Mortal Shell

 PC
User Score
6.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 428 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 191 out of 428
  2. Mixed: 121 out of 428
  3. Negative: 116 out of 428

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  1. knald
    Aug 23, 2020
    5
    A promising game ruined by horrible gameplay decisions.
    1. healing is absurd! It has been mentioned countless times during the beta but devs didn't improve it! Mushrooms not only are rare, but they don't heal you instantly, relaying on resolve and parry+riposte to heal is not just hard but simply unfair !
    2. parry and riposte doesn't have Iframes! Many times my ripostes got canceled    A promising game ruined by horrible gameplay decisions.
    1. healing is absurd! It has been mentioned countless times during the beta but devs didn't improve it! Mushrooms not only are rare, but they don't heal you instantly, relaying on resolve and parry+riposte to heal is not just hard but simply unfair !
    2. parry and riposte doesn't have Iframes! Many times my ripostes got canceled because an enemy attacked during the animation! Also getting out of holes triggers an animation which doesn't have iframes either (enemies can kill you while your character is locked and you have to wait for the animation to end in order to move)
    3. consuming items to switch between various weapons is another idiotic decision! Should've been a simple inventory. (and if you don't have the specific item for the specific weapon, you have to run back to Sester in order to use your weapon of choice)
    4. lack of checkpoints and no fast travel until endgame when you upgrade your shell to 100%!
    5. items familiarity is a good concept but not fully implemented! Many items have the same effect whether you have 0 or full familiarity !
    6. too many short and repetitive cinematics! Entering inventory triggers an animation, switching from inventory to shells menu triggers another animation, getting out of cave also has animation... it's just a waste of time, there should've been no useless transitions like that.
    7. some animations are hilariously bad! Like the one of the unchained when he jumps and start swinging his arms like a chicken, or when the little twin of Crucix die and the camera jumps from place to place weirdly.
    8. the music is atrocious! The constant humming or ringing sound drove me insane! It belongs in a sci-fi horror game of a desolate planet, definetly not in a dark medieval game + no music for the bosses or NPCs.
    9. Combat is way too stiff and slow, you'll easily get bored from it.
    10. lore, here we can really feel the consequence of a game without a game director! Mortal shell feels like a collage of different ideas that do not relate to each other (the spirit which possess corps, consuming memories or glimpses to know stories of others, the glands, the divine nektar, the ascendance to different world...) there's too much stuff going on and there's no clear foundation and timeline to the story! The scriptures do not tell you anything useful, actually they make things worse.    … Expand
  2. Chumpie
    Aug 19, 2020
    10
    I found out about this game a few months ago and joined the community instantly, it has been an amazing experience watching this game grow to what it is now. The combat hooked me when i saw it, a sword with actual weight to it . The voice acting paired with the atmosphere of the game is truly and experience
  3. Cyber_Angel
    Dec 28, 2020
    6
    The game is interesting and captivating at first, then becomes repetitive, boring and the enemies are easily dispatched using the strongest weapon with a cheesy combo. The last area is repetitive, hard as hell and the enemies there are copypasted and the levels are extremely boring and unimaginative. What a letdown.
  4. jexewa1856
    May 10, 2022
    0
    Mortal Shell really, truly, irredeemably sucks. If you like Dark Souls (or Elden Ring), it sucks. If you hate Dark Souls (or Elden Ring), it still sucks.
  5. ricardolaizo
    Jun 20, 2022
    0
    To the people who love the Souls games, it's not worthy to play Mortal Shell.

    The game trys, but cannot achieve any fun at all.

    I've played about a hour of it and my only solace is that I've taked it for free on Game Pass.
  6. TavorX95
    Aug 23, 2020
    6
    Mortal shell is an impressive game for a small indie dev team. However they may have made a big mistake by unashamedly comparing to souls, while missing most if not all of what made Dark Souls a hit. The world is awful. Some dungeons are so linear it's obnoxious. Some dungeons are more open but so uninspired with too little direction. Instead of designing a world around enemy placement,Mortal shell is an impressive game for a small indie dev team. However they may have made a big mistake by unashamedly comparing to souls, while missing most if not all of what made Dark Souls a hit. The world is awful. Some dungeons are so linear it's obnoxious. Some dungeons are more open but so uninspired with too little direction. Instead of designing a world around enemy placement, and enemy engagement and purpose. They decided to make a map and give it the ol' dark souls 2 treatment: put way to many enemies in a single area because we don't want to design the world on making it hard to get around the enemies. Which is the second big problem. Too many enemies at once that don't make me want to fight because it's going to be annoying, especially since enemies don't really give you meaningful upgrades. The tar system is lackluster. The skill tree is fine, but unneeded, and seemingly unimportant, there is no leveling system which if we learned anything from sekiro it really hurts these kinds of games. Being able to level up from tar would have made me be at least kind of interested in fighting the mobs of the same enemies over and over and over. The bosses also just aren't that fun. The first few are cool, you're learning the new combat system which isn't my favorite but it's a nice different from other games. It's unique which I'm not going to say is a bad thing. It's a good enough fighting system. The bosses have weird hit boxes, really really weird timing attacks sometimes (maybe it's broken?) It's not a good thing when you wonder if a bosses moveset is glitched or intended. Because it usually means it's not fun. Overall it was a meh game. Hopefully the next one will be better.… Expand
  7. Game0fLife
    Dec 15, 2021
    7
    Full of texture glitch, random crash, and FPS drops in the snow area. (I use RTX 2070 and i7-9700k, playing at 1440p)

    While I play many so-called "Souls-like" video games, many try to at least offer something unique to distance themselves from being called unoriginal or uncreative. Unfortunately, not this game and not in a good way, from the weird dialogue, nonsensical lore, slow    Full of texture glitch, random crash, and FPS drops in the snow area. (I use RTX 2070 and i7-9700k, playing at 1440p)

    While I play many so-called "Souls-like" video games, many try to at least offer something unique to distance themselves from being called unoriginal or uncreative. Unfortunately, not this game and not in a good way, from the weird dialogue, nonsensical lore, slow combat, to literally copying the parry & ripostes mechanic, this game tries so hard to be a dark souls game and it just feels weird.

    For instance, I can't pause the game to read something, but it literally makes no sense, at least in dark souls, you can't pause the game because co-op (summon) and PvP (invasion and duel) exist and can happen any second. This game just wants to say "Hey, we are challenging, just like Dark souls!"

    Edit: Alright, I bump up a score a little bit, because the third-person ranged weapon "Ballistazooka" is super fun    … Expand
  8. KlosHax
    Aug 29, 2020
    5
    Doesn't reach the original From Software game quality but for a low budget game it has really cool mechanics ( hardening and shell mechanic most importantly) and graphics make you feel like you are playing a souls game but enemy variety is low and boss fights are not epic and generally boring they keep repeating same moves in the same order And i think boss fights are the essence for aDoesn't reach the original From Software game quality but for a low budget game it has really cool mechanics ( hardening and shell mechanic most importantly) and graphics make you feel like you are playing a souls game but enemy variety is low and boss fights are not epic and generally boring they keep repeating same moves in the same order And i think boss fights are the essence for a souls-like game… Expand
  9. Grahl1
    Aug 19, 2020
    7
    Another game that suffers from Indie Syndrome: huge potential and huge bad design decisions (I'm not saying all indies are like this, but a lot).

    The atmosphere, the lore and the graphics are amazing. But everything else feels rushed and uninspired. The combat is little better than Lords of the Fallen. Clunky, clunky, clunky, repetitive, enemies are damage sponges, repetitive    Another game that suffers from Indie Syndrome: huge potential and huge bad design decisions (I'm not saying all indies are like this, but a lot).

    The atmosphere, the lore and the graphics are amazing. But everything else feels rushed and uninspired.

    The combat is little better than Lords of the Fallen. Clunky, clunky, clunky, repetitive, enemies are damage sponges, repetitive enemies. The boss fights are specially disappointing.

    The worst of all is the lack of checkpoints. Every Souls-like I've ever played (and I've played a lot of them) has many checkpoints, to compensate for the difficulty. This is a difficult game with little checkpoints, not to mention the areas are absolute mazes, and like every Souls-like, there's no map.

    And finally, the lack of everything. The lack of enemy variety, the lack of bosses, the lack of weapons, maybe even shells. I mean, if you're gonna create a template for a game, then that's most of the work, I assume? Why create little content over that template? Again, a really bad decision. They could have asked double the price with not nearly double the work. 4 main bosses (and not even 4 mini bosses) for a souls-like, a game of bosses, feels extremely lacking.

    I'm still giving this a 6.5, because the potential is there and one must value it. But it's extremely frustrating that you can see that the developers certainly had the ability to make a great souls-like like Nioh or Jedi: Fallen Order, yet their never-ending stream of bad decisions makes it an average game. Again, the Indie Syndrome.    … Expand
  10. Pinwheel
    Aug 20, 2020
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I paid 30 dollars just to have a ripoff of dark souls But with max 3 enemy types per area and clunkiness that even Dark Souls 2 wish it could have. The hitboxes are straight garbage- this is best examplified on The First Martyr's second phase, as he swings his sword forward for what feels like ages, you'd think only the initial swing has an active hitbox, but no, you can get hit at the final second of the REALLY slow move and it takes over a third of your hp away... the 3 bosses that have 2 healthpools all follow the same gimmick- easy phase 1 with low hp, many moves can be parried and their entire moveset just consist of normal attacks. Then phase 2 happens and their hp and damage is doubled but their moveset is halved and simplified even more, now only having a total of 3 moves at max. To add insult to injury, the final boss is literally just a bigger version of the discount scarecrows you meet earlier, only it has triple the hp of any other boss and can heal himself halfway through the fight, and not only that, but also summon some backup dancers. To add even more insult to injury, the game has only 4 bosses in total.

    The "dungeons" feel really incomplete compared to the overworld. Instead of being interconnected you follow one single path, beat the boss and run ALL the way back up to the first checkpoint of the game. When coming back to the overworld it's filled sith vampires that have godly SPEED and accuracy. And when I say FILLED I mean...they literally SWARM you. It's like forest of fallen giants in scholar of the first sin but with Heide Knights.The final dungeon gave me flashbacks to Cathedral od the sacred blood, which uh, yeah, you get the idea.    … Expand
  11. episode
    Aug 24, 2020
    5
    It is a mostly good looking Dark Souls wanna be that doesn't get all of what is great about Dark Souls but bring some interesting gameplay mechanics.

    The game lacks polishing, it is visible everywhere. Enemy AI is trash, the graphic assets are not cohesive, the story is basically non-existent, there are few enemies and even fewer varieties in their behavior. Other than that, the boss    It is a mostly good looking Dark Souls wanna be that doesn't get all of what is great about Dark Souls but bring some interesting gameplay mechanics.

    The game lacks polishing, it is visible everywhere. Enemy AI is trash, the graphic assets are not cohesive, the story is basically non-existent, there are few enemies and even fewer varieties in their behavior. Other than that, the boss fights are not great either.

    But, the game DOES have some great points. The hardening ability, although breaks the gameplay and the sensation of powerlessness that a Souls like must have, is pretty fun and interesting, the graphics, although uncohesive in quality between different areas and besides being clearly mostly from bought assets they can look really good.

    Story wise it is really poor. The dialogs are shallow and over presumptuous filled with nihilist **** for the sake of trying to sound cool. But they do not. They sound cringy. Other than that, its a game about defeating bosses to finish it. Not much than that can be taken from its plot.

    Still about the plot, last boss couldn't be more predictable. And the trope of you creating a problem to then solve it is all it can give you.

    Overall, this is a cheap and quick game that can give you a few hours of a interesting gameplay and can give you some fun. But don't waste your time playing it if you haven't already played the games from software and other good souls-like games, like Hollow Knight.    … Expand
  12. kingTimson
    Aug 20, 2020
    5
    First with the good stuff. The idea and the concept behind this game is really interesting. Hardening is kind of unique, but its just a equivalent of your daily shield, done in a really cool looking and very unique way. Definitely has a lot of potential. Combat is satisfying, animations may be janky but its fine nonetheless.
    Now the bad stuff. I get that its not a high budget game and    First with the good stuff. The idea and the concept behind this game is really interesting. Hardening is kind of unique, but its just a equivalent of your daily shield, done in a really cool looking and very unique way. Definitely has a lot of potential. Combat is satisfying, animations may be janky but its fine nonetheless.
    Now the bad stuff. I get that its not a high budget game and all, but the level design here is so horrible, I can not understand whose idea was it to make a SUPER TIGHT corridors, where you cant just sprint through and if you do, you have to do the same stuff again and again and again. Even enemies, ENEMIES fall off for Gods sake! These tight spots are super frustrating and the environment is just boring. At first glance its really cool and unique looking, but when you understand that 60% of the game has exactly the same environment, it just gets super repetitive. The Lore is strange as well, a lot of stuff left unexplained (like 90%)
    There are a lot of flaws, but at least there are no microtransactions and this game has a reasonable price tag.
    Dev team has a great potential, definitely looking forward to their next game, maybe even DLC for Mortal Shell. Multiplayer and/or CO-OP are welcome as well.    … Expand
  13. Gabe7494
    Aug 19, 2020
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. While I'll probably give a higher review as the game updates in the future, I'm closer to uninstalling until then rather than play any further. I've only got about 7 hours in, I feel like I've seen what's going on enough.

    It's insanely clunky. Having played just about every souls-like game out there, the input delay in this one is atrocious. Did you want to dodge? That sucks cause you're gonna swing from a second ago when you wanted to. And now you're dead. Parry? That's a laugh. It either needs more precise timing than any other game that has the same feature, or it doesn't exist at all.

    The starfish design of the entire map is also frustrating. Start from the middle, travel as far out as you can, fight a boss and travel all the way back to repeat the process. There is a fast-travel system, but the game fails to advertise it at all. Thank goodness YouTube exists. Also, this may be an issue on just MY digital copy, but there is an entire section called Eternal Narthex that I literally can't advance in. Every time I climb the stairs to enter, I lose the shell I'm in, my weapon and any items I picked up along the way. There's also a mini-boss immediately after you "recite" from a book on the left that, upon defeating, teleports me to an entirely different part of the map and gives me nothing. I've fought him three times just to see if something would change and so far, nothing.

    The entire concept of "use the item to find out what it does" is okay, but frustrating when the item just poisons you. The poisonous items also can't be used against your enemies (unless the game left out how to do that too) and it makes me wonder why they're even in the game.

    What is the story? Idk what's going on, I just know I must kill. It feels like this should be tied in with souls lore but forgot to tell us how. The things and NPCs you find give cryptic messages that give you no insight into what's happening. I don't need it to be right in my face, but even a small hint here and there would make some of frustrations the game presents a bit worth it.

    Atmosphere and graphics are pretty great, credit where it's due.

    Enemy variety seems extremely limited so far. Again, only 7 hours in, but I've seen maybe 4 different kinds of enemies with 7 different skins. I guess it levels out the challenge of dealing with the clunky controls, but it's also demotivating to try and learn any new methods of combat other than hit this guy three times or hit this guy, back up, repeat.

    Animations are also way too common. I crawled through a tunnel and was forced to watch an enemy pummel half of my health bar away while the crawl-out-in-5-seconds animation played through.

    Weapon variety would also be nice. The few that are present are cool, but they're way too limited in their abilities for something this difficult. Also, what's with the lute? Does it have a real purpose later or am I just supposed to jam out for the heck of it on occasion? If it were taken out of the game, I can't say I'd care.

    Lastly, we don't need a map, we never had one in any other souls game and it worked, but why is every area a maze? Even the "main hub" of the game is a bunch of paths that MAY lead into the tower and then don't. It's especially frustrating when you've come back from venturing out into one of the starfish legs and you need to get in to restore health and your "extra life" and some random enemy shoots an arrow/rock (what are they even shooting?) at your head and kills you, sending you all the way back to the last sester; the game's only method of a "checkpoint".

    I'm not saying don't play this game by any means, I would say watch and wait though. There needs to be some sort of overhaul to fix many of these issues other players are experiencing before it can be a true contender. I will say that the price is definitely fair; if I'd paid $60 for this, I would've had it refunded long before now and given up.    … Expand
  14. SwitchReview
    Aug 21, 2020
    7
    The game looks and feels good to play, however, I can't help but feel like I'm playing a stripped down version of Dark Souls 2. I also can't help but compare this game to the Souls series, since it is obviously inspired by it.

    At first, I fell in love with the combat. The animations, hit sounds, etc. made it satisfying and the harden mechanic was new and interesting. However, after a    The game looks and feels good to play, however, I can't help but feel like I'm playing a stripped down version of Dark Souls 2. I also can't help but compare this game to the Souls series, since it is obviously inspired by it.

    At first, I fell in love with the combat. The animations, hit sounds, etc. made it satisfying and the harden mechanic was new and interesting. However, after a while it felt repetitive especially during bosses where they would throw out the same move set and I would respond with my own for 10 minutes straight.

    The same could be said for Dark Souls except that there are a large variety of weapons that you can buy or pick up from fallen enemies. In Mortal Shell, you kinda just unlock weapons as you go. Part of the fun for me in Souls games is having lots of weapons to choose from, sometimes picking up rare weapons from enemies, and then testing them out. I don't get nearly the same satisfaction from this game.

    Another part of Souls games that I love is leveling up my character and adjusting them to my liking. Mortal Shell is more similar to Sekiro where you unlock abilities instead of leveling up stats, but I feel like there's even less to choose from here. The only way to increase health and stamina is to find "shells" to inhabit and then start over with 0 abilities. It's a shame because I feel like a dodge roll, plus two swings depletes my entire stamina bar. Also, enemies chunk you for a third of your health so I'm pretty much just constantly waiting for my harden to come off cooldown.

    My last bit of criticism: where are the checkpoints? The starting area is big enough as it is but the fact that there are no checkpoints made me feel like I was barely progressing and having to start from the beginning was also frustrating. In Souls, there's at least a few bonfires scattered throughout an area to signify that you are making progress. In Mortal Shell, it's just "here's an area, now complete the entire thing."

    Overall, on the surface this game feels very polished and satisfying to play. For a team of 15 people, this is definitely an impressive game and there's also a lot of interesting things that make it stand out on its own. However, beneath the surface I feel there is a lack of content. I might continue this game in the future, but for now it's just not very fun for me.    … Expand
  15. serHERO
    Aug 20, 2020
    6
    Crooked hitboxes, ill-conceived combat system, overly confusing locations, disgusting colors and much more
  16. I3ordo
    Feb 28, 2021
    6
    You will have to come up with a much deeper, versatile combat system if you are asking players to overcome such steep initial difficulty curve.

    I generally play games to explore their systems and their world, soak in all the atmosphere and move on. I dont play games more than once and in this game the difficulty and the vagueness was so high that i felt it was not worth the effort.    You will have to come up with a much deeper, versatile combat system if you are asking players to overcome such steep initial difficulty curve.

    I generally play games to explore their systems and their world, soak in all the atmosphere and move on. I dont play games more than once and in this game the difficulty and the vagueness was so high that i felt it was not worth the effort.

    It could be a much better experience if the harden system was not so limited. That is the only new thing that this game brings and the only thing that might have saved the unresponsive attack animations where you can not cancel out of attack animations yet you would not know if it would work on that occasion.

    I launched a good trainer for this game, made everything less lethal and more fragile while boosting the harden skills to unlimited. Than it was much less of a chore to learn the ins and outs

    Turns out not much to see.    … Expand
  17. Traxillion
    Aug 31, 2020
    5
    A good souls-like with a bunch of cool mechanics is ruined by a plethora of "cheap" damage set-pieces and slow combat.
  18. kenzan
    Sep 3, 2020
    8
    Very good and enjoyable game with some issues that prevent it from being truly great.

    Pros: + The combat gets some getting used to, but at some point it clicks and it feels great + The environment and general setting is great and sets the right tone + Having empowered riposte as the primary method of healing makes combat more interesting + Resolve is a great addition to the    Very good and enjoyable game with some issues that prevent it from being truly great.

    Pros:
    + The combat gets some getting used to, but at some point it clicks and it feels great
    + The environment and general setting is great and sets the right tone
    + Having empowered riposte as the primary method of healing makes combat more interesting
    + Resolve is a great addition to the "standard" souls-like combat
    + Hardening allows for a fun and aggressive playstyle
    + Enemies look great and their attacks have fair tells
    + Parrying timing is generous enough

    Cons:
    - Low res textures are pretty noticeable
    - Bosses are too sparse and on the easy side
    - Weapons and shells would benefit from some rebalancing
    - The temples are too linear to traverse
    - The lore is lacking in content and depth
    - Hardening can trivialize a lot of fights
    - I-frames are a bit too generous and make dodging trivial    … Expand
  19. ACARVER5853
    Sep 11, 2020
    10
    By far the best dark souls clone. Not a full price game, so the shortness is no issue.
  20. bxrxsxtx
    Dec 15, 2021
    7
    This is a pretty good Souls like but a lot of things keep it from greatness:

    -Lack of ambition and vision - the creators couldn't seem to imagine anything different than DS tropes, lore, and playstyle. -Abilities upgrades and items felt meaningless - partly because you can play things in different orders there's no level system, just earnable perks and weapon upgrades. That's OK but    This is a pretty good Souls like but a lot of things keep it from greatness:

    -Lack of ambition and vision - the creators couldn't seem to imagine anything different than DS tropes, lore, and playstyle.

    -Abilities upgrades and items felt meaningless - partly because you can play things in different orders there's no level system, just earnable perks and weapon upgrades. That's OK but they felt disappointing, like gain damage for 10 seconds on kill, who cares.

    -Weapon special moves - I never felt like using them, too much trouble.

    -Parry - like the other things, why bother, parrys usually miss so you might as well dodge and harden.

    -Crazy difficult early but easy later - partly from upgrades but mostly from just learning the game. Take the spearmen(halberd or whatever) at the beginning, they seemed impossible, no real pause in their attack to strike them tons of damage on the base shell. The fire boss on the other hand was the easiest enemy in the game.

    -Just run through - like I said, early on things are very hard and fights aren't worth the effort. Also in general enemies take so long to fight they aren't worth the time and you end up running past everything which is too easy. Eventually upgrades help with damage and you need to farm some points but still...

    -Vague - the lore and objectives are so steeped in mystery they might as well not exist.

    Anyway, it's a fun game lasting roughly 10 hours and has a new game plus after that. It's generally hard enough, and the graphics, sound, and so on are pretty good. I recommend it, just keep your expectations modest.
    Also you could always experiment with speedrunning or no damage runs to make it harder. They often use the shellless form to make it faster. Ciao gamers.    … Expand
  21. asksk
    Aug 23, 2020
    4
    Short, buggy and filled with broken mechanics.

    Multiple crashes throughout the playthrough combined with a healing system where they basically want you to farm mushrooms by simply standing next to one and wait for respawn hours on end and in return reward you with super easy boss fights you just can't lose unless you fall asleep, which might actually happen on the terrible end boss.    Short, buggy and filled with broken mechanics.

    Multiple crashes throughout the playthrough combined with a healing system where they basically want you to farm mushrooms by simply standing next to one and wait for respawn hours on end and in return reward you with super easy boss fights you just can't lose unless you fall asleep, which might actually happen on the terrible end boss. Disappointed!    … Expand
  22. razvania
    Sep 7, 2020
    4
    Probably the worst game I've played this year. A clunky, boring and repetitive cheesefest featuring input lag, spammy bosses, reused assets, bad level design and no enemy variety. The game tries too hard to be Dark Souls and fails because of a poor understanding of what makes a good soulslike. Having a few NPCs in the game that say pretentious sounding nonsense doesn't mean you have a goodProbably the worst game I've played this year. A clunky, boring and repetitive cheesefest featuring input lag, spammy bosses, reused assets, bad level design and no enemy variety. The game tries too hard to be Dark Souls and fails because of a poor understanding of what makes a good soulslike. Having a few NPCs in the game that say pretentious sounding nonsense doesn't mean you have a good story. I honestly don't get the hype, this game is only comparable to Immortal Unchained in terms of quality. Lords of the Fallen is a 10/10 compared to this game. Do yourself a favour and save your money for Demon's Souls Remake and Elden Ring.… Expand
  23. Jordan386
    Aug 20, 2020
    5
    If you're an actual souls fan and not just a follower this is a fantastic addition
  24. Brahmans
    Aug 19, 2020
    10
    The game provides entertainment and its quite good for the small team that developed it. I had a lot of fun playing it.
  25. AkaySama
    Aug 19, 2020
    9
    Great game from a small team and it's not easy to do a Soul game, and they did. and add their own spin into it
  26. VanginVnuk
    Aug 19, 2020
    10
    Probably the best souls like game I've played. A lot of work has been done for such a small company. It was fun to play, it was difficult to play. The game is worth paying attention to. I recommend it!
  27. AceAscendus
    Aug 24, 2020
    0
    Overhyped garbage, like all the other Souls-like games that isn't made by From Software or Team Ninja. So many bad design choices in Mortal Shell, clunky and low budget movement and animations, soulless combat, just a waste of time. Wait for Elden Ring, or go replay Souls games by From Software or Nioh/Nioh 2 by Team Ninja.
  28. Steyraus
    Sep 5, 2020
    0
    Negative points for lack of originality on every new souls clone.
    Another Souls copy cat that fails to even come close to From Software's masterpieces. Seriously Wait for Demon Souls, it is way better. This is the same thing with one extra gimmick like all these indies games do. You time would be better spent in a good game than grinding the same small depressing areas of this cheap    Negative points for lack of originality on every new souls clone.
    Another Souls copy cat that fails to even come close to From Software's masterpieces. Seriously Wait for Demon Souls, it is way better. This is the same thing with one extra gimmick like all these indies games do. You time would be better spent in a good game than grinding the same small depressing areas of this cheap feeling game.    … Expand
  29. Lionarith
    Dec 8, 2021
    1
    The combat system feels so unresponsive and unimaginative that it finally stopped me from playing it. I thought i would ignore any issues because the levels looked so interesting, artful well crafted, but the combat feels so slow, unfair and boring that i couldnt bear it. It is so clearly a souls imitation. High effort level design against low effort combat design, this time low effortThe combat system feels so unresponsive and unimaginative that it finally stopped me from playing it. I thought i would ignore any issues because the levels looked so interesting, artful well crafted, but the combat feels so slow, unfair and boring that i couldnt bear it. It is so clearly a souls imitation. High effort level design against low effort combat design, this time low effort wins again, sadly.… Expand
  30. Hexen-Slayer
    Sep 15, 2020
    6
    The good first: the dark setting and the atmosphere are really good! It is even darker than DARK SOULS.
    Unfortunately that's about it. The rest is a blatant copy all the way down to the controls and explaining lore by item descriptions. Unlike DARK SOULS, MORTAL SHELL hasn't mastered this technique yet.
    They did manage to add a little twist to the hole class system: shells. You literally    The good first: the dark setting and the atmosphere are really good! It is even darker than DARK SOULS.
    Unfortunately that's about it. The rest is a blatant copy all the way down to the controls and explaining lore by item descriptions. Unlike DARK SOULS, MORTAL SHELL hasn't mastered this technique yet.
    They did manage to add a little twist to the hole class system: shells. You literally wear classes like skin (or shells) and you can switch these during the game. Enemies yield "glimpses" which unlock some lore about the shell and serve as level ups. So far so good. Another addition is the "hardening" mechanic, which briefly turns the player into stone - this game's version of blocking. Otherwise the game offers nothing new. Tar serves as MORTAL SHELL's version of souls.
    Now I'm not really a fan of the "SOULS" game mechanics of respawning enemies and repetitious dying. Unfortunately for me there are very few "dark fantasy" games outside the "SOULS" games that nail the atmosphere. If you're a fan of this "new" genre you might hold MORTAL SHELL in a much higher regard.
    Enemy variety unfortunately is also lacking - as are the 7 bosses. Yes, MORTAL SHELL is a rather short game. Stone me, but I liked LORDS OF THE FALLEN better.
    6 out of 9.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

26
#26 Most Discussed PC Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 44 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 26 out of 44
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 44
  3. Negative: 0 out of 44
  1. Worth Playing
    Jan 8, 2021
    80
    Mortal Shell is an enjoyable title for those who are already fans of the SoulsBorne sub-genre, and it has more positives than it has flaws. The swamp hub world is bland and confusing, but the different biomes you eventually reach are gorgeous, even if they're relatively familiar. The lack of a deep leveling system has a very good replacement in the shell system, which ends up providing more versatility in your character build and the attack system. The relatively shorter length makes it great for newcomers, while genre veterans will find it to be a great debut effort from a small development team.
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  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Oct 7, 2020
    80
    If Dark Souls wasn’t sufficiently dark and difficult, this is just the thing for you. Taking the souls-like genre a step further, Mortal Shell provides a satisfying combat system enveloped in a creatively unique narrative. Well worth the suffering. [Issue#305]
  3. RPGamer
    Sep 18, 2020
    70
    Mortal Shell may be a modest product, but it surprised at nearly every turn with regularity. The lack of variety in the environments, weapons, and classes are more than made up by never overstaying its welcome. Whenever it feels as though its about to become stale, players will stumble across something new to try out. The lack of depth isn’t too much of a detriment as the game is short enough to ever feel tired. Better yet, what is there is good, a foundation with easy room to be expanded upon and a strong demonstration of Cold Symmetry’s understanding of core concepts that are the strength of the genre. Mortal Shell is a exemplary use of limited resources to make a tight, fun game, even if it only takes a weekend to beat.
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