Surprisingly announced on April 1, 2020, but without any joke, Mortal Shell is a title that immediately made people talk about itself and managed in a short time to build a solid community attentive and anxiously waiting to be able to get their hands on this mysterious and captivating Action RPG / souls-like. In fact, the title developed by Cold Symmetry has been in the works for about two years and it should not surprise therefore the launch window (Summer 2020) so close to the announcement. Always surprisingly, the open beta was made available pending the imminent launch and, as we mentioned, Mortal Shell was presented and confirmed in a clear way as a souls-like, and it is a fact, because the general setting of the title, the incipit, the development of the lore and so on, refer to the famous franchise created by FromSoftware, however, the initial déjà vu will be partly put aside thanks to a new interpretation of the genre, the core of the gameplay of Cold Symmetry's work.
In a shattered world we will be called to make the offering to the Dark Father, to save the remains of humanity, looking for the hidden sanctuaries where we will find devoted followers to this mysterious Lord. The few elements revealed in the plot of Mortal Shell lead us to the awakening of what we could easily define as an empty being, in an almost dreamlike world made of ponds and gates.
here a tutorial phase opens that recalls the beginnings of the first Dark Souls, although there are no cells and there is no ruined manor, and which culminates in an almost impossible initial boss fight: when the energy bar is close to the end we will fortunately be saved by a cut scenes that will catapult our mysterious alter-ego in the first game location. The beta then immediately brings us to know the main feature of the title, the one that gives the name to the Cold Symmetry production, that is the possibility of occupying an empty shell, the mortal remains of a fallen warrior and of which we will be able to exploit the skills.
Here, therefore, that the characteristic with which the Mortal Shell title clearly detaches itself from Dark Souls is revealed immediately. We will not be able to create our character from scratch by choosing a particular class or object but we will go to find and occupy these mortal shells able to accommodate our character, naked and apparently with limited defenses.
In reality there is a peculiarity that, if mastered with skill, can become a not indifferent weapon even in the phases in which we will be without a "shell". In fact, our alter ego has the innate ability to petrify for a few moments, as can be learned in the initial stages of the tutorial, and this feature can be used both in defense, to avoid a blow, and in attack, to amplify the blow or disorient our opponent. The use of this skill is regulated by a time bar but it is not clear if, going forward in the game, it will be possible to enhance its use by increasing its duration.
In the two locations explored during the public beta of Mortal Shell the fights were not lacking and, as a good souls-like, the enemies proved to be difficult right from the start with a high risk of failure and death. In part this is explained by the fact that the environments, unlike Dark Souls, were more circumscribed and full of narrow passages (especially in the classic Catacombs) and therefore suitable for ambushes and not very easy for sword fights.
We forget the bonfires, the fire keeper and the gestures, even if our character can sit and play some sort of lute at any time, however a mysterious female character will allow us to acquire new skills by spending our "Tar" and our "Glimpses" to master new skills and increase affinity with our shells. At the same time, a bit like in the various Dark Souls, in talking to her we will see the energy restored but also all the enemies killed previously.
In this beta phase we have found a whole series of objects whose purpose is revealed by reaching a certain number of uses. The scarce presence of consumables for restoring energy made the section of the Catacombs very difficult, especially in the presence of enemies capable of causing poisoning. However the opponents did not seem to us equipped with a very great AI and tended to perform the same attacks and movements in a repetitive manner, especially in the combat phase. Here we find the main flaw of Mortal Shell with commands not always reactive and precise - especially when dodging and using petrifaction - that make the combat too tactical and too chaotic, leading us to attack aggressively to exhaust and knock down the enemy on duty.
The defense system is interesting which, in addition to the use of dodging and petrifaction, consists of a sort of token capable of absorbing the attack - if called with the right timing - and recharging an energy bar useful for carrying out devastating attacks. As in Dark Souls we will have a bar for energy and a bar for the stamina consumable for "rolls", attacks and running and rechargeable in time.
Analyzing the technical components, we were able to appreciate a good, but not excellent, use of the Unreal Engine 4 with detailed textures for both characters and environments, albeit in a fluctuating way. The title on PC was fluid and, by adjusting some settings, it is enjoyable even on slightly dated machines. The sound effects were already of a good level but the soundtrack did not particularly stand out.
However, we are sure that, in these weeks or months that separate us from the release of Mortal Shell, many of these elements will be filed and refined to give us a complete product that can be combined with titles with a much larger budget. Cold Symmetry has in fact already examined the many feedback received during the beta through the official Discord channel, in which there has been a lot of activity from the players, and no doubt he will still have some work to do in fine-tuning the combat mechanics but overall he is already on the right track.
The beta released by Cold Symmetry was a bolt from the blue in this early July and showed excellent foundations for a game with good potential and which will soon arrive on the Epic Games Store (and then arrive next year on Steam), PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Certainly the end of summer 2020 is not so far away but Mortal Shell could be confirmed as a surprise of this 2020 and enrich an atavistic difficult and complex genre, both in the interpretation of the narrative and in the gameplay, but which can give satisfaction and a sense of decidedly unusual challenge, but always appreciated, these days.
► Mortal Shell is an RPG type game developed by Cold Symmetry and published by Playstack for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 30/09/2020
Mortal Shell is a nice game that we recommend - we decided to rate it with a 74%, if you are interested in learning more you can read the Mortal Shell Review
