Mortal Shell
By Chad Sapieha,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Fantasy action tale is tense and challenging.
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Mortal Shell
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Based on 2 parent reviews
The fact you can turn off the blood
The quick learning of controls and it takes time to learn how to beat the game.
What’s It About?
MORTAL SHELL lets players inhabit a foundling -- an empty humanoid vessel -- in a ruined and desolate world populated with fearsome and aggressive creatures that will attack on-site. Spurred to do the will of the Dark Father, your real goal is simply to survive the onslaught and push forward through dead, murky woods and decrepit structures as you attempt to reveal this strange land's mysterious secrets. Few answers will be found looking inward. The foundling is essentially just a withered and mummified body -- he can harden his skin like stone and use it as protection from incoming attacks -- who has the ability to inhabit the bodies of fallen warriors (called shells) in order to use their combat skills. It's a handy skill, but if you take enough damage, the foundling will be knocked out of its current shell and be left with only a small amount of health. And that's bound to happen a lot, since combat's exceptionally challenging. Players use a variety of bladed and piercing weapons in their attacks, watching enemies for telltale signs that they're about to strike in order to successfully dodge, block, or riposte before moving in to take advantage of the opening. Providing some assistance are curious items you'll discover along the way, many of which need to be tested in order to determine their use. The more they're used, the more your familiarity with them will grow, potentially increasing their strength. Revealing all the mysteries of this forsaken world while avoiding death will be challenging, but with caution and tenacity, it can be done.
Is It Any Good?
Think of this difficult little action RPG (role-playing game) as Dark Souls lite. Mortal Shell isn't necessarily any less challenging than FromSoftware's vaunted fantasy series, just a bit less sprawling and more manageable to play in smaller chunks. The combat will feel familiar to those who've played action role-playing games, demanding a keen eye and precise timing in order to avoid damage while landing blows. It isn't quite as graphic as you might expect, but it's just as stressful and extremely tense. Death comes frequently, especially at the start, and players will need to be possessed of a certain doggedness to win as they refight respawned enemies in order to make it back to the scene of their most recent slaughter. And it should have enough originality -- the ability to harden the foundling's skin to weather a hard blow, the use of fallen warrior shells as a different kind of class and character progression system -- to hold the attention of players craving a bit of innovation.
What makes Mortal Shell a little less intimidating than a Dark Souls game is its scope. As tough as it is, it shouldn't take most players more than 15 hours to finish. The world is just as satisfyingly labyrinthine as you'd hope, the bosses just as fiendishly difficult as you'd expect, but there's simply a bit less of everything. Fewer areas to explore, fewer enemies to fight, fewer weapons and abilities to master. This is reflected in its substantially lower price tag -- just $30 at launch -- making it a good bet for players who can't afford the sort of time necessary to play and complete most of the much lengthier games in the growing genre of devilishly difficult action RPGs. Mortal Shell doesn't want to be the next Dark Souls, but rather an alternative for players who want a Dark Souls experience without spending too much time or money to get it.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in games. Is the impact of the violence in Mortal Shell affected by the amount of blood shown in the game? Why do you think people are drawn to entertainment featuring violence? Can you think of an example of violence being taken too far in a game?
What sort of challenges have you faced in life that required determination and resolve to overcome? How did you feel afterward?
Game Details
- Platforms: PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Windows , Xbox One , Xbox Series X/S
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: PlayStack
- Release date: August 18, 2020
- Genre: Role-Playing
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- ESRB rating: M for Violence, Blood and Gore
- Last updated: August 26, 2021
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