Mortal Kombat 1 - Khaos Reigns DLC

 

This is the DLC expansion for MK1, kinda like what MK11: Aftermath was. They're canon and basically sequels, running about a third of the runtime of their respective games. This one serves the purpose of getting lame-ass Havik out of the way so that the next main series game can move on to an actual interesting bad guy.

Catch up on goings-on with MK1 (or rather, Mortal Kombat 12 lol) at the posts HERE. Since I played through the entire series, I'm legally mandated to cover this DLC as well.

We start with this dimension's version of Cyrax and Sektor, which are both chix now and also people in Iron Man suits rather than cyborgs. Their masks go up every time they talk, just like in the hit movie series the MCU!

Oh yeah, I forgot about the absolute Marvel-ization of Mortal Kombat as of late. Marvel-ization is fine when it's in Marvel movies, not so much when it creeps into things like Assassin's Creed, Mortal Kombat, and, uhhh....Metroid Prime.

Going back in time 6 years to before this really got to be an issue, I think the series peaked with MK11 and letting Shang Tsung be the big ultimate bad guy to close out the timeline.

Besides Havik, Sub-Zero is the other character that I expected to maybe be the villain of the next game. Well, here we are. A game helmed by him as the main baddie is an interesting idea, for sure, but I'm not sure if he's believable enough at this point as a threat. Maybe if he got some sort of godhood like Liu Kang did.

Elsewhere, Scorpion is having a Big Asian Wedding! It's just like the hit movie Crazy Rich Asians!

Johnny Cage is brimming with stories about women, as usual.

But wait! This must be a wrestling wedding because it gets interrupted. Our heroes are beset upon by a horde of ninjas!

Johnny with a great reference to the hit TV show Game of Thrones! Unfortunately they then kinda tank it by having him explain the joke in case anybody doesn't know what Game of Thrones is.

The attack is led by Sub-Zero, and involves Lin Kuei non-cyborgs. Scorpion has an awesome new move where he turns his spear into a fire-spinner rope and figure 8's his foe with it.

Scorpion and Sub-Zero still haven't settled their beef after all this time! And this is pretty much it for Sub-Zero's heel run. It's a little disappointing that Top Heel Sub-Zero's biggest accomplishment is "messing up Scorpion's wedding"

Cyrax turns on Sub-Zero and joins Team Scorpion! Battling Sub-Zero to close out chapter 1 of this five-chapter DLC (main game had 15, for reference) is pretty cool, and in retrospect it's hard to believe I thought Sub-Zero was being set up to be the villain of the next full game. Nope, he's done already.

That's right, Sub-Zero is defeated, so his reign as newest major villain has come to an abrupt halt and everyone can go back to worrying about Poochie, aka Shao Kahn. He's imprisoned but he's still the Big Bad, and since Shang Tsung is all tapped out I'm guessing Kahn will be the antagonist in the next game.

For now we've gotta deal with Chaosrealm and Havik's legion of alternate-versions of the MK cast. Chaosrealm is a rarely-seen plane that the series has paid almost no attention to compared to Outworld and Netherrealm.

The only game to really get into Chaosrealm before this was MK: Deception. In that one, our heroes battled Onaga the Dragon King. Who? Exactly. It figures that this DLC would get into some Deception content, since the rest of the original seven games (aka the full original MK story) have all been reused/revised in some way in the last few games. Deception was the only game left, while Evil Sub-Zero and Havik were the only loose ends left, so they're really crossing everything out before moving on.

Havik arrives, and his whole thing is being a shorter, poor man's Shao Kahn. He's supposed to be super vicious, and his Chaosrealm cohorts are basically a bunch of psychopaths, so this could be interesting. In practice, it's just more guys to beat up while they go on about how "anarchy is the only way" and stuff. In Chaosrealm everything is anarchy. It's basically an ECW dimension.

Liu Kang and fellow deity, Geras, who both have time powers. Havik and his gang want to drag Geras back to their realm so they can have their OWN time lord or something.

Khaos Quan Chi! The Chaosrealm versions of characters are basically just...uglier, grungier versions of the characters who have no real personality except "anarchy good, order bad"

I'm starting to take to Female Sektor. She's got hips. OG Sektor didn't have any hips!

Khaos Shang Tsung is also the old and grey version, which is a surprise.

Rayden sure has been de-emphasized in recent years. Him and Kung Lao are basically just goons for Fire God Liu Kang.

Havik has a spiked bat! Like Negan from the hit TV show The Walking Dead!

I'm drawing a blank on what happened next, but I think Sub-Zero escaped from custody and went into Chaosrealm to become Noob Saibot. He'll be back.

Titan Havik is his full name, much like how the main game gave us Titan Shang Tsung. Now we're playing with some real demigod-level power.

Oh, Shao Kahn escaped from prison too? These guys need to get some better prisons. So we're already looking past Havik to the next game.

Whoa, it's a Shokan. We need more Shokan characters; all we've really ever seen are Goro, Kintaro, and Sheeva. This guy isn't anyone important, though, so I'll have to wait a while longer. I'd like to see Kintaro make a big return in the next one, especially if they're going for a Shao Kahn theme again.

Our heroes battle more of the Khaos versions of the roster! Most of the 3 hour runtime of this DLC is spent plowing through Khaos jobbers.

Rain is an Emperor now. Always liked Rain. They changed his look a LOT in the more recent games, so he isn't just a purple ninja anymore. Which kinda makes him not feel like the same character, but at least they've given him some depth.

Popping through another portal, we meet the Johnny Cage that fought in World War 2.

All these multiverses and timelines have become a bit of a debacle at this point. None of it really means anything anymore, and characters die left right and center without it having any effect on anything because it's never "our" versions of anyone. Or if it is, it immediately gets reversed by time shenanigans or something.

Emperor Rain has had a tremendous glow-up (I really don't like that goofy term, but this is what it was made for). Sindel is looking pretty good too. Khaos Sindel is just another grungy anarchist, but a super hot one.

Rain's critical attack (I call these mini-fatalities) has him grabbing his opponent with energy-ropes and blasting them with lightning.

Empress Li Mei has got it going on. Rain gets to fight all the women.

Havik is still hanging around, still being a poor man's Shao Kahn, as he sics waves of expendable jobbers on our heroes.

Some of the set-pieces are amazing and they did a great job. Here we get an actual glimpse of Chaosrealm. A place with so little law and order that it doesn't even follow Newtonian rules of gravity; they have to attach everything to chains to keep things from floating away. Imagine having to chain down your house or it'll just drift off.

Our heroes arrive, joined by Tanya and WW2 Cage! He's the same as the one we know, and jokes a lot about everything.

Cage is the heart and soul of MK, no doubt about it.

Sub-Zero returns in his new Noob Saibot form! He then proceeds to no-sell everybody and steal all the heat for the rest of the DLC.

Here's Khaos Liu Kang. It's like they took Liu Kang and removed everything that made him cool and likeable! For some reason he has Fire God arms, but his are like 1/4th the intensity of actual Fire God Liu Kang.

Noob Saibot is on the side of the Chaosrealmers, at first...

...but before long, he turns on Havik and joins the good team!

I don't think that Havik is hurting for minions or anything, though. He seems to have more henchmen than he did before I started slaughtering my way through them.

Havik attaches a bunch of glowing stones to his chest that give him an assortment of super powers! It's like the Infinity Stones in the hit movie Avengers: Infinity War!

Jesus, he even gets the "create portals at will" power from one of the stones and warps off. This development team should just make Marvel games instead of turning Mortal Kombat into a peppy MCU clone. Reminds me of how the later Assassin's Creed games frequently ripped off Marvel movies and Star Wars movies. I mean really ripped them off, like 1:1 imagery.

The next series of fights has us playing as Noob Saibot and demolishing everyone. He's basically the big final character you run for the DLC. No Fire God Liu Kang?

But wait! Fire God Liu Kang is stepping up! We're getting some Fire God action after all!

Even now it's got him and Noob sharing screentime. If they were going to give Sub-Zero this huge push, I wish they would have kept him Sub-Zero. Who is way cooler than Noob.

YES! Liu Kang is swinging into action! They made us wait until the very end of MK1 to play as this guy, and they've made us wait until the end of the DLC too.

Liu Kang gives Titan Havik one last chance to cease his attempts to invade Earth. With his Infinity Stones, Titan Havik isn't even afraid of a Fire God, so Liu Kang is barking up the wrong tree.

Noob Saibot demands that HE be the one to fight Titan Havik, so Liu Kang freezes him in time. Ironic.

Liu Kang then proceeds to hold literally everyone down by sending the good guys back to Earth via portals while time is stopped.

Then... he lets Noob Saibot have his wish of fighting Titan Havik.

This is the final fight, Noob vs Havik. So...we didn't get to play as Fire God Liu Kang AT ALL. Really disappointing. And Liu Kang put himself over everyone before sodding off. Not sure how Noob can fight Titan Havik with all the Infinity Stones, either. I mean all of this is really weird but whatever. I liked when MK was a bunch of relatively even characters where everyone could beat everyone. (Rayden being the same level as everyone else didn't make sense but yeh maybe he made himself human during the fights to be fair or something). Now we've got these Galactic-Level Threats popping up and one of the characters is a Literal God (at all times) and fookin Noob Saibot is going to take down one such threat.

At least Noob can summon Liu Kang with R1 partner attacks. It's something. This is the toughest fight in the DLC, but it's nothing particularly interesting or crazy.

That's a wrap for the DLC. It was good, not great, and sure as heck not worth the $50 they were charging for it for a while (I just got it for $10 a year later on a Christmas sale). This mainly existed to close the door on Havik and get him out of the way so we can get back to the REAL villains for Mortal Kombat 13. Or Mortal Kombat 2, whatever they call it.

Sub-Zero was the most interesting thing about this DLC, as was his feud with Scorpion. However, even Sub-Zero didn't get to do enough in original form before they made him Noob it up. Still wouldn't be opposed to him being a main villain in a future game...as Sub-Zero. Which I guess they could do by bringing in the other Sub-Zero, but that one isn't evil like Bi-Han is.

Bring on the next main game, I'm down.

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