The indie game Mortal Shell was released nearly two years ago, and its impact on the Soulslike genre has been substantial. Though the developer, Cold Symmetry, is small, the game feels like an AAA title that can stand alongside other Soulslike games such as Nioh and The Surge. Many players are still intimidated by the genre and might be wondering which game is best to break them into it. Mortal Shell is the perfect game to bring new Soulslike players into the fold.
In Mortal Shell, there is no fear of invasions from NPCs or other players. The skill trees are very straightforward, as are the weapons, and they’re both easy to max out. The game itself is not very large compared to Dark Souls or Bloodborne, so completing it is not as daunting. Players are also afforded a forgiving ability called “hardening” to help them along their way.
When players start Mortal Shell, their character is naked with no armor whatsoever. However, this is not as terrible as it sounds — the starting tutorial teaches the player how to harden, and they are also given a weapon called the Hallowed Blade. The ability to harden is the player’s greatest defense against enemies as it’s inexhaustible and has a relatively quick cool-down time.
Hardening allows players to turn into a stone-like statue, which freezes the player on the spot and breaks as soon as an enemy’s attack connects. The hardened layer of the player shatters when struck and absorbs all the damage from the enemy’s attack, causing the enemy to stagger. If the player attacks when the enemy is stunned, they can get an easy two or three hits in before the enemy can attack. The player then just has to dash away and allow the hardening ability to cool down before they can use it again. This is the simplest and most effective way of dealing with enemies in Mortal Shell.
The first weapon in the game, the Hallowed Blade, might sound great, but it’s just a basic sword. However, the Hallowed Blade can take the player to the end of the game. Each weapon can be leveled up to a level 5 in the regular game and higher in New Game +. Unlike many Soulslike games, which have hundreds of weapons to choose from, Mortal Shell only has five. Each weapon has its own attributes and attack patterns, but these are not hard to master.
In Mortal Shell, the player is a wandering soul with no armor or attributes. Finding corpses of fallen warriors, or shells, allows the player to take on the armor and attributes of that shell. There are only four shells to find in the game, and like the weapons, they aren’t hard to find. Each shell allows for a different play style that players can experiment with.
A great feature of Mortal Shell is that it allows players to swap between shells at their home base whenever they feel like it, so players aren’t locked into a particular play style for the whole game. As players unlock skills for their chosen shell, they will also unlock little audio snippets of what that warrior was like in life. The unlocked audio clips help unravel the game’s twisted story.
Mortal Shell is the most forgiving Soulslike on the market, and it’s the perfect game to play for anyone curious about getting into the genre. Although Mortal Shell is the most forgiving, it’s still a challenge but not as daunting as many games in the genre can be. As with any other Soulslike game, Mortal Shell is a game of cautious progression and is very rewarding when conquered. Mortal Shell is a love letter to Dark Souls, and it’s a great jumping-off point for players new to the Soulslike genre.