Mortal Shell 2 significantly expands upon its predecessor's foundations, delivering a larger, more refined experience that, while not without its technical and balance issues, improves on nearly every aspect. The game offers a 25-30 hour quest through an expanded world filled with challenging exploration and gritty combat.
The core mechanic of embodying fallen warriors returns, allowing players to inhabit the shells of distinct characters and utilize their unique abilities. The sequel doubles the number of available shells, introducing a cast of new, macabre figures such as a ferocious cannibal, an armored alien, and a time-stopping cultist. While the overarching narrative remains cryptic, the individual backstories of these shells, uncovered through increasing a bond with them, provide relatable anchors within the game's grim setting.
Enhanced Shells and Combat
The most notable improvements to the shells lie in their combat distinctiveness. Beyond passive abilities, each shell now boasts unique active skills. Tiel, for instance, can briefly disappear for stealth attacks, while Eredrim can utilize a powerful shoulder charge to stagger enemies or a wide blast to handle groups. While some of these abilities can be finicky, requiring precise timing or targeting, they add significant depth to combat and encourage experimentation. The ability to freely refund and reallocate shell upgrade points further facilitates this, allowing players to adapt their loadout to specific challenges.
Mortal Shell 2 also boasts a significantly larger arsenal of weapons, with eight distinct melee weapons and eight ranged sidearms. Each weapon class features unique strengths and weaknesses, ranging from quick debuff-focused options to slow, heavy hitters. The absence of stamina, replaced by a Resolve meter that fills with melee attacks and fuels abilities, encourages an aggressive playstyle. This system ensures players remain engaged in close-quarters combat to access more powerful options.
Defensive options have also been varied, with different Seals offering unique functionalities. The signature Harden ability, which turns the player to stone to repel an incoming attack, returns alongside a standard block with parry capabilities and a parry-only option. This variety effectively serves as a dynamic difficulty setting, allowing players to tailor their defensive approach.
A Vast and Dangerous World
The world of Fallgrim has been reimagined as a sprawling, interconnected landmass, a significant departure from the first game's more linear structure. Players must navigate this dense environment, contending with twisted flora, bleached mountains, and dilapidated kingdoms to reach six gates that lead to distinct dungeons. The world is designed to be engrossing, with countless paths and hidden areas encouraging exploration. While a map is provided, its utility is somewhat hampered by a lack of robust pinning or note-taking features, making it easy to lose track of points of interest.
Scattered throughout Fallgrim are numerous mini-dungeons, self-contained challenges that offer puzzles, combat arenas, or valuable treasures. These bite-sized encounters, often accessed through distinctive beacons that serve as checkpoints, break up the main adventure and highlight the world's strange nature. However, navigating Fallgrim can be initially disorienting due to its visually similar environments, though unique landmarks do help in distinguishing locations over time.
The enemies in Mortal Shell 2 are a grotesque menagerie, from armored knights and cultists to unsettling, noodle-armed creatures and exploding bats. The game leans heavily into its creepy aesthetic, featuring unique monster designs that push the boundaries of the soulslike genre. Boss encounters, such as a mothman knight or a bog witch in a fiery chariot, serve as memorable culminations of this inspired design, even if their combat scenarios are not always the most engaging.