Whereas some games wear their Dark Souls inspiration on their sleeve, Mortal Shell fashions its entire suit out of From Software's fabric. Most of the series' staples are here: a grim fantasy world, trigger-focused control scheme, laborious combat, corpse runs, bosses with esoteric names, experience that doubles as currency, lore through item descriptions, et cetera, et cetera. But to Mortal Shell's credit, it applies some creative twists to the well-worn genre, generating new mechanics in the process. It's a neat and ambitious game... that unfortunately feels like an unbalanced tech demo in the end.
Surprisingly, Mortal Shell offers that rare introductory Souls experience that few games nowadays provide, where the opening hours feel like bullshit. You're given no direction, no estus flasks, and a forest littered with nasties that want you dead. As if that wasn't bad enough, Mortal Shell doesn't even offer a class, weapon, or item selection at its start—nor are you able to level your stats! It's like being dumped naked into 1-1 of Demon's Souls armed with only a longsword, and the best moon grass you can find is half as effective as the crescent variety. But you better learn to love that eighth moon grass because it's the best healing you'll find for the entire game.
You're not left entirely defenseless however, as Mortal Shell provides an new way to shield: hardening. By holding LT you can innately block any type of attack, transforming your flesh into an impenetrable statue à la the tanooki suit. This ability is also on an extremely generous cool down, allowing you to counter every other combo made by your opponent. It's a bit tricky learning to rely on it as a Souls vet, since it's best used in the middle of an attack animation to avoid interruption. Plus your impulse will likely be to mash roll or parry—both of which can be done here in addition to hardening. It's a cool mechanic though, and is super gratifying to pull off in the nick of time.
Another unique aspect about Mortal Shell I liked were the titular shells. While you can't choose what build you start as, there are three inhabitable bodies you can stumble upon out in the wild: one with high health, one with high stamina, and one that offers a compromise between the two. You may not be able to level these husks in a tradition sense but you can still dump your souls tar into their individualized skill trees wheels. Though I found the wheels to be underwhelming (a 5% resistance buff upon taking damage... hooray...), it was an interesting way to portray character growth beyond the trite "watch number go up."
The way Mortal Shell handles items is ingenious too—on paper. Every item you stumble across will have an unknown use until you consume it, incentivizing you to experiment with everything you pick up. The more you use an item the more familiar with it you'll become, eventually upgrading its potency to a second tier. I thought this was brilliant when I stumbled upon the tarspore—consuming the fungus can transform it from a poison edible to a poison-immunity treat once it hits familiarity. But every other item in the game is mundane by comparison; their effects become a tiny bit better once you cross the familiarity threshold. Considering how low-impact most of the items are already (I get health back for a single parry?), their evolved forms didn't do much to convince me they were even worth using in the midst of combat.
Early on, when your ass is being repeatedly handed to you, you'll probably stumble upon a mighty realization: dying is kind of... good? Not that being sent back to a checkpoint feels rewarding—it's frustrating as hell—but dying creates a statue of your shell you can reclaim for full health upon return. As you can already survive one ejection per life, your stone corpse serves as a second full heal waiting out on the field. Factor that together with the Eredrim shell's massive health pool (seriously, the dude's a tank), and you won't need consumables to win battles—as long as a copy of your corpse is nearby, any fight can be won through endurance alone. (Well except the last boss... you have to learn to roll for that obnoxious hopping dingbat.)
Combat is fun for the most part, as enemies run the gamut from slaughter-fodder to competent swordsman to "oh no not this guy!" But the problem with Mortal Shell's bestiary is that there's just not enough variety. The three arcs of your journey each feature a different—but small—set of enemies to clash swords with, but they're reused so many times that combat becomes stale and repetitive, your blade worn down to a nub. Given how sluggish and costly parrying can be, skipping encounters is often the safer option later on, especially during a gland run. Plus I didn't find much of a reason to fight foes once Eredrim was fully upgraded. Sure, I could funnel his tar into the other shells and try them out, but as soon as the going got tough I would revert back to the ol' dependable-Venerable.
Amongst Mortal Shell's (many) shortcomings, the worst has to be its scarcity of locales. There are only four major zones in the game, each split up into three similar-looking subregions. The Seat of Infinity is the only zone of the four I'd readily call awe-inspiring: it's an expanse of pitch black stones carved into looming, brutalist architecture, bending even gravity to its will as you venture deeper inside the ominous Dim Gate. Unfortunately area drags on for forever, emulating the charred remains of Lost Izalith. Yet compared to the other areas it's the crowning jewel of Mortal Shell; the three remaining zones are a gigantic swamp, featureless cave, and some chilly catacombs. Each are comprised of muted, featureless corridors that often blend into one another, with the swamp being worst labyrinth of the lot—which is an egregious sin for a hub world to have! Toss in a washed out color palette, dearth of shortcuts, and the aforementioned enemy problem, and you'll be happy when the adventure is finally over.
While Nioh still retains the top spot as the premier 3D soulslike, Mortal Shell is a confident runner-up that's not without its flaws. Its merciless start offers no options other than "gitting gud", but as long as you can endure the initial beating you're bound to find something you enjoy. The combat has its foibles but is solid for the most part, and while its reuse of enemies was tiresome the placement of them was often devious, if not clever. I maintain that it's worth a playthrough for die-hard fans of the genre, as it's the closest a game has gotten to loyally copying Dark Souls. And hey, if that doesn't tickle your fancy—at least Mortal Shell can reveal all the things From Software does right by occasionally showing you what could go wrong.
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