Mortal Shell 2 Review (PS5)

Mortal Shell 2 is an expanded soulslike sequel that packs a lot into a focused experience. It took me just 30 hours to roll credits, but across that time I explored multiple biomes, fought dozens of bosses, and delved into an abundance of dungeons.

From the outset, I think there's so much about Mortal Shell 2 that feels like your standard soulslike fare. You have tough combat, an interconnected maze of a setting, and a hands-off approach. But the game has some sparks of ingenuity sprinkled across it all that really elevate the experience.

You are a godling called Lavendar and worshipped as the Harbinger. Your quest is to find and collect the fertile Ova of the Mether, pearlescent egg-like objects spread across the land. Unlike the first game’s fairly linear levels, Mortal Shell 2 is home to an interconnected open world.

The first thing you’ll be struck with is a cool heavy-metal-inspired aesthetic. I was really impressed with the sense of atmosphere baked into some of this world, and more importantly, the diversity of its areas. Some sported bone-white structures with vein-like ripples in the surface. Others were ruined castles filled with corrupted knights.

Generally speaking, it’s a good bit of fun to explore this world, especially since it’s stuffed with hidden pathways that reveal new areas or shortcuts. And what’s cooler is that each area comes with its own enemies, and the variety is brilliant.

There’s a genuine sense of playfulness to a lot of the enemy encounters you have here. Like in Mushroom Village, where you’ll be swarmed by dancing hags playing the accordion. Or there’s a Shepherd-styled boss I fought that commanded a flock of demonic sheep. I think this might be the first time I’ve laughed while playing a soulslike.

But what is any of that without a solid combat experience? Well, thankfully, Mortal Shell 2 has a deep yet paradoxically streamlined RPG system. Weapons all sport light and heavy attacks, you can dodge, block, or, if your timing is good, set enemies up with a perfect parry. In all honesty, those opening hours felt rather basic, but Mortal Shell 2 does have a trick or two up its sleeve.

For one, there is no stamina metre, allowing you to spam attacks to your heart’s content. There’s still a break metre so you can only block so many attacks, but it does give combat at its most basic a pretty snappy feel and a nice pace. It certainly helps that weapons have a lovely crunch to them, as you heave steel through flesh, pulverising enemies into a meaty heap. There’s a brilliant weight to each attack.

And then, some of those sparks are sprinkled. Like the sidearms, which range from satisfying shotguns to full-on mini-guns. Or the Tarstones, which kit your character out with a variety of attacks or perks attached to either your melee or sidearms.

You’ll spend a lot of time hunting down these weapons, which can be found in the game's copious amount of dungeons. Some of these dungeons can be a little samey, but again, every now and again you’ll get a cool experiment, like when I was forced to drink a concoction which inverted my controls.

There’s only one kind of each weapon, so each discovery feels quite meaningful. When I found the Axatana, a pair of katanas that can be combined into one big axe for heavy attacks, I knew that was the fit for me, and it paired up perfectly with the levelled-up Naylshotte shotgun.

But the star of the show is the shells, which act as this game’s version of classes. There are eight throughout the world, and each comes with its own ability. Like Tiel, who can briefly turn invisible to strike unsuspecting enemies, or Proxima, who injects enemies with a grapple attack, weakening them and closing the gap. My personal favourite for most of my playthrough was Gragu who could replenish his healing supplies by killing enemies. Very handy.

There’s a fun story to each of the shells, both in discovering them and levelling them up. Sometimes you’ll discover their remains in a crypt; other times they will act as a boss that you must defeat. Then once you’ve claimed them, you can level up your bond, which reveals short flashbacks to their life before their demise.

But levelling up your bond also unlocks new skill tree tiers, which let you improve their skills and perks. For Gragu, for example, I was able to double the amount of healing supplies, how much they healed me, and how easily they replenished. For Proxima, my grapple attack eventually hit enemies with lightning strikes, which I was now immune to, and I could nullify some attacks too. I was basically a god of thunder come the end.

Upgrading these shells can severely change your playstyle in Mortal Shell 2, and what’s better is that it doesn’t lock you down to any one of the shells. While there is a currency called Glimpses, which are needed to level up your shell bond, skill points can be refunded at no cost and reapplied to another. It allowed me to muck about with the different shells to see which abilities and playstyles suited me best.

It may sound somewhat convoluted, but in practice it’s very accessible and understandable. I’m usually someone who struggles knowing what is needed to upgrade your gear in soulslikes, but in Mortal Shell 2 it’s all very clearly signposted and streamlined. Even a basic levelling system just automatically upgrades base stats, without you having to worry about pushing points into strength or stamina.

All of this lets you get into the action, and when you’re dancing between upgraded shell skills, sidearms equipped with Tarstone abilities, and a levelled-up weapon, combat is brilliant.

There’s a real difficulty spike in the middle of the game, where some enemies will take you out in one or two hits, which makes each combat encounter feel very intense. And since most areas come with their own new enemies, some with great designs, you’re constantly kept on your toes.

You do have a second life, so to speak, where you are knocked out of your shell and back into your godling form. In this state, you have to hit enemies enough to build up a blood requirement to transform back. You can technically do this infinitely – from what I can tell – but each time you die, the requirement gets higher. It’s always quite satisfying, though, as you are knocked back into your godling form and slam the ground to get back to your feet, ready for the fight.

Most of my issues with the game only started cropping up towards the end. The final stretch of the game is gated by an Ova collection requirement, and personally I felt it was a little excessive. I had to scour the map to discover where I’d missed the Ova, which was made all the more irritating by dungeons having to be manually marked as completed on the map. While I tried to be fairly vigilant with marking these, I obviously missed a few, so it meant a lot of backtracking and a few hours wasted.

And since the game wants you to really explore every nook and cranny, come the end of the game, I was pretty overpowered. It was great fun to start, but it also meant I never took more than two tries to beat the final bosses of the game. A nitpick for sure, but I personally expected a bit more of a challenge here.

Thankfully, my time spent with the game was fairly breezy from a technical standpoint. I played across both PS5 and PS5 Pro, both of which sport Quality and Performance modes, at 30fps and 60fps, respectively. You’ll get a little dip in frames here or there on both versions of the console, but nothing too egregious.

Visually, it’s sporadically impressive. Some areas clearly get a bit more love than others, and it’s never quite hitting Demon’s Souls levels at its best. Still, there’s a nice vibe to most of the locales in this game. Disappointingly, DualSense implementation is restricted to basic rumbles pretty much, there’s nothing to note there.