A temporary shell.

Every now and then, I get an itch to play a specific type of game.

A particularly troublesome itch I’ve had has been going strong since June of 2019, and if you’re thinking that it’s a rather specific time table, that’s because that was when the teaser trailer for “Elden Ring” was first revealed.

As someone who completed all the FromSoft entries in their prolific souls-like genre multiple times, I have grown a taste for the genre, but have since found that although there are many imitations, no one has been able to do it better.

When I first heard of Mortal Shell as yet another souls-like my expectations were low, but as the hype continued to build through a successful beta campaign, I felt that perhaps this one would buck the trend of shallow imitations to be something worthwhile, and if nothing else, scratch that itch a little while the seemingly eternal wait for the ring continues.

The visuals present here are impressive, especially from a small indie team.

MSRP: $29.99
Platforms: PC, PS4, X1
Played on: PC (Epic Games Store)
Length: 12~ hours

Awakening as a fragile soul without a body, the stranger is tasked with a mission to collect the essence of powerful beings in order to free a giant captive with mysterious motives and circumstances. If that story sounds vague, that’s most likely due to my lack of understanding of what actually transpires during the course of the game. It’s not as though I was skipping dialogue or cutscenes, but ultimately as the credits rolled, I was left thinking, “what just happened?”

Although the story and characters have never been a big factor in my enjoyment of souls-like games, it would have been nice to have a bit more to cling to rather than nearly nothing at all. There were bits of story sprinkled throughout the world, but as I was unable to piece together anything worthwhile, I found myself moving from objective to objective just because.

As a soul-like being (pun intended), the stranger is able to inhabit the empty shells of those who have already perished and gain their strengths and weaknesses, and by spending a resource, learn skills associated with those shells that delve into their personality and motivation, but I found these to be of little substance and I was eager for the game to let me just get my upgraded skill and continue on my way.

Perhaps I’ll watch some lore video down the line and proclaim the story present here to be some sort of masterpiece, but I will stand by the fact that the way it is delivered left much to be desired.

The heavier weapons in Mortal Shell feel appropriately meaty.

Luckily, Mortal Shell fares much better in the gameplay department, with an enjoyable combat engine. There’s a light attack and a heavy attack which is pretty standard along with a stamina meter, but where MS changes things up is with its “Harden” mechanic.

During nearly any moment, I was able to activate harden in order to turn myself into what looks like a stone statue and any attack directed at me would harmless bounce off without dealing any damage.

I could use this while I was in the middle of an attack animation, healing or even during a 100 foot fall which otherwise would have killed me. It’s on a cool down, which made me think about when to best use it, and having this ability in my back pocket allowed for some really aggressive tactics as well as incredibly lame but effective hit and run tactics. In fact, this strategy felt so effective that it ended up being my go-to way to down most bosses in a few tries.

There isalso a parry, which opened up to give me more options as I progressed through the game. At the start, I could only parry into an attack that drained some life from the enemy,but later I was able to parry and then attach a bomb on the enemy, which would explode after a few seconds inflicting massive damage.

As I gained access to different types of shells, it became relatively clear how they were to be used as each of the shells came with specific stats tied to Health/Defense, Stamina and skill use/skill gauge gain. Even though I could unlock skills for each of the shells, I could not increase their base stats so it was simply a matter of choosing the shell that fit my play-style.

There were also a handful of different weapons I could choose from, and even though their numbers are quite limited, they felt different enough to use and served their purpose.

I ended up going with the shell with the most stamina and using a large two-handed sword that was high on damage. Even though I was able to make short work of most enemies with my repeated slow, devastating swings, I would also die in 2-3 hits myself.

Even though I experimented with other weapon types and shells, as I had already invested all my upgrade materials on this one weapon, I ended up sticking with it through the course of my playthrough.

Unlocking skills and upgrading weapons comes naturally but I would have preferred a more varied selection and either a more abundant source of upgrade material or a way to undo my upgrades to switch weapons around.

Despite having a relatively easy time completing the game, I should mention that the way healing items are handled is pointlessly obtuse. The standard healing items are mushrooms that are growing off the ground but they have a significant cool down until you can pick them again. Given that picking them gives either 1-2 mushrooms each and they don’t even do that much healing in the first place, I found myself frequently challenging bosses and entire new areas with only 1 or 2 healing items at a time as I refused to run around stockpiling them.

As I found the game to be relatively easy this didn’t end up feeling like a huge hindrance to me personally, but I can see those who are new to these types of games needing every advantage and having to wait around for mushrooms to respawn so they have enough healing items to take into battle.

The trick to never having to heal is to never get hit.

Mortal Shell is built around a solid foundation with a fun and responsive combat engine propped up by strong visuals. While some obtuse design choices and an uninteresting world holds it back from escaping the moniker of being, “just yet another souls-like”, it’s guaranteed to scratch that itch, at least a little.

Fun Tidbit – This is Cold Semmetary’s debut title and it’s clear to see that they’ve got some great ideas and very talented individuals there, it will be interesting to see if things will come together better for their next title.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.