Mortal Shell

 PlayStation 4
User Score
6.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 207 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 120 out of 207
  2. Mixed: 40 out of 207
  3. Negative: 47 out of 207
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  1. Inhanzt
    Dec 23, 2020
    4
    Nintendo hard dark souls with one neat idea. No reliable heals, very few checkpoints. They clearly made half a game and decided to pad it for the worse.
  2. Lionarith
    Dec 8, 2021
    0
    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
  3. NazgulzLegacy
    Dec 8, 2021
    0
    Controls are sloppy and unresponsive when needed, ive played similar games that do it better, seems unfinished needs work.
  4. Steyraus
    Sep 5, 2020
    4
    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.
  5. ToshLichev
    Mar 6, 2022
    4
    As someone who has never played a "Souls" game I thought Mortal Shell would be a great place to start - it's free on PS+, seems a bit simpler than the From Software games and is supposedly easier due to the "Harden" mechanic. Safe to say this was not one of my best decisions.

    After the first few hours I spent with the game resulted in me absolutely hating it, I sat down to play it with    As someone who has never played a "Souls" game I thought Mortal Shell would be a great place to start - it's free on PS+, seems a bit simpler than the From Software games and is supposedly easier due to the "Harden" mechanic. Safe to say this was not one of my best decisions.

    After the first few hours I spent with the game resulted in me absolutely hating it, I sat down to play it with a friend who is really great at Souls games in order to see if it's actually a bad game or if I just hate Souls-like experiences. It ended up being a bit of both.

    On my side the constant respawning enemies and backtracking are a harsh gameplay mistake which completely denies you of any sense of progression. The setting and "plot" felt dull and uninspired and at no point did I feel the urge to explore. But it wasn't just me. My friend echoed my concerns saying that the game felt like a knock-off. We both enjoyed the Shell mechanic but mostly because it functions as a safety net, compensating for the absurdly overpowered regular enemies, the off-beat dodge mechanic and the general gameplay clunkyness. Everything from build customization and combat to fast travel and boss fights were bad versions of already established mechanics.

    Overall Mortal Shell is a painfully mediocre attempt at copying the Souls formula which lacks any of the polish and fine-tuning its predecessors have so it tries to compensate with cheap difficulty and "get-out-of-jail" mechanics.    … Expand
  6. BallzyDan
    Jul 7, 2021
    1
    This will be the last time I ever touch a "souls" game. This game has no soul, it is straight trash, no map, no missions and no reason to even play the game after you die twenty times and realize you have gotten no where
  7. yeaokwhatever
    Jun 27, 2021
    0
    man i wanted to love this game. i really did, and i tried to believe me. but my god it is utter **** the combat is sooooo awful - ZERO input queing, ultra clunky, slow AF, unresponsive, feels **** across the board. combat is the crux of any souls like or really any action RPG and they ran this into the ground harder than a plane crash. EVERYTHING moves swings etc like youre submerged inman i wanted to love this game. i really did, and i tried to believe me. but my god it is utter **** the combat is sooooo awful - ZERO input queing, ultra clunky, slow AF, unresponsive, feels **** across the board. combat is the crux of any souls like or really any action RPG and they ran this into the ground harder than a plane crash. EVERYTHING moves swings etc like youre submerged in molasses. movement feels awkward and its mildly annoying outside of combat but its horrid in combat. combat on the whole lacks ANY of the dynamic, tight, responsive combat that made souls games what they are, whether thats DS1s deliberate weighty pace or BBs frantic speed. and what is an ARPG with **** action??

    hardening is a lame gimmick. its dumb, repetitive and one dimensional. shells were a cool idea but theres FOUR. thats FOUR load outs/playstyles/strategies. FOUR. like bloodbornes 20? ish weapons represents night infinite playstyle choice in comparison. thats not even touching armor, rings or runes etc available in those games (or hell, gear varirty in ANY ARPG). familiarity is a cool thing but consumables are **** healing is **** *effective* healing is non existent. world is composed of small number of areas, enemies are boring, bosses arent worth remembering, combat is god awful. just terrible.

    i feel robbed for the $20 i spent on this heap. if you want something to scratch the souls/BB itch, dont bother its not even remotely close. if you want an ARPG theres well made games that are better choices, if youre interested in MS in its own right, save yourself the trouble and money and watch a lets play or something. if you managed to like then good for you man, i am legitimately jealous. this is a half finished game, with what mightve been a cool idea and an interesting world that, for whatever reason, made it to like 30-50% complete and was then dressed up and padded enough so that it could be released. IMO the devs seem talented, i hope they get some proper funding, staffing and time in the future and can make something worth a damn bc it seems to me like the creativity and talent is there.    … Expand
  8. Wazzdaka
    Oct 19, 2020
    3
    Очень ждал игру и очень расстроиля поиграв неё. Всё очень медлено, очень долгие загрузки. Управление вязкое, не удобное. Такое ощещение, что сложность игры заключается не в сложности врагов (которые здесь очень однообразные и глупые), а в борьбе с управлением.
    Никому не советую.    Очень ждал игру и очень расстроиля поиграв неё. Всё очень медлено, очень долгие загрузки. Управление вязкое, не удобное. Такое ощещение, что сложность игры заключается не в сложности врагов (которые здесь очень однообразные и глупые), а в борьбе с управлением.
    Никому не советую.
  9. Trals991
    Sep 25, 2020
    2
    Остался разочарован проектом. Инди-игра от 15 человек с закосом "хотим как у Миадзаки" не получился, не получился по той причине что управление, а именно кувырок и захват цели сделаны не так как следовало бы. Если захват цели можно поправить, то вот к кувырку ряд вопросов. Почему вместо нормального переката нажатием сделали сначала короткий рывок а на следующее нажатие уже перекатОстался разочарован проектом. Инди-игра от 15 человек с закосом "хотим как у Миадзаки" не получился, не получился по той причине что управление, а именно кувырок и захват цели сделаны не так как следовало бы. Если захват цели можно поправить, то вот к кувырку ряд вопросов. Почему вместо нормального переката нажатием сделали сначала короткий рывок а на следующее нажатие уже перекат непонятно, это и тратит больше энергии и сам рывок настолько короткий что не доджит атаку противников (это может быть проблема хитбоксов, но не уверен). Уже на этом моменте можно положить игру в гроб, закопать и забыть, но есть ещё ряд спорных и глупых решений.
    Лечилки. Лечилки у нас не восстанавливаются, то есть грибы сами ресаются, но во-первых дроп их 1-2 штуки, во-вторых восстанавливают они жизнь с течением времени (30ед за 30сек), в-третьих их респ длится от 5-7 минут, сильно не пофармишь как фляшки в бладборне, вообщем хотели не как у всех, а вышло хреново.
    Есть вопросы к прокачке, зачем делать 2 ресурса, один общий второй для каждой оболочки разный, тоже неясно, можно было сделать один ресурс (тар(души, кровь)) который зарабатывался бы на оболочку который ты пользуешься. У самих перках тоже есть неясности, так как на первый взгляд 80% их ненужные. Так же нет самой прокачки по статам (в теории конечно каждая оболочка обладает своими характеристиками, но по факту их нет), из-за чего возникает проблема с прогрессией, сложностью и как говорят с апом врагов на нг+
    От начальной локации хочется совсем повеситься из-за её запутанности и наполнения, а от архива (особенно туманную версию) так вообще повесить разработчиков на ближайшем столбе
    Графика. На ПК выглядит лучше, на ps4 такое чувство, что текстурки хуже плюс само разрешение 720р, а не 1080р.
    Стоит ли игра своих денег? Нет. Стоит ли брать по скидке? Нет. Советую всячески избегать это творение.
    Я остался сильно разочарован, дошёл до последнего босса и дропнул, чтобы сделать схватку такого уровня при такой боевке и такой камере нужно быть "гением" и "мастером своего дела".    … Expand
  10. SprigganXIII
    Aug 29, 2020
    1
    Sadly I have to give this game a negative review:
    Really wanted to give this game a good review, if you like Dark Souls style games this game is almost there aside from the following reasons:
    1. If you leave your main base via the tunnel, there are two enemies that get to freely beat on you before you even regain control of your character. The camera is disoriented once you gain control    Sadly I have to give this game a negative review:
    Really wanted to give this game a good review, if you like Dark Souls style games this game is almost there aside from the following reasons:
    1. If you leave your main base via the tunnel, there are two enemies that get to freely beat on you before you even regain control of your character. The camera is disoriented once you gain control and often you cannot even see one of the enemies (the bigger one at that). After you upgrade this is not such a big deal but it still should NEVER happen.
    2. Often if you die by falling and you will not be able to collect your dropped currency as it will often be floating in mid air out of reach unless you jump back in, but that is crap shot as often if your falling you won’t re-collect your dropped stuff.
    3. Last Boss is so buggy I cannot finish the game, it will get stuck out of bounds and cannot be hit.
    Sorry Cold Symmetry - three strikes… you’re out and earn this review.
    Play your game like it shouldn’t be played next time… its called testing.    … Expand
  11. OwenDexter
    Sep 15, 2020
    3
    Save your money. I hated literally everything about this game.
    Horrible level design, everything is grey and muddy just kind of ugly.
    Enemy and boss design is worse. Not a single memorable fight in the game. Bosses are unbelievably easy, and pose zero threat. Same can be said for any enemy, the only danger comes from everything moving so slow. Harden mechanic is just a gimmick. I would    Save your money. I hated literally everything about this game.
    Horrible level design, everything is grey and muddy just kind of ugly.
    Enemy and boss design is worse. Not a single memorable fight in the game. Bosses are unbelievably easy, and pose zero threat. Same can be said for any enemy, the only danger comes from everything moving so slow.
    Harden mechanic is just a gimmick. I would trade it for a shield in a second.
    Even though it was known beforehand, lack of gear hurts this already lacking game.
    This game is complete trash.    … Expand
  12. spacejellyfish
    Oct 13, 2020
    0
    Holy cow this game is a trainwreck
    Cheap Death, Glitchs, Bad combat mechanic, this is one of the worst game i have ever played.. This is a wannabe soul like game that do not understand what makes soul games great. You will die... a lot... not because you havent mastered the mechanics but because some stupid programmer decided to put bear traps everywhere.... or because for some reason you    Holy cow this game is a trainwreck
    Cheap Death, Glitchs, Bad combat mechanic, this is one of the worst game i have ever played.. This is a wannabe soul like game that do not understand what makes soul games great. You will die... a lot... not because you havent mastered the mechanics but because some stupid programmer decided to put bear traps everywhere.... or because for some reason you will lose health even i you were not hit... or because you will use an item that will kill you... I tried... i really tried to give this game a chance...But after a few hours i decided that accepting the fact that i paid 40$ for a **** game was not as frustrating as actually playing the game. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY.    … Expand
  13. LoopAj4x
    Jan 1, 2021
    3
    The game suffers a lot with its own technical problems, but the main problem for me is the playability/gameplay. It feels too clunky, a lot of input lags, etc.

    It has a few nice ideas, unfortunately none of them work.
  14. Zeon1982
    Jan 19, 2022
    0
    How can this game compare to the Legendary Dark Souls series. Slow and sluggish gameplay and poorly done healing mechanics. The only this its got going for it is the decent graphics. 1 out of 10 for me.
  15. Loonlamb007
    Aug 21, 2020
    0
    Indeed, this game is damn clunky, but I can deal with such a control response since Ashen was kinda similar... But at the same time Ashen was universes better than this!!! Played about 8 hours now, but let me tell you, this is such a boring game. After you realize that the graphics are just a deception for an uninspired and interchangable world where every part looks just the same, whereIndeed, this game is damn clunky, but I can deal with such a control response since Ashen was kinda similar... But at the same time Ashen was universes better than this!!! Played about 8 hours now, but let me tell you, this is such a boring game. After you realize that the graphics are just a deception for an uninspired and interchangable world where every part looks just the same, where level design is either a mess or a joke, where leveling does not really exisit, where enemy variety means to fight four guys over and over and over again to raise your tar, but you cant improve your Charakter anyway since you need more that Just tar to do so... Pffhh... wow what a challenge. Gaining health almost only by parrying is the most useless mechanic I have ever came across in a game. I mean seriously, what the hell? You really start to ask youself why you are wasting time with this. No Immersion, no feeling, music? ahh no music, just some really annoying atmo... (hello, check out the soundtrack of Ashen or Hyper Light Drifter). Besides the graphic, everything feels unfinished and soulless. Nothing behind the polished visuals makes me want to play this some more. What a disappointment! Just another soulslike crap game with nice graphics but NO SOUL! Even Hellpoint is way better in cases of level design, progress and immersion. Potential wasted! One of the worst games I' ve ever Player in the soulslike Genre.… Expand
  16. SheikhUrbooty
    Aug 22, 2020
    0
    Do not buy this game. This is probably my most hated game of the past 2-3 years. Read on to learn why.

    Designing a Soulslike is difficult. You are demanding a lot of the player in terms of their investment into the world and mastery of your mechanics. Making a good Soulslike requires nailing a lot of subtle features that make the game feel satisfying and rewarding while not being    Do not buy this game. This is probably my most hated game of the past 2-3 years. Read on to learn why.

    Designing a Soulslike is difficult. You are demanding a lot of the player in terms of their investment into the world and mastery of your mechanics. Making a good Soulslike requires nailing a lot of subtle features that make the game feel satisfying and rewarding while not being traditionally fun or gratifying. While Mortal Shell bears a superficial resemblance to the games that inspired it, it's completely missing all of these subtleties required to make a satisfying action rpg. One of these key subtleties is fairness in combat. There are a mind boggling number of bad design decisions that make this game one of my most frustrating, loathed and regretful gaming experiences in quite a long time.

    You will spend almost all of your time in Mortal Shell fighting enemies. This is a problem because the combat is littered with problems. There are only a handful of standard enemy types - almost all tanky dudes in armour. I'm talking about enemies that take anywhere from 2-5 full stamina bars worth of hits to take down with extremely limited openings. You can expect to see the same combat challenge, e.g - 2-3 mob enemies attacking with a heavy armor dude repeated 3, even 4 times in a row. It seems like the bulk of the challenge is not from the individual encounters themselves but from having enough resilience and patience to slog through a long series of successive onslaughts without having access to proper healing. As mentioned prior, these enemies are up there with the tankiest enemies that the genre has to offer, right up there with the very worst enemy types from the likes of Dark Souls 2. Before even considering that you will die a lot while playing this game, you will be facing the same few enemies and slowly widdling away at their tank sized health bars again and again and again. This is made even worse due to how painfully slow upgrades are acquired - I'd estimate you'd need to kill 30-40 enemies per starter upgrade in the early game areas. Keep in mind, this is all the while technical issues and poor encounter design will often result in sudden and cheap deaths that will cause you to lose all of your upgrade materials

    One of the main causes for death so far has been getting stuck on invisible barriers in the environment and especially with enemies. The enemies seem to have invisible barriers surrouding their character models that are larger than the character's proportions themselves. This means that if you try to dodge through a clear and visible gap between multiple enemies that you'll just end up rolling on the spot and get stuck in place by 3-4 enemies surrounding you. Besides being frustrating and janky to look at on screen, this technical ineptitude communicates a detrimental message to the player - do not try to engage in fast, visceral and satisfying maneuvers. Instead engage with enemies defensively and stay back, try to bait and engage one or two at a time. Essentially this technical issue forces players to play in the most uninteresting and slow paced way possible and even then it isn't a foolproof method to keep you safe from jank.

    Besides the encounter and combat design, I'd also like to highlight a laundry list of issues I've encountered so far. The upgrade system is incredibly confusing and can result in you wasting precious resources very easily. For example, glimpses (which are sort of the this game's version of humanity except they're required for upgrading your character) are tied to individual character shells for no discernible reason. Be careful not to use your consumable glimpse resources as Harros - your first character or else when you unlock Soloman the Scholar who is 100% better than Harros in every way you will discover that your glimpses are tied to Harros. Why?!?! If tar (this game's equivalent of souls) is not tied to individual characters then why are the glimpses? This was absolutely infuriating and the result of zero playtesting! If the devs didn't have the time or resources to make a distinct character to complement Harros then at least do not tie resources to individual characters.

    There's also a bizarre gameplay and technical issue involving the game's insistence on controlling the player. The game will often suddenly seize control from the player to showcase in-engine cutscenes of your character doing random actions suchgetting out of a crawlspace (the enemies can hit you and wind up their animations while you are watching these cutscenes btw), or also if you are close to an entrance/ exit to an area the camera will focus in on it and reverse the player's controls as it switches to a classic resident evil horror game camera angle. These problems are bizarre and show the value of playtesting.

    There are also major technical issues regarding the accuracy of the parry system which cripples the game since it is the primary source of healin    … Expand
  17. Hackslashshoot
    Oct 9, 2021
    4
    Meh another disappointing Souls clone trying to be complicated for the sake of being “ cool” . I don’t want to have to take a YouTube class on how to play a game. The gaming industry is getting obnoxious with this **** It gets a 4 for the price and the that a boy for a small studio otherwise I would give it a middle finger with a 0 attached to the end of it
  18. Ash_1337
    Sep 2, 2020
    0
    Regret buying. Combat feels clunky and doesn't feel good to play nor fun :(
  19. Xvatch
    Aug 20, 2020
    0
    Someone could make this in Dreams and release it for free and it would be the same or better. The worst souls-like to exist. The combat and movement is the worst I've ever seen and the areas are legit just vast and completely tasteless with about 2-3 enemy types and the same repeated assets. Offensively boring, and I don't like throwing around the "PS3 game" saying, but this is justifiedSomeone could make this in Dreams and release it for free and it would be the same or better. The worst souls-like to exist. The combat and movement is the worst I've ever seen and the areas are legit just vast and completely tasteless with about 2-3 enemy types and the same repeated assets. Offensively boring, and I don't like throwing around the "PS3 game" saying, but this is justified the graphics are so bad. Same for movement… Expand
  20. Prezza66
    Jan 9, 2022
    3
    Very poor game just like all the souls games. Rubbish. Not difficult and maybe slightly better than dark souls but boring trash.
  21. Hellfire999
    Aug 20, 2020
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is trash, plain and simple, but I'm going to delve into why it's so garbage. Let's preface by saying I have beaten the Souls titles and Bloodborne, as well as most Soulslikes I've come across.

    1. Healing: I understand this experience is supposed to be difficult, but the lack of a dedicated and easily obtainable restorative just feels like your actively being cruel, especially when the alternatives punish you further if you aren't adept at the parry, which also is crap.

    2. Combat: While combat "sounds" visceral, it's not. The PC will stagger from any and all blows dealt to them, and, while a foe smaller than the PC will also stagger from blows, a foe equal to your size or even slightly larger than you will not. If the larger or equal foe does stagger, it doesn't feel at all consistent to the blows being dealt, and, to top it off, they gain a period of time where they cannot be staggered at all from any of your attacks, that's not fun, it's just torture. Also, the damage foes deal far outdoes what a PC can do until at least 2 upgrades into a weapon. Dodge is sluggish and feels unresponsive 1/2 the time and eats way too much stamina for the limited reserve 3 of the shells have. Combat just feels like a slog and forget taking on more than one foe at a time or you'll get eaten alive. It often feels like enemies are acting on a different set of rules to the PC.

    Defenses: This was the biggest problem by far next to the stamina and healing concerns, especially with your limited and unchanging health and stamina pools. The parry does not come out quickly enough and the enemies purposely have misleading timings on their attacks, not to mention unparryable attacks, which SHOULD have only been relegated to bosses only, not normal foes, especially since it requires resolve to get a heal out of it, which takes far too long to build even a single gauge of. Hardening is a fine IDEA, but a one use block maneuver that requires a recharge is plain stupid with how much damage foes do and some seem to ignore the knockback from it. Either throw in a shield or make enemies do less damage with better healing abilities, or a less costly dodge.

    Weapons: Only 2 of the 4 are worth any investment. The others are too slow and too weak to do anything remotely useful, especially since your damage output and stamina consumption are garbage except against anything but the weakest enemies.

    Player stagger: 3 of the 4 shells wear heavy armor or, at least, medium. Why do they stagger so harshly from every blow? The point of wearing armor is to shrug off blows. They might as well be wearing tissue paper, for all the good it does.

    Player growth: Another glaring problem. While the shells gain skills of a sort that you unlock, their health, stamina, and resolve pools remain largely static, which does not give a sense of growth for having stuck with a particular shell, since the shell doesn't feel any different to play from the moment you obtained it. And since 2 of the 4 have enough stamina for a single combo before needing to back off and waiting to recharge, the 3rd has enough health to take 2 hits, and the 4th has enough stamina for a single hit and dodge, some growth to them felt sorely needed.

    Unless the devs decide to fix these obvious problems, don't waste your money on this torture session of a game. Dark Souls was difficult, but it felt like you owned your failures, this "game" just makes me wonder if the devs actually wanted someone to play it for how much of torturous slog it is to muddle through. You can tell me to "git gud" if you want, but it has to feel like it's worth "gitting gud" at. This does not, and, unless serious work is done to overhaul it, it won't be.    … Expand
  22. Zeydlitz
    Aug 20, 2020
    0
    This game have no pause and inadequate respawn. Garbage. Controls are bad and could not be remapped.
  23. LilyHooper
    Aug 19, 2020
    0
    Game is so broken on launch that I cannot recommend anyone to play it. I have had multiple game breaking bugs and that isn't acceptable.
  24. Gecko382
    Aug 19, 2020
    2
    Extremely clunky movement and a delay in every single thing you do. Attacking queues the next attack absurdly long so you'll end up attacking when you'd rather want to dodge.

    Could be a great game for its price if the developers spent another six months polishing gameplay.
  25. AndrewEvolution
    Dec 8, 2021
    0
    Just another Dark Souls copy generic thing, nothing new and a lot of weird mechanics ! Game have 6 weapons and 4 playable character skins in TOTAL... it´s just A BAD JOKE, everything it´s dark and evil even your playable dude feels like a vilan, the devs that made this should be like depressive and ghotic sad PP... i did not buyed , it came with PS Plus and boy, i want better games thanJust another Dark Souls copy generic thing, nothing new and a lot of weird mechanics ! Game have 6 weapons and 4 playable character skins in TOTAL... it´s just A BAD JOKE, everything it´s dark and evil even your playable dude feels like a vilan, the devs that made this should be like depressive and ghotic sad PP... i did not buyed , it came with PS Plus and boy, i want better games than this from PS Plus since i pay for this service !… Expand
  26. rozyv
    Dec 9, 2021
    0
    FPS locked for ps5 under an "enhanced edition" paywall. I paid for ps plus not for demo versions of games. Shame on you
  27. Dwideshrude1
    Jun 6, 2022
    3
    First of all, this is an OBJECTIVELY BROKEN GAME, as wayyyyy down the line from this game's release, there are GAME BREAKING BUGS. IF YOU GET HIT GOING TROUGH A LOADING ZONE YOU CAN LITERALLY LOSE YOUR SHELL AS IF YOU JUST STARTED THE GAME LMAO. So yeah. Do with THAT information what you will. I restarted the game, and luckily the shell warped back to me somehow, but I DOUBT I will be thatFirst of all, this is an OBJECTIVELY BROKEN GAME, as wayyyyy down the line from this game's release, there are GAME BREAKING BUGS. IF YOU GET HIT GOING TROUGH A LOADING ZONE YOU CAN LITERALLY LOSE YOUR SHELL AS IF YOU JUST STARTED THE GAME LMAO. So yeah. Do with THAT information what you will. I restarted the game, and luckily the shell warped back to me somehow, but I DOUBT I will be that lucky again. So, onto further peoblems. Parry timing isnt correct. Imagine designing a game with literal incorrect input timing. Like the hubris required to think "we're smarter than every other game dev ever" its just shocking. If the parry timing was correct, it would be consistently when the attack is about to hit, you press the button, unfortunately that isnt the case at all. Dont believe me? Download the game yourself. Try to parry the first boss. Thats right, the first one. Also, within the first 2 hours of play, I have had multiple instances of the game not responding to my input. Which is awful when the boss fights are wayyyy too long. L2 is harden. L2 is. Harden. Period. If the gauge is full, and i press it. It should work. But no. The button didnt register. So theres that 30 minute boss fight (awful and boring) down the drain, because the game messed up on the 100th time i pressed L2. It isnt acceptable. Also, this game is just terrible. The level design is literally some of the laziest I've ever seen. Just uninspired mush of the same assets copy and pasted over and over again so you HAVE NO IDEA WHERE YOU ARE, WHERE YOU WERE, WHERE YOU CAN GO, OR ANYTHING. It's uninspired trash, with 0 artistry at all. You will get lost, because EVERYTHING looks the same. Oh, and as you are walking around aimlessly, there are unavoidable traps hidden everywhere! Yep, some LITERALLY unavoidable unless you know the exact place where they are, which is impossible, since like it said, EVERYTHING LOOKS THE **** SAME. This is a terrible experience. Through and through. Oh and you wanna know the icong on the cake? This game is free with ps plus, is only like 15 hours long, and the completion rate is 8.5% LMAO(its not even a hard game, its just reaaallly boring) The reason I give this game 3 points is for the potential of the harden system, and the shell system. Also the voice acting and audio, plus some animations are pretty cool.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

38
#38 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 32 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 32
  3. Negative: 0 out of 32
  1. LaPS4
    Nov 19, 2020
    85
    Mortal Shell offers a souls-like with a dark story, innovative gameplay, and great graphics quality that will overwhelm fans of this genre. Its short duration and its limited variety in some aspects leave you wanting to see a second chapter.
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  2. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Oct 21, 2020
    65
    You can’t help but feel that Mortal Shell is a fan-made mod for Dark Souls – however, it has accordingly low price. It also shows promise: a few more tries, and Cold Symmetry could make something really good. [Issue#248, p.34]
  3. GameCritics
    Sep 29, 2020
    70
    While there were many aspects of Mortal Shell that I didn’t care for, the bits that worked for me really worked. The final product is far from perfect and I’m not sure that I’d even recommend it to anyone except the hardest of soulslike hardcores, but beneath the underdeveloped ideas and questionable design choices is a pool of talent bound for bigger and better things — Cold Symmetry’s work shined brightest when it veered away from standard Souls, and I’m interested to see them take it further.
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