Mortal Shell (indie Souls-like)

Drexion

Drexion

Well-known member
"Mortal Shell is a deep action-RPG that tests your sanity and resilience in a shattered world. Your adversaries spare no mercy, with survival demanding superior awareness and precision. Possess lost warriors, discover hidden sanctums, and face formidable foes."

Releases on 18th Aug for approx $30. I've heard prices scale very nicely on EGS in developing countries.

From Outerhaven's review:
"It’s still hard to believe that Mortal Shell is Cold Symmetry’s first game, as this game rivals many AAA games. Everything in the game screams quality, from the gameplay to the art and sound direction. As a long time fan of Soulslike games, Mortal Shell has shot to the top of my favorite game lists and I can’t wait to see what the devs do next. If you enjoy these sorts of games like I do, I recommend giving Mortal Shell a try." (source)

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Review embargo is up, so reviews are up at all the usual suspects. Average review score seems to be about 8/10, which is impressive for a low budget indie title.
 
Price is ok. Not too bad.

But I have seen a lot of gameplay for the last month for this game. It looks ok..
 
I finally got around to checking out some gameplay videos today and I'm impressed.

I'm a long time Souls fan but the genre has been going stale with me over the past couple years. I played Sekiro and loved it, mainly because it was quite different, but anything else Souls-like i just haven't been interested in. I want some new advances with the genre and Mortal Shell however seems to add a good bit of new mechanics that look fun and i want to try them out.

Got a few current games still being played at the moment but after those i may pick this one up.
 
Just saw this while browsing the EGS sale page. Looks like a really tough game, but intense. I appreciate the death metal alternative soundtrack that you can get as a free DLC.

Wish it were on Steam so I could see user reviews and make a call.

This blurb has my interest, but also has me hesitating:

"Combat is strategic, deliberate, and unforgiving."
 
it has some interesting mechanics, like the shell, and it's kinda unforgiving (sometimes). But i still enjoyed it
 
Crawdaddy79 said:
Just saw this while browsing the EGS sale page. Looks like a really tough game, but intense. I appreciate the death metal alternative soundtrack that you can get as a free DLC.

Wish it were on Steam so I could see user reviews and make a call.

This blurb has my interest, but also has me hesitating:

"Combat is strategic, deliberate, and unforgiving."
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Yeah, I just can't play souls like games anymore. When the "game" is more work than fun it ceases to be a game imo. I don't enjoy dying to a random enemy 3 or 4 times until I learn it's pattern, especially when you are punished for dying.
 
xCLAVEx said:
Yeah, I just can't play souls like games anymore. When the "game" is more work than fun it ceases to be a game imo. I don't enjoy dying to a random enemy 3 or 4 times until I learn it's pattern, especially when you are punished for dying.
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That is a subjective statement though. A lot of people do enjoy the repetitiveness of these types of games, and the incremental slow progress players experience. All those Souls games players can't be wrong, right? It really can be satisfying to slowly get better and better and finally master a challenging part of a game that absolutely crushed you first time you played it.

I don't think it so much equates to "work" as you said. Just depends on if you like the game or not. If you are enjoying and having fun with the gameplay then it can't feel like work right? But it can if you just don't like it.

I would say you can call any style of game work if you don't enjoy it. For example I could call RTS games "work" because they just aren't fun to me.
 
This game had amazing atmosphere. They really nailed that aspect.

xCLAVEx said:
When the "game" is more work than fun
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Can't have the highs without the lows. In other genres where you just button mash your way to victory, the 'highs' tend to feel a bit shallow. It's all about compromise, are you willing to suffer through the occasional frustrating sequences for the amazing adrenaline rush moments when you finally beat that one boss that's giving you trouble?

If you say yes, the Souls genre is for you. If you say no, there's nothing wrong with that - other genres await you and there's nothing wrong with skipping out on the Souls games.

I think a mid point is fine. Some souls games I can put up with, some I can't and simply stop playing. I never completed Mortal Shell because the "combat when locked on" was very clunky, for some reason they lower your movement speed to 10% when you're locked on to an enemy. (they prob wanted to encourage usage of the hardening mechanic)
 
Meteor_of_War said:
That is a subjective statement though. A lot of people do enjoy the repetitiveness of these types of games, and the incremental slow progress players experience. All those Souls games players can't be wrong, right? It really can be satisfying to slowly get better and better and finally master a challenging part of a game that absolutely crushed you first time you played it.

I don't think it so much equates to "work" as you said. Just depends on if you like the game or not. If you are enjoying and having fun with the gameplay then it can't feel like work right? But it can if you just don't like it.

I would say you can call any style of game work if you don't enjoy it. For example I could call RTS games "work" because they just aren't fun to me.
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As you said. Subjective. What you would call "fun" I would call work. I did play the first souls game and liked it when it came out. I got pretty far (don't remember exactly why I stopped) but just couldn't do it again.

That said, the Elderborne game you told me about is fun and not very frustrating at all. Usually if I die there it's due to me making a mistake, not being melted by impossible enemy #*****

I wish I liked these games because they look like fun but I always end up frustrated playing them lol.
 
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They certainly aren't games made for everyone, and while they've become a mainstream genre I'd never try to argue they are.

Souls-like games are very similar to the old school 8-bit games on NES, like Ninja Gaiden or something. They had that unforgiving (but fair) difficulty that required you to play the same parts over and over until you built up the muscle memory and dexterity to get past it easily. Might be why I enjoy Souls-like games so much, because I grew up on those tough old games and have fond memories of escaping my childhood and getting lost in them.

That kind of repetitive difficulty is at the core of what video games are to me, and the Souls series was like a godsend because I felt games were turning to crap. A lot of modern games' difficulty is just too forgiving and have too much hand-holding to keep my attention.
 
Meteor_of_War said:
They certainly aren't games made for everyone, and while they've become a mainstream genre I'd never try to argue they are.

Souls-like games are very similar to the old school 8-bit games on NES, like Ninja Gaiden or something. They had that unforgiving (but fair) difficulty that required you to play the same parts over and over until you built up the muscle memory and dexterity to get past it easily. Might be why I enjoy Souls-like games so much, because I grew up on those tough old games and have fond memories of escaping my childhood and getting lost in them.

That kind of repetitive difficulty is at the core of what video games are to me, and the Souls series was like a godsend because I felt games were turning to crap. A lot of modern games' difficulty is just too forgiving and have too much hand-holding to keep my attention.
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Oh god Ninja Gaiden and NG II, I played the hell out of them. I was more of a glutton for punishment back then I guess. Beat them both many times...but THOSE ****ING BIRDS ALWAYS KNOCKING ME OFF PLATFORMS! :mad:
 
Picked this up and started playing it yesterday.

The hardening mechanic works very well as it allows you to shield at any point. Too many games you have to wait for your sword-swinging animation to finish before you can throw up your shield, and of course by then it's too late. I remapped it to Q. Remapped use quick item to C. Remapped walk to CTRL.

I like by default you hit Tab to lock on. This was how Blade of Darkness did it. :drool:

Initial enemies are pretty dumb in that there are bear traps set up around their camp that they lackadaisically bumble into as you kite them. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Health 'shrooms regrow (very slowly). There is a timer that hovers above them that you can stare at while you wait.

The atmosphere is every bit the stuff of my worst nightmares. You know the one where I find a hatch in my basement, crawl down, and this. Except I'm barefoot so everything I step on is slimy or painful. I guess skinless dude is technically barefoot in the beginning.

There are some elements that I don't understand. What are the consequences of dying. What does it take to make the shell die. When does my shell get a name. This makes me scared to venture outside of my comfort zone and I dunno... it's not like I've gotten far or collected lots of XP.

One major thing this game needs is dismemberment. I'd pay extra. The sound effect as you slice an enemy from head to groin is fantastic, but they fall disappointingly in one piece in scripted animation.

One thing for sure, it's a good distraction from all the crap going on 30 miles away.
 
I grabbed this because with the coupon it was less than $10 on Epic, but after about an hour of gameplay I don't know if I like it at all. I've basically just wandered around a murky swamp area aimlessly. No bonfires or like that I could find to save or heal and it seemed like I wasn't really going anywhere or doing anything.
 
Jet Black said:
I grabbed this because with the coupon it was less than $10 on Epic, but after about an hour of gameplay I don't know if I like it at all. I've basically just wandered around a murky swamp area aimlessly. No bonfires or like that I could find to save or heal and it seemed like I wasn't really going anywhere or doing anything.
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You need to get up into the tower and find the lady who sounds like Salad Fingers.

That will be your new respawn area, and your shell will have a name and can be upgraded. Doesn't take much to get there, just go straight and plow through some lutists and you'll see a door on the left with torchlight. Go there.

That's your new hub, and from there you explore/progress. Not sure if a new hub is in the future but that's where I'm at now. Got the parry ability which you can't use unless your tainted seal is glowing (:manches:), I learned the hard way.
 
Crawdaddy79 said:
You need to get up into the tower and find the lady who sounds like Salad Fingers.

That will be your new respawn area, and your shell will have a name and can be upgraded. Doesn't take much to get there, just go straight and plow through some lutists and you'll see a door on the left with torchlight. Go there.

That's your new hub, and from there you explore/progress. Not sure if a new hub is in the future but that's where I'm at now. Got the parry ability which you can't use unless your tainted seal is glowing (:manches:), I learned the hard way.
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Thanks. I stumbled upon a Kotaku article which basically said "go here to the first checkpoint so you don't waste hours like I did"... at least I wasn't alone :D

I have the parry as well, and I can't figure it out. Something odd with the timing. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't (and yes it's glowing when I test). Any tips on that?

I'm still so-so on it but it's kinda neat. I agree that they should have done more with the damage and have some dismemberment or something. I'm worried I wasted a lot of the glimpse stuff when I was wandering around and not sure if it regenerates or is limited across the game. Still lots of stuff I don't understand.

I'm guessing I have to keep going until I am strong/skilled enough to fight that big baddy on the other side of all the bear traps?
 
you'll get the hang of it in no time, trust me. It isn't for everyone though, granted. And yes, it is a bit rough on the edges if you might call it so. Still a fun and rewarding game, if you ask me. Took me some time to get used to the parry, but it's kinda essential later on. Once you get the timing down the fights are getting so much more enjoyable.
 
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