Mortal Shell, developed by Cold Symmetry, which was founded in 2017, promises to offer us the system we love of Dark Souls (and Demon Souls, which will soon be introduced by PlayStation 5 owners), with the power of the Unreal Engine 4 engine. It's a pretty tough task at your disposal. Cold Symmetry must act in a way that does not lose the spirit of the genre, and add original things to the game to avoid being a simple copy. The game seems to have done this very well.
Mortal Shell begins by putting a humanoid character in our control. We don't have a name, gender, or any talent. In a land where humanity is extinct and extinct, we search the environment to help a being in chains, trying to retrieve valuable items stored in forgotten temples.
Souls-like games stand out not with their storytelling, but with their gameplay. The story of the world and our character have a purpose, but it is entirely up to the player to learn this deeply. There is a similar situation in this game. Our main character, called Foundling, has no information about the current state of the world. As we move forward using the bodies of warriors who lost their lives in the realm, we know the world thanks to their memories. A few living beings that do not attack us from time to time also offer small details.
Platforms
PC, PlayStation 4, XBox One
Pros
+A souls-like game with its own special features
+Shell options, each with their own personality
+Enjoyable combat mechanics
+Distinctive regions each
+Our character can play lute
+The rewarding nature of discovery
Cons
-Game time is a little short
-Direction is difficult in areas
-Weapon animations are restricted
-The game becomes brutal if you don't use the Parry system
-A rare but rare bug that hits the gameplay
A story that we can count enough for a game that is not too long. Although there were not many surprising things, I managed to enjoy it. It is also a nice detail that there are NPC characters who react differently depending on which body we go with.
A Rock-Like Stance Against Threats
Let's come to the part of the game that we are eagerly awaited. Mortal Shell is similar to Dark Souls in many ways. I had the feeling that I was playing with a similar character in Dark Souls as I grabbed the double-handed sword and tried to strike it by spinning around the enemy. I'm not saying this in a bad way, the fighting system is very good. Fights are very enjoyable. It is possible to engage in one-on-one combat with enemies or to mow enemies en masse by swinging our mace. Still, it's not an option that I would highly recommend.
Our enemies have high damage capacity and there is no healing potion in the game. We can recover some of our lives thanks to the mushrooms and food we can find around, but our main savior during the fight is the parry mechanics. Thanks to the seal we received from the chained one, we can stop the enemy's attack at the last second and gain some life by counter-attack. It's not necessary, but if you don't want to have nervous stress, you have to get used to this mechanic.
The "Harden" skill that our character can use is another feature that separates the game from other souls-like games. There is no shield in the game, we only have two options to defend ourselves against attacks. While parry is ideal for getting back some of our lost health, it's not possible to dodge every attack. "Harden" comes into play here. Thanks to this ability that allows us to completely turn into stone, we are able to stop every attack, no matter how strong it is. It is also possible to use this ability while attacking the enemy and complete our attack by bouncing the enemy's blow. If you use the waiting time correctly, it is even possible to finish the game without getting hit. (Quite difficult but possible) However, it is better not to rely too much on the "Harden" skill. Because some of our enemies can also use this ability.
We are controlling an entity that is not even clear what is in the game. We come to the real world with a reduced life after the beating we ate in the foggy land, which is also the education department. The first thing we encounter here is the body of a defeated warrior. Our character can enter the bodies of warriors who lost their lives and see their memories as if they were his own. In this way, we can both learn the history of the bodies and use the techniques they have. These bodies are referred to as Shell.
New Shell New Warrior
There are 4 different weapons and Shell in the game. We also have a ranged weapon. Although we only started with a Shell and a weapon in the beginning, we can see the location of other equipment and bodies thanks to the "sight" abilities found in the sarcophagi. Choosing a shell is very important. The bodies that have a special story and whose memories we can reach as we unlock new abilities also determine the way we play.
There is no character development system in the game. Although each body has its own health, stamina and power points, you cannot change them as you wish. Thanks to the "tar" and "glimpse" we collect from the enemies, there is no choice but to revive the memories of the body and use its abilities. Weapons can be used with any Shell, but not all weapons are suitable for all sizes due to the durability it takes when swinging a large sword. That's why I suggest you make your choice well.
We can play with "Eredrim", which has high health and stamina but does not have the determination we need to use special abilities in return. There are also options such as "Solomon", which is more rugged but mastered on special ability, or "Tiel", which is totally fast-minded. For those who think that they want to play in a balanced way, there is "Harros" where we first started the game. Remember, too, that in order to use the abilities of these bodies, we must first learn the names.
We Can't Get Out Of Some Swamp
Let's talk a little bit about the world in which the game takes place. When we get out of the fog, we arrive in a swamp-like area. There are people playing lute, eating and patrolling around us. Do not be fooled by the music coming from the head, they come to beat us even with the handle of the lute if necessary. After meeting the Masked lady and taking our first mission, we set off for other regions. I have to make a very important reminder here; Remember to research each area carefully. Since I didn't look around at the beginning, I found the parry feature we got from an NPC at the very beginning of the game by chance after playing the game for 3 hours. I am not the only one who has experienced this. It's hard to find other sizes you can use without research.
As part of our mission, there are ice-covered caves, a fire-themed temple and an obsidian-covered area called Obsidian Tower. Since the game is short anyway, the low number of zones is not an annoying situation. Each region has a unique structure and one region is not like another.
My biggest problem about the regions was his interesting designs. There are shortcuts to the places you can reach within a region, but it is very difficult to find a way. The biggest reason for this is that there is no space-separating feature within the region. Therefore, it is possible to get lost even in normal time, but the real problem arises during the blackout after boss fights.
I can give the best example for this from ice caves. While walking on a straight road, you see a cave on the left and you enter. There are enemies inside, you kill them and move forward and you enter the second hole. You think the second hole will move you further, but you're actually going further back, next to a hole you missed. Under normal circumstances, this shouldn't be a problem, you are exploring after all. The real problem arises after the boss fights, which have an important place in the main story.
You kill one of the main bosses and get a valuable object from it, and the whole area turns black. The mists are taking over the land, and the enemies that used to chase you are replaced by scary creatures that you normally see in small quantities. You don't see two steps ahead, you have fast enemies chasing you, and you have to determine exactly which direction you are going. Although I love the world structure that changes with the arrival of fog, I cannot say that I love the experience of staying in the dark in a world where it is difficult to navigate.
In the game, they did not leave the discovery affair with just sightseeing. We also need to explore the function of items in our inventory. Since our character knows nothing about the world around him, we gain experience by using the items we collect. We even use it to understand whether the mushroom we have collected is poisonous or not. Although the items we use at the beginning are not very effective, we can make it more effective after a certain period of time. Like being able to develop immunity against the fungus that poisoned us in the beginning and stop all toxic effects for a while. Or the ability to play the lute, which we used to make a bad sound in the first place, perfectly when our familiarity developed.
While the item discovery system is a nice feature, the stress of using valuables at the wrong time is inevitable. There were times when I accidentally called another weapon in the middle of enemy lines and had to leave the mission halfway because I could not return to the other weapon. I advise you to let go of the fear of wasting it and try your items in a safe area, preferably at the spawn point.
Performance and Errors
The Mortal Shell I played on PC worked well in general. In the game where I rarely experience FPS drops, I can say that I got a very satisfactory result in terms of graphics. There are a few problems with animations. It seems as if all the animations were made for the Hallowed Sword. When you parry with the hammer, it buries the blunt end of the hammer into the enemy's chest, like a sword, and pulls it back. Or when you come out of a cave, you can see the character throw the little hammer on his shoulder. There are few weapons already, at least different animations could be made for each one.
I wanted to say the game was free of errors. An error that occurred close to the end of the game and caused me to start over because I couldn't find a solution changed my mind. If you stop attacking after throwing a parry at an enemy, the most important feature of the game, "Harden", is disabled. Since I was already bad at parry, the lack of ability to petrify made the game inability to play. While it's a problem that most people don't face, it's annoying.
Although there are minor annoying situations such as the enemy attacking during the animations while our character exits the cave and we die until we get control, I did not encounter any serious problems other than the above.
Result
Mortal Shell, which follows the Souls series and adds something to itself on the path opened by From Software games, has managed to be a good game souls-like game. It is not possible to call it a completely new and original game. The game is a little short, if you don't get busy with the things around, it will take 7 hours maximum. I also expressed my troubles about the venues. The lack of multiplayer may seem like a minus for some players. But it should not be forgotten that this game is an independent brand made by a studio established in 2017.
It feels like "Dark Souls, but a different and beautiful game" that games like Lords of the Fallen couldn't accomplish. As someone who has played most souls-like games out so far, I can say that it is the best Dark Souls replica that also has its own original features. The success of this game shows that the developer team is capable of doing much better work in the future.
