Mortal Shell Review

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well figured it was time for another post and this one will be on a new game I've recently been playing and will be trying to finish it up at the time of writing this and the game in question is Mortal Shell. Mortal Shell itself is a action role play game that is closely based on the Dark Souls video game series and as I'm a big fan of those games I figured I would give this one a look and see how it compares. 

So, Mortal Shell has a lot to live up to and it has to be asked, how does it stack up??? Let's find out!

STORY

As for the story, its all pretty vague to be honest, so for once I won't say too much about it except give a bit about the premise of the game. The game features a pale skinned, skeletal like creature simply called a Foundling, who can inhabit the shells of fallen warriors and through them he can gain special abilities. As for the Foundling starts the game he will head towards Grimfell Tower, where he will meet Sister Genessa, a female being who has the ability to heal and enhance the Foundling's shells. 

The Foundling will also meet a large chained creature called the Old Prisoner, who tells the Foundling to collect special glands and return them to him and this basically becomes the main part of the game as the Foundling must enter three temples to retrieve them. However in order for the Foundling to do so, he must battle against a hoard of tough enemies and bosses that stand in his path...

THOUGHTS

As a Souls-esque game, Mortal Shell does an excellent job in putting a unique spin on the franchise as its a very enjoyable, engrossing and fairly challenging game that will surely appeal to Souls fans. The game itself was also created by a small team of developers and its a very impressive achievement they have pulled off here by creating a unique concept of a character being able to inhabit the shells of dead warriors and use their shells as a shield in combat. The game itself however unlike a lot of other Souls type games has a slower paced combat (akin to Dark Souls 2 except maybe slower!) so that in itself is quite refreshing given the "need for speed" with so many games these days. 

In fact its almost fair to say that this game in a way out does Dark Souls on its dark theme alone as the overall tone of the game is way darker and bleaker than the Souls series, which was filled with colourful environments, varied bosses and at times adventurous and even romantic (??) soundtracks but none of that is present here. Here we get a pretty bleak and dark spin on all that and that in itself is actually what helps make Mortal Shell work so well. 

GAMEPLAY 

As for the gameplay, this is indeed where Mortal Shell does well, which is pretty solid overall and I will break into down into sections below. 

COMBAT & WEAPONS

Starting with combat, Mortal Shell's is fairly similar to the Souls games in that the your playable character, the Foundling can use melee weapons and perform standard and strong attacks as well as parry and ripostes. The parries can be executed by using a device called the Tarnished Seal, which glows when in use and glows red when an enemy will launch an un-parryable attack. 

The Foundling can access four melee weapons in the game that consist of a the Hallowed Sword, which is a standard sized greatsword, the Smouldering Mace, a large mace that deals fire damage, Martyr's Blade, which is a very long sword that can perform freeze attacks and lastly, the Hammer and Chisel that is essentially a fast dexterity type weapon that can perform poison attacks. The Foundling can also use a ranged weapon called a Ballistazooka that uses large crossbow bolts that deal heavy damage and are effective against larger enemies. The weapons can also be upgraded via the use of items called quenching acid aswell as unique pick-ups that can be found throughout the world that add special attacks for further damage.

SHELLS AND HARDENING

As for the shells, this is one of the main aspects of the gameplay as the Foundling can inhabit one of four shells at one time in the game and the shells all have different abilities and levels of health and endurance. 

The four shells are Harros, the Vassal, who is balanced for stamina and endurance and attack, Solomon, the Scholar, who is a heavier shell that has good health and reasonable stamina, Tiel, the Acolyte, who is a lighter shell with high endurance but lower health and lastly Eredrim, the Venerable, who is basically a human tank with the highest health pool but smallest endurance. When enemies attack the shells, if you health bar goes to zero, the Foundling will be thrown out of their shell but if they are quick they can run back into it and regain full health. However, if the Foundling's health goes to zero again then they will die and will need to collect their shell again on respawn.  

Then there is the hardening mechanic, which is basically the main defensive ability the Foundling has in the game as he can harden his shell when attacked but this can only last a short period of time before there is a "cooldown" period before you can harden again (that's what she said! Sorry!). This is perhaps the most fun and unique concept in the game that the Foundling becomes literally a human shield in this instance when attacked and this can also be enhanced via different items and also as their abilities are enhanced.

RESOLVE

Moving onto another key aspect of the game, which is resolve that allows the Foundling to perform special attacks as well as parries and ripostes. The player can collect resolve either via specific items found such as moonshine or by killing enemies and one of the shells, Solomon can later gain resolve by talking to NPCs in the game.

TAR & GLIMPSES

As for the game's main currency, here its tar, which the Foundling will collect automatically from fallen enemies and he can use this purchase items from merchants as well as upgrade his shells via Sister Genessa. Tar can also be collected in deposits found throughout the world from small amounts up to large ones that gain more tar for the Foundling to spend. Glimpses are also items that can be picked up through the game either from fallen enemies or consumable items and are basically the same as Insight in Bloodborne where you can trade them for special items or use them in conjunction with tar for unlocking shell abilities. 

PLAYING THE LUTE 

Another unique aspect of the game is that the Foundling can play a guitar-like instrument called a Lute while resting but he can also play it near enemies to attract their attention and like anything with an instrument, practice makes perfect! Apparently you can also play the Lute for Sister Genessa, who will nod in appreciation after a while once you have become familiar enough with it. You can also see some enemies play the lute in Fallgrim too at camp fires throughout too and hear them play from afar. 

ITEMS AND FAMILIARITY 

There are of course various items to be found in the game that can be obtained via merchants or taken from killed enemies or found as dropped items that all have different effects and offer certain abilities. As an example there are of course items that heal you that include Weltcap mushrooms and roasted rats and later I believe there is also a mango that restores a lot of your health, which can be found on a more tricky location further into the game. There are also other mushrooms called Tarspore that cure poison damage and can be very handy at times in the game. 

Other items include tokens, which have an effect on your shell that allow a one-time boost to either your health or your attack power. Then there are shell effigy items that can allow the Foundling transfer between different shells while he is on the go although he can do this back at base in Fallgrim tower and there are similar items that will allow him to transfer between different weapons. And the last ones I will mention are scriptures that allow the Foundling to carry out different types of parry attacks or will additional effects to the parry themselves. 

As for familiarity, this is a system in the game whereby the Foundling will need to use an item to gain an understanding of what it does as all items on first pick up will reveal no details of their use until the Foundling has done so. And the more the Foundling uses the same item, the more familiar he will become with its use, which will displayed on the game's HUD.  

NPCs

As for the game's NPCs there are a few to be found in the game with the main ones featuring Sister Genessa, who can allow the Foundling to unlock their shells and use their abilities via the use of tar and glimpses. Genessa can be found throughout different areas in the game and serves as a checkpoint save for the player. Later in the game, Genessas will also prove you with merchant abilities and sell you unique items. Its also worth noting that whenever you speak to Genessa and accept her request to "sip tar" that it will reset your health but also the enemies outside in that area. 

Other NPCs include the Old Prisoner, who gives the Foundling the task of finding glands for him that he will trade in return for special abilities for your tarnished seal. The Old Prisoner will also play a very important part in the game later on but I won't say much more than that for now! Vlas, is another NPC who is a merchant in Fallgrim Tower, who will sell certain items such as roasted rats for healing, bolts for the Ballistazooka and inferior moonshine, which will grant resolve as well as quenching acid for upgrading your weapons (albeit only two). Vlas also owns a cat, which he likes you to pet, which in itself gives you an achievement for the game! ;-)

And last of all I will mention another key NPC of sorts, Thestus, who has the ability to summon or cancel the mist that appears in the game once the Foundling obtains a gland. Thestus can summon or dispel the mist by giving him a glimpse each time, which will allow the Foundling to obtain items from unlocked chests but the only downside here is that he will then be subjected to a hoard of ghouls that can poison and bite you! 

ENEMIES & BOSSES

And lastly are the enemies and bosses in the game, so I will mention them one after the other with the enemies first.

Enemies wise there are a decent variety here for your character to fight that start with basic enemies such as brigands with clubs and bows and stronger enemies, Sturdymen (according to Fextralife's wiki that is!) armed with the halberds that can perform jump and thrust attacks. And then there are of course the Nocteserper, who are the ghouls that stalk Fallgrim Tower during the mist and they are easily the most annoying enemies in the game as they have an unavoidable jump attack where they bite your neck and they can poison with their claws! Basically these guys suck! 

There are also stronger enemies that can be found later in the game such as Herald Knights who are armed with swords, shields or spears and other enemies such as Faceless Cleriks, who wield large maces and can clobber you into tomorrow! Other enemies also include the Sester, who are female warriors that use arbalests (i.e. crossbows) and swords. And lastly there are also other enemies that are basically wraiths that can summon different attacks such as fire, frost and stone pillars and they are also a big pain in the ass to deal with lol! 

As for the bosses, there aren't that many in the game although there are a few main bosses and mini bosses too. There are three primary bosses in the game that can be fought in the different temples that are Imrod, the unrepentant, who is a big armored who wields a large firey mace, Tarsus, a fallen knight with a large frozen sword that can skate on ice (literally!) and Crucix, the Twiceborn, who is a man that has a smaller twin attached to his chest! There is also a final boss but I wont mention them here as it is something of a spoiler so nuff said! The bosses overall a bit of a mixed bag in terms of challenge, so don't expect notorious Dark Souls levels of difficulty here but to be fair they aren't all pushovers either. 

GRAPHICS 

As for the graphics, Mortal Shell is a quite an impressive visual experience overall even if the game doesn't have a great variety in terms of its environments as Fallgrim tower is mostly very samey looking with its woodland areas all kind of blending into each other. However the three temples in the game are where the game offers some more impressive visual variety as a temple of fire, the Shrine of Ash, temple of ice, Crypt of Martyrs and lastly, the Seat of Infinity, which is easily the most visually stunning area in the game as well as the biggest with a large array of stone pillars and sun-kissed sky. 

The character models in the game are also pretty good overall even if they aren't too realistic (well it is a fantasy based game at any rate!) and the enemies all look fairly good in their respective designs as do the bosses. 

So, overall Mortal Shell offers a pretty solid graphical experience even if it is a bit lacking in variety in certain areas. 

MUSIC 

As for the music, I couldn't find any info on who wrote it but the score itself is pretty good overall as it is pretty dark and intense sounding with a more minimalist feel to it rather than a more grandiose one which you would associate with Souls games. And that in a way goes more in this game's favour as it does feel more like maybe what a Dark Souls soundtrack should be like from the standpoint of it being a cold dark world rather than a world where we are treated to loud orchestral strings and choirs, we do get a foreboding, minimal score that fits the bill perfectly. For sure though it does lack the memorable themes we have come to enjoy from the Souls franchise but its still one that is well suited to the game.

FLAWS 

As for flaws...Mortal Shell does have some.

For starters I would have to say one thing that bothers me is that as mentioned some of the areas in the game can appear pretty samey and as such makes it a confusing game to work through at times as you will easily get lost. This is especially true of Fallgrim which is a seemingly endless series of woodland areas that all blend together and its easy to get lost or take a wrong turn when you are trying to work your way through it. 

The same can also be said of the game's most impressive visual area, the Seat of Infinity, which when I first went through it, I had no idea how you could progress further and it took watching a Youtube walkthrough video that you use teleport devices to travel between different points! However the game doesn't even make this remotely obvious itself, which did leave me a bit annoyed at the game's vagueness.

I also feel that while the combat of the game is fairly solid that at times you do feel like you are playing the game in slow motion as the enemies can move so slowly toward you and you have plenty of time to attack them before they even make a move on you! So, yeah I can see the sluggish pace in the combat as something that might turn off some gamers and especially ones with a need for speed. 

Another thing that really bugged me was to do with the whole mist state sequences when the Foundling retrieves a gland to return to the old prisoner, it turns that area you got it from dark and also proved to be a pain in the ass for me to get through the levels without dying over and over! This was especially true of the ice temple as the enemies there are really infuriating to deal with and not only that once you get out back into Fallgrim you have to contend with hoards of those bloody annoying ghouls! So, yeah the mist sequences in the game and the dark areas after obtaining the glands were easily my least favorite moments of the game.

Then there is the issue of the healing items in the game as they are pretty sparse at times to collect and you are most of the time really dependent on either waiting to grab the weltcap mushrooms that grow wild in certain areas as they regenerate, either that or purchase roasted rats from Vlas or pull off effective parries to restore health. So, yeah I actually spent alot more time going between different areas to obtain the Weltcap mushrooms more than anything else, especially as I suck at parrying in this game lol!

And this brings me onto my final issue with the game, which IS the parrying system which can be pretty tricky to pull off correctly and the main reason for this comes down to the varied and unpredictable pacing of enemies attacks. There are plenty of different enemies in the game and they all have their own pace and styles of attack which can be tricky to deal with and more times than not its easy to mess up the parries. I also had to remember that I needed to have resolve to perform a parry successively and to be fair half of the time I was able to get the parry to work. However, I still think its a very tricky mechanic in the game that can be difficult to get to grips with far more so than any of the Souls games. 

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So to sum up, Mortal Shell is an excellent RPG that brings some really good ideas and a unique spin on the Souls franchise with its use of the shell hardening mechanic and resolve, it really does bring something different to the table. The game also has some fairly solid combat and some pretty impressive visuals and a pretty low-key intense soundtrack. 

And yes there are some issues with the game pertaining to its slower paced combat, lack of graphical variety (at times!) and tricky parrying mechanics as well as some annoying enemies and areas. However if you can forgive all that then there is still a lot to enjoy here and I definitely recommend trying the game out, especially if you are a Souls fan.

Right, that's it for now and I will be back with another post quite soon.

Till then its ciao for now!