‘Mortal Shell 2’ Is What Soulslikes Should Be

Mortal Shell 2 is Cold Symmetry and Playstack’s brand-new standalone sequel to its epic and unique gothic Soulslike Mortal Shell. The sequel builds on the first game by adding new gameplay elements, enhancing old ones, and introducing fantastic features that make it significantly more engaging than its predecessor, despite a few flaws.

In Mortal Shell 2, players control the Harbinger, a mysterious being and servant of the even stranger, highly revered godlike entity known as the Undermether. She tasks the Harbinger with reclaiming several Ova of the Undermether, which are basically her precious eggs that hold mysterious powers.

The Harbinger also encounters and inhabits several Shells, which serve as classes that are skins of fallen warriors, rogues, royals, and more, that strengthen them for the several challenges and fights the journey demands. Several details of the game’s narrative are left to the player’s imagination.

Gameplay is definitely the highlight and main appeal of Mortal Shell 2.

Many elements such as who the mysterious Undermether is, why she has a religious occultist group worshipping her, what the Ovum are for, what exactly the Harbinger is bringing, and many more are left vague and unexplained. However, as players progress through the story, many of these details are subtly explained, and many more are revealed through environmental storytelling and notes left behind by the dead. Additionally, each Shell the Harbinger inhabits has a tale of its own, explaining the warrior’s legacy, how they died, and even their personality.

These moments show a clear narrative superiority over the first game, revealing more about the world and Shells in an interesting, engaging way. However, the narrative still feels like an afterthought to gameplay, which makes sense given the genre, but storytelling is sparse, and cutscenes and moments of narrative development are few and far between. Additionally, many of the mysterious elements are barely explained, and when they eventually are, it’s after interest has already waned later in the game.

Narrative aside, gameplay is definitely the highlight and main appeal of Mortal Shell 2. The gameplay is enhanced in several ways while keeping the series’ core appeal. Players fight enemies in third-person combat with several weapons and Shells. Once they take enough damage, they will lose their Shells but can still stay in the fight at the price of being vulnerable to more damage from enemy attacks. To regain their Shells, players will need to fill a dedicated meter by dealing damage while without a Shell or return to a nearby Beacon, which serves as a respawn and upgrade point in the game.

Shells offer upgradable buffs and gameplay tradeoffs across Mortal Shell 2.

Players will encounter several types of Shells on their quest, each more different from the last and having unique skills and abilities. The game offers a base of eight shells. They include Eredrim the Venerable, a returning Shell from the first game that sports high offensive melee skills; Tiel the Acolyte, a stealth-oriented Shell that has Poison and invisibility skills; and Proxima the Broodseeker, a female knight-like Shell that has a grappling hook that can be used on enemies and has damage mitigation abilities.

Each Shell, including the Harbinger’s natural form, can be upgraded, and their base abilities can be enhanced. Players can also pick up Seals, which grant them additional abilities. These include Harden, a skill from the previous game that lets players tank hits without taking damage for a short period, as well as Seals that improve parry timings, make blocking easier, and even one that makes the entire game easier.

Seals work similarly to rings or talismans from FromSoft games, and provide several types of buffs and gameplay tradeoffs. They’re all great in different ways, and taking the time to find them is always rewarding. Players will also encounter several types of weapons, from basic longswords, heavy swords, great axes, and more, to special and unique weapons like the Lute, which has a sonic wave-blast attack that is fun to use.

Combat is immensely fun, cool, and satisfying.

What’s more, the game has no stamina bar, but it has a posture bar that fills up when you take damage. However, enemies and bosses also have this bar, so players can get the upper hand in combat by perfect blocking, parrying, and dealing significant damage. Additionally, like the first game, Mortal Shell 2 includes the Resolve Meter. This meter fills up automatically as players land melee attacks or successfully parry incoming attacks. Resolve can then be used to power ranged weapons and firearms, trigger special Shell abilities, and activate unique weapon upgrades.

Combat in general is immensely fun, cool, and satisfying. While each Shell’s mobility differs, overall movement is faster and more fluid than in the previous title. Players get more visual and audio feedback, and melee and ranged attacks have significantly more impact behind them.

Dodging attacks feels less stiff, and executing parries feels amazing, mainly due to the new and varied finisher critical strike animations from parries and perfect guards. The animations not only look cool but are also intricate, especially the gory dismemberments that are striking in all the best ways and add to the game’s cool factor.

Each boss has unique designs and move sets.

Speaking of cool, boss fights are some of the major highlights of the game. Each boss provides explosive yet tactical combat, offering unique challenges and visual spectacles from towering golems and men with explosive cannons to ugly eldritch and cosmic beings.

Each boss has unique designs and move sets, and they’re all fun to fight in different ways. Outside boss fights, the game also includes some very peculiar moments and scenes that will have you question what is going on, but in the most hilarious ways. From weird bosses that turn you into sheep to NPCs that want to wash your feet with milk.

The game also features excellent visuals. Environments are similar to the first game but have more variety and denser biomes. The art direction is stellar and perfectly displays the game’s gothic aesthetic through many strange items, corpses, and structures players can find in each level. Shell and enemy designs are also intricate in distinct ways.

Mortal Shell 2 is an improvement on the original in almost every way.

Mortal Shell 2‘s soundtrack is another one of its amazing attributes. The game features several cool heavy metal tracks as well as background tracks that match the solemn, melancholic atmosphere the game sometimes has.

All that said, Mortal Shell 2, while great, also has several underwhelming aspects and drawbacks. For one, enemies sometimes pile up on players and can one-shot them if they aren’t careful, as some grunt enemies oddly have more strength than others. Additionally, while the sequel’s world feels more lived-in than the original, many parts still feel barren and dull. Finally, the game has many performance issues on PC, including glitches and occasional crashes, but subsequent updates have mostly fixed them.

All in all, Mortal Shell 2 is an improvement on the original in almost every way. Despite some flaws, it offers great gameplay elements, impeccable and striking visuals, fantastic combat, and more. As a result, it cements itself as one of the best Soulslikes of the year.

Mortal Shell 2 is available now for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.