Mortal Kombat 1 Beta – Preview

Preview Score: 9/10

Mortal Kombat 1’s playable beta was available to players who pre-ordered the game from 18th August till 21st August. We got a chance to try out the game during this period and were left incredibly impressed. Mortal Kombat has never looked, sounded and played this good.

Kharismatic Kameos

The beta allowed us to check out two of the brand new changes amde to the Mortal Kombat formula. The first change is represented by “Kameo Fighters.” According to NetherRealm, these are the assist characters. Now, you must select an aid fighter before every encounter. A nice selection of amusing and vintage characters have been promised by the development team.

This help fighters alter the game tremendously, despite appearing to be a minor alteration. It’s reminscent of Marvel vs. Capcom or Dragon Ball FigherZ as it moves at a faster pace. When you press R1, an assist character will assault your foe.The interesting part about Kameo Fighters is that some of them can even cause you damage. So you need to be mindful of when and you use your Kameo Fighters.

For now it feels like your offline success in Mortal Kombat 1 won’t be determined by how well you can pull off crazy combos. How well you learn to chain movements will determine how well you can play the game.  MK1 is a very inviting game for those who only care about the narrative. The same is true for those who are put off by fighting games. You won’t need to give up your work and dedicate yourself to competing in order to enjoy MK1, even on the harder difficulty levels. You only need to learn a few moves to become an offline game expert. When you master chaining every move, you advance to the next level. It’s not like the “Modern” controlers found on the new Street Fighter 6 but the game is still quite friendly for newcomers. You press buttons and watch cool things happen.

Spiritual Reboot

The game’s second huge change is how each fighter was spiritually redesigned in Mortal Kombat 1 by NeatherRealm. Liu Kang assumes the role of the new protector of Earth Realm in Mortal Kombat 1, even if he is still the same Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat 11. Consequently, his combat style has a few God-like characteristics in addition to his standard moveset. Numerous other canon modifications have been made, such as the renaming of Noob Saibot being the OG Sub-Zero but his sibling is Kuai Liang is not Tunra or  Sub-Zero buit instead Scorpion. This is quite a big change so we’ll see how this plays out.

Visually, the game looks incredible. The character models are supremely detailed, the animations on them are top notch, the levels are outstanding and gore is right what you’d expect from Mortal Kombat. And the audio work just does everything to match the visuals. It’s punchy, it’s bassy, the bones shattering and muscles tearing sound just like what you’d imagine. And it is just so satisfying.

Preview Verdict

Mortal Kombat 1 is shaping to be another fantastic fighting game this year. It’s changing a lot of things with the timeline reboot and gameplay changes but the game still plays and feels like Mortal Kombat. And we cannot wait for the full release.