This is a review of a game Mortal Shell. The game is available for the PS4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. Mortal Shell is a single-player action role-playing souls-like game developed by Cold Symmetry. Since release, the game has had a free DLC called Rotten Autumn. This added new music for boss fights a photo mode for virtual photographers and an additional armor skin option for protagonists.
What is the Game like to Play
Well, the action starts with you being dropped into a dark and twisted land where you assume control of a ghoulish character. After the brief combat tutorial, you find yourself in Fulgrim a misty forest inhabited by moonshine swinging brigands poisonous frogs, and all manner of odious creatures. It's at this point You'll find your first shell. Shells are basically dead knights who lay strewn throughout the land of Forgrim. Your character has the ability to possess these empty shells and reanimate them taking on their attributes as you seek answers in the bleak world that surround you. There are four shells in the game but you'll have to find them using the interesting spirit clues giving you a brief insight into their whereabouts.
So, you're basically a weird ghoul wearing a dead man as a shell. The progression system is linked to your shell and each shell has a skill tree that can be unlocked with tar and glimpses which are required when you kill enemies in combat. It's a pretty refreshing system and makes a nice change from the number based leveling system in other games. Each shell has a different style with some being fast and high on stamina whereas others are more powerful with larger health bars.
For the purpose of this review, I mainly used Eredrim the Venerable who had lots of health and was very very powerful. So, what about the combat system? well it's very smooth easy to follow, and avoids overly complicated button combinations. All combat actions are governed by stamina health and resolve every action uses stamina and resolve is used for special skills like advanced attacks or the call blocking system.
You can harden your character which basically makes you impervious to damage for a brief moment. It's a really great option when you're in a tight spot and helps with those group situations or tricky boss fights. You can also parry attacks and gain back health with other types of combos as well. You have light and heavy strikes, running strikes, rolling dodges, and several unlockable special moves available to you as you level up your shell.
The game world is a well-conceived creation dripping with atmosphere and character. From Fulgrim forest the onyx tower to the ancient tombs every location felt interesting and full of mystery and charm. One thing to know is that you don't have any map to refer to so it's a game that relies heavily on exploration memory and being inquisitive. The game world isn't as big as it feels but not having a map makes everything feel a lot larger as you don't always know exactly where you are or how to get from A to B but in time you will figure those things out.
On your travels, you'll find a variety of items from moonshine, mushrooms, and rotten food. Every time you use an item your familiarity with that item will increase making for more effective usage in the future and you can even play a nice little guitar if all of the doom and gloom gets a little bit too much for you but the locals don't like it I'll just warn you now.
so what about weapons? Well, you start with a standard sword but other weapons are available but you will have to find them first. They can be upgraded at workbenches with special resources that grant you bonus attacks. Some have special effects like fire or ice damage and each one feels different to use from the others such as the one or two-handed swords to the gritty hammer and chisel. But one issue with the weapon system is that by the time you find the other weapons your first weapon will be leveled up so using a new one kind of felt like a downgrade. Personally, I just stuck with the first sword leveled it up to the max, and never used the others really as it just made it harder but I guess it gives you options for replay value. The world features occasional NPCs who'll chat with your trade or try to persuade you to do quests for them. You can sip the divine tar from sesta genesis cup hang out with traders who have cats or play some music for a large frog chap who honestly did creep me out a little bit he's a little bit too like eyeballs on you at all times.
The general enemy variety is very good although at the beginning they're pretty dumb and easy to kill you'll soon bump into wolf-like creatures, overpowered knights, and eight-foot-tall behemoths swinging onyx slabs at your head. And after encounting all these grotesque and varied foes you'd naturally expect the boss fights to be amazing unfortunately that wasn't the case in Mortal's Shell there aren't many bosses and the vast majority of them weren't very impressive or difficult to beat in fact I found certain generic enemies in the map a far harder proposition to fight than the bosses themselves. I mean when you stumble upon a boss and you're down to half health before you even enter the room and you still kill it the first time you know something's wrong. I'm not saying they're all bad maybe two I thought were pretty cool but none are really challenging and it kind of feels like a little bit of a cop-out.
One other thing to note is it's not the longest game good players should have it wrapped up in about 15 hours and for everyone else, 20 hours should be enough but remember this is an indie title and not full price so for 25 pounds I'd say the length of the experience is about right. Graphically the game looks very nice indeed with dark and atmospheric environments to explore it's got nice lighting effects very smooth animation the interface is good barring some very small font sizes on collectible screens that you can barely read even on a large tv. The game now features a photo mode which has a lot of functionality and a nice little slow-motion feature.
In terms of sound, the music is pitch-perfect with a great atmosphere in the dark and gothic tunes. It's very moody and really sets the right tone your character can play little guitar solos too which is a cool touch and I'd say the ambient sounds also help with the immersion greatly. Finally, on the sound, the voice acting of most of the characters is excellent with good voice choices and well-delivered lines. However, shell voiceovers aren't very good at all. When you fill-up a portion of your skill tree you get a two-sentence monologue by the voice of your dead shell but the delivery is painfully slow that by the time they finish speaking you can barely recall what they actually said. It makes those little nuggets of information really hard to digest and they really needed to have some better delivery there.
What's Good and What's Bad
What's Good: The combat system is smooth. The game world is fascinating and beautiful to behold. The enemy design is fantastic it uses an innovative progression system with shells replacing the traditional character creation options. It's the most accessible souls-like game I've ever played. And it was a pleasure to play through without any real rage quit moments or flaws in the design.
What's Bad: The boss fights were very underwhelming it's a little bit short compared to other games. Some of the voice actings were poorly delivered and by the time you find new weapons it's kind of pointless to use them as they feel underpowered compared to your existing weapon.
What's the Verdict
Mortal Shell is a well thought out combat driven adventure set in a surreal and twisted world. The characters and environments have a lot of charm the shell system is an innovative gameplay idea that does away with the tedious number crunching leveling up systems in other games. It has smooth combat feel with good controls and despite its avant-garde style, it's actually one of the most accessible games in the genre. But it's far from perfect and I'd say the boss fights, on the whole, was a massive disappointment as well as some of the voice acting but barring these two issues I can't fault the experience. Mortal Shell it's not going to replace Dark Souls as it's a little bit too short and a little bit too easy Think of Mortal Shell-like as an entry-level game to the soul's genre.
If you play this and enjoy it then you can step up and play with the big boys so it's an apprenticeship but that doesn't mean it doesn't deserve to stand alone as its own unique game. It features plenty of cool and innovative ideas that make it stand out from the crowd and based on what I've seen from the developers I'd imagine we'll be seeing more free and paid DLC in the coming year. So overall it's a game dark souls fans will enjoy and appreciate albeit for a short time but I'd say it's mainly a game for those who've been curious about the genre but never plucked up the courage to delve into it.
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Good game