Didn’t like the first Mortal Shell. Definitely recommend this one.
Combat actually moves now. Hardening isn’t the default block anymore — it’s a Seal you choose (out of many) — and they yanked stamina off actions entirely. Fights are faster, meaner, and way less of a slog. Shells finally feel like different playstyles instead of reskins, and weapons have enough options that breaking the game is half the point. If you like Soulslikes that let you go full power-fantasy, this is one worth your time. You do not need the first game unless you want to hunt for lore.
Visuals and sounds the part. Dark, gritty, a little washed-out on purpose. Some people will call it bland; I think that’s the aesthetic doing its job, and the audio really enhances the mood. The visuals are so good, the real crime: no photo mode! The whole game aesthetic is built for one. This is one thing that would keep me playing longer after completing it to run around looking for great shots.
What’s weaker: most bosses. A few fights have real presentation and flow. But a lot of them feel like “what if we just… did this” and then you never think about them again. This is critical, as this genre is defined by their bosses. Enemy roster also repeats itself quite a bit — you’ll know the whole cast by about the midpoint. The difficulty spikes in certain parts of the game that can be frustrating, but can be over come with patients or fine tuning your build. For the love of all this is good, give me agency of the camera during animations, these stone crab enemy animations are a nightmare that will take over your camera. And the decision to map sprint and interact to the same button to open doors, pickups, and NPC dialogue...this is down right diabolical.
Story is the usual genre template: world’s ending, you’re the chosen one, go fix it. Cool setup, but no real weight. It has The environment in spades, and some cool characters, but you never feel as if any of it really matters. Being this is also a shorter game — about 30-40 hours to finish, (took me 50 to 100% it) so there’s just less story to tell, less lore to dig up, and fewer things to do than something like Elden Ring (~80). It is why I believe the narrative never gets room to expand the story out fully in its open world setting whereas if it was a linear experience 40 hours would easily be enough. What seems would enhance this style is having its open world but once you are entering the area bosses level, make it a more linear environment, adding a more thematic experience for the player, then upon completion of that boss back to the open world, rinse, repeat.
Launch was messy for quite a few people (crashes, silly bugs). What I hit was minor, not game-breaking. Optimization still isn’t perfect, but it runs solid enough. This seems to be industry standard, as most games seem to release half baked.
[u] After the updates [/u] : Devs took notice. Spawn points, resources, weapon balance, bugs, performance — a small team turning that around this fast is rare. This game feels much better after this patch as I have all the resources I need to build out my shells and play around with different concepts.
The game feels like it found its stride: dark-fantasy Soulslike that isn’t afraid to have a sense of humor.
Cold Symmetry earned a sequel. I’d gladly play another.
Review Score:
Gameplay: 8/10
Story: 6/10
Visuals: 9/10
Audio: 8/10
