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[PC] [ONE] [PS4] Mortal Shell

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[PC] [ONE] [PS4] Mortal Shell

Unread postby Hanged Man » 23 Aug 2020 15:59

https://www.mortalshell.com/
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/p ... shell/home
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1110 ... tal_Shell/

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Mortal Shell with Hanged Man 1
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/718473206

Played two hours of this so far. It's a pretty solid "Souls clone" with better combat, but significantly simplified customisation. Based on the in-game compendium there are only six weapons and four "Shells" (characters that you inhabit). The weapons and Shells do all have unique abilities and properties, but they aren't as distinct as, say, in a Devil May Cry game. They're not SUPPOSED to be, of course, but Bloodborne had like 15 different melee weapons (each with an alternative mode), for instance. You can upgrade your weapons and Shells, at least. I don't think that you can upgrade basic stats like health or damage (your stats are decided by the Shell that you're inhabiting right now), but you can get stuff like "-25% to your cooldowns". The grinding in this is minimal, it's an action-adventure game, really.

Game looks great and feels great. Hitting stuff is very satisfying. But honestly it does get a bit old running around in a foggy maze-like forest, fighting the same three types of enemies for two hours (there was one boss though, he's pretty cool). "Hardening" is a cool new mechanic to block damage, but you will still have to roll around everywhere.

You can clearly tell that this game was made on a budget, but they did a good job with what they had. I'll definitely finish it. I've heard it's pretty short, too.

It's a good game to use your Epic coupon on (thanks for the 10 bux off China), if you haven't already. Or you can wait until it's eventually sold for pennies on a Steam sale once it's out over there.
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Joined: 29 Aug 2014 04:49
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Unread postby ChevRage » 26 Jun 2021 08:38

Mortal Shell with ChevRage 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y0AK7ZrBPg

Mortal Shell with ChevRage 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWluAUU63sM

Mortal Shell with ChevRage 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFGul7SCCsE

Mortal Shell with ChevRage 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-QljMXZiFc

It's a bit disappointing to be honest. I think I'm near the end but after my last session I couldn't be bothered continuing. I happen to have had the same opinion as Hanged Man when I had the same amount of hours put into it as he did. But that changed the further I got into it.

The biggest problem is that all the locations after the forest kinda just suck in comparison. Sure they look interesting and unique for some time when you first start exploring them, but then you learn that all but one are basically linear corridors, with no interesting layouts to get lost in. Any path off the main one tends to quickly lead to some treasure or something.

And on top of that the enemy placement seems to get pretty lazy too. The typical traps that get more elaborate the further you get in a Dark Souls or Bloodborne are nowhere to be seen. Early in this game they have setups like a big dude with a lot of health to fight, but there's archers on the walls behind him who take potshots at you, and if you run at them to quickly take them out a small enemy pops out from behind a nook in the wall to hit you. Basically you needed some care to approach this situation, even if it wasn't very complex. But later on all you need to do is lure one guy at a time and it becomes a cakewalk. This was something you could do somewhat often in Demon's Souls, but was fixed in Dark Souls where if you tried to lure one enemy it will bring others too. Also if I had a drink for every time I got "ambushed" by some dude waiting right at the opening of a narrow corridor into a larger room, I'd be dead by now.

Another thing is that the enemies don't really get substantially harder the further you go. They don't seem to account for your strength gain in terms of stats and skill. I got really excited at one point because it looked like after every significant boss being slain, it made all the areas including the ones you've already been through, contain harder enemies in a different configuration, but that didn't seem to last long at all and went back to normal pretty quick. Once you've fully upgraded an armour and weapon set, it completely trivialises the rest of the game. And I did this rather early on too, I think it was halfway through my second stream or something.

Despite all this I still think it's worth a try even if you don't get very far into it. I guess I'm just too negative because I was really hoping for better from a studio that got the atmosphere and designs so right. It's still fun before you start unlocking too many upgrades for your stuff. I'll definitely be checking out whatever this studio works on next, maybe they'll have more time and budget to allocate towards the encounters and difficulty scaling next time.
Last edited by ChevRage on 26 Jun 2021 08:42, edited 1 time in total.
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Joined: 23 Aug 2012 21:14
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Unread postby ChevRage » 26 Jun 2021 08:41

There's some DLC coming soon.

Mortal Shell The Virtuous Cycle DLC - Official Teaser Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQT7eustvrU

If this turns out to be some expansion with new areas to explore I might finish the game and check it out.
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Joined: 23 Aug 2012 21:14
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