Mortal Shell is an action role-playing video game developed and published by Cold Symmetry and Playstack. This awesome game was released in August 2020 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. The game’s newest version — Mortal Shell: Enhanced Edition, was released on 4 March 2021 and is currently available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

A Soulslike Game Like None Other

When I first heard about Mortal Shell’s release in 2020, I felt it would be just another lame soulslike game. Don’t get me wrong, I love soulslike games, but it gets boring after you play so many of them. Those games just couldn’t compete with Dark Souls. However, I was blown away by the remarkable features Mortal Shell offers, making the game different and more exciting. Although its design and gameplay are quite similar to Dark Soul, Mortal Shell is much shorter than the typical Soulslike games, which makes it more convenient to play when I don’t have enough time on my hands. 

The game has the action and adventure of Dark Soul but with the endless replayability of the classic dungeon crawler games like Diablo and Torchlight. It has the amazing graphics you will expect from a Playstack game. Mortal Shell is much similar to any soulslike game. It has very few RPG elements, as most of the elements aren’t featured in the game (such elements include levelling up, controlling stats, and choosing a class). 

Start with Nothing but a Weak Body with No Weapons 

Mortal Shell is a standard action RPG where you fight against hordes of enemies in 3D environments. You start the game with a weak and confused character, but the system will offer you some titular shells (which you can upgrade by collecting orbs scattered throughout the levels. There are no clear distinctions between classes, so all characters have access to all the abilities. 

The game allows for multiple play-throughs, but there will not be any new areas or items unlocked. If you beat the game once, you cannot continue playing, and if you lose the game, you must start again from scratch. It’s like being forced into a loop.

Exploring Features of the Mortal Titular Shells

When playing the game, you will first start four titular mortal shells in your first few hours of playing the game. You can choose to inhibit any of the shells. When you take on any shell, you will automatically gain the skills and abilities associated with that shell. 

Each shell represents a class. For instance, there is the balanced-fighter shell, improved stamina shell, rogue-style shell, and attack-focused shell, all tailored to meet particular combat needs. 

Straightforward Storyline and Gameplay

The story is fairly basic and is told through dialogue between the characters during the cutscenes. Characters speak in turn each time they appear on the screen. Some of these lines are pretty funny, and I laughed aloud more than once when listening to what some of the characters were saying.

The gameplay itself follows the same formula as most other action RPGs. You start with nothing but some weapons and armor — that can only be accessed when using the titular shells— and you need to collect orbs from defeated enemy soldiers and bosses to upgrade the gears. 

Once enough orbs are collected and the shells upgraded, you can use newly acquired equipment to defeat powerful monsters who will drop better loot.

Doesn’t Repeat Worlds Once Concluded

Mortal Shell is excellent! It’s straightforward yet, really challenging. One thing I love about this game is the fact that it doesn’t let me go back to previous worlds. So I’ll never know if I did something wrong or got lucky. This feature makes me concentrate on improving my skills to defeat more demanding bosses ahead. 

It May be Tough to Master for Beginners

Initially, the game seemed tough, and I felt the controls weren’t that intuitive. For instance, the right analog stick moves both the camera AND your fighter. When you shoot, it changes direction depending on whether you push left or right. And when you jump, it jumps either forward or backward, depending on which way you press. 

Another aspect of the game beginners should take note of is the movement. To move forward or backward, you need to hold down a button and release it once you reach your destination. If not properly mastered, it makes moving around very clunky and unrealistic and again takes away from any immersion. Once I mastered the command, I began to appreciate the gameplay and design truly. 

Enemies Have Unique Combat Styles

The system, in general, seems incredibly impressive. I’ve fought countless waves of foes, and none of them seem to adapt to my battle style since Mortal Shell’s flexibility allows me to change styles often. 

I always look forward to fighting new waves of enemies, as they all have different fighting styles. While some stand in place to fight you until they die —or kill you—others run away, forcing you to chase them and try to defeat them. Some even try to hide behind cover where you must look for them before beating them. 

Free World Navigation 

There’s no map of most worlds, which makes exploring the worlds complicated for beginners. If you keep playing, however, you will soon understand the basics of navigation. Wandering around the area is also fun as you get to see new things, but you must watch out for those creating, backstabbing (literally) enemies. 

Overall, Mortal Shell is a decent game, and the combat could be pretty challenging at times. Sometimes it seems like when you move in one direction to attack, and your character moves in another direction which could ruin any sense of immersion if you aren’t careful. Hence, you must try to understand the enemy’s style before attacking.

Conclusion 

Despite its lack of actual RPG elements, the combat system does keep things interesting and makes the game feel fresh even if you’ve played hundreds of similar soulslike games. Overall, I enjoyed my time with this game, and I’m glad I picked it up. Mortal Shell is worth checking out if you’re a fan of classic brawlers like Double Dragon or Streets of Rage. If you played and liked soulslike games, Mortal Shell wouldn’t be a disappointing experience for you.