Intro:
Are you a fan of Dark Souls? Can’t wait for the remastered Demon Souls to come out? Tired of replaying other souls like games? Well, you are in luck. Because developer Cold Symmetry has got you covered.
Mortal Shell is clearly a love letter to the Souls-like genre and with that in mind, the team of co-founders at Cold Symmetry and Playstack really bring that dark look into the game, but this time you actually control a soul running around possessing the bodies of fallen warriors. I appreciate the style that this brings to the game affecting the gameplay and overall story.
Story:
As you romp around in the open-world or interconnected dungeon swamp be sure to appreciate the writings, messages, and cryptic lore you get from talking to the shop keepers because that’s the bulk of the story telling the player gets. Except for the cutscenes when you fight the main three sub-bosses before moving on to the final boss.
All that to say that the storytelling is pretty sparse if you were to ignore the text throughout the game. There is no talking from the soul you play so every bit of the one-sided conversation you get is important.
You can however learn plenty about each shell in a cryptic way as each unlocked ability gives you a small often poetic glimpse into who that shell used to be.
GamePlay:
The gameplay is pretty challenging at the beginning of the game. If you go into the game trying to wander around its quite possible you can spend a lot of time dying to lesser seeming foes. Much like other Souls-like games, there is no shortage of danger from enemies, pretty much any enemy could kill you at any time especially at the beginning of the game.
As you gain shells and weapons it opens up a wide array of play styles. Early on I leaned toward having a huge amount of stamina with Tiel for being able to run and attack to my heart’s content but later decided that having a huge amount of health really made the game much easier. Once I switched to this soul, the game lost much of its difficulty. I was running around with the martyrs blade, a high damage dealing weapon, often one-shooting enemies which honestly made my drive to fight the hard bosses even greater.
Likes:
The lute was one of my favorite items and a true treat to just take a moment from fighting to have a little jam session. I enjoyed the otherworldly feel of the game and really appreciated that the items needed to be used before figuring out what they did. Taking a poison mushroom that deals damage to you over and over and over again is pretty funny but feels so wrong until you learn it actually is a very useful item once you unlock its secret. I am always an avid collector of items in games so the fact that this game supported players in doing this it was nice wandering off and finding the occasional hidden item or friend. Oh yes speaking of friends, making friends with a drifter in the game was one of my favorite parts of the whole game. “Do you want to be best friends forever?”
Dislikes:
Extremely challenging at the beginning with very little instruction. I would have appreciated a little more info at the very beginning. I think a lot of the problems could have been solved with a map. The main hub of the map is a swamp and so much of it looks very similar that it can be hard to navigate. The other thing that I felt was truly an error is how loud some of the monsters could seem in the audio but their actual proximity is actually not that close at all. The final complaint I had was that there was little incentive for defeating foes. At a certain point in the middle of my playthrough I just decided to speed run all the areas to get all the items and shells. It was extremely easy. When I went back to actually take on the bosses there were seldom things beyond tar or glimpses to be gained from fighting. A few more chests would have been a nice touch.
Conclusion:
Mortal Shell is fun and has some pretty interesting concepts if you pay attention. It is a short game for those experienced in Souls-like games or for people who just speed run it, but at a cheaper price point the devs are acknowledging that fact. It can be extremely hard so it’s best if you are seeking a challenge or are used to playing on the hardest settings in games. I really did start enjoying the game much more once I became in sync with how I should be playing the game. So I think if you are up for the challenge, you should take on this game because I give it a 8/10.
Check Out the Mortal Shell Video:
For more information, please visit: https://www.mortalshell.com/
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I've been a life long nerd and video game junkie known to associate with the likes of Link, Nathan Drake, Batman, and Master Chief. I'm a filmmaker by profession, but spend lots of time behind a controller escaping the real world. @GregVelde on Instagram/Twitter/YouTube
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