Mortal Shell

This game is way too hard. It makes sense that the average gametime is so short.

The game has great potential but: - Too many trash mobs - You don’t really know what you’re supposed to do, so you just end up randomly killing everything you see - The bosses aren’t memorable—I honestly don’t even remember any of the ones I defeated - No healing potions, and you can’t craft them; the only way to heal is by waiting for some weird mushrooms to respawn On the positive side: + I really like the mechanic where corpses change the player's stats + The banjo adds a nice touch Good potential, but it’s hampered by too many trash mobs and a lack of clear objectives.

Slow, steady and methodical combat along with charming landscapes. Lovely game although a bit short - I played it through over a few weekends.

Is it good? Yes. Is it great? Eh. Is it worth a play? If you're into the genre, I'd say so. Personally, I still maintain that the original Dark Souls is still the best of the trilogy because of its world design. The labyrinth that is Lordran really does start to feel like home after a while. You recognize landmarks, learn shortcuts, etc. Frankly I could probably give someone directions around the game over the phone with nothing to go off of but their description of where they are. Nothing in this game even approaches that. Just feels like mostly linear levels connected to a hub. No interconnectedness to any of it. What about combat? Well Sekiro was my favorite in that department (only played a bit of BB so I can't compare there, seriously though Sony give us a PC version please). Sekrio felt tight and responsive. If I died, it was because I did something wrong. Well, this game can't really compete with that either. The combat feels... serviceable. But it doesn't feel great. Parrying feels like it just doesn't work sometimes, the game does an awful job of communicating when proper parry timing should be, to the point where I often don't know if I messed up a parry, or the game did. Frankly I've started ignoring it entirely, it's not worth the damage you'll take if it doesn't register, especially when the game isn't doing a good job of telling me what I'm doing wrong. The harden mechanic is neat though. Overall, I don't think there's any aspect of the game that manages to be better than FromSoft's work. Generally speaking I'd say they make better complete packages too. But this isn't a bad game. It's fine. It's just in the unavoidable position of being compared to them. I don't regret buying it. I just don't feel compelled to keep playing it. Out of the other non-FromSoft souls-like games I've played, LotF, The Surge, etc. it's the one that's held my attention longest. And kudos for releasing it on GOG, that's something FromSoft hasn't done yet. Much appreciated.

-you cant cancel your auto attacks -no free healing at every bondfire reset