So get ready to rock that bod and get a little shell-shocked, for a game that feels like a hit of the real sh*t, that will sate our sick, masochistic addiction to games that hurt us, at least until the Demon's Souls remaster comes out, because as much as we love a creative new twist on a beloved theme, we'd all really just rather be fed the same stuff we know we love over and over again until we die. Yeeeaah, I'll just find a YouTube video about all this stuff if I ever get past this f*cking swamp! aaand that's about all you're going to get, as you explore the world for narrative clues and the occasional rock with lore on it to read, or get the usual broody, cryptic blurb from creatures that should have way more to say about the situation they're in, that you'll probably not even really notice or care about until something truly weird pops up, and even then will still be secondary to making sure you don't get pulverized by the next big guy you run into. Uncover the narrative onion of Mortal Shell, where you'll play as one of the enemies from Bloodborne, as he inhabits dead guys that are presumably heroes of times past, each with their own history and backstory, all there to heed the call of some dark thing. Look, cowardice is a tried-and-true Dark Souls strategy, and it says NOTHING about me personally.
just to realize that you made it thirty feet away from the spawn point and you've been at it for twenty minutes, and you finally just give up and run past everything like you always do. Then, get 300-kicked out of your body and run frantically back to it for one more chance, if you aren't instantly killed by a stray attack after you overshoot your body. Get so comfortable with death that you might as well be spooning, as you throw yourself into battle against the grotesque denizens of Mortal Shell, that will have you dancing around your enemies to try to get a swing in and roll out like Sonic in a gang fight, while using your Metapod-style Harden to turn to stone mid-swing and block your opponent's attack, or miss the timing and just sit there waiting while they consider you like a museum statue.
Bet you can't take away hope from an empty husk! Hehehehe! Take that, game! And also me. Please don't tell my wife.ĭiscover the tweaks Mortal Shell makes to the Souls formula, as it strips away even the minimal comforts that Dark Souls had to offer, such as leveling up, replenishing healing items, and shields, and replaces them with just getting your ass handed to you until you figure out what you're doing, as your horrible, fleshy ghost boy swaps between husks of fallen heroes to wear like skinsuits into combat, and unlock new abilities from a tree like you're possibly making devils cry, if you can even get enough tar or whatever back to the weird soul nun to unlock the skill tree in the first place, as Mortal Shell throws hordes of dudes, traps, and real asshole bosses between you and getting basically anywhere, in an apparent attempt to set up some sort of record for people giving up in the starting area. But at 30 bucks, that's still a better value for getting your junk stepped on than most BDSM clubs.
From a genre that reminded gamers how fun it was to be crushed into a fine powder, that's been recycled and repurposed into every aesthetic you can imagine, comes a game that tries to reinvigorate the now-familiar formula by being the Dark Souls of Dark Souls games, and might even have gotten there if it was, like, four times as long.Įnter the sadistic fantasy world of Mortal Shell, a familiar dismal swamp full of bummed-out corpse guys that gives you almost no direction, as Mortal Shell innovates in a genre that's been done to undeath at this point by copying the originator's aesthetic almost identically, then stripping out familiar systems like levels, stats, or having any idea what the items do, for an action-first experience that will force you to truly get good or eat absolute sh*t, which is an important aspect of padding out the length, because compared to a real Dark Souls, this thing feels like a slightly longer DLC.