Mortal Shell Review PC

Mortal Shell is a Dark Souls inspired game. It is very difficult, you die undeniably often, but the satisfaction is so great when you get something. If you like Sekiro and Dark Souls then this is the game for you.

The story This is going to be a bit difficult because the story is very difficult to understand in Mortal shell. The bottom line is that you wake up in a dungeon, without a shell, which means you are more or less naked. You end up with a sword and a shell, a kind of shield, and then you are sent into Fallgrim. You must find three chalices and return them to the Unchained. But how and what, and why, none of that is explained. Using small memos, the background of your character is explained a bit here and there, but not clear and concrete enough to really understand a story about it. We let the developers tell us that they did this on purpose so that fans will come up with their own theories.

The gameplay Now comes Mortal Shell's showpiece. The gameplay is as follows, you encounter an enemy in your path, you want to attack him but you only have limited stamina. So you cannot mash button, on top of that you only have a limited block. Because in Mortal Shell you block by hardening your body. However, you can only do this every few seconds. So it is very important to be strategic. Usually it works to do one attack, 2 light punches, then roll away again, return stamina, and attack again. Simply going in full does not work in Mortal Shell. In addition to your usual attacks, there is also the option to parry. The parry gives you tons of power when it succeeds, and also launches special magical powers. There is one parry that gives you health, another causes you to create an explosion, and another that slows down your time. The parry is extremely strong, but also extremely risky. Because the timing on the parry is very difficult and differs per enemy. If you miss your parry, you will get a lot of damage. And usually you can't recover from it. Mortal Shell is so merciless that if you die, you have to start all over again a very, very far way back. So you really want to proceed with caution. Especially in your first playthrough.

The conclusion Mortal Shell is a really good game. It has a very dark character, with a world full of mystery. And where you are actually afraid to continue playing because you do not want to meet someone who can ensure that you have to go all the way back to your last save point. It has amazingly beautiful levels and beautiful boss fights. The different types of weapons are limited but they are very different and balanced. The only downside to Mortal Shell is that it is short lived. The game can be completed in 6 hours. Depending on how good you are, of course. But it is telling that this is of course the only downside. The game is very well built and made by a small team of 16 people, this of course makes it even more impressive.