This is a transcript excerpt covering the score awarded to Mortal Shell II<\/strong> <\/em>on the So Videogames Podcast, Episode 506: Mortal Shell 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n BRAD: Okay, the one and only circle back we have today is Mortal Shell two, and I know I\u2019ve been talking about it a lot, but this is the final wrap up. This is our official So video games review that\u2019s going to get posted on Metacritic. So I got to do like an official official sort of thing here.<\/p>\n mortal shell two, just a quick recap. Third person soulslike action coming from cold symmetry. I believe they are in Eastern Europe somewhere, if I\u2019m not mistaken. this is a sequel which like hugely expands on all of the concepts that were initially created in Mortal Shell one. at heart, this is a game of cosmic horror. And what happens when one of those Cthulhu type entities crash lands onto your planet? How do you deal with that? And what happens? How can that influence the populace? How can that influence religion? How does that influence your ruling classes? interesting stuff.<\/p>\n You play a character brought to life by one of these entities, and you are conscripted to serve it and to help it do whatever it needs to do. I\u2019m trying not to give any spoilers here, but cosmic horror runs all through this. And I gotta say, I think it\u2019s one of the best uses of cosmic horror I have seen in a game in quite some time. A lot of people do the Cthulhu route, and they do the first person psychological thing, which I find to be incredibly boring these days. they do a lot of the, you know, insanity effects and spooky stuff and whatever, but this one just, just to pause for a minute, they really, really drilled down so deep on what it would be like. I mean, obviously fantasy setting here, but if, if like a Cthulhu type entity was around and they were living amongst you, under you, above you, and what would that what would that be like? Like if their influence was all through the land, how would that affect the animals? How would that affect the people? How would that affect the economy? How would that affect everything? And they really do, even though this is like a soulslike where you\u2019re just hacking and slashing most of the time, there are so many instances where they really think about like, man, like, like how would this change things? And it\u2019s fucking fascinating. I think they do such a great job of handling the cosmic horror in this. And it\u2019s not just horror. It\u2019s like, it\u2019s like having this alien presence and it infects these people and it changes their thinking. And that thinking in turn changes relationships. And those relationships play out in different ways. Most of this.<\/p>\n And the really cool thing about this is that it\u2019s not just finding a bunch of files and lore. You\u2019re not reading item descriptions, like you\u2019re not doing the typical Dark Souls shit where, like respect to Dark Souls for pioneering this, but I feel like we\u2019ve really moved past this and I\u2019m kind of done with the way that Dark souls does it. you know, they, they outright say certain things and a lot of the story is told in these cutscenes, but these are not just regular cutscenes.<\/p>\n So in Mortal Shell two, you have eight bodies that you can occupy as the envoy of the Cthulhu creature are kind of a spirit creature. you have a form, but it\u2019s very weak. And so you need to take shelter inside these other dead bodies. And those become the bodies that you use to fight through the world. You eventually have eight of them. And as you build a bond with each of these bodies, you get more and more cut scenes out of them to tell you a little bit about that body\u2019s life before they died. And this is where most of the game\u2019s storytelling comes in. So you\u2019ve got eight bodies. Each body has five cutscenes, so that\u2019s 40 short cut scenes that they use to illustrate the world and the person\u2019s life and how they\u2019re affected, how they\u2019re affecting others, how some of these characters knew each other, how they intertwine, how this Cthulhu like entity has influenced their lives in many ways.<\/p>\n It\u2019s brilliantly done. It is brilliantly done. As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about writing, thinking about narrative and stuff like this, I think the stories and how they are told in Mortal Shell, two top notch, great stories, super interesting that fill in the backstories of the character and tell you a lot about the world, but they are not shoved down your throat. You\u2019re not reading ten thousand fucking folders like you are in Resident Evil. You\u2019re not reading a million item descriptions like in Dark Souls. They are just so elegantly done. And honestly, if you don\u2019t want to watch them, you absolutely don\u2019t have to. They are purely, uh, optional except for the very first one for each character when you are being introduced to the character. So outside of those eight brief introductions, you don\u2019t have to partake of any of this if you don\u2019t want to, which I think is fantastic. but if you do watch those, you will get a really rich picture of what\u2019s going on in this world, all these connections, all these cool callbacks, all these nods, all these just weird interstitial bits. It\u2019s fucking genius. Really fucking genius. And I think the cosmic horror is just so perfect.<\/p>\n Beyond that, uh, they, they give a what looks to be, on the surface, a pretty standard soulslike formula, but they have removed the stamina bar and I think this is a great choice. It shows that you do not need stamina as one of the core tenets of having a soulslike. It is absolutely a soulslike, but you know, you can just attack as much as you want. You can dodge as much as you want, and it doesn\u2019t hurt the game at all. I think there are many considerations to be taken in the actual moment to moment gameplay and stamina does not need to be one of them. I think that\u2019s totally fine. I think that\u2019s great.<\/p>\n The world design is very much like Elden Ring. If people are familiar with Elden Ring FromSoftware open world opus, you start off in a central location, but then you are soon given free rein to go just about anywhere in the world you want to. Some enemies are certainly harder than others. I think the developers certainly want you to go a certain way. not that you have to, but I think they make very clear where you should probably go first, but you don\u2019t have to. There\u2019s plenty of videos where you can go to other places and take shortcuts and go here and go there and do these certain things. almost, almost entirely at whatever order you wish. Uh, so I think that\u2019s interesting. I love doing that. The world is super dense and super rich. There is something interesting around every fucking corner. There is something to find tucked behind every stone monument, behind every hill and every pit and down every ravine. There\u2019s there\u2019s stuff all over the place. It is worth your time to explore all the time. You never know what you\u2019re gonna find.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also a million dungeons scattered across the land. Very similar to how they did in Elden Ring, where you find a particular gate and you know that if you go in that gate, it\u2019s going to be a self-contained little dungeon. They almost all have some kind of worthwhile reward at the end that is worth going into to check out, and all these things kind of build back into the system of having the eight bodies.<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s great that you have these eight bodies because each one has an active power that is different. And so you can find one that suits your playstyle, but also some that suit the situation. Some bodies are better for straight up exploration. Some bodies are best for one on one duels. Some bodies are better for crowd control, it really depends. And as you as you find these and build them, you will have more and more tools at your disposal. And it\u2019s very easy to switch back and forth between them. And in fact, the developers have made it even easier in the last couple of patches. They\u2019ve put in tons of tools to make sure that it is as accessible and as player friendly as possible to fully engage in all these systems.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll give you a perfect example. I got to this one battle, and I felt like my weapon was not really cutting it, and I wanted to change. There\u2019s eight main weapons and the one I\u2019ve been using for most of the game all of a sudden felt like it wasn\u2019t wasn\u2019t getting it done. So rather than having to grind out $1 million or just being stuck with it, right? Because like in traditional soulslike games, you pick a weapon early on and then you invest all your materials in it and you never want to switch weapons because nothing\u2019s ever as good as what you\u2019ve got, because nothing\u2019s upgraded and because upgrade materials are super rare and they\u2019re hard to get, and it\u2019s really expensive and it\u2019s just really prohibitive to change weapons. And so if you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing, it\u2019s very easy to get locked into it and you just have to stay there because otherwise you\u2019re taking a huge penalty. Not the case in Mortal Shell. They\u2019ve patched a lot of things in and they\u2019ve taken some player feedback into consideration. I changed my main weapon like 4 or 5 times, It\u2019s a feature you have to unlock at a certain point. You can\u2019t just do it right off the bat, which is fine. But once you get into it, you get all of your materials back and you get all the money back that you spent on it.<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t believe it. I was like, oh my God, like I, I knew you could get the materials back. And I guess I was just ready to go grind for some cash because that\u2019s what Fromsoft would have done. They\u2019re like, no, no, just take all the money and just put this in another weapon. I\u2019m like, yes, absolutely. So I jumped back and forth between weapons and that was like, amazing because I made a mistake when I went to my next weapon, I\u2019m like, oh, this is actually not what I not what I need. Let\u2019s go to a third weapon. And then you could just bounce back and forth. You can get your points invested in your bodies because you can upgrade the bodies and give them different abilities. You can get all your points back anytime you want to. No penalty. You don\u2019t have to do anything. It\u2019s like a push of a button and you get all your points back. I mean, they really want you to experiment with this, with this game, with all these options. Eight different guns, eight different bodies, eight different main weapons, melee weapons. They want you to mix and match. They want you to kind of figure this out. And I think that type of approach is fucking amazing because it\u2019s kind of the opposite of what Fromsoft has been doing all this time, where they get you to pick something really early on, and then you just like invest and invest and invest and you never want to change because it just, it\u2019s just not really, you know, feasible to do so. So I love that option for sure.<\/p>\n I also really love that in this particular game, everything is fairly straightforward. And I don\u2019t mean that in a bad way at all. But what I mean by this is there were very few times that I, I think a normal person wouldn\u2019t have been able to figure something out. It\u2019s like it\u2019s just a matter of thorough exploration. A lot of the clues that are in this game are, I think, are very approachable clues. They\u2019re not super arcane. You didn\u2019t have to like, you know, figure anything crazy out. You didn\u2019t have to look for like a lore guide or anything like that. So I think that is really worth complimenting because I think the average souls player who just, you know, explores efficiently and spends time going through the game, playing it as it\u2019s meant to be played, is going to be able to solve most of the mysteries. It\u2019s going to be able to put two and two together. It\u2019s going to be able to get to the hidden dungeon. It\u2019s going to be able to find the secret weapon, it\u2019s going to be able to do all these things without having to do a big YouTube lore dive, which I appreciate.<\/p>\n I talked about this in the discord a little while ago, but I hate one aspect of modern game design, and that is when a game designer knows that the internet exists. And that sounds kind of like a silly thing to say, but I do encounter many games these days where there\u2019s something in a game that is hidden, or is some kind of secret option, or some kind of like, weird choice that like literally you would never, ever, ever know unless you went online to look it up. and I hate that. I want more games that are self-contained, that give the player a fair fighting chance to figure these things out and that are not so arcane that you need to have an entire community coming together to put together clues to have like this hive mind solution to problems. You know, I don\u2019t I don\u2019t want to have to go to the internet every five seconds. I want everything to be in the game. So when I sit down with the game, I want the lore, the information, the directions, the tutorials, everything right there in the game. I don\u2019t want to have to get up from my chair and go to an outside source. So I think that Mortal Shell two does that for the most part, really, really well. And I think it\u2019s just fantastic.<\/p>\n So as this is an official review, I want to say, I just finished the game yesterday. and roll credits on it, finished with like an above 90% completion rate, and I think the other 10% was probably hidden on hard mode, which I did not engage with because I don\u2019t generally play games on hard mode. So I feel like I rinsed this game pretty well. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any stone left unturned, and it took me about pretty close to, I want to say 60 hours to get all the way through it.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll say that the first the first 55 hours are generally superb. Mortal Shell II <\/em>sports excellent game design, excellent world design, character design, ability design, along with great aesthetics and great theming. It\u2019s a superior work from any perspective, and it goes straight to the top of the soulslike genre, right alongside the best.<\/strong> I think cold symmetry really, really finally, um, figured out how to best leverage their concept of body swapping. I don\u2019t think they got it the first time around. I think they made some mistakes and it didn\u2019t work very well, but I think they really fucking got it now. They targeted dead on this time around. A lot of the things that didn\u2019t work in in Mortal Shell one, they now have got it to work and they\u2019ve expanded and exploded and just like just made everything so much better.<\/p>\n With all that said, I will say that cold symmetry severely fucked up in one particular aspect. And if you follow me on social media or if you\u2019re in the discord, you know what I\u2019m about to say. The last boss encounter of this game is fucking miserable. it is miserable. It\u2019s miserable for a couple reasons.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not going to go into any major spoilers here about the boss itself, but it does that kind of thing where, where the boss gets really big, like physically large. And so it\u2019s hard to see when you\u2019re close up to it. I think the hitboxes are sloppy. I think it\u2019s got too much range, the hitboxes are too big, and it has this move where it sends out flames in concentric circles. And it\u2019s very, very hard to tell where you\u2019re supposed to dodge. Am I supposed to dodge at the beginning of the circle? Do I wait until I\u2019m at the leading edge? Do I dodge in the middle? It\u2019s really fucking hard to tell where it\u2019s at. So I think in general they they went wrong on the boss design. I think it\u2019s too big. I think it\u2019s too sloppy. I think it\u2019s too hard to read. I think it needs to be dialed back. I know they were going for like a big finish visually, but it\u2019s fucked up in a lot of ways that many of the other boss battles are not fucked up. And I think that\u2019s a problem. But that\u2019s not the biggest problem.<\/p>\n The biggest problem is that this boss has an ability which fucks you up. It fucks you sideways, fucks you top to down, like it just sucks so bad. And the only way to survive this is by getting a special secret item. I\u2019m not going to get into the details here but you will probably likely if you\u2019re thorough like I was, you will probably come across at least a couple of the items you need just naturally exploring. it is not very clear what you\u2019re supposed to do with those items. And so just to just to save the heartache of anybody listening to this, you have to get three items that are pretty well hidden in the game as you\u2019re playing. you\u2019ll get them because they just kind of stand out and they don\u2019t go to anything and they don\u2019t do anything and they\u2019re hidden and really obscure locations. You\u2019ll probably know what I\u2019m talking about when you find them. You need three of these things. And then you need to put the game on hard mode. You cannot do this on the normal mode. and there is no easy mode. It\u2019s just hard mode or normal mode. And so you\u2019ve got to put the game on hard mode, which I never would have done because I don\u2019t really play games on hard mode because that\u2019s not what I\u2019m about.<\/p>\n So you have to go in hard mode. You have to go to specific place in the map that you very likely have been to on normal mode and nothing was there. And then you go back on hard mode and something is there, and then you give these three things to this guy, and then he gives you a thing, and then you go back to your normal mode and you equip the thing, and then that thing lets you fight the boss in a much more effective way. That is the one place where this game supremely fucked up. The boss sucks already. Way too much life, way too sloppy, way too big. It\u2019s not fun to fight. And then the real fuck up is by doing this whole arcane sequence of events that if you don\u2019t figure this out, which I doubt anybody will, but somebody did somewhere. if you don\u2019t go to YouTube and look this up, if you don\u2019t go to the internet, look this up. You\u2019re fucked. It is so fucking hard to beat him without it. I mean, is it impossible? No, it\u2019s not impossible. But it had me frustrated for, like, a couple hours. It ruined my day. I was so fucking mad. and I loved this game. I think this game is a masterpiece. Literal masterpiece \u2014 until literally the last boss. And then I was so fucking mad that I was beside myself. So developers, if you\u2019re listening to me, i love your game, I think it is clearly a masterpiece. Superior work. So much respect and love for what you\u2019ve done. but that last boss needs to be patched ASA fucking P. Fix that motherfucker because it ruins it. like it\u2019s one of those\u2026 It\u2019s such a bad fight that it kind of like, casts shadows on everything that came before it and everything before it was like, perfect.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t understand why developers will take a great experience. Wonderful level design, wonderful encounter design, great adventure, great pacing. And then they will stick some balls headed fucking piece of shit last boss that frustrates the fuck out of everybody and everybody talks bad about it. And then you leave the game with a sour taste in your mouth.<\/p>\n Like, why do that end the game on a high note? Give us a boss that is not bullshit. Give us a boss that you know, is maybe a little more challenging, sure, but doesn\u2019t require us to go to YouTube doesn\u2019t require a trick. Just give us a regular fucking boss and end the game on a high note. We walk away feeling like a hero, and then we sing its praises to everybody that we talk to. But instead, all people heard about was me ranting for like a day about how pissed off I was about this boss. Which is stupid because the boss battle is like 1% of the experience and the other 99% was fucking glorious. But all I talked about mostly was that 1% because it made me so fucking mad. So developers, please patch this fucking battle. This is such an amazing game. Don\u2019t let this one boss taint people\u2019s memories of it. It\u2019s just a stupid boss. You\u2019ve done so many amazingly smart things. Just fix this one, boss, and then you\u2019re good to go.<\/p>\n And I really hope that they do some DLC. I would love a good reason to come back to this game. I don\u2019t generally do new game plus, but I would love, love, love a reason to come back and play with these characters some more. Explore more of the world. Do more combat. I would love it.<\/p>\n so with all that being said, it\u2019s time for the review. I think I\u2019ve explained how I feel about it. Mortal Shell II <\/em>is a brilliant piece of work full of smart decisions and excellent design. It also changes up the typical soulslike approach to storytelling, along with uprooting the structural underpinning of stamina systems while also offering tons of flexibility and options, which are generally not hallmarks of the genre. It innovates in all of these major ways, and I could probably come up with a few more if I sat and thought about it. <\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m going to give Mortal Shell two an official So video games, nine out of ten, nine out of ten. And just FYI developers, I almost gave you an eight because of how much that last boss pissed me off. I almost took an entire point off because that boss is bullshit, but I finally got past it with the help of some friends. Shout out to Mike Suskie who pointed me in the right way. I got through that fight and it didn\u2019t ruin the entire experience, although it came kind of close. So you\u2019re going to get your nine. You really did deserve it.<\/p>\n But fuck that last boss. Please fix it and let\u2019s get some DLC on board. Good job. mortal shell two Nine out of ten.<\/p>\n Rating: 9 out of 10<\/p>\n Disclosures:<\/strong> This game was developed by Cold Symmetry<\/strong> and published by\u00a0Playstack.\u00a0<\/strong>It is currently available on the PS5<\/strong>, PC<\/strong>, and Xbox Series S\/X<\/strong>. This copy was obtained\u00a0via publisher\u00a0<\/strong>and reviewed on the PS5<\/strong>. Approximately 60 hours<\/strong> of play were devoted to the game, and\u00a0it was completed<\/strong>. This is a single-player-only title.<\/p>\n Parents<\/strong>: This game has received an\u00a0M\u00a0<\/strong>rating from the\u00a0ESRB<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0<\/strong>contains\u00a0Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Suggestive Themes<\/strong>. The official summary reads:\u00a0\u201cMortal Shell II is rated M for Mature 17+ by the ESRB with Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, and Suggestive Themes. This is an action role-playing game in which players assume the role of the Harbinger on a quest to find mystical eggs across a fantasy world. From a third-person perspective, players traverse dungeons, forests, and castles to battle human enemies and fantastical creatures (e.g., zombies, golems, demons). Players use swords, axes, and firearms to kill enemies in melee-style combat. Battles are accompanied by realistic gunfire and large blood-splatter effects. Some attacks can result in the dismemberment and\/or decapitation of enemies; other attacks result in enemies exploding into large sprays of blood. The game depicts a harpy creature with exposed breasts and a bloated corpse that appears nude. The word \u201cf**k\u201d is heard in the game.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Colorblind Modes:<\/strong>\u00a0There\u00a0are colorblind modes available.<\/strong><\/p>\n Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers:\u00a0<\/strong>The subtitles\u2019 size\u00a0can be altered<\/strong>. In combat, some enemies emit a loud shriek as a warning before committing a suicide attack, but this is also accompanied by an on-screen indication. There is also a visible on-screen indicator for when enemies are behind or to the side of the character. This game is fully accessible<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Remappable Controls:<\/strong> The game offers a control diagram,<\/strong> and all buttons are fully remappable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/gamecritics.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/mortal-shell-2-release-date-time-285404620-1024x576.jpg\")
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