For those who missed it, following the bloody finale of Mortal Kombat 1’s story, which saw Liu Kang and the gang dispatch the Deadly Alliance of Shang Tsung and Quan Chi, a version of PS2-era jobber Havik discovered that not only do other timelines exist, but that they could all use a little more chaos. This brings us to the new storyline, which sees him invade Liu Kang’s timeline, and kidnap Geras to infuse his MacGuffins with the power to take over all timelines.
For those who hoped the timeline crap would come to an end after Mortal Kombat 11, we’re afraid it’s at its peak here, as we’re treated to different variants of all the cast, including a Council of Kangs-esque amount of Havik. However, the other – and far less tiresome – side to the story involves our trio of DLC fighters: Cyrax, Sektor, and Noob Saibot. We deal with the aftermath of Sub Zero’s betrayal of Earthrealm and how it has affected the robo-enhanced duo, with Cyrax in particular being the heart of this storyline (until she disappears for a big chunk of it, as is tradition for good characters).
One problem we had with the original game’s story was Johnny Cage, who treads the line of being a good character and a pop culture spouting machine, and this time around he is unbearable. Every line out of his mouth is basically a reference, including one that is almost literally “this is just like Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 9”. A majority of the humour in the expansion falls completely flat, but Johnny is the worst.
Which is weird, because this expansion also includes Animalities for every character, which are generally quite funny. While you don’t need to pay for the DLC to get the Animalities, they are new with this update. There’s some obvious ones like Scorpion turning into a Scorpion (not a Penguin this time, sadly), and some more out there ones like Quan Chi’s. Meanwhile, Johnny Cage and Peacemaker get the best ones by far.
While the Khaos Reigns expansion does come with a full Kombat Pass 2 (including the guest fighters later down the line), the story is only around two hours long, making this expansion’s price – which is almost on par with an entire game – a little questionable. And it doesn’t do anything to change the glaring flaws already present in Mortal Kombat 1 such as the terrible Invasions mode or the overpriced cosmetics.