Mortal Shell II | REVIEW | PC/STEAM

''GREETINGS MORTALS!''

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Developed: Cold Symmetry

Published: Playstack

Genre: Action Souls Like

Release Date: August 20th, 2026

Platforms: PS5/XBOX Family/PC

GAME PROVIDED TO ME BY PLAYSTACKS

Mortal Shell is back with its anticipated sequel and it is developed by Cold Symmetry and published b Playstack. With the first game in this series being a surprise to many with how good it was, Cold Symmetry now attempts to make this next game even grander than before. However did that manage to do what they wanted to accomplish? or is it a case of getting a little too ambitious? Only one way to find out, so lets go!

''HOW DOGS THINK THEY LOOK WHEN NEIGHBOR IS OUTSIDE''

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GAMEPLAY:

I previously covered Mortal Shell, the first game, back in 2020, a whole 6 years ago and at the height of an era we'd definitely like to forget, which is obviously the Covid era. As someone who has over the years grown tired of the Souls-Like genre and nauseated at the fact that everything at one point when it would release would be ''ITS SOULS LIKE'' and have no direction other than that because people wanted to leech off From Softwares glory they achieved with the genre they created themselves, when that happens, everytime I'd roll my eyes and click the skip button or ignore it completely because I knew it was going to just be cookie cutter, but usually done worse with clunkier gameplay and even worse hit detection. Then came along Mortal Shell and since I was generously sent the game by Cold Symmetry way back when to cover on my channel, I decided, what the hell, one more couldn't hurt. So with my cynical nature, I went into it thinking ''well lets get this over with already'' because I was expecting another substandard Souls-Like, but what I got was obviously Souls-Like, yes, but the environments, story and the character actually felt thought out, fleshed out, controls were good, the right amount of difficulty was infused to it, it was a ''holy crap'' moment because finally, out of all the Souls-Like copy and pastes, one finally came along and showed genuine effort and great attention to detail and completely sold and immersed me into what they wanted to sell me with. Obviously after I gave it a glowing review here on my website, but I had always wondered if we'd do another game in the series, and after many years of silent, no announcements, I chalked it up to being a ''one and done'', but to my surprise, here in the big ol 2026, Mortal Shell has returned in grand form with a sequel that aims to fix what was wrong with the first game, but expand on the stuff that completely worked and made the first title memorable in the first place. This brings us to Mortal Shell 2 and what this entry has to offer the player.

Mortal Shell 2 knows what it is off the bat, it knows you want bigger boss fights, more varied environments, tweaks to its combat, plethora of weapons to choose from,etc, but what it pushes aside in doing so is the overall story the game tries to tell. You wont get this boisterous storyline with intricate cutscenes, 20 min long dialogues explaining things to do, no amazing grand adventure told by an unknowingly narrator, nope none that, instead you're treated to ''A'' story...yes.. but one that's straight tunnel vision and mostly a one way street as far as its objective and how its told to you. Which honestly its okay? I guess?, it doesn't really hurt the overall game in my opinion because the meat and bones lies within its gameplay anyways, so its a pro over con moment with pro winning out in this instance. Example of this ''knowing what fans want'' is a more structured map design compared to the first game that felt a tad bit too condensed together, at least for my personal liking, but here in the sequel with more freedom of movement around your environment and ability to combat and conjunctioning that alongside fast player speed and movement, similar to From Software's series, it makes the world you walk in feel more intuitive in by default. Before in the first game your movement was slower, environment more enclosed so it made things feel too cramped and unnecessary, but all of that is fixed in Mortal Shell 2. It might be what made the first game difficult in my opinion, limitations and lower area of movement definitely played the part, however Mortal Shell 2 doesnt skimp on those details either and the game still remains tough, but fair and just as frustrating at times when you're running around an area minding your own business and then BAM you're dead from a projectile out of nowhere, like WHAT THE HELL, WHO DID THAT!?. Which immediately pisses you off and makes you want to hunt them down, HOWEVER by running to try to find them to get revenge, an enemy will pop out of a blind spot and SLICE AND SLICE and bam, you're dead once again. The game purposely rage baits you into moments like that to test your resilience and patience since the slow and methodical approach to combat and combating its enemies is still the sure fire way to go about it. Just...not for me, I'm too stupid and just like NPC's talking crap to me in games, which leads to their death, if you kill me in a game like this, I WILL FIND YOU AND I WILL KILL YOU. Sure it may take 5 to 6 tries, but dammit, you're dying you dang jerk. What makes me dumb for doing this though is the checkpoints in this game, aka bonfires that will help you track your progress aren't as plentiful, so when you do completely dumb crap like me, your progress can be set back farther than you were expecting, which may piss you off quite a bit. BUT I DONT CARE, HE HAD TO DIE, SO ITS WHATEVER.

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''WHEN SOMEONE INSULTS YOUR DOG''

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Gloom, much like Souls in the Souls games acts as your currency that you use to boost stats for your character overall for things like health, attack, that sort of thing, with other currencies like Glimpse give you abilities to use for your shell and gold obviously is used for buying more items and weapons. Straight forward right? typical of a game of this nature, but Gloom and Glimpse? is it me or does that sound like Pokemon and its evolution? Gloom evolves into Glimpse. I dont think were far off with that, but were off topic. Losing Gloom is another thing that will piss you off and it works exactly as you think it does, you die, drop it, you have to reclaim it and should you screw up and die before doing so, there it is, its gone, YOU GET NOTHING, YOU LOSE, GOOD DAY SIR, now you'll have to grind and grind enemies in order to replace what you lost, which can take awhile, so I recommend being careful. Further enhancing the experience for the player is the new uses for your health items to regain health and complete deletion of the use of a stamina bar. Now on paper, thats confusing because isn't the stamina bar what makes Souls-Like games so competitive and tough? well yes, mostly, but with limited health uses and constant watching of the stamina, it only appeals to people who like that sort of thing, or who are masochists like you and me. Mortal Shell 2 attempts to find balance between the every dayer and the hardcore player by making your health item rechargeable and stamina watching a thing of the past. Difficulty then changes from just managing how many times you can attack before having to back off and regain stamina and now relies on not the amount you attack but WHEN you do so because picking the right spot now is more important than ever due to the enemy being able to counter, stagger you or if you screw up on a combination attack, they make you pay for it with one or two consecutive strikes that will send you reeling. I know I know, you're supposed to block in this game, mainly because doing so will let you counter any enemies damage they do to you and when blocked correctly, staggers your enemy and allows you to take the attack back to them, but again, I'm stupid and I prefer to look like a crazy person and roll and jump all around the place like Link's crazy butt in Ocarina of Time, and HYAH HYAH HYAH my butt, or just play some Sonic music over my gameplay footage and that works too. I recommend doing what the game WANTS you to do, I'm a very bad influence because I got so used to it during Demon Souls on PS3 when I'd roll around with my character with nothing but his underwear on and beat the game pretty much naked. Safe to say... it doesnt work in every game and I do NOT recommend doing for Mortal Shell 2. But... if you want to roll around your OWN house naked in underwear, go for it, no one is stopping you.

Item usage this go around plays a role in your survival and triumph as well, this time acting as permanent additions to your arsenal rather than something thats temporary, similar to my skills on the Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 4 beta where for 30 seconds, I was temporary good like the old days playing online team death match, only to them come back to my senses and become washed once gain. Thankfully that isnt the case her as items stay with it once used like a passive ability. But I'm a vanilla player, I always TRY to stay away from item usage or things that overly buff me and simply walk in with my trust sword, shield or crossbows if I am able to, and while yes I used those weapons the majority of my time with the game, alongside my double axe, I did dabble into item usage this time time and even found out how to summon another being to come to my aid to help and fight alongside me, so I guess thats the end of my vanilla run? oh well, I kind of like summoning other things to my side since I just use them to get all aggro and sacrifice them if need be so i can make my grand escape while they die instead. What? I mean it works right? just as my small Carbuncle in Final Fantasy XI how many times I left him to die, but my life is spared because of it. Dont worry, he got treats afterwards...TREATED TO ANOTHER DEATH THAT IS, RUN!. Another item you can obtain are Tarstones, these can be used similar to a passive upgrade to get the ability to take less damage from your enemies should you be getting frustrated how much health gets taken per hit, higher melee output when certain conditions are met like low health, etc. It honestly reminds me of a lot of roguelike games where in between rounds you get an option for an upgrade before moving on to the next round, Tarstones work similarly and with around 10 or so to use and equipped, your character can be diverse, destructive, defensive and unique to your style of play, giving it a huge advantage over other Souls-Like game on the market who stick to just basic bare bones gameplay, and it made Mortal Shell 2 MUCH more fun to play in longer sessions rather than short bursts. So this is all great and all, but what do you actually do? like objective wise?. Well that too is pretty simple, the goal for your character is to go to each Corrupted Gate that is located somewhere far off on the map and kill the people in charge, all while fighting off hordes of enemies in between and tackling VERY difficult dungeons that will make you at times want to pull your hair out due to how frustrating some can but, BUT, when conquering them, the feeling of satisfaction you get makes it totally worth the headache afterwards. Thankfully each Dungeon isnt a copy and paste job either and every single one is unique with its own gimmick to overcome, environmental hazard and for your troubles are rewarded handsomely with a treasure that more than makes up for the effort you put in. My only real gripe for the game is its actually END game and by the time you get to the end game, if you didnt rush, its very underwhelming. That's not because its terrible or anything, but because of how overpowered you get, the lack of stamina bar and healing items regenerating, being able to summon things to your side, crafting, it ends up by the time you reach the end of the game, its actually no challenge at all and you just slice through the last hours of the game like you're playing on easy mode. This is when you learn the pros and cons of making it more accessible to EVERYONE over the hardcore, but while it WAS disappointing, its nothing that killed the games fun factor overall, at last to me.

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''WHEN YOUR 3 DOGS COME ASKING FOR A TREAT''

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OVERALL:

At the end of the day, Mortal Shell 2 does exactly what it needed to do, which is take what was amazing and interesting about the first game, expand it, fix what fans hated about the original, keep what worked and throw it into a blender and make it that much more satisfying. Sure in the last two or so hours of the game, the magic is pretty much gone by then because of how overpowered you can become and item usage and Tarsones lose all meaning, however everything before those final two hours is absolutely fantastic, from the fast movement speeds, upgraded combat, dungeons that require a new strategy with every single one you come across, enemy variety, epic boss battles, gorgeous environments, etc, it all comes through beautifully and manages to out perform any previous expectations I had for it and to me, its one of the most ''must play'' Souls-Like games I can think of that you just have to try. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW.

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