Mortal Shell
A budget Dark Souls-like that punches above its weight.
Set in the dismal fantasy world of Fallgrim, Mortal Shell puts you in the role of a nameless, skeletal creature arisen from an abyssal plain for purposes that are typically opaque. The only clarity you receive is provided by a giant trapped in a tower, who asks you to retrieve three “sacred glands” from various points in the world, which contain a hallowed substance known as Nektar.
Combat is as you’d expect from a game of this ilk, a mixture of light and heavy attacks, blocking, dodging and getting the shit kicked out of you. But there are some differences that, when combined, have a profound impact on the flow of battle. In your natural, skeletal form, you’re about as robust as a cardboard box in a storm. Luckily there are corpses scattered about the world, deceased warriors who, once discovered, can be possessed and reanimated.
Mortal Shell’s boldest change to the Souls formula is that there’s no Estus Flask equivalent. Instead, your main method of restoring health in a fight is by parrying. Using a special talisman, you can deflect enemy attacks and use the resulting opening to drain a chunk from enemy health bars. While initially tougher than Dark Souls due to the absence of a main healing item, once you figure out the rhythms of hardening, parrying, and dodging, it’s possible not just to survive Mortal Shell’s enemies, but to annihilate them. These features bring fantastic dynamism in Mortal Shell’s combat, and the result scratches that Dark Souls itch.
Everything else about Mortal Shell is decent, but could be improved. With locations and environments, most of the budget seems to have been spent on one area, a sprawling obsidian temple that starts out weird and gets increasingly surreal the deeper you explore. Everywhere else is mundane by comparison – forests, ice caves, catacombs. It’s all nicely sculpted, but lacking in imagination. Mortal Shell is no masterpiece, but it’s a capable fighter nonetheless.
Enjoyably tough and esoteric, if a little uneven, Mortal Shell is a strong debut and a worthy Souls-like. ★★★★★