The original Mortal Shell always felt like a bit of tragedy to me. It featured a surprisingly compelling art style and genuinely great graphics, with its usage of shadows being something that I always remember it by, but it very quickly fell apart when it came to its combat and exploration, as it was held down by a stop-and-go combat system and mechanics that felt like band-aids in replacement of proper balancing.
After playing Mortal Shell 2‘s demo a while back on Steam, I realized that Cold Symmetry have definitely taken the feedback they received to heart, as the sequel seeks to improve upon everything that its predecessor has been criticized for and, most impressively, actually manages to accomplish that.
So Anyway, I Started Blasting
Mortal Shell 2’s combat is brutally slick and fast-paced, opting for a posture system where perfectly blocking an opponent’s attack breaks their guard, leaving them open to a riposte for massive damage. The hardening mechanic, a core part of the previous game, is still present in the form of an optional seal but is thankfully not mandatory anymore, allowing for more aggressive playstyles to be the default.
The sequel greatly improves upon the previous game’s combat by reducing its long animation locks, giving the shells much more interesting abilities, and making the different weapons exciting to use through proper balancing. The sidearms, a special selection of ranged weapons, are also a great new feature, with the default shotgun feeling especially satisfying to use against enemies in short range.
Expanding the World
One of my main complaints when it came to the previous game was that the hub world felt too small and inconsequential when compared to its dungeons, which is probably the area in which the sequel shows the most improvement. Mortal Shell 2 goes for my favorite type of open-world design, where linear levels are stitched together to create a massive, interconnected web of carefully crafted areas.
The open world feels incredibly compelling to explore this time around, not only because its areas branch into one another with little to no downtime between locations but also because of the number of hidden dungeons, items, and mini bosses that can be found. There’s a very nice balance between combat and puzzle-solving, and the seamless world that can be explored with no loading screens feels quite impressive, especially considering the game’s great performance.
The game is so crammed with optional areas that even its beacons, which serve as bonfires, have small optional dungeons inside of them that can be cleared for extra rewards. This is one of the many areas in which Mortal Shell 2’s improvements have honestly blown me away. It’s common for a sequel to rectify most of its predecessor’s shortcomings, but the degree to which it happens here is honestly astounding.
Quality of Life after Death
One great change that accommodates the game’s sytems to this new open-world format is to the item familiarity system, which carries over from the first game with a couple of key differences. Instead of increasing your familiarity with an item by using it, you now increase it by collecting multiple versions of the same item, meaning your likelihood of missing a crucial piece of equipment is now much smaller, since there are many of them scattered across the world.
Fun definitely seems to have been placed over strict balancing this time around, as one of the key items that you collect turns you into a sheep that wildly flails around, while one of the shells stops time and punches enemies endlessly like Dio from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. This has in some ways made the game more accessible, but it also leads to weird drops in difficulty where some areas can be steamrolled through if you happen to stumble upon an above-average build.
Final Thoughts
Mortal Shell 2 improves upon every single one of its predecessor’s flaws, providing players with a challenging but rewarding sandbox where exploration always pays off. The combat system is tighter and more responsive this time around, and the game’s weapons are a blast to play around with.
This sequel feels like the developers finally being able to accomplish what they set out to do in the first game, as it mostly follows the same formula by placing the player in a large world surrounded by corrupted dungeons, except this time everything has been polished to near perfection. Cold Symmetry have outdone themselves with this new title, and it’s extremely impressive that they managed to put out a sequel of this caliber in such a short amount of time.
