Mortal Shell 2 Review

The Short Version

Mortal Shell 2 is a really good Soulslike that sticks to the formula we’re all familiar with, but does enough to stand on its own. As an avid Soulslike fan I found it hard to put the controller down and that in itself is probably the highest praise I can give a game.

That doesn’t mean it’s perfect. Mortal Shell 2 has a few frustrating flaws, and I’ll get into those later in this review.

Overall, it’s a great sequel to the original Mortal Shell, which always felt more like a vision than a fully fledged game. Mortal Shell 2 finally feels like the game the developers wanted to make from the beginning.

Gameplay and Combat

Combat was the highlight of Mortal Shell 2 for me. The weapons felt weighty and hit with a purpose. I didn’t get to try every weapon, but the ones I did use felt really good to play with. Fresh out of my first playthrough, my biggest gripe with the combat is how overtuned some enemies feel compared to others, particularly when it comes to their special abilities.

The game gives you a few different options when it comes to defending yourself. You can stick with the trademark Harden ability from the first game, or fire up your inner Sekiro and go full-on parry. Which route you take depends on the Seal you equip.

There are two parry-focused Seals. One gives you a generous parry window at the cost of lower stagger, while the other gives you a tighter window but rewards you with more stagger. Overall, parrying felt pretty good once I got the hang of it.

One thing that stood out to me was the complete removal of the traditional stamina bar. Instead, Mortal Shell 2 uses a resource called Resolve. Resolve is what you use for your abilities and side weapon.

The side weapon is a great addition and became one of my favorite tools in combat, whether I was using it to take out a minor enemy or desperately trying to finish off a boss when I had nothing left to give. I hope other developers take notice of it, because using it at just the right moment was incredibly satisfying.

The class system is quite unique. Instead of choosing a traditional class, you inhabit a “Shell,” which is basically a corpse in some cool armor. There are eight playable Shells, each with their own abilities and talent trees. Since my gaming time is limited, I only got to try a few of them before settling on the Shell I eventually finished the game with.

The Shell I went with was Proxima, who served me well throughout the game. If you know, you know.

The World and Exploration

In Mortal Shell 2, we explore the gritty world of Fallgrim, a place where everything is in ruins, everything wants you dead, and of course, there’s the mandatory swamp area. The world is packed with enemies, and in some areas I would argue that it’s a little too densely populated.

The world also has a pacing problem, particularly when it comes to checkpoints. During the first half of the game, they felt evenly spread throughout each area, but in the latter stages they became few and far between. Some of the distances between checkpoints were simply too long for my liking.

Exploration was quite fun, though never overly complicated. There were some areas you had to work to find, but overall it was fairly streamlined. Fallgrim feels good to explore, and I thought the interconnected areas were well designed.

With all that being said, I really enjoyed my time in Fallgrim, or at least as much as you can enjoy a world that’s in ruins and thoroughly depressing.

Bosses & Difficulty

Mortal Shell 2 throws plenty of bosses in your face, ranging from major campaign encounters to optional and hidden fights.

I’ll start with the positives. The visual design of most of the bosses is fantastic, and the art direction is really good in my opinion. I had a good time fighting many of them, and they gave me a fair and challenging fight, for the most part.

On the other hand, in the later areas of the game, I felt some bosses went from being fair and challenging to simply becoming damage sponges, and in some cases they overstayed their welcome. What annoyed me wasn’t necessarily the large health pools, but rather the shallow move-sets and occasional cheap attacks that could absolutely obliterate you.

I was also a little disappointed with the final few bosses. They needed more flair and spectacle, and I never really got the feeling that I was fighting the major bosses of the game.

Presentation & Performance

So let’s talk a little about the graphics. I’ve played quite a few games over the years, and I think it’s fair to say developers are getting better and better with Unreal Engine 5. My only worry for the future is that many of these games are starting to look a little samey, but I could spend a whole article talking about that.

Mortal Shell 2 certainly has that familiar Unreal Engine 5 look, but it’s still a really good-looking game.

Overall, the sound design, creative direction and graphics are all well done, and I didn’t stumble upon any major bugs during my 30 hours with the game.

On PC, performance was solid throughout my playthrough. With an RTX 4070 Ti Super and i5-14600KF, I played at 1440p using a mixture of medium and high settings, with the game comfortably sitting around my 165 FPS cap.

Is Mortal Shell 2 for You?

If you like Soulslike games like me, Mortal Shell 2 is a must-play. Not because it’s the best game in the world, but because it has most of the elements I look for in a good Soulslike.

With a few more patches and some balancing, I think it could become an even better game, and I’m looking forward to seeing what this studio does next.

At a starting price of $49.99, I think it’s well worth it for the roughly 30 hours I spent with the game, although I wouldn’t blame you for waiting for a discount.

Second Phase Verdict

7.5 / 10

A really good Soulslike with satisfying combat and some great ideas, held back by an uneven latter half.

_{Images used in the article are courtesy of Cold Symmetry / Playstack.}