Mortal Shell Review

Ever since Dark Souls released in 2011, there has been a legion of copycat games. In fact, the popularity of this genre has led to the creation of a new name for them. Similar titles are now known as Soulslike and feature several consistent elements. These include incredibly difficult gameplay, a mysterious story that players discover themselves, along with slow and careful gameplay. Mortal Shell is the latest such example of this trend.

Developer Cold Symmetry has not even tried to hide the fact that Mortal Shell is heavily inspired by Dark Souls. But that means that the title has a lot to live up to. You cannot make such remarks without inviting comparisons from critics and players. Fortunately, Mortal Shell gets more right than it does wrong. But that doesn’t mean that it is quite up to the standard of FromSoftware’s own games.

Story

What players will immediately discover when playing Mortal Shell is that there is not much of a story. At least, there isn’t a story in the traditional sense. You simply crawl out from what looks like a swamp and emerge into the world. From the opening moments, you’ll get no real idea of who you are and what your purpose is. Instead, Mortal Shell simply throws you into the action straight away and doesn’t waste time explaining these types of details. The few clues that are revealed come from remarks by NPCs or item descriptions.

The general idea, though, is that you are a phantom-like being known as a Foundling. In order to interact with the word, this Foundling has to possess the bodies of fallen warriors. These corpses become the shells for your spirit, allowing you to advance. But the narrative really doesn’t go anywhere exciting. The lore is largely left unexplored with just a few tidbits for you to discover. While Dark Souls and other Soulslike games take a similar approach, Mortal Shell takes it a bit too far. There is simply not enough in the story to keep you interested in the plot.