Seemed like a pretty walking sim with some light puzzle and stealth sections at first, but as soon as the devs try to introduce any real difficulty into the gameplay, the damn thing just sinks in quality. Puzzles largely stay just mediocre, but the stealth sections practically cheat, demanding clairavoyance to see enemy patterns, and to trigger their movements. I was stuck on one mermaid who would only patrol from off screen as soon as you tried to run, so you have to quick duck in and out of cover to progress, or you get caught, or just stay their waiting. And the chase sections are as trial and error as an R&D lab. Chase sections that will make you wonder what killed you for the fifteenth time as you can't see anything and don't know what's going to get thrown at you from off screen. Art and music is pretty, but the gameplay of this game drags it down so far, I can only call the quality abyssally abyssmal. After the annoying giant fish chase scene, I thought I was at the end of the game, only to realize that was just the end of another chapter, and I was just done. Any good ideas wore out their welcome long before the game itself ends, and the problems just got worse and worse.
The one thing that most stuck out to me was that after almost every boss I beat, I almost felt compused to say. "that was annoying". And that's pretty much my experience with this game. I beat all the bosses plus the secret end boss for beating all the other bosses, and I can only leave this game with a sense of relief that it's done. For this puzzle boss rush game, I have four major complaints: Some of the bosses just depend on rng to get them in the right position for a kill, which leads to you either waiting and running for your life, trying to stay alive long enough to get the kill shot in, or just getting it seconds after the boss fight starts because it creates an early opening. This leads to a feeling of artificial difficulty as you have little to no control as to creating an opening to attack, and limited ability to predict it. The dodge and sprint button are the same. for some fast paced bosses where snap reaction and speed is key, it's an unnecessary limitation to link sprinting with dodging. you can't start running without dodging first, and you can't dodge again for a split second or two. So if you need some more run speed to get away from a boss or its attack, but something happens that requires a dodge to evade, you are out of luck as that precious moment of time you can't dodge roll can mean the diffence between life and death. The final (not secret) boss. This boss is straight up BS, and was the only one that I looked up a guide to defeat, and I still couldn't discern how to beat it for a long time. It felt more like luck than skill when I finally put it down Outside of that, there's just a bunch of niggles here and there, like how climbing up stairs slows you down and you can't roll or sprint up them, or how a lot of the area in the game is just empty space that's wastes time. As a boss rush game, the puzzle element feels too simple, the action too tedious and hard for the sake of extending game time, and all else too hollow to be worth it.
The game is supposed to only be a couple hours long, so I thought, given the intro, that if this was going to just be some macabre walking simulator with some shooting elements later on, I could get some fun out of it. Then I hit chapter 2 and my god does the gameplay ruin it. You move like a geriatric guy struggling to breath after taking ten steps. Combat is just firing a short burst to stun and meleeing to conserve ammo, but they use the typical melee you see in shooters that's only really good for knocking enemies back, and it's not even good at that in this game. There's hazards everywhere, not fun hazards, but "walk too close and you die" hazards. Oh, and the story is so bare bones, the bones look skinny. I wouldn't fault minimal to non existent story telling in a game by principle, but for a game with such bare bones gameplay that's going for that pretentious"evil is in all of us" kind of plot that, when teamed with how little story there is and no characterization, comes off as trying to look deep and putting zero effort in it. I think I got this for like 3$, and even then it's not worth it. I couldn't imagine paying full price for this. Get literally any other grimdark action/survival shooter instead.
This is one of those games that far predates souls games that you can just feel was one of the inspirations for the series, if not specifically, then in essence for action titles made at the time, though this one is better played with M&K. Action is tight, and while I didn't get the default control layout at first, I got used to it pretty quick and appreciate why it is how it is. Four classes with their own stats and weapon specialties makes for different playstyles, and the movement and abilities are such a blend of free yet weighted that makes exploration and combat feel both heavy yet versatile. I do have some complaints, either of glitches or just odd mechanics. life potions except max restores can't be held, only drunk immediately, and archery aiming is off in such a way that you have to aim to the left of where you want to hit, as though the character is aiming without looking down the arrow. But then I pick up two short swords, get into a fight with an enemy, throw one sword at the guy, draw the other and finish him with a cleave to the neck that slices his head off, throw the second sword at another enemy while a third rushes me, draw my barbarian greatsword, and proceed to cut the last two to bits. I then get into a fight with an orc that has me on the ropes, it's aggressive and putting me on the defense, but I manage to but him down to low health, though it did the same to me. it then drinks a life potion, and now I have to just not get hit, cause I am close to death. So I get good at dodging fast, ducking and weaving around it's axe swings while cleaving and slashing at any opening I can until that SOB dies and the level up pops, restoring me to full health, and I felt a rush of relief and joy I rarely get from a lot of games. That feeling of a fun and dire challenge overcome. So yeah, this game is well worth it.
A nice, short platformer with a fairly unique mechanic of using a violin stick to launch yourself. Nothing much to say besides that. Nice gameplay, nice music, nice art, and a fun little story of a muscian getting the stage set up for a grand performance. Apparently the keyboard controls are janked because it was done for French keyboards and not the qwerty style in the US, but since I played with gamepad, I didn't experience this.
Started it up, watched the intro cinematic, enjoyed the comic book style story telling, liked the apocalyptic sci fi setting, thought this may be an interesting game. Then I got control of the player character. Everything went downhill with the writing then, as I couldn't stand him. I figured though if other character made up for it, it wouldn't be so bad, But he just got worse from there. The nail in the coiffin for me was the point where a woman is literally kealing over in pain, possibly dying, and he takes the time to pick up the phone to talk to his therepist, who proceeds to tell him that he needs to stop trying to save people WHILE THE WOMAN IS DYING IN THE SAME ROOM AS HIM! At that point, I figured that if this was the representation of the human race in this world, then it deserved to die out. I didn't get more than maybe 20 minutes in, but dang the characterization was so poor, I couldn't muster the will to continue. So to put simply, I hated the characters too much to continue playing.
This game was great on release, and since then, the devs have only made it better, adding refinements, quality of life improvements, and whole new content that makes this game worth playing all over again just to experience the new stuff. The combat is great, the plaforming is great, the world design and aesthetics are great, the music is great. Hardly a thing I can say poor about this title. Now what I can say poor: Spikes traps are an instant death pain a few of the enemies are a bore/annoyance to fight there's one side-quest that's long, arduous, and dull to do some ability items, I think, take a while longer to get than needed to be a fair limitation for early game restrictions. That's about it. If you love Metroidvanias, this is a must have.
The game is good. I won't say great, but good. But in a world where Blasphemous exists, this game is well and truly obsolete, and I wouldn't recommend this game in any way over Blasphemous unless monochrome is just your thing. Granted, Unworthy did come out one year earlier, and was basically made by one person, but for me, that is irrelevant. So let me just run off a list of key issues. The monochrome coloring can make seeing things distinctly difficult, especially in darker areas. Areas are all very samey, also due to the monochrome, but also because they are all just corridors with similar level design. No one place felt in any way unique single use items are barely useful considering their rarity, and item quick select only applies to a couple of items rather than them all. Story is absolutely nonsensical and lacks any kind of depth or emotional weight. Another game that tries to mimic Dark souls story telling and fails miserably. Areas, characters, bosses, lore, all devoid of substance with only flavor text lore the likes of which would be found on Dark Souls boss weapons to make up for it. Nothing much else besides. Bosses have Soulsian names, but they may as well be called "Boss". I could go on, but then I'd be going into specific nitpicks. Now, again, this game is good, but also again, not as much as Blasphemous, which is better in pretty much every way by far. I would only recommend this is you want a cheaper alternative, or just want more Blasphemous after Blasphemous. Other than that, just get Blasphemous. The lacking of a jump function doesn't mean much but less expedient exploration, and the core gameplay is typical action focused Metroidvania that other games do with greater depth and nuance. I would have given this game three stars, but I hit a softlock too where the teleportation bow power wouldn't work for no reason and I couldn't fix it, so I couldn't complete the game properly. Could still beat it, but missed out on whole areas as a result.
I won't bother going into detail with the things that makes Mortal Shell like Souls-like other than saying it has solid, visceral combat, good enemies and bosses, and a grimdark world that makes for a great atmosphere. I mostly want to point out the differences that I think Fromsoft should be taking notes from. Weapons: Quality over quantity. Like Bloodborne, Mortal Shell doesn't have a dozen of the same type of weapon with slight differences in stats and appearance, they're four different tools of murder that each offer their own unique way to play, and their own style. I think they should have added a couple more weapons, 2 or 3, and then, for the game's length, it would be fine, but otherwise I enjoy their approach to it. Also like how they give hints as to where the weapons are, and allow the player to access to all of them from the start without gating them off with linear progress, thus allowing you to obtain their weapon of choice quickly. A far superior method to Bloodborne's. Hardening: Tactical defense, not simple turtling like Dark Souls, but not defenseless like Bloodborne, and allowing for a nice added degree of consideration to how you dodge and defend. Timing your harden and choosing what position you want to be in when you do is a unique was of giving the player a means of invincibility that I don't think I've seen before. Shells and leveling: Another case of quality over quantity, and giving the player a versatile and flexible form of class system that Souls' games never have. Each shell has their own strengths and weaknesses, and leveling tree's that further defines them from one another, as well as their own stories behind them that make for entertaining delves into the world's lore. I also like how you can switch mid exploration to different shells with limited items, making doing so an option, but not an abusable one. Only major problem I have so far is the parrying, which I think should work more like Sekiro than Bloodborne as it does now.
Alright, the game itself is quite good. It's a walking simulator with, a necessity for the genre, good writing and engaging characters, as well as some really organic performances by the voice actors, and a beautiful , though somewhat constricted environment to explore. My only main gripe in terms of the quality of the content itself is the ending, which, not to spoil, while not bad, not as good or fulfilling as the story builds it up to be. It creates the suspense of a great mystery, but comes up underwhelming compared to a proper conspiracy thriller it could potentially be. The reason I say buyer beware and to get it on sale, however, is due to the games length and bugginess. I got what is, after looking it up, one of many common glitches that renders the game unplayable, and was only able to fix it by reinstalling the game. Restarting the game, deleting saves. None of it worked, so bare in mind this game may require some work to get working properly if it fouls up. As for length, I finished it in an afternoon, but I got it for 6$, so it was worth it for me considering quality of writing, but I would not recommend this game at full price unless walking simulators are your cocaine and you need a fix. as a whole though, this is a good installment for the walking simulator genre, and a definite buy for those who enjoy it.
