Mortal Shell

I saw this game go on sale for $1.50 and wanted to try it, remembering hearing decent things about it a couple years prior and seeing the kickass sequel trailer during SGF. I put a good few hours into the game and I can't say I fully enjoyed it. I'll start by saying this game does a lot of things well and has several good, innovative ideas, like swapping between different bodies with different stats to make your "build", or needing to consume items to figure out what they do, and then consuming enough of those items to increase their potency are both genius. The environments look stellar for how low-budget the project is (compared to its contemporaries) and other small things like the bear traps are a nice touch. Other things, like the story not being all there and the shoddy dialogue and voice acting are forgivable, those just being the nature of small projects and soulslikes alike. My main complaint with the game is the combat. It feels frustratingly counterintuitive, with the game seemingly emphasizing an aggressive play style with the meter system but your self-defense options are too limited to take full advantage of it. The dodges are a diceroll whether they work or not, and your two "block" moves, the harden and sigil parry, are both on strict cooldowns (with the latter requiring meter to even use.) Trading isn't an option, so the best thing you can do is keep backing up from the enemies until your harden is off cooldown, then go for 1-3 hits before backing up again. I don't have to tell anyone why that's not fun. The cherry on top is the limited healing items and the lack of fast-travel mean you'll sometimes have to go out of your way to farm money to buy them from the merchant (who again, you cannot fast-travel to) slowing the game down even further. Its an overall frustrating experience. This game wears its Fromsoftware inspirations on its sleeve, while at the same time not fully grasping why their systems worked (or why they were at least tolerable.) The aggressive push-forward combat of Sekiro that punishes you for playing defensively works because you can react to and defend against any attack coming your way. The finite consumables of demon's souls and bloodborne worked because when you die, you can instantly go back to a hub area to replenish any lost resources with no cost. Mortal Shell applies both of these systems in an environment that just doesn't suit them, which leads to contrived difficulty and frustrating combat with nothing to teach the player. This isn't the first non-From soulslike to be like this and it's nowhere near close to the last. That being said, I wouldn't pay more than $10 for this game on a good day. Hopefully the sequel has more focus put into its combat, with it having a much bigger budget this time around.

This game still has a lot of bugs that have gone unfixed for years and they just announced a sequel. What is this industry?

Mortal Shell is a soulslike action RPG with a dark, mysterious world and punishing combat. The soundtrack and atmosphere are amazing, they make you feel like the game is going to be something epic, but sadly, it’s not. The game is very short, lacks a meaningful story, and the combat isn’t anything special. The worst part is how slow and dull the fights feel, nothing about the gameplay is exciting. I don’t recommend it as a Souls like experience. 4.5/10

has some original ideas, but game bad no block button, replaced with harden system which is cool! but you can only harden once until you are hit and then you have to dodge and roll which would be fine and great, if the stamina system in this game wasn't just the right amount of painfully slow. You are incentivized to play slow, even on regular trash enemies. One of the first major enemy types I found was this knife throwing asshole who, when at 30% or lower health, resorts to taking its' own head off, and throwing it at you, giving a poison effect that lasts a full minute. If you let this happen, you no longer get the souls for killing the enemy, making the entire fight worthless. My reward for playing slow is nothing. If I play fast against this enemy, I'd often die instead because it has more poise than the rest of the trash enemies in the zone. Thrilling. The second area of the game I went into put three of these enemies in every single room, often around corners for cheap damage. I never found an item in the game that cleanses poison There is no estus flask in this game. Instead, they are replaced with lifegem-esque consumables that are only available for pickup in certain points on the map, with a REAL-TIME COOLDOWN for obtaining them. I cannot stress how awful this is. Bloodborne does not have estus flasks, instead, enemies will often drop blood vials for killing them, and by using the rally system, you can get health back for playing aggressively. In this game, enemies do not drop healing items, and you are punished for playing aggressively. And in every other soulslike ripoff, especially the slow ones that expect you to learn the enemy movesets over time, they give you items mimicking estus flasks that regenerate at places mimicking bonfires. This enables you to make mistakes and grow your skills without feeling too punished for getting hit by something crazy. This game has no estus flasks. Wait, did I say bonfires earlier? This game does not have them either. Every time you die, you spawn back at the very beginning of the zone. Checkpoints and the feeling of progression be damned, if you die at the very last section of the map, it's back to the start with you. You might be asking, how do you level up if there's no bonfires? I'm glad you asked. There's a random lady hanging around who you can spend your two souls-esque currencies at. You know what you can spend your stuff on? It's not attribute enhancements. It's not new weapons. It's exclusively traits that barely modify your gameplay, and one singular skill. There is no character customization in this game. From what I can glimpse, you unlock new shells to play with the further into the game you get. But what this means is that every single person is stuck for the first few hours of the game playing the same exact character with the same exact weapon, with zero possibilities to make your gameplay your own. Beyond that, cutscenes were meh, bosses were meh, and I was wowed by approximately nothing. The first weapon I found outside of the starter sword was this massive, cool looking greatsword. I think to myself, "wow, I love using heavy weapons! In soulslikes, I love doing big hits and seeing big damage numbers!" The greatsword did the same exact damage as the starter sword. It was just twice as slow, and somehow, the heavy attack had less range.

Mortal Shell is my second favorite Souls Like, right after Bloodborne. It delivers a dense and atmospheric experience, with unique mechanics that bring a fresh twist to the genre

I played a lot on Switch and Xbox. I will surely play again on Steam also. This game game me the closes feelings to the original Dark Souls. I really like this one. Better than a lot of other souls like games I tried.

I wouldn't exactly recommend the game The gameplay itself is fairly depressing (fun), but the real challenge is to fight the constant crash which makes it even more depressing. I also encountered some bugs but they aren't a big deal

A microcosm of the problems with this game: You can crawl through tunnels to reach disconnected areas. Okay, sure. I'm neutral. However, crawling is an annoying animation that takes you out of the game. Also, you can't crawl backwards. If you crawl into a tunnel you are locked in, no matter what. Also, there's an animation that plays when you get out of crawling that jerks the camera around. Almost everything in the game is like this. It feels like the devs went out of their way to make every wrong decision. The second chance mechanic can get easily screwed up because enemies leave a lingering hitbox that dinks your innard. The harden mechanic is this game's defining feature, and also the lamest implementation of a parry ever. There's no skill, there's no cost, it feels like it exists just so the devs didn't have to playtest their game because with harden you can hit trade for free, and if you hit trade enough you win every fight. This is a truly pitiable mechanic coming off of games like Sekiro or Lies of P, but it's a regression even from the basic ass parries of DS1. It lets you regen stamina for free even if you overexert, it lets you stall out status ailments (which means enemies can inflict status ailments in a single attack, yay!), and above all else it doesn't feel fun to use. I don't feel empowered when I use harden to block an attack, I just yearn for better games. Ultimately, I bought this game on sale for under 2 bucks Canadian. I don't even register that as a cost, so the game was basically free. For free, this game is almost just barely fine, if only because I feel compelled to give it a chance. However, even for free this game cost me my time, and that time would have been better doing almost anything else. Edit: I came off a bit harsh in this review, and while I think it's deserved I left out some more positive aspects. The system of discovering item effects by using items is unique and worth iterating on. Also, while I maintain that the harden mechanic implemented in this game is terrible, I think being able to effectively parry any attack regardless of animation state does have potential, if refined, to stand out amidst a sea of slow and methodical soulslikes. Of course this game is a clunky, slow and methodical soulslike, so unless the sequel takes a massive departure from this I think the mechanic will remain terrible. I think I like the idea of Mortal Shells implementing strict 'classes' in a way that freely mixable equipment doesn't in other games, it gives the potential for devs to really refine experiences (albeit at the cost of player choice) and I think there's value in that.

The game has mixed reviews for a reason. The pros is that it looks pretty and combat is seldom fun. The cons is everything else. 1) You can fast travel back to the last bonfire (Sister Genesa) but not between them. So half of my playtime was spent just running. 2) A lot of enemies are spongy. You either run past them or spend a lot of time on them regardless of the weapon you're using. 3) The game is just constantly trying to screw you over. From scummy enemy placement to attacks that are unblockable yet don't indicate it to turning every single enemy on the map into a jumping vampire that stunlocks you and does a lot of damage. I gave this game every chance I could and got through one of the three big bosses. But it's just not fun. Maybe the sequel will be better, but there are more fun souls-likes out there. P.S. Oh yeah. There's no estus flask analogue either.

Disregard my hours, I did my playthrough on Gamepass. With the sequel announced, I wanted to support the devs after this game was unfairly written off just because of its smaller scale. The tighter and more focused approach, rather than dragging out its runtime, made this a welcome weekend playthrough that despite lacking some polish was overall enjoyable. The devs clearly wanted to do a lot of things differently than "youknowwhat", and chose a pretty clever method to do so. Unfortunately, insufferable bandwagoners have made the consensus that "If it's not EXACTLY like 'Youknowwhat' then it's bad". The reality is, this is a game designed to actually be beaten without draining your will to live.

The hardest part of this game is learning where things are in Fallgrim. Boring hub biome, but the gameplay is fun! I really like how weighted and impactful the Martyr's Blade is (it hits like a truck). The harden mechanic adds a lot of depth and adds a layer of quick reactions into a slow input-focused game. Extremely worth my $1.50, I would've paid like $20 Looking forward to the sequel

It's pretty wild that you can buy Mortal Shell for less than the price of a bottle of soda! And honestly, it's debatable which one is actually worse for your system in the long run.

This is the worst souls-like I played. The combat is slow and very clunky and unresponsive. The hardening mechanic doesn't replace a proper block/parry mechanic. You get healing only if you pick up mushrooms which are predetermined places so it just adds to tedium to go there pick them and go to exploring. The first area is a maze without distinct landmarks and visuals to know where to go. What a bad game really.

If you want to know why From Software does more than just cranking up the difficulty and calling it a day, play this game. Everything from the encounter design, to how it tries to distinguish itself by having items you pick up around the world be a replacement for a flask, to even the trap placement around the levels, are all enough to show you that there has to be more of a consideration when developing this things towards the player. None of the game systems really work in conjunction with one another in a good way, there's no cohesion with how the traps or the enemy placement is established.

one of the best and interesting combat systems in all soulslikes! and i really like the artstyle of the different biomes and the body armors and of course the music (there is a reason you get early on a guitar)! yeah the game is shorter than i hoped for and the beginning area is a bit confusing because there is no hand helding in the game. the bossfights are not as refined as the ones from 'FROM' but the story is very cryptic also, so thats familiar. at the and this is a very good soulslike with a really satisfying combat system when you embrace it and this first timer banger comes from a small and dedicated & passionate team! this is absolutly a thumbs up from my side and i'm really pumped for the second one coming!!!

Jumping on the hype train for Mortal Shell 2 after its trailer being released made me purchase this game, it was less than £3 with the DLC and I thought, you know, I love souls games and never tried this one, sequel trailer looks very promising so I gotta try this one out. Played for few hours. Graphics are cool, world and character design are cool. No story telling, journal or map is just what these games do so that is kinda given but c'mon, I was expecting combat to be at least ok. I gotta say - combat is just aweful, Dodge is a dice roll (doesn't work sometimes), parry is horrible, no way of trading hits, not enough ways of healing... I'll probably try again tomorrow, just so I can say that I gave it a chance but all in all I don't recommend it, wait for sequel (you can sign up for beta already :)) or play any other Souls like game that are actually do what it suppose to do.

Can't recommend. Game crashes a lot, During the little time that I put towards this game, have crashed more than a dozen times. Ryzen R9 5900x, 3080 Ti, 64 GB Ram, PC is in very good condition and I just can't for the life of me put anymore time into this. Good thing I bought this when it was only $3.00, anything more would be overpriced.

After the lady in stone (sister) asked me if id considered "getting good" LOL > i spit my coffee all over my screen laughing...... i toke the game seriously, got good (figured it out), it was on and poppin. The only down, is it wasnt longer. roughly 17 hrs, not knowing anything, no youtube videos. definitely recommend. looking forward to the sequel.

Did I like the game? Yes. Do I recommend it? Absolutely not! I'd like to start with the cons of this game that are probably going to make the game unplayable for most people. Map design is awful. There are 4 dungeons in the game and all of them except the Falgrim looks copy-pasted everywhere. And since there are no in game maps, its a torture to play without looking at the wiki for a map. Combat is not satisfying. Whole fight works as "Run + attack + harden and wait for the cooldown". You are extremely sluggish. You just slowly move your weapon around and the logic is touch = hit. You don't really get the good feeling of gratification. . Parrying is not as easy as how unrewarding it is. . You walk and run so slow and get exhausted very quickly. Exploration is also bad. You only need 5 stones to +5 your weapon and nothing else. You don't need to grind or level up since there are no level up system. You just run until you find the boss. Bosses are LAME. they only have 4 or 5 move sets. At least its better than the mobs which have only 2. Oh and did you know there are only 3 enemy types in the whole game? Big guy, small guy and the archer. There are a lot of small mistakes as well so i can easily say that you probably wont like this game. But why did I like it? Not even having healing flasks, being forced to collect healing items that only heal 30% one by one and them not refilling after you die, the challenge of resource scarcity was fun to play with. Reviving once with equipping your shell felt unique. . 4 different shells were unique as well. Instead of getting different builds, you equip different armors. . The game being extremely easy to compare with other souls games, it was fun to just sit and play without thinking about it too much. I-frames are biiiiig. Hardening system tunes the game down just as the "mimic tear + summoning an online player" in Elden Ring. To do a summary, I don't think this game is a good one. I only liked it because of some special aspects that most likely will mean nothing to you. I'd say give it a try when it gets 95% discount (yea it does get that). Other than else it's worth nothing more than a couple bucks.

released years ago, controller still doesnt work. Shame . Shitty game

Bought this for 2 bucks a year ago and refunded it. Bought it again for 2 bucks because of the announced sequel and I still feel robbed even for 2 bucks. Such horrible gameplay. Looks great in videos and on paper but feels awful in actual game.

This game is so unfun and just badly executed, there is a total of like 10 enemies with all having the same attack patterns, the music and the bosses are just a joke, its just a half-assed darksouls clone that feels like you gave a Gamejam contestant Unreal Engine and told him to make a Souls-Like. This is the first time I give up 100% a Game because of how grindy the DLC is while being heavily repetetive and just straight up boring with no new content whatsoever. I am NOT finishing 15-20 cycles of this unplayable shit. I payed under 1$ for this Game and still feel robbed xD thats advise against buying this game.

i have a bit of experience when it comes to souls-likes and i think this might be the worst one i've ever played. Terrible starting area, weird and floaty combat, a healing system that makes the bloodvials in bloodborne look like a masterpiece in comparison and a lot of annoying shit in general. i played this game on Epic about 2 years ago and i wanted to give it another chance but sadly it didn't deserve one.

Game has cool ideas but is a systems design mess: - Can't find the name of your first Shell? Then you cannot sped all of the currency you grind for. Hope you enjoy feeling that all of the effort you put into the game is worthless; - Core mechanics push you to play into your enemies attacks, but the game actually punishes trading heavily so you're not incentivized to use the hardening mechanic for what it's apparently meant for. You get a very cool mechanic which has unfortunately been executed very poorly; - The parry mechanic has a startup animation and is not instant, leading to it not rewarding learning your enemies' patterns since some attacks are INTENDED to be just too fast for parrying. Ultimately I got burnt out since I was lost in an area with a ton of high level enemies with no way to spend my sap.

While the game is dirt cheap right now following the announcement of Mortal Shell 2 at the Summer Game fest, I'll be judging based on the full price. It's not a bad game and is on the friendlier side for souls-likes. It's also shorter and a playthrough can be completed in ~10 hours as opposed to ~30. But when you factor in the fact that most people who will want to play this game are those who have already played the souls games (and not using this game as an entry point into the souls/souls-like genre), it doesn't feel that good of a game. Mortal Shell is rather lackluster in its world and enemy design, and that really brings the game down. When there's not much variety in the enemies, moments in the game start to feel the same. The combat is alright but nothing to write home about. With all that into account, it just doesn't feel worth it unless there's a discount and you've exhausted other souls-likes.

good game . way easier than dark souls 3 . however much more confusing without help from walkthroughs

a fking piece of sh that is both bugged,and makes enemies go hyper fast after the cooldown that happens when you get out of your shell.Dont waster your time on this crap,its literall bs

Sadly, I don't like it. Combat is meah. The Shell system is boring. Every “form” feels almost the same. The hardening mechanic kills the pace. It doesn’t feel smart, it just slows everything down. The game tries to feel deep and mysterious, but ends up feeling lifeless. No real story and no reward for pushing forward. The only thing great is the graphics ( UE4 ) It’s not satisfying, it’s not addictive, and it has zero soul. Wouldn’t recommend at all. 2/10.

I loved and completed dark souls 1 to 3, elden ring, its dlc, nightreign, lies of p, kazan so trust me when i say that this game is a tech demo with some spaghetti for levels. i hope number 2 is an actual game. btw, i have never seen worse level design before. i love these types of games so i'll likely try the sequel if they have improved but oh god do not play this.

So to begin, I am not the biggest Demons/Dark Souls fan or even an Elden Ring fan. I do like that those games give tribute to Berserk and the Easter eggs are nice. I do enjoy Nioh though, which is faster and more challenging than most souls games. However, I love how Mortal Shell looks, feels and is distinctivly unique with its mechanics. It is difficult and rewarding and the enviroments are very beautiful. I got this game for $1.65 CDN and I must say, I am already looking forward to the second game.

Great but short game. The bosses are easy but the mobs are a real pain in the a**. I bought it when it was at 95% discount ($1.5) so at that price I would definitely recommend. Great atmosphere and interesting game play. The worst part of the game is when you die, you "save points" are really badly positioned. It feels quite punishing, specially because of the mobs.

Mixed rating suits this game well its both good and bad at the same time. Game has cool idea where the only way to heal is to parry your enemies so it forces you to be aggressive on the other hand its pretty hard to parry enemies when they all have DS2 pursuer hitboxes. The game design is nice but in the dungeon where you had to lit those 3 blaizers it felt rushed since its all open and there is like 10 enemies in total on the entire map. Speaking of enemies their models are cool but theres no reason to fight them since you can just run around everything and only thing you have to kill are the 3 dungeon bosses and the big bird at the end. TLDR get the game on sale and i hope the sequel will be better

You know that "Harden" Mechanic that the game tries to promote you to use? Well it's nice and it works well enough. Want to do a second playthru? Guess what? That mechanic punishes you for using it because you now take damage thru the Harden Form. And healing is done either via running around like a maniac looking for shrooms or parrying. Both of these suck. Now they are doing a sequel? I will admit in the trailer it looks hardcore as hell but thinking about how annoyed I felt playing this game I can't really say I'm looking forward to the new one. It's definitely one of those "Wait and see what the reviews say" kind of feeling with the Sequel. If anything it'll be better than the first one which is a pretty low bar to clear.

POLSKA WERSJA RECENZJI POD ANGIELSKĄ EN --------------- Short, buggy, impossible to beat if enemies refuse to render, which happened to me a lot. Noventheless I personaly deeply enjoyed playing Mortal Shell, even if it was frustrating sometimes, and getting 100% achievements require me to do "1-hit you ded" I still find enought of good stuff in there to recommend it. So if you are reading this, do not heed to some of the most negative reviews, game is decent especially if you get it on a discount. PL --------------- Krótka, zabugowana, niemożliwa do pokonania, jeśli wrogowie odmawiają renderowania, co zdarzało mi się nie raz. Niemniej jednak osobiście bardzo podobało mi się granie w Mortal Shell, nawet jeśli czasami było to frustrujące, a zdobycie 100% osiągnięć wymaga ode mnie podejścia w stylu "1 uderzenie i nie żyjesz", wciąż znalazłem w niej wystarczająco dużo dobrych rzeczy, aby ją polecić. Więc jeśli to czytasz, nie zwracaj uwagi na niektóre z najbardziej negatywnych recenzji, gra jest przyzwoita, zwłaszcza jeśli dostaniesz ją ze zniżką.

Throughout the first half of this game I remember wondering why the reviews for this game were so bad, then I reached the shifting archives: a repetitive, confusionary, mist-filled dungeon that may just be the worst level I have ever played out of any game. Now a single level normally wouldn't make me give an otherwise decent game a bad review, but this level has been stretched to the point of taking half of the entire game's length by itself, probably to get a longer playtime for marketing purposes.

An underrated game. I don't understand why this game received so many negative reviews. Let me tell you about the history, gameplay mechanics, and my personal review of this game. History: Mortal Shell's first name was Dungeonhaven, which was developed by two individuals. One's name is Andrew, and the other's name is Anton. They had been developing this game since 2017. Later, the team size increased from 2 to 4 people. Here, a studio was born, named Cold Symmetry. The names of the other two members are Vitaly and Dimitry. They joined the team and started to develop this game together. They signed with a publisher and were able to hire a small team of freelancers to help bring their vision to life. As a result, the project 'Dungeonhaven' grew correspondingly and evolved into a bigger game. In 2020, they announced the game's name as 'Mortal Shell', and published it with the help of Playstack. Lastly, Mortal Shell is created by a group of 14 people. You can check out more info on IMDb or Wiki. Cold Symmetry is an indie studio with AAA veterans. It's actually frustrating that this game has received 'Mixed' reviews on Steam instead of getting 'Mostly Positive' or 'Very Positive'. Gameplay Mechanics: -If you collect all Shells with full abilities, fully upgrade all weapons, and discover hidden places, items, and lore-related texts, then the gameplay time is around 20 hours. However, if you die many times, your playtime can reach up to 25-30 hours. Without collecting anything and just doing the main quests with basic shells and weapons, you can finish the game in 5-7 hours. You must learn how to wield weapons and how to dodge opponents' or enemies' attacks. -The sound mechanics are actually solid. They will give you another level of pleasure. -There are minor bugs in this game that occur rarely. -This game was made on UE4. Graphics quality is great and doesn't require High-End-PC to run. The atmosphere is also great and artistic. Each Shell design is fantastic. -The combat system is also good. You can mix combos, and NPCs deal a decent amount of damage. Overall, the AI is good, and the bosses are also well-designed. It is even more enjoyable with Rotting Christ's music. You must get the Virtuous Cycle to access these music. -This game is pretty decent and unique. The story, in-game environment, and combat system are unique and feature their own style. The price of this game is worth it. Personal Review: This is my favorite Souls-like series and the first Souls-like game I've played on a computer. I really enjoyed this game. I am also happy that this game is getting its sequel, Mortal Shell 2. I recommend you buy the 'Mortal Shell Deluxe Edition.' It will give you access to some in-game extra features: a new Shell (Hadern), new weapons, abilities, a roguelike mode, Shades, etc. You may wonder why my playtime is so low. Basically, I have been using Steam since 2020. I created this account at the end of 2023 and started using it as my main account in 2024, playing all my games from here. I already have this game on another account, but I don't mainly use that account. That's all I have to say here.

„We are merely the clay, and obsession is the fire that transforms us.“ - Solomon, the Scholar Review: Mortal Shell – A Compact Souls-like with Its Own Identity Mortal Shell is a compact Souls-like that embraces the core principles of the genre while introducing enough of its own ideas to stand out. Despite its shorter playtime, it delivers a focused and satisfying experience, rich with atmosphere, challenge, and a surprising amount of variety. What truly sets Mortal Shell apart is its core mechanic: the Shells. Instead of customizing a character in the traditional RPG way, you inhabit the bodies of fallen warriors. Each Shell comes with its own stats, traits, and upgrade paths. Whether you prefer speed, stamina efficiency, or durability, every Shell offers a distinct playstyle. Their unique abilities and progression systems add meaningful depth and help keep the gameplay fresh throughout. Weapons are well-balanced and feel impactful, but the real strength lies in how weapons and Shells interact. This synergy encourages experimentation, making each run feel different without overwhelming the player with unnecessary complexity. Visually, the game impresses with a bleak yet beautiful world, supported by a thick, immersive atmosphere. The enemy design is varied and memorable, providing both visual intrigue and mechanical diversity. While the main hub can be a bit disorienting at first, it becomes easier to navigate over time, whether you use a map or not. In terms of difficulty, Mortal Shell is more forgiving than Dark Souls, but still presents a fair challenge. New Game Plus raises the stakes further, offering an extra layer of difficulty for those seeking more. Conclusion: Mortal Shell is a compact, refined Souls-like that succeeds not just through its atmosphere or combat, but through its innovative Shell system and strategic variety. It is an excellent choice for fans of the genre looking for something familiar yet fresh. It also works well for newcomers who want an approachable, well-crafted introduction to the world of Souls-likes.

An amazing gritty action game. Bad reviews are by babies who are also bad.

A genuinely interesting and different Soulslike that's unfortunately riddled with bugs that the developers acknowledged but never bothered to fix. Enemies didn't used to only pop into existence once you're practically beside them before the update that came along with the Virtuous Cycle DLC, and the game has been effectively abandoned ever since.

in the most respectful way possible , this is a terrible opener as a first game to a seemingly lore-rich souls-like game . and i don't even mean the graphics, gameplay, visuals or anything around that area . i'm talking about the way it doesn't at all try to get you into / ease you into it . and no , it doesn't work well as a "message" of the game or whatever . me personally , i've always loved games that don't babysit or hold your hand while you're going through the game and exploring the world . but , you need to realize that at some point you are crossing a line with the whole "find your own way" trope and how it gets in the way of the players finding any form of interest in the game itself , atleast thats how it is for me . the most upsetting thing about this is that the lore and ideas that were put into this game are very interesting and unique but god this is absolutely unplayable and non-immersive . but maybe that's just me .

This game has so much potential, but it just doesn't quite have the same spark as the Dark Souls games do. I understand these types of games are meant to be challenging, but it's reached a point where I've just lost interest. Honestly, if it had an in-game map and bonfire-style checkpoints like in Dark Souls 3, I think that would make a huge difference in maintaining my interest.

This was my very first souls game that I played on my Xbox, and I've always loved this game. Highly recommend. Can't wait for the second one to come out.

I generally despise with my whole heart all the souls-likes but, since it was on sale at around 1€, i decided to get mortal shell and give it a try, despite the mixed reviews on a game that i was almost certain i was going to hate simply for the genre. Ironically, this is probably the least frustrating and most satisfying one out of the bunch, for me. I really LOVE the fact that you can parry hits by petrifying yourself even (even mid animation) and the overall aestethic. Then why the negative review? Well, you can't freely swap to different shells, idk why the hell devs made so that if you find a shell lying around you are forced to play in it or leave it. The absolute lack of fast travel is also a pretty shit design choice, since the map is pretty big, overall. Hopefully this Euro i spent goes toward the improvement of Mortal Shell 2, since it's in the works already.

Pros: - Good art style, animations, and music. Cons: - Gameplay The game Focuses on making the experience more grueling rather then difficult where overcoming the challenge doesn't really feel rewarding. Both the Journey and destination aren't really worth it sadly.

I'd recommend trying it during sale only if you have the time to kill. I would say it's not that bad after playing for two hours. However, the combat feels like it could be improved, I like the harden ability the game has to counter the attacks but it feels a bit too slow and defenseless, especially having multiple enemies attacking right one after the other, making it hard to defend and given the chance to roll, attack or use your shell ability (unless, it's in cool-down, you're screwed and killed in matter of seconds). I keep getting ambushed by one of those monsters and you can't dodge or block it sometimes it bugs and they would teleport to you and bite. It also feels like it lacks goal or achievement, as if you're just wondering around the environment and waiting for things to happen or hoping it's a new area, as you get lost pretty easily and it lacks storytelling. I keep going in circles because I can't tell where I'm going whether it's an area I've been through or not, since they look kinda the same, which I end up crawling from the same hole/tunnel over and over again. From what I gathered you collect new bodies as your Shells. The game overall has nice graphics and optimized quite well but just the gameplay doesn't really feel satisfying. After defeating a boss or two, it felt like nothing happened, everything remains the same and you go back to the way you came from and try to find a new area. Basically it feels like when you put monster hunter combat with dark souls bosses together. However I hope the sequel might be better, and I might continue this game if I have the time, this game feels like a massive time killer too, like it could drain your life away.

---{ Graphics }--- ☑ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☐ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☑ Very good ☐ Good ☐ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☑ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☑ Kids ☐ Teens ☐ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☐ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☑ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Game Size }--- ☐ Floppy Disk ☐ Old Fashioned ☐ Workable ☐ Big ☑ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☐ Difficult ☑ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☐ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☑ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☐ Average ☐ Good ☐ Lovely ☑ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☐ Long ☑ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☐ Worth the price ☐ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☑ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☐ Never heard of ☐ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☑ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☐ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☑ 9 ☐ 10

I actually really enjoyed this game. The art and detail in the models in this game is really beautiful, and the gameplay I thought was more fun and less frustrating than my experiences with Dark souls games. I'm unsure why the game is rated so poorly on steam, but the combat was fun, not super hard, and it felt rewarding. The game's length was pretty good too with lots of collectibles and various enemies to fight. The DLC and hardcore 1 hit death achievements sound pretty insane and impossible to do though. Glad I've only messed with those a little and didn't try to actually achieve those. Couple bugs here and there, beat the game in one week and I'm excited to play the virtuous DLC some more casually.

You get no choice of starting class and the first weapon set they give you feels like you're playing Dark Souls or Elden Ring overloaded, like you don't have enough stamina for enemies that can attack repeatedly. Your attacks are so slow you can start swinging before the basic enemies and still get hit before you connect and every attack staggers you. Also, no replenishing healing mechanic. I'm sorry, but this is the one thing every soulslike needs to copy from Dark Souls. Give us a flask. Standing around and waiting for a mushroom to regrow so that I can make another run is not compelling game play. I paid less than $2 and I still considered returning it. If you haven't played Dark Souls yet, go do that. If you have, save up for Lies of P or one of the decent soulslikes. This combat actually felt worse than the original Lords of the Fallen. I don't even know if you can level up in this game, it was too awful to waste my time on.

Skills are absolute trash, You can't even get strong with any upgrades.

Mortal Shell is a souls-like action RPG with a dark them and repeatable combat. The soundtrack and atmosphere are amazing, they make you feel like the game is going to be something epic, but the truth here is no, not good at all. The game is very short, the story is kinda boring, and the combat looks fast but no, you just need to spam your harden and sigil parry after the enemy hit and attack them 2-3 times, anh repeated the same. The worst part is how slow and dull the fights feel, nothing about the gameplay is exciting, changing your shell may change your build but no, its not affected too much just adding some extra things like more stamia but low health, bigger health bar but low stamina. Nothing more nothing less. I would not recommended this game if you are into Souls-like, but the Sequel is going to release next year so if you are into it, this game will help you to understand the combat and get ready for Mortal Shell 2, if not play Code Vain 2 maybe better than this game. If the Dev want to sell the next game, they need to change Combat System and make it BETTER, not slow and fast at the same time like this. 5/10