Mortal Shell 2 Review: Fresh Souls-like Take — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:02] seem like your standard run-of-the-mill Souls-like, quite possibly too derivative for its own good. Yet, developer Cold Symmetry's standalone sequel is more than just a safe copycat. It manages to stand out in an

[00:15] overcrowded genre by taking familiar aspects and transforming them in a aspects and transforming them in a multitude of meaningful ways.

[00:29] essentially deconstructs elements of the Souls-like experience to make them feel fresh and exciting, making it constantly thrilling. The most immediately obvious idea is the absence of a stamina meter. You're free to attack and dodge as many

[00:45] times as you want without needing to stop and wait for a meter to replenish. This gives Mortal Shell 2's combat an aggressive cadence. Rather than backing off after avoiding a flurry of enemy attacks, you can instantly launch into a

[00:59] barrage of offensive strikes or carve through weaker enemy mobs without gasping for air halfway through. This doesn't mean it's a mindless hack and slash either. You can't cancel out of any attack animations, so each forward

[01:13] strike needs to be deliberate and considered to avoid over committing and leaving yourself wide open, especially when using slower weapons.

[01:26] dynamic difference and is one of the most notable ways Mortal Shell 2 improves upon its predecessor's combat. It's still not particularly fast-paced by any stretch, but the combat animations are much snappier without

[01:40] losing a sense of weight and visceral brutality. Stabbing, slicing, and bashing enemies to death with various melee weapons is meaty, creating a satisfying crunch as you cleave through flesh and lop off heads, limbs, and

[01:55] non-human body parts amidst torrent of crimson rain. It's great stuff bolstered by a diverse variety of weapons and enemy types. From a large scythe and rangy spear to dual katanas that transform into an axe, each weapon type

[02:11] feels distinct and there's plenty of joy to be found alternating between light and heavy attacks to fluidly launch into different combos. I only wish it were feasible to experiment with more weapons as it's awesome is gradually uncovered.

[02:27] By the midway point in the game, I was drowning in upgrade materials but only ever had enough money to fully upgrade a single weapon. It would have been nice to use some of the others beyond just testing them out but trading a weapon

[02:40] with multiple upgrades for one without any never made much sense when I was never going to be able to improve it as much.

[02:53] starting out with a short-range shotgun before moving on to more experimental armaments such as a miniature Gatling gun and a loot that causes enemies to fight amongst themselves after a forceful strum. The enemies you'll face

[03:07] come in all shapes and sizes but this variety does plateau a tad during the game's second half as it introduces more variants of familiar enemies rather than entirely new ones. But there are so many different opponents to fight that

[03:23] repetition rarely rears its ugly head and each enemy type is typically mixing things up with multiple attack patterns and faints to throw you off. Mortal Shell 2 also gives you access to a few unique defensive maneuvers. The harden

[03:39] mechanic from the first game returns letting you calcify to absorb an enemy's attack. Only now it's tied to a specific seal. Seals are new [music] items in Mortal Shell 2. You can only equip one at a time, and each one contains what

[03:54] would normally be a standard Souls-like mechanic. Blocking, for instance, is tied to a seal that also lets you parry, dealing break damage to enemies, eventually making them vulnerable to a powerful riposte. Another seal removes

[04:08] the ability to block, but tightens the parry window for more break damage if your timing is perfect. This opens up the game's build variety, especially when combined with the titular Mortal Shells. Similar to the first game, you

[04:23] play as a faceless husk known as the Harbinger, a relatively weak entity that has the power to inhabit fallen warriors. There are eight shells in total, and every shell adheres to a rigid character archetype with

[04:36] predetermined stats that can be upgraded, but not changed. This might sound restrictive, but it allows for tangible differences in how each shell plays, with variety coming from its abilities and your choice of weapons,

[04:51] seals, and tar stones. I mostly played as Eredrim, a knight with the ability to lunge at enemies with a devastating shoulder bash that deals significant break damage. He also has a passive ability, aptly named Executioner,

[05:05] allowing you to instantly execute enemies who are at low health. By performing ripostes, this ability also stacks, with each stack raising the low health threshold at which enemies can be executed. If you like playing on the

[05:19] front foot, Eredrim is particularly satisfying to use, but the other shells are no less interesting. Tiel, for example, is a thief who can turn invisible for a short duration, lunging out of the shadows to strike with a

[05:35] dagger. Tiel excels as a nimble character, with perfectly timed dodges turning you invisible and dealing stagger damage to the enemy. Sarcriel, on the other hand, fires [music] parasitic thorns that hunt down nearby

[05:49] foes, nullifying their next melee attack while also inflicting pain on Sariel himself. Pain affects your health bar, adding a gray portion that can be lost in a single hit or cured by dishing out melee damage. When Sariel has no pain, a

[06:05] melee damage. When Sariel has no pain, a huge 50% of incoming damage becomes pain. However, reaching the pain limit lets you dodge faster, putting you in the role of a masochistic character who excels when it hurts the most. Tar

[06:19] stones added another layer to the development of your build, unlocking everything from specific buffs to powerful special attacks. They can be found by exploring the world, completing dungeons, and defeating bosses. With

[06:33] each tar stone fully maxed out and upgraded, I increased my critical damage by 100%, raised my critical chance probability by 18%, and was guaranteed a

[06:45] critical hit every five attacks. It's an incredibly flexible system, creating a greater discrepancy between the usual strength or dexterity options, and ensuring that build variety remains at the forefront of the game's ethos. For

[07:01] the most part, Mortal Shell 2 is a challenging game, but one that hits the Souls-like sweet spot where it rarely feels unfair. There are a couple of difficulty modifiers you can utilize as well with a specific seal making things

[07:15] easier at the cost of disabling achievements, and another item that lets you increase the difficulty while also opening up a few areas that are otherwise locked. The fact that this isn't just a binary difficulty choice

[07:29] fits the genre. Though disabling achievements feels egregious, even if most of its contemporaries refuse to offer an easier alternative.

[07:44] saddled with a few caveats, too. While it mostly feels fair, falling to your death is common. The entire open world map is suspended in the air, so there are numerous areas where you can slip off, particularly when a lot of attacks

[08:00] will knock you several feet backwards. There was still dozens of situations where toppling off the side of a cliff felt cheap and frustrating. Dying more to fall damage than the game's own bosses is a travesty. This is partly due

[08:14] to the game's level design and partly because some of the bosses are overly simplistic in their attack patterns. It's a problem that afflicts mini bosses more frequently than the game's headline foes, but it also doesn't help the basic

[08:29] parry window is exceedingly generous. When you're fighting regular enemies and typically dealing with more than one, this isn't much of an issue. It's just much more prominent when facing a mini boss that's too predictable to be

[08:43] boss that's too predictable to be compelling. fascinating place to explore. It's not as expansive as something like Elden

[08:57] Ring's The Lands Between, but it's densely packed. Each area feels like a dedicated level from a more linear game, except they're all interconnected with more than one way in and out. Its castles and murky swamps can feel a tad

[09:13] derivative, but there are typically more than a few visual flourishes that stand than a few visual flourishes that stand out in even the most familiar locales. There's an abbey where the colors are muted to the point of looking almost

[09:26] monochrome. Yet, the red leaves wrapping around its cold stone walls create this striking burst of color. Elsewhere, you'll find unsettling human teeth carved into cave walls, monolithic structures that punctuate the horizon,

[09:41] and what was once picturesque village now plagued by rabid cultists. Material rewards are available for those who deign to explore, but the sites themselves are often a reward of their own. Mortal Shell 2 constantly surprised

[09:57] me. Whether it was the mechanics behind a newly discovered shell, the layered improvements to combat, a bulbous monstrosity of a boss fight that was more mouth than anything else, how the beacons you rest at also contained

[10:10] dungeons, or the ways you can tinker with a build and make it wholly your own. It stumbles at times and could use some fine-tuning to really hone its balance issues, but even if it can be irritating or too easy at times, these

[10:25] moments are overshadowed by its unmistakable strengths.