MORTAL SHELL

I recently got stuck into the beta of Mortal Shell, a Dark-Souls- aping action-RPG from developer Cold Symmetry. Mortal Shell’s world is bleak and dark, with deadly traps and murderous enemies lurking around every corner.

It feels like a condensed version of the Soulsborne games. The melee combat is similar: Lock onto targets one at a time, strafing around them to avoid getting hit and trying to land your own blows when you see an opening. It does pinch one key feature from Bloodborne, where executing a well-timed parry and counterattack rewards you with health recovery. Otherwise, this is a game of caution. Even basic enemies can rapidly deplete your health, and most will pursue you with dogged aggression. Powerful foes can strike you down with a single hit.

Much like DarkSouls, death is not necessarily the end. Upon receiving a killing blow, you won’t die instantly; instead, your weird bony soul-form is blasted out of your physical body (the titular “mortal shell”) and you can keep fighting. The catch is that your spirit is fragile; One hit and you’re done. You can use the spirit form to return to the relative safety of your shell, or try to get in a few high-risk attacks. Get knocked out of your body more than once and it’s back to the last checkpoint with you.

MortalShell is seriously hard. Enemies hit harder than in From Software’s famously challenging titles, and often a single mistake means instant death. My interest is certainly piqued with this game, but I hope Cold Symmetry can refine the difficulty just a little before launch.

$30, mortalshell.com