much for your time and dedication to read my thoughts on Mortal Kombat 1. It’s still a decent game but since I bought it something felt off and I don’t know exactly why. I’m only guessing based on the state of the gaming industry as a whole and how much the industry has been failing in sales because of the weirdness going on regarding DEI in video games. If you truly like Mortal Kombat games perhaps give this one a try if it goes WAY down in price, otherwise I suggest sticking with the previous 3 MK games which are all much better than this one. For now, thanks again for reading this post I hope you have an amazing weekend ahead!

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