TheRetroArcade
Veteran
Posts: 9,219
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
Brevs, this one's likely going to be my GOTY
A few hours into your sojourn across Mortal Shell 2's harsh realm of Fainweald, you might stumble upon a tavern called The One Legged Wolf. In a monstrous land inhabited by pasty-faced brigands who refer to you as "brev" right before shanking you, this watering hole exudes novelty. Here, said thugs congregate to make merry and listen to the strums of the shirtless lute-player on stage. Even if you do as I did, and accidentally massacre the guy with a shot from your sidearm, nobody minds. The One Legged Wolf is a weird, memorable place where folk are free to do their own thing.
In many ways, The One Legged Wolf is emblematic of Mortal Shell 2, a sequel that stands out from the pack by melding the modern dark fantasy Soulslike with a willingness to ditch genre formula, a cheeky sense of humour, and the DNA of a PC-only game from yesteryear. The result is a goth cousin of more mainstream fare like Elden Ring, not to mention a phenomenal effort that outclasses its predecessor in a manner that we probably haven't seen since The Witcher III.
Let's backtrack. The first Mortal Shell came out in 2020, and while Ed (RPS in peace) liked parts of it , he also criticised its pervasive jankiness and confounding level design. I can't blame him. I enjoy Mortal Shell 1, largely due to its compact 15-hour size and unique take on character classes, but most people seem to play it for 30 or so minutes before giving up. This sequel requires no prior knowledge of the first game, thankfully, though diehards who stuck it out in Fallgrim's swamps will find returning characters and Easter Eggs aplenty.
More important is the fact that Mortal Shell 2 improves upon every single aspect of its predecessor, making it look like a tech demo in comparison. Once again, you play as a creature who can inhabit the "Shells" of fallen warriors, which replace standard classes. Instead of wrangling with numbers in a lengthy character creation process, the being you control - known as the Harbinger, and a great deal hardier than the first game's Foundling - has a few base stats that go up with each level. The bulk of your abilities come from the Shells that you inhabit, like a parasitic entity wearing a cast-off chrysalis.
Each Shell features its own skill tree that embodies a mix of RPG archetypes, and the first you find will probably be Tiel the Acolyte, a thief who blends into shadows and delivers sneak attacks in typical rogue fashion. Other personal favourites include Proxima, a femme version of the Predator, and Lazlo, a chonky armoured fella who made me say "oh lawd, he comin'" every time I collided with a mass of opponents. Even Sester Genessa, who served as the first game's save system, is back as a playable Shell, and while I struggled with her skillset, build-maxxing players are probably going to love her ability to summon clones.
While the original Mortal Shell only featured four Shells, Mortal Shell 2 boasts eight, and all possess memories that you can unlock by spending a currency called Glimpse. These tangible, character-driven backstories provide a straightforwardness rare in Soulslikes, which are overly fond of hiding their obfuscated lore in a million different item descriptions. There is a overarching narrative at work here, with your Harbinger acting as the servant of an entity dubbed the UnderMether, and tasked with collecting her unbirthed Ova - but it's an affair mostly left in the background. The real crux of the narrative lies in the Shells and the stories behind them, from Tiel fighting his throes of addiction to Proxima finding an unexpected camaraderie with the shopkeeper NPC.
While many of these tales are dark, know that there is actually a wild amount of bleak humour in Mortal Shell 2. What other game features dancing babkas who try to kill you with accordions in the first village you come across? What about the boss who turns you into a sheep, and the other who pilots a rocket-powered mob...Read more: Full article on www.rockpapershotgun.com
What do you think about this?
A few hours into your sojourn across Mortal Shell 2's harsh realm of Fainweald, you might stumble upon a tavern called The One Legged Wolf. In a monstrous land inhabited by pasty-faced brigands who refer to you as "brev" right before shanking you, this watering hole exudes novelty. Here, said thugs congregate to make merry and listen to the strums of the shirtless lute-player on stage. Even if you do as I did, and accidentally massacre the guy with a shot from your sidearm, nobody minds. The One Legged Wolf is a weird, memorable place where folk are free to do their own thing.
In many ways, The One Legged Wolf is emblematic of Mortal Shell 2, a sequel that stands out from the pack by melding the modern dark fantasy Soulslike with a willingness to ditch genre formula, a cheeky sense of humour, and the DNA of a PC-only game from yesteryear. The result is a goth cousin of more mainstream fare like Elden Ring, not to mention a phenomenal effort that outclasses its predecessor in a manner that we probably haven't seen since The Witcher III.
Let's backtrack. The first Mortal Shell came out in 2020, and while Ed (RPS in peace) liked parts of it , he also criticised its pervasive jankiness and confounding level design. I can't blame him. I enjoy Mortal Shell 1, largely due to its compact 15-hour size and unique take on character classes, but most people seem to play it for 30 or so minutes before giving up. This sequel requires no prior knowledge of the first game, thankfully, though diehards who stuck it out in Fallgrim's swamps will find returning characters and Easter Eggs aplenty.
More important is the fact that Mortal Shell 2 improves upon every single aspect of its predecessor, making it look like a tech demo in comparison. Once again, you play as a creature who can inhabit the "Shells" of fallen warriors, which replace standard classes. Instead of wrangling with numbers in a lengthy character creation process, the being you control - known as the Harbinger, and a great deal hardier than the first game's Foundling - has a few base stats that go up with each level. The bulk of your abilities come from the Shells that you inhabit, like a parasitic entity wearing a cast-off chrysalis.
Each Shell features its own skill tree that embodies a mix of RPG archetypes, and the first you find will probably be Tiel the Acolyte, a thief who blends into shadows and delivers sneak attacks in typical rogue fashion. Other personal favourites include Proxima, a femme version of the Predator, and Lazlo, a chonky armoured fella who made me say "oh lawd, he comin'" every time I collided with a mass of opponents. Even Sester Genessa, who served as the first game's save system, is back as a playable Shell, and while I struggled with her skillset, build-maxxing players are probably going to love her ability to summon clones.
While the original Mortal Shell only featured four Shells, Mortal Shell 2 boasts eight, and all possess memories that you can unlock by spending a currency called Glimpse. These tangible, character-driven backstories provide a straightforwardness rare in Soulslikes, which are overly fond of hiding their obfuscated lore in a million different item descriptions. There is a overarching narrative at work here, with your Harbinger acting as the servant of an entity dubbed the UnderMether, and tasked with collecting her unbirthed Ova - but it's an affair mostly left in the background. The real crux of the narrative lies in the Shells and the stories behind them, from Tiel fighting his throes of addiction to Proxima finding an unexpected camaraderie with the shopkeeper NPC.
While many of these tales are dark, know that there is actually a wild amount of bleak humour in Mortal Shell 2. What other game features dancing babkas who try to kill you with accordions in the first village you come across? What about the boss who turns you into a sheep, and the other who pilots a rocket-powered mob...Read more: Full article on www.rockpapershotgun.com
What do you think about this?