Mortal Shell Review (PlayStation 4)

by Jim Smale · August 19, 2020

Mortal Shell is a deep action-RPG that tests your sanity and resilience in a shattered world. Your adversaries spare no mercy, with survival demanding superior awareness and precision. Possess lost warriors, discover hidden sanctums, and face formidable foes.

Pros:

Gorgeous graphics.
7.67gb download size.
Platinum trophy.
HDR support.
Visual effects-motion blur, film grain, and indie mode (pixelates the game).
Invert axis and sensitivity sliders.
Damage numbers-on/off.
3 save slots.
Action RPG gameplay.
Dark Souls-like.
Enemy health bars-always/upon hit/never.
Shells- you take on the person, you get more health.
Stamina based system for running, dodging, and attacks.
Harden-instead of block you can harden for a short time, you can combine harden with attacks. When in harden the enemy will stagger if they hit you.
Death-you drop everything but have one life to reclaim it.
Shells-each one is different but another cool trick they have is, when taking lethal damage, instead of dying you get ejected from the suit and have a small window of the enemy being frozen to getaway. Or grab the suit again whatevs. Only X amount of uses so use it wisely.
Difficult.
A dark grimy yet beautiful world to explore.
Play how you want, the world is open enough that you can choose a path of your own.
Learn enemy patterns is key.
Familiarity-everything you pickup or can use is unknown until you use it a certain amount of times, then it is revealed to you.
Lore is scattered throughout the world.
Anvil-find unique parts and embue it to your weapon to increase its damage.
Shells-you find out the shell’s name and unlock its own unique skill tree using tar and glimpses to unlock them.
Tar and glimpses-currency for the world.
Enemies can drop random loot.
Picking mushrooms (healing item) will cause a spawn ring to appear around it so you know when it will respawn.
Secret routes and shortcuts to find.
Cinematic camera angles when triggering certain events or finding particular doors or items.
Big boss battles.
Gruesome combat animations.
Jump scares aplenty.
Can swap weapons mid-combo.

Cons:

Long loading times especially noticeable after death.
Loading between areas.
Difficult.
Got stuck on scenery a few times.
Not sure what to do sometimes.

9/10
Graphics - 9/10
9/10
Sound - 9/10
8/10
Accessibility - 8/10
8/10
Length - 8/10
9/10
Fun Factor - 9/10

8.6/10

Summary

Mortal Sheel is a game that comes across as just another Dark Souls attempt, to be honest, that is doing the game a huge disservice as Mortal Shell is taking from Dark Souls but it innovates and pushes the genre even further than any Dark Souls game has. The shells mechanic means you can play as a completely different character every time, the ability to swap weapons so fast means combat has many many options to it. The way you can get knocked from a suit but get back in is like a second life mechanic that works. Combat is the name of the game however and it is really tough, they up the ante but having more enemies in encounters, enemies love hiding and jumping out on you, it makes the game a lot harder and adds so much tension and stress I love it. Boss battles are huge encounters and again teaches you the way of learning your enemies’ pattern and countering. The world is one of those that is disgusting and you so dark and damp you can almost smell it, but you love it you love the detail of it all and how unique every area feels. Mortal Shell is the best game that I suck at! I loved just exploring the world and making my way slowly through each encounter, I didn’t like the boss fights but I don’t like them generally so any shocker there. For me, Mortal Shell takes from Dark Souls and Bloodborne but still innovates the game genre to the next level and sets a new bar. Prepare yourself, this one is gonna be tough!