Mortal Shell II Review: What makes a Souls-like good?

As a huge From Software fan it's exciting to see that we get multiple solid Souls-like games every year nowadays. However, in my eyes, none of them ever reaches the highs of the originals. The only game I played that came close was Lies of P last year. Mortal Shell 2 is an interesting case, at its best moments it reaches Dark Souls highs, but at its lows it left me very frustrated and annoyed.

Mortal Shell II - Good gameplay with too little polish

Let's start with the basics. In many ways Mortal Shell 2 looks and feels like a typical Souls game. You are alone in a mysterious world with a cryptic story and hard enemies. You collect glimpse by defeating enemies to level up, and of course if you die you lose it all and get one chance to collect it again.

One big feature of Mortal Shell returns with its Shell system. Your character itself pretty much looks like a zombie and has no special abilities. But you can find 8 different shells in the game which transform you into different classes. Those shells were alive once, and over time you can experience their backstories. All of them have different abilities. My favorite one could easily be described as a rogue character.

His special ability lets you become invisible for a short period of time and offers a fast and fun playstyle. Each Shell also offers its own skill tree, as you could guess, the rogue skill tree focuses on poison and critical hits. It's overall a fun system that allows for great build making.

Mortal Shell II also has many other small systems that support this build-making factor. For example, you can find different artifacts that you can slot into your weapons and character that grant you many different bonuses. You also collect artifacts that can be used as an active or passive ability. Most of them can also level up if you equip them and kill enemies, and some others simply level up by collecting more of them.

What Mortal Shell II lacks, however, is weapon variety. You have 8 main weapons you can find and 8 sidearms, which are mostly ranged weapons. Each of those weapons is unique. This means you won't find two different types of katanas. All of those weapons feel different and are fun to play, however for me finding different versions of weapons is always a big fun factor during exploration, which Mortal Shell II lacks due to this system.

Especially in the early game I found it frustrating, as it took me over five hours to find my first weapon and sidearm. Considering that the game overall is around 25 hours long, this is too long.

What truly makes Mortal Shell's combat special, however, is the decision to remove the stamina bar. This means the combat always stays fast paced and sometimes almost feels more like an action game than a Soulslike game. To balance this approach, however, you can't cancel out of animations. If you commit to a heavy attack you can't dodge out of it. I'm personally a little torn on this system. 

On one hand it can feel really amazing, later on, when I got my katana, moving around fast and slashing through hordes of enemies feels powerful and good. At the same time Mortal Shell 2 often feels very spammy to me. Many bosses I simply defeated by spamming dodge followed by spamming normal attacks. I never felt like I had to truly learn the ins and outs of Mortal Shell 2's combat system.

Mortal Shell II shines where it matters the most

Now while playing Mortal Shell 2 I asked myself what I really enjoy about From Software's Souls games so much. Is it the character customization? The nail-biting boss fights? The harsh difficulty that can feel so rewarding? Not really. Sure, each of those things is important and helps make those games stand out so much. But if there is one single aspect that makes me love those games so much, it's the exploration.

Now, Mortal Shell II never reaches those same highs, but it does come really close at times. The world of Mortal Shell feels so unreal and mysterious. Visually the game looks stunning and is designed like Dark Souls 3. You often end up in very small open-world parts connected by linear paths. This makes exploring each corner fun in general and never feels overwhelming.

The developer Cold Symmetry also knows how to keep you interested in seeing more. One of the earlier parts, for example, has you explore a little village in a forest, full of dancing witches. Seeing them dance, hearing them sing, just gives you this eerie feeling, like you've just stumbled into a place you shouldn't be.

Now, the world never feels as intentionally designed as a Miyazaki game, but honestly, what does? Of all the Soulslikes I've played over the years, Mortal Shell II comes closest to the feeling I have when I play a Souls game. When I fight a boss it's not about what loot I might get or how good I will feel after beating it. It's more about what else I will find after beating it, what other secrets this world has to offer for me.

What holds Mortal Shell II back from true greatness?

As you probably can tell, I did enjoy my time with Mortal Shell II, but why do I still think it's not an amazing game? Firstly, it lacks polish. There were tons of moments where I fell off a cliff after attacking an enemy, or encountered a weird bug like not being able to teleport while using my gamepad. None of these were major on their own, but they add up over time and did lead to some frustrating moments.

One of the biggest downfalls of Mortal Shell II, however, is its bosses. Most of them are a mess and simply not fun. They rarely offer interesting attack patterns, and the telegraphing of their attacks leaves a lot to be desired. Most of the time I didn't feel like I learned a boss and then beat it, it felt more like I spammed my buttons and after two tries he was down.

I also feel like a lot of the great character customization and build making comes way too late in the game. I wish that already early on I could have chosen between different shells and weapons.

All in all, Mortal Shell II is a great Soulslike game. But all of its small flaws do hold it back from true greatness. Still, if you're hungry for more Souls and already played Lies of P, Mortal Shell II is the best next thing there is on the market.

Rating: Recommended

Rating System Order: Masterpiece | Essential | Strongly Recommended | Recommended | Mixed Feelings | Disappointing

Vaulted: Games that make it into the Kasur Gaming Vault have a special place in my heart and are games that define my gaming taste.