Mortal Shell

Mortal Shell learned a lot of the right lessons from the games that inspired it: chunky combat, spacing, stamina management, tone, atmosphere, design. Sadly there are a number of fairly glaring flaws that make this recommendation a tepid one. I'd say this game is really only for die-hard fans. Like I said, the tone is great. The Falgrim swamps are really spooky, and are cloaked in a thick mist that is both unnerving and hides the frankly glaring pop-in problem. It is almost entirely populated by one or two enemy types, though. And unlike other games in the genre, it lacks a lot of landmarks and alternate routes that make navigation less of a chore. "Where is that fallen tree," you'll ask yourself, in a forest of copy-pasted fallen trees. The combat is heavy and deliberate. Sure, it's a blatant copy of better games, but it's a good copy. The biggest problem with it is the terrible AI. Some enemies literally will walk off cliffs to their death right in front of you. It's quite easy to cheese your way through the game just by poking with the starting sword and rolling away. There are a lot of archers in the game, which are possibly the hardest enemies to deal with due to your severely limited ranged options. Speaking of options: you don't have many. You've got 4 characters in the base game, 5 with the DLC (who is basically a random hodgepodge of the other 4). If you don't like their premade stat allotment, tough cookies. There's no way to increase the tank's energy bar to anything less anemic. It's the same story with the weapons: 4 in the base, 5 in the DLC (which isn't a copy this time). All you can upgrade is the damage in a linear fashion. The DLC, while good, is not everyone's cup of tea. It's a roguelite mode, which is surprisingly compelling if you like that sort of thing. If not, the extra weapon might be nice, but that's all you're really getting. The performance isn't great, the last boss is cheap, and the dark sections are lazy, especially the last one.

At first i was not sure if i will like it as i was never a fan of souls-like games. I played Dark Souls 2 and Lords of the Fallen previously and neither of it clicked for me in terms of gameplay but i liked the atmosphere in both of the games and that similar atmosphere drawn me to Mortal Shell. It appeared to be a great decision to try it. I really liked the pacing of the combat, the reasonable difficuilty (which may seem a bit hard at the beginning but gets easier as you master the rhythm of the fights and upgrade the shells and weapons), the design of the characters and maps. Voiceacting of the Shells which you can hear while unlocking their skills is great . Music is also great, it totally fits the dark and gloomy surroundings plus you can switch to Rotting Christ songs during bossfights if you need something more energizing;) I really loved the game and I'm hoping for a sequel. The only thing that bothered me was that i couldn't unlock any achievement on GOG, not sure why it doesn't work.

great graphics but for me unplayable because way too difficult

Mortal Shell is clearly strongly inspired by Dark Souls, and the devs have no problem admitting it. After all why shouldn't you get inspired by a timeless classic to make a new game. It's nowhere near as difficult as Sekiro and with the invincibily mechanic more accessible than Dark Souls. I'd put it similar to Elden Ring in difficulty, maybe a little easier. But to make this very clear, Mortal Shell is by no means an easy game, and the difficulty is by design part of the game's identity. The setting is a little too "edgy" for my taste. Everything is really abstract and very grim and dark and obscure. But then again, that is up to taste and the core of the game is clearly the gameplay. Combat is extremly solid, no frame lags, very little bugs or glitches, no input delay, no bad animations. Everything works exactly as intended, moments where you die because of the game and not your own fault are rare. 9/10 for the genre. The "Shell" mechanic is pretty cool, the upgrade system is basic, but it works. The story and lore are weird and unclear, again too obscure and weird for the sake of weird for my taste, but then, that's just personal preference. The game looks pretty good, not like a AAA game, but still, pretty good. The enemy variety is not that high and the game is not very long at ~15 hours, but the game has no low points or downtime and no boring or frustrating enemy types. All in all, if you're a fan of Souls-like games, you should consider giving this game a chance.

My first souls-like in years, but once I got past the first few hours it was immensely fun. Great story, gameplay, and design. Just wish NG+ scaled slower, rather than immediately doubling enemy stats at the first restart.