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Rain
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1,349 games
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24 reviews
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Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t19 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(4.4 hrs at review time)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 17\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tI know lot of peoples struggling with the early difficulty, but once you got a few tips and start to play properly, god this game is amazing. Evrything is so well optimised. Amazing game\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t165 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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2 people found this review funny\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"John\t\t\t\t\t\t
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John Endfield
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2,163 games
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33 reviews
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Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t18.7 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(5.1 hrs at review time)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 17\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tI enjoyed the beta and have been waiting for the full game. I'd say this game is pretty good. The difference between it and its prequel is like night and day. They went from making a mediocre and short Soulslike to perhaps one of the best non-FromSoftware Soulslikes out there.

It's not flawless, and the game still has some shortcomings, especially in its progression system and soundtrack. But the improvements to the combat system, more diverse Shells, and large, open world make it worth playing. Even if you didn't like or haven't played the first game, this one is definitely worth giving a chance.\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Yes\n\t\t\t\t\t\t No\n\t\t\t\t\t\t Funny\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\" Award\n\t\t\t\t\t
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1,149 games
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219 reviews
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Not Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t14 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(11.3 hrs at review time)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 18\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tThe more time I put into Mortal Shell II, the more my opinion of it has unfortunately soured. I enjoyed the Open Beta considerably more than I expected to, and it gave me the impression that the full game had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, the balance changes in the full release, combined with how the game structures its content, have made the experience increasingly exhausting the longer I play.

The biggest problem is enemy health.

The Open Beta had noticeably different balance, with enemies in the full game dealing more damage and having considerably higher health pools. Higher damage can create a more demanding experience, but the health increases are where I take issue. They make encounters longer without making them more interesting.

What's worse is that the enemy variety is heavily front-loaded. There aren't many more enemy types in the core game compared to what was available in the Open Beta. This means you're frequently fighting the same enemies in different areas, with the primary differences being how much health they have, how much damage they deal, or how many of them are thrown at you.

Essentially, it feels like there are only a few hours of genuinely new combat encounters stretched over the duration of the entire game, with the rest being repeated encounters with different scaling or combinations

If you're in an area you're underleveled or under-equipped for, enemies simply soak up more damage. If you're properly equipped, you're still fighting enemies you've already fought dozens of times. There's very little mechanical evolution to these encounters, so the increased health doesn't create additional depth. It just makes the same fights take longer.

Player Progression
Player power increases are extremely tame, which I actually like conceptually.

The game doesn't require you to grind extensively just to progress, and I appreciate that. However, this system doesn't work particularly well alongside the enemy scaling.

Leveling up often amounts to gaining one additional hit point, sometimes one extra percent of critical damage, or a single point of base damage. Weapon upgrades are similarly formulaic, increasing damage by a flat 5% per level.

Again, I don't inherently dislike incremental progression. In fact, I like the idea that the game doesn't allow your character to completely overpower everything through grinding. The problem is how enemy health is scaled around this system.

The enemy health scaling feels artificial, and it creates situations where combat feels the same but worse. You're either below an upgrade threshold and enemies take too long to kill, or you've reached the threshold and the encounter feels more reasonable. Alternatively, you're simply fighting more of the same enemies in an area.

Because combat permeates practically the entire experience, this isn't an isolated balance complaint. It affects almost everything you do in Mortal Shell II.

Bosses
The bosses are generally one of the stronger parts of the game.

They're more varied than the regular enemies, and most of them have interesting mechanics and attack patterns that are fun to learn. There are exceptions, particularly some grab attacks that can kill the player in one hit.

Those attacks can be particularly exhausting when you've spent several minutes learning an encounter only to get caught by one move and instantly die. It means you essentially have to memorize that specific attack above everything else, and the frustration is amplified when you have a runback afterward.

Still, compared to the regular enemy encounters, bosses demonstrate much more of what I think Mortal Shell II does well. They actually give you something new to learn rather than simply asking you to fight the same enemies with larger health bars.

Exploration and Dungeons
Exploration is a major focus of Mortal Shell II. When you're not fighting, you're generally looking for the next dungeon, beacon, or piece of progression.

The dungeons are one of my favorite parts of the game. They're distinct from one another and often introduce environmental gimmicks that change how you interact with the area. One might have portals that alter the state of a room, for example, allowing you to interact with the environment in completely different ways.

Most dungeons also culminate in a boss fight, which makes them feel like meaningful pieces of content rather than simply another area to traverse.

Unfortunately, the overworld doesn't fare quite as well. Enemy placement doesn't feel particularly inspired, and you'll frequently find yourself engaging with the same encounters over and over. This reinforces my biggest criticism of the game because the exploration constantly feeds you back into combat that I've already experienced numerous times.

The game's structure also means that much of the exploration revolves around collecting tools that allow you to access larger dungeons and other areas. There are plenty of secrets and hidden pieces of content, but I don't find myself particularly interested in re-exploring the world to find everything.

Build Variety
This is probably my favorite aspect of Mortal Shell II.

There are eight different shells, and each one changes the rules of how you play. One might allow you to cloak yourself and perform a critical attack, while another can charge up a powerful punch that knocks enemies down.

These aren't just stat differences. They meaningfully change how you interact with combat.

There are also eight ranged weapons and eight melee weapons, each with their own feel, along with Tar Stones that provide additional passive and active abilities.

You can create some genuinely interesting combinations. One Tar Stone can make enemies explode when they're killed by a ranged attack, while another can guarantee a critical hit after performing a certain number of attacks.

There's a lot of potential here, and experimenting with these systems is one of the reasons I continue to enjoy playing the game despite my broader frustrations.

Final Thoughts
I will be putting more time into Mortal Shell II, but I think there are enough problems with the game that I feel the need to put up a cautionary review now.

The biggest issue is enemy health bloat. It isn't something that can simply be ignored because combat is such a fundamental part of the experience. When you're repeatedly fighting the same enemies, and those enemies increasingly require more hits to kill without introducing new mechanics, the game starts to feel like it's stretching its content rather than providing more of it.

That's especially disappointing because there are things I really like here. The bosses are generally well designed, the dungeons are creative, and the build variety is excellent. The shells, weapons, and Tar Stones give you plenty of ways to experiment with how you want to play.

But the core combat loop is simply too repetitive for me to overlook the balance problems. It genuinely feels like I'm replaying the same content in motion because of how frequently the game reuses its enemy encounters.

I also can't imagine wanting to replay the game based on how its structured. The first playthrough already has me repeatedly revisiting the same enemy encounters, and the idea of going through the world again to rediscover all of the tools and secrets doesn't sound appealing.

Mortal Shell II has some genuinely great ideas and some excellent individual pieces, but I think the current enemy balance and lack of enemy variety undermine the experience significantly. I'd like to see a substantial balance pass that brings enemy health down and makes later encounters more mechanically interesting rather than simply more durable.

For now, I'd recommend approaching this one with caution. If you love exploration, build experimentation, and learning boss encounters, there's plenty here to enjoy. If you're primarily looking for consistently engaging combat, h\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\n\t\t\t\t\tWas this review helpful?\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Yes\n\t\t\t\t\t\t No\n\t\t\t\t\t\t Funny\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\" Award\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t44 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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6 people found this review funny\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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CASCADE
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93 reviews
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Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t7.3 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(0.5 hrs at review time)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 17\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tMortal Shell 2 Feels like a metal album brought to life as a video game! Its gorgeous, bloody, gory, and miserable. Everything you could ever want in a souls like, really! It's Absolutely worth getting, especially for the price. With how expensive games have gotten, its really great to see a souls like game that delivers this much quality without completely violating your wallet!\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t62 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
1 person found this review funny\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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Jessica
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1,011 games
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32 reviews
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Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t7.8 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(4.5 hrs at review time)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 17\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tThe game is a clear evolution from the first one, combat is much better and the movement doesn’t feel sluggish. The only downside is that regular enemies deal way more damage than necessary, to the point where it’s comparable to boss damage, which creates a very artificial difficulty for the game. I also can’t leave out the best part of the game, which made me a little jealous: Proxima’s design. She got cake.\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t46 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Blitz814
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11 reviews
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Not Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t15.2 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(9.1 hrs at review time)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 18\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tEDIT: Just so people understand. I do not want all of the friction points listed in the negatives taken away. As I stated in the review, there are too many friction points stacked on top of each other that adds layers of artificial difficulty that simply aren't needed and lead to frustration.

For example, parry and dodge windows wouldn't be a complaint if mobs didn't 180 their attacks. However, with both of these points active dodging is less effective, forcing you to parry the quick attacks more. Another would be the limited and low level of healing. By itself it would be fine, but then you add in the length of the zone, added dungeons, trials, and bosses. On top of that you have multiple packs of enemies, elite enemies, elite enemies with adds, and the amount of damage that they deal. This is all kind of a lot especially at the beginning of the game.

And for you losers screaming GIT GOOD or this is a soulslike, you low IQ????? All of the Dark Souls games and even Elden Ring push you from bonfire to bonfire and in-between you almost always unlock shortcut of some kind. In ER you have the stakes in front of every dungeon and boss. This game some bonfires are very far apart, there are no stakes, no checkpoints, and very few shortcuts. There would be no complaints about how hard the dungeons were if there were stakes when entering dungeons and before bosses like in Elden Ring. However, there aren't and this rewards degenerate gameplay to take as few hits as possible while you adventure.



==The Review==

I played most of the day yesterday and while I did have a good time playing, ultimately I walked away frustrated. Which is a shame, because this game does so many things very well.

==The Positives==

- The game is visually stunning, yet runs very well
- Movement feels good, very responsive and not too floaty
- Combat overall has weight and good sound design
- The UI is simple and well thought out
- Excellent mapping system
- Launching into a map is amazing, though it quickly becomes redundant
- level design and presentation are absolutely peak
- The game is gameplay oriented. No long cutscenes, just a lot fighting, some equipment management, and on occasion some talking.
- Proxima...

Now, for the not so good things... A lot of this revolves game balance or the lack there of. This is the same issue Lord's of the Fallen had when it launched and it took them far too long to correct. I'm not against the game being difficult, nor do I want all the friction gone, but there are too many friction points and artificial difficulty stacked on top of each other.

==The Negatives==

- Enemies are placed in tight groups that are difficult to separate. The issue here is that the majority of mobs all have access to a attack that has a VERY quick startup and if you're tagged by it, you flinch, this makes it very easy for even the lowest of trash mobs to stun lock you to death. The part that left a sour taste in my mouth last night, was a well I entered turned out to be a dungeon. There is an elevator there that takes you down and I was greeted by two worms, two poison crawlers, and a bug with a human face. It's too much. I was toast in a second and this was after clearing out the entire rest of the dungeon. 45 mins. Gone, just like that.

- As previously stated, ever mob has and boss have attacks that are very quick. Some attacks we're talking 10-15 frame start ups which are far too quick to consistently react to. A couple of examples would be the torch cultist, he can go from his multi-hit torch swing, straight into quick torch poke before you can even swing your sword. In mushroom town, there is a giant bug that has multiple quick attacks that includes a dual frontal attack and a single swipe overhead combo. Each time you get hit 1/3 of your HP just evaporates.

- Dungeons are INCREDIBLY punishing. Not even mentioning the trek to the dungeon, then you have to complete the whole thing, some instances include a boss, with only your available potions. No checkpoint, no healing refills. You die, you run all the way back and start over. I currently have 5 potions which don't even full heal, maybe 1/3 of hp returned, some dungeons can take 20-45 mins with no way to return healing. This makes every hit you take an extreme punishment, especially with parry/block type gameplay, you are decentivized to take risk and instead utilize cheese hit and run tactics. My recommendation would be to add a one time heal restore and checkpoint in some of the longer dungeons (especially boss dungeons), because they are brutal.

- The first boss, in the first area outside the tutorial, does he really need a 180° player tracking command grab 3 hit combo that 100 to 0's your hp? I thought the boss was a great introduction to show the importance parrying. If you miss he does a lot of damage, but if you get it right it's satisfying, but then the grab not only tracks you, but instantly kills you as well. Why? Either drop the tracking and keep the damage, or keep the tracking and half the damage.

- The camera. The camera is awful. DO NOT attempt to fight on a ramp or close to a wall. On ramps, the camera jerks up wards. Not only will your attack whiff, but now you can't see anything. Fighting by a wall is impossible, because the camera pushes in-ward and looks straight at the ground. It's easily the worst part of the game.

- The ability to heal and the damage you take from monsters do not align. You do get a stone that allows your attacks to leech hp, but the amount of hp returned is so little that it's more of a slap in the face than anything. Even with 45 to 50 stacks you can barely notice your hp moving up.

- The base parry feels good, but the perfect dodge window is very tight and inconsistent, even with enemies that I know the attack pattern of.

- The block gauge goes down too slow. Some bosses and mobs can fill your block gauge in one string and it takes 10+ seconds for the bar to deplete. This means your just running away until it depletes, because if you get hit you're stunned for 5 or more seconds. This on it's own wouldn't be too bad, but there's no invuln when you're knocked down, so you take the initial hit that knocks you down and you can continue to be hit while laying on the ground and standing up. It's easily 10+ second so of just taking damage.

- Player tracking attacks. Why? The player is strictly locked into all attack animations, so why is it that if a mob loads up an attack, and I dodge behind it, the mob will 180° and throw out the attack? Why are they not subject to the same rules as the player? Boss command grab? 180's you. Big ass hammer-man? 180's that big ass hammer. Combat itself is already strict and punishing, this layer of artificial difficulty isn't needed.

- Player magnetism. Most mobs have an attack that covers an insane amount of distance. They can start a combo 15m away and somehow cover that distance in 2 or 3 swings which takes only a second. It's crazy.

- Poison in this game is too punishing. It stacks very quickly and lasts an eternity. Fire attacks are more well balanced.

==TLDR==

As you can see from the text for every positive there are two or three negatives. The world is dangerous and healing is limited. This is great, I like the dangerous feeling it gives, but there is no relief. There's no "Oh, thank god" moments to balance out the tension. Especially when you add in quick hit, hard to parry attacks, attacks with tracking and magnetism, multiple groups of enemies that can deplete your health in a single hit or combo, and long dungeons with bosses at the end. Something has to give. Friction is good, but too much just ends up frustrating.
I really, really, REALLY want to recommend this game, but GD the balancing is so ass.\t\t\t\t\t
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Reviewer's PC Specs:
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Windows 11
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AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 8-Core Processor - RAM: 31 GB
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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 - VRAM: 16 GB
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t92 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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16 people found this review funny\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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Eve Protocol
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98 games
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t15.2 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(6.3 hrs at review time)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 17\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tA huge step forward from the first game, Mortal Shell 2 is an open world Soulslike with a strong focus on parrying, timing although not mandatory it does make the fights smoother. Combat is fair and satisfying even though i have some concerns about the quantity of enemies at some locations, camera can get pushed around the walls specifically in cramped areas, but other than that the immersive view is great and adds a lot to the atmosphere. There are TONS of locations and dungeons to explore and it feels rewarding enough. Performance is a charm easily getting 150 fps on ultra with DLSS enabled. Overall if you enjoy souls games exploration and combat that's a no brainer.\t\t\t\t\t
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Read More
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Reviewer's PC Specs:
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Windows 11
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AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 w/ Radeon 860M - RAM: 31 GB
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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU - VRAM: 8 GB
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\n\n\t\t\t\t\tWas this review helpful?\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t28 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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394 games
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3 reviews
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Not Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t16.2 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(9.5 hrs at review time)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 18\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tMortal Shell 2 – Currently Leaning No

I'm pretty neutral on Mortal Shell 2 right now, but if I had to choose between recommending it or not, I'm currently leaning toward No.

And honestly, most of my complaints feel like things that could be fixed.

1. The checkpoint system is bizarre

The runbacks in this game are astonishingly bad.

Remember those dungeons in Elden Ring where you usually have a checkpoint somewhere inside the dungeon, or a Statue of Marika close to the boss? Here, you can die and be sent all the way back OUTSIDE to the original checkpoint beacon you visited.

So you go through the same 3 bridge again, fight the same enemies again, spend another 8 minutes and a couple of heals just to reach the dungeon, walk back to the boss...

...and then die.

It gets even worse when some dungeons contain traps that you simply couldn't reasonably know were there the first time. You die to something cheap, then get sent all the way back to the end of the map.

That's not difficulty. That's just wasting your time.

And then there's the funny part, in some part of the game you'll walk through two completely empty fields with absolutely nothing happening, and boom there is 2 beacon checkpoint there near with each other (ehem Willow Overlook & Blackridge Pass Beacon)

So if you're the type of player who explores every corner of a dungeon, you're actually being punished for exploring more deeply with a ridicolous amount of runbacks.

2. Most enemy mobs are just frustating

The trash mobs are the bosses in this game

You can get stuck when multiple enemy are upon you. And you can't roll away because every single one of them have collider, so just stuck waiting to die. (+) Bonus Runbacks

Some enemies also have an absurd aggro range and will happily follow you all the way into the boss room. "fun runback"

Then you have enemies like the tall skeleton miner who can't be staggered, attacks eight times consecutively, and basically forces you to stand there and wait for five minutes before you can attack back,

And on top of that, even the regular trash mobs can two-shot you

3. The attack tracking feels inconsistent

This one is especially noticeable against more mobile enemies.

You will miss attacks surprisingly often, where the lock on disappear when the enemy dodge aways from the camera perspective.

But apparently the enemies don't have the same problem.

If an enemy starts an attack animation while you're outside its range, that's fine. The AI will simply fling itself toward you :)

And all of these problems compound

Run back → get swarmed by enemy and stuck → lose health → reach the boss with no heal → die → Run Back

I don't think I can do another runback again please dev

Which is a shame, because there is a lot here that I genuinely like.

The art style is great. The world building is interesting, and the interconnected world makes it very easy to get lost in a good way. The game is also well optimized, and the actual combat is miles ahead of the first game. And I especially enjoy the boss fights.\t\t\t\t\t
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Reviewer's PC Specs:
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Windows 11
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AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 8-Core Processor - RAM: 62 GB
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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 - VRAM: 16 GB
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t94 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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13 people found this review funny\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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cCraBb
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307 games
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32 reviews
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Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t18.6 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(0.5 hrs at review time)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 17\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ this game is so beautifull, cant wait for endgame.
The graphics are top
game design of the levels is gorgeous
The battles are beautiful and bloody
Surprisingly, there are no FPS drops.\t\t\t\t\t
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Reviewer's PC Specs:
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Windows 10
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AMD Ryzen 5 7500F 6-Core Processor - RAM: 32 GB
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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER - VRAM: 12 GB
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t34 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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John Cade
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11 reviews
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Not Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t10.3 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 18\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tSo, I'll start off by saying that as opposed to the first Mortal Shell, this is A LOT better. Far more playable, far more enjoyable, tons more to do, but this is essentially where my praise ends.

I was pretty excited for this game based on the Demo/Beta, but it almost feels like a bait-and-switch when moving to the full game.

- Combat: Tedious, overwhelming, and unbalanced. Compared to the beta, it feels 'harder' but less in a challenging way and more in a 'we are artificially increasing the difficulty' sort of way. If you offer a beta as a demo, the full game should mirror that. First, it feels like parry windows decreased. Second, it feels like every enemy received a health-buff and a damage-buff. This would be fine if the entire game wasn't a giant run-back, but we'll get there.

- Visuals: Pretty good, very little complaint. It's not like the highly polished trailer, but it's not offensive by any measure. Animations are good, enemies look really good. If I had a complain here, it would be the shades and masks. The pre-purchase and beta skins aren't great. Literally just a palette swap, except the just did one texture and one texture alone for the entire thing. It doesn't look good. The game also looks very 'samey' after all, making it hard to landmark in some areas.

- Progression: God awful. Legitimately terrible. The resources are so limited, it reminds me of Resident Evil on a bad day. While the beta was highly curated and you only had one shell, and four weapons to worry about, they didn't change the resource allotment AT ALL for upgrade materials from the beta. This essentially means that you are 'locked in' to whatever shell and weapon you choose first, with scraps left over for others. The amount of in-game currency also feels pretty reduced. Where you felt like you leveled and upgraded pretty well in the beta, here it feels like a nightmare exasperated by the grueling run-backs. There is no 'farming' because the game is mainly mobs and anything that gives decent gloom (Souls) or coin is miles away from a save point.

Enemies: I'd say the enemy design is okay, as are their animations. but there are definitely reskins, and worse, 'enhanced' enemies. What was a trash mob in one area can suddenly have triple health and damage in another. The game definitely suffers from a 'level inflation' issue where you don't really get better or more powerful because the areas are more or less dictating what level and upgrade you should be. It's not terrible, since skill can get you through a lot of areas, but some enemies do chain in a way that's impossible to reliably block and the mobs ♥♥♥♥ with your ability to properly parry, which the entire game is about. Levels matter here more than in Dark Souls or Elden Ring, and you shouldn't expect the pacing or leniency of the Beta here. Circling back, bosses are mainly fun as are the enemies. Their animations are pretty cool, the fights are challenging, and to that end, the game does well.

World Design: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ confusing as ♥♥♥♥. This game makes DS2 level design look like the Mona Lisa. It's pretty enough, but it's labyrinthian in a way that echoes the very first Mortal Shell. In the Beta, it's not an issue because they railroad you through it. But here it's a genuine problem, and the runbacks turn it into a nightmare. There is a map, and while it gives you a good general idea of where you are going, it's more of a vague suggestion than Map Quest. 80 bridges, 50 spirit springs, 30 mushrooms, 100 trees, and it's more like 3D mario and I'm pretty sure Mario Sunshine had better landmarks. It's not as bad as Mortal Shell I, but damn is it close. Pretty, but lots of 'same'.

Content: Now here is where it gets tricky, because the game has lots of items, lots of places, and it's not like you aren't picking things up, but how much of it makes you excited? In my case, not much. There are very few shells in this game, more than in the original, but that makes sense since this is a bigger game. But compared to the original, ratio-wise, it feels like you get less shells overall per level/map than you did in the original mortal shell. The game expects you to 'lock in' to a weapon and shell and stay there, and this is enforced by the upgrade materials. This combined with the runbacks leaves a lot of 'I think I'll skip exploring this'. Compared to Dark Souls, Blood Bourne, Elden Ring, and even Lords of the Fallen, the content feels a bit anemic. There are cool things to try out for sure, but things get more tedious and monotonous than anything and you'll never get that first shell/weapon hype again. There isn't even a weapon per shell.

Story: What story? Let me be serious though, there's not a whole lot of story going on in this game. Less than in Dark Souls. The most interesting parts are the small quests you'll occasionally come across and the shell memories, and the world does feel FAR more alive than in the original Mortal Shell, but it's not the best. The overarching story is ... vague. The prologue is ... kind of bad. The NPC stuff and shell stuff is great, but the world lore might as well be a blank check.

The Achilles Heel: The run-backs. I've mentioned it before, but now I'll explain it, because it's what brings the game from 'not the best but better than a lot of things' into 'difficult to play and enjoy'. If you aren't familiar with the term, a 'run-back' is the distance between a safe/save area and your dropped loot/the next save area. Save areas are SPARSE and placed almost nonsensically. They are fine in the beta and in the prologue, but in the main game it's heinous. It's on par or worse than OG Dark Souls. You'll have two save points within eyesight on one map, and you'll cross, I ♥♥♥♥-you-not, 2-3 biomes for the next. In a Souls-like, it's absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ murder. It means that you are either running past all the cool shinies and enemies, or you are playing the game like master difficulty in Guitar Hero. Your heals refresh only when you rest. They are limited. There are 'mitigations' but no solutions. If you are 10% health in the middle of a runback, you might as well kiss your currency goodbye and throw yourself off a cliff to save your pride. Some of the items and the shell system save this somewhat, but it's not ideal and it's what gets in the way of the player and the game. At the very least, a checkpoint in the beginning of dungeons would save this.

Overall: I don't recommend it. Not at this price. Not because the game is terrible, not even because it's bad, but because the Demo holds about 90% of the joy and it's free. Play the Beta for five hours, save your money, and know that you got about 90% of the experience and saved fifty bucks. You'll miss out on the extra shells, weapons, and NPC quests, but they weren't carrying the game anyway. You'll have more fun with it.

Take this with a grain of salt. I'm 10 hours in on Day 1 pre-release. If this gets a big update, I'll update my review. But for the time being, I'd recommend just playing the Open Beta Demo.\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t26 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
6 people found this review funny\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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HeartThiefMonroe
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12 reviews
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Recommended
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 17\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tNow that is a souls done right with an interesting dark fantasy setting. Amazing game; it has high effort and creativity written all over it and i think the last time i played a souls so original was lies of p\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t7 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
1 person found this review funny\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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HarbingerCZ
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84 reviews
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Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t11.3 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 17\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t3 hours in. Its a banger. I dont have anything negative to say. If you liked the demo - this is more of it, and that pretty much says it all.

EDIT:
Alright so some more notes after 11 hours:
The game is really good, I have problem to put it down when I have to. It has some actual issues though.
Bugs do exist, they are not game-breaking or annoying, but they do happen. Sometimes AI breaks, clipping of enemies, and camera bugs happen fairly often.

When it comes to some design decisions, I almost feel like I am playing Dark Souls 2 again. Seriously 2 minute run backs to the boss that is essentially 2 elite enemies with boss HP in completely atrocious area that drains your hp items even when running to them ? Its ass.

Another pain point are the beacons. You can have an area with beacons next to each other. Literal 1 minute of walking. And then you have these large places where there is no beacon around for literal 1 hour of exploration.
Its not a problem, if you know what you´re doing(e.g. using shell that is clearly designed for these kind of cases - just beware, it completely breaks the open world, you will not feel threated with it)

Outside of that, I have a lot of positive to say about world design, enemy variety(so far), and particularly boss design(outside of that one atrocious encounter I named earlier). Its easily fantastic. I dont think I played open world like this since Elden ring, when it comes to pure exploration.\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t24 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
4
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Aztek
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42 reviews
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Not Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t9.7 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(7.8 hrs at review time)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 18\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tThere’s a really good game here buried under poor enemy design and balance. Also just some bizarre choices like no stake of Marika equivalent for dungeons which results in super frustrating runbacks.

My rec would be to give it a couple weeks or a month and see if they fix it.\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t13 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
1 person found this review funny\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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Kire
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101 games
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10 reviews
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Not Recommended
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tAfter around 8 hours, I am disappointed with Mortal Shell 2. The map and overall world design were the biggest problems for me. Instead of feeling like an interesting world I wanted to explore, it often felt like a confusing maze that I was simply trying to find my way through.\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t14 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
4 people found this review funny\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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javolug
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7 reviews
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Not Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t12.4 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tAn absolute chore of a game. I don´t know for how much longer the concept of "making it hard for the sake of making it hard" will continue with these "soulslike" developers, but some of these games take it to an unenjoyable extreme. Demons souls and Dark souls were made to be fun before it was difficult.

Getting hit tracked from across a room by an enemy, or getting assaulted at all times without even being able to take in the environments because you have some giant hurling rocks at you like a sniper, or every single enemy no matter how little, fast or insignificant chunking your health after leveling up your shell.
Also the same enemies copy pasted on different areas, and on each area they will have completely different stats and strength, with no indication that they are different from the same exact enemy you ran into two areas ago. Progression is a nightmare too. You can get lost in elden ring and if you´re playing properly you can take on more difficult areas, but in this game its straight up a dps check. Same goes the opposite way because you will run into an area once you are overleveled and wreck them and thats just boring.
There is no indication at all of where to go. Either make the entire map free to traverse for players but balance the game properly, or make a more linear game with progressive difficulty. In this game you have to constantly figure out if you walked into the wrong area and are about to get railed by even the most insignificant enemy.
Also for a game running on unreal engine 5, the literal only pro should be the graphics but even on ultra this game looks like something from 2018 and to get these visuals you sacrifice performance for no reason.\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t8 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Akela
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8 reviews
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Not Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t12.4 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 18\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\ttldr; i was really looking forward to this game. Played the beta, had a great time with it, had pretty high hopes. Sadly, after several hours, I'd recommend shortlisting it for now and waiting for a few patches and QoL improvements before jumping in. I still want to like this game, and will still try to get more into it!

my frustrations:
;enemies will start an attack from what looks like a perfectly safe distance, only to suddenly put on a pair of fricking ice skates and slide 100 meters across the ground directly into your face, perfectly delivering their oiled up attack straight into your throat. Distance means nothing. The ice-skating tank has chosen you, and he will arrive, fully oiled up.

;after the first area that was in the beta, checkpoint placement starts feeling way too sparse. Dying is obviously supposed to hurt, but here it feels less like punishment and more like the game handing you a mandatory cardio session.

;there are also no respawns inside dungeons like in some other similar games *wink*. So imagine you've spent time exploring the map, find juicy looking dungeon and dive in! You're deep underground, you've already gobbled down most of your issued packet of Ibuprofen rapid, and then around the corner comes Steve the Ice-Skating Executioner. He stuffs you into a wall, takes your lunch money, and now you get to sprint a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ half-marathon back to where you were.

;some ranged enemies are absurdly punishing. Grisha Hunters and a few others make me feel like I accidentally put too much oil in my pocket in the morning and the entire United States artillery division has been dispatched to seize it.

;then there's the camera. On ramps, near walls, or basically anywhere the architecture gets oiled up and gets slightly intimate with you, the camera starts role-playing the final boss. This is amplified by the game saw some corridors, slapped their behind and went: yes, this should be most of the level design.

;and finally: stagger. A little malnourished guy wearing some rags, holding what appears to be a sharpened toothpick hits my fully armored knight once, and I stumble backwards like I've just taken a 120mm AP shell directly from a WWII tank. Fine. So naturally I swing back with a sword approximately the size of a american refrigerator enchanced with hemmeroid causing enchancement. This weapon looks like merely carrying it should cause permanent spinal damage.
I hit him.
Nothing.
The little bastard doesn't even acknowledge it. He just continues stabbing his toothpick directly into my abdomen while maintaining what I can describe as intense, romantic eye contact.
Once know, you can obviously play around it. Mechanically, it's manageable. But visually and physically it feels incredibly immersion-breaking when my enormous armored murder-machine reacts to every enemy poke like he's been hit by a freight train, while most of the enemies tank your swings like nothing.

I still want to like this game, and will still try to get more into it! That's probably why these things frustrate me so much. There's a genuinely good game underneath it, just wait for it.\t\t\t\t\t
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Reviewer's PC Specs:
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Windows 11
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AMD Ryzen 5 7600 6-Core Processor - RAM: 31 GB
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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti - VRAM: 16 GB
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\n\n\t\t\t\t\tWas this review helpful?\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Yes\n\t\t\t\t\t\t No\n\t\t\t\t\t\t Funny\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\" Award\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t13 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
11 people found this review funny\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Hachiko\"\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Hachiko
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320 games
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10 reviews
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Not Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t19.3 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 17\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDirect from Steam\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tCombat is fun and i had a really good time with the demo, but after the demo section i feel like they have just 10x the damage on all enemies, getting oneshot by anything, cant afford to miss a parry or you're dead. Multiple dungeons where u fight your way through lots of enemies to get to a boss, then having to fight your way through 20x enemies again after the boss just to find no rest spot, small things that make this game miserable to play and just pure suffering.

Edit: Finished the game and opinion still stands, way too few rest spots, gotta run miles to find any, encountered alot of bugs aswell as a bug on the last boss that would just remove my weapon for no reason.\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\n\t\t\t\t\tWas this review helpful?\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t38 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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10 people found this review funny\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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wayne
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2 reviews
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Not Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t3.5 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 18\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tWhen you die it's often a lengthy trek back to your 'gloom'; it'd otherwise be manageable, but the game keeps crashing... If you crash before recovering your gloom, it's permanently lost. I've had 3 crashes in ~3 hours, the last one wiping out a fat stack.

It's also not especially well optimized (like I've seen others claim).\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Yes\n\t\t\t\t\t\t No\n\t\t\t\t\t\t Funny\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\" Award\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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Demajen
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694 games
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63 reviews
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Not Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t13.9 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(12.4 hrs at review time)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 17\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\tI was really excited about Mortal Shell 2 based on the Open Beta (and the fact that I enjoyed the first game despite its flaws) but this release is incredibly disappointing in so many ways.

- Overworld beacons are so spread apart that simply getting back to where you died can take 4-5 minutes in some cases (less if you just run past everything, but see the next point). This was not the case in the open beta area. Because of how deadly the enemies have been made, it makes no logical sense to fight enemies until you have found a beacon vaguely nearby, but you have no way of knowing where they are. I almost feel like I need to have an interactive map open on my second monitor, and if I feel that for my first playthrough in a souls game, you've really screwed up. Spending 10+ minutes fighting my way carefully through enemies to try and find a beacon, only to not find one and die and have to do it all over again to get back to my gloom...? With all the diatribe that has been had about corpse running and boss runbacks and stuff over the last twelve months or so, Mortal Shell 2 seems to make you want to run the furthest. The only skill here is "can I thread the needle of enemies without taking too much damage".

- Enemies will aggro in massive groups from across the map even if they aren't looking your way and will chase you for miles. Hyperbolic, perhaps, but it does seem like once you've aggroed one enemy, then all the ones nearby come running as well, and they will chase you and keep on chasing you, knowing where you are despite intervening terrain that should block all lines of sight.

- Enemies poise through even your hardest hitting attacks over 50% of the time, even if lightly armoured and using pissy little daggers. An unarmoured zombie guy with a pickaxe should not be shrugging off blows from an axehead bigger than its entire torso. Actually hitting enemies feels pretty good, but they don't respond in a way you'd expect.

- You are made of paper and enemy attacks both track and slide towards you to get you into range to lop off 1/3+ of your health in a swing. The only way of mitigating any of this is levelling up, but enemies give paltry sums of gloom. Aforementioned pickaxe dude being able to 2-shot you at the start of the game is dumb, but at least their swings are fairly well telegraphed.

- The camera moves too much, struggling with slopes at almost all times — especially when locked on to an enemy — but loving to swing around dramatically or get caught on scenery. I know this is a classic 3rd person camera issue, but it feels especially bad here, and even more so when combined with the fact that enemies are always looking to gank you from blind angles. Magdalena's boss fight arena is no better than it was in the open beta, with the trees still causing the camera to jerk about.

I really want to like this game, but I am baffled by the decisions that it has made.

EDIT:

- Fairly regularly getting bugs where I either get locked into the ranged weapon stance, or my melee weapons disappear and I swing at midair with nothing, doing no damage because the weapons are where the damage hitboxes are and they aren't in my hands anymore.\t\t\t\t\t
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Reviewer's PC Specs:
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Windows 11
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AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-Core Processor - RAM: 63 GB
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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER - VRAM: 16 GB
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\n\n\t\t\t\t\tWas this review helpful?\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t37 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
14 people found this review funny\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"WhitestMaleAlive\"\t\t\t\t\t\t
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WhitestMaleAlive
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265 games
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42 reviews
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Recommended
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t15.8 hrs on record\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(1.5 hrs at review time)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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This review may not accurately reflect the state of the released version.\">Pre-Release Review
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\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted: August 17\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDirect from Steam\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t♥♥♥-bursting game, very much appreciated. First game was alright but this one feels like orgasm. Everything in there is really well polished.\t\t\t\t\t
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Read More
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Reviewer's PC Specs:
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Windows 11
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AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D 8-Core Processor - RAM: 31 GB
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NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 - VRAM: 16 GB
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\n\n\t\t\t\t\tWas this review helpful?\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Yes\n\t\t\t\t\t\t No\n\t\t\t\t\t\t Funny\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\" Award\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t14 people found this review helpful\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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1 person found this review funny\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\tShowing 1,108 reviews that match the filters above\n\t\t\t\t\t\t( Very Positive )\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t","dayrange":30,"start_date":-1,"end_date":-1,"recommendationids":["233068521","233069267","233145989","233047917","233088516","233125260","233087083","233127790","233048571","233114461","233093732","233057782","233126509","233123493","233162946","233138335","233082692","233167594","233102250","233052664"],"cursor":"AoIFQFY7YMAAAAB4n4P5Bg=="}