Mortal Shell - Hands-on Preview

[Silver]

IGN has played Mortal Shell and shared their impressions.

Each Shell's Got a Story to Tell

Then there are the Mortal Shells themselves, which essentially introduce class-based gameplay to the Souls-like genre in a way that hasn't really been done before. The closest comparison is the blood code system in Code Vein. As you play, you'll discover new Shells that each have their own unique stats and skills. In my demo, I only came across two: The starting shell, Harros the Vassal, which is a more tanky shell that has increased health, less stamina, and skills that affect his survivability; and Tiel the Acolyte, who has a massive stamina pool, less life, a more effective vanish as opposed to a quick dash as a dodge, and a variety of skills that allow him to occasionally take damage to stamina instead of damage to health, grant him extra damage on a successful riposte, and heal some of the damage taken by poison, which was a massive pain in the ass throughout the demo.

Shells can be swapped out at certain spots in the world, or an item can be used to swap them out on the fly, allowing you to make use of their unique characteristics as they become necessary.

As you'd imagine, when you defeat enemies you collect a currency that is used for both character progression and for buying items from the various shops. But unlike what you might imagine, character progression in Mortal Shell doesn't take the form of traditional level ups. Instead, you use this currency, known as tar, to first learn the name of your equipped Shell, which then opens up their skill tree. Each skill costs both Tar and another currency called "Glimpses" to learn. Glimpses are gained by beating certain enemies or by finding itemized glimpses in the world, but unlike Tar, glimpses are only granted upon the first time you take them out. This I imagine, is how Cold Symmetry discourages players from farming easy enemies repeatedly in order to max out a character's skill tree right away.

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Thanks Farflame!

More information.

 

[sakichop]

Really enjoyed the beta. Gives off a definite DS vibe but is different enough to feel fresh.

Like that the game tells you almost nothing. Even many items you have no idea what they do until you experiment. Enemy variety was good and many enemies had surprising special move. Combat is pretty slow ( reminds me more of DS 1) and a little clunky but has a nice set of moves. Only had 1 weapon not sure if that’s a game thing like sekiro or if it’s just for the beta. I had 1 crash to desktop but it’s a beta so no biggie.

Graphics were nice. I played with both K&M and controller and I’d say they both work equally well with the K&M feeling a little more responsive. It had key remapping and 21:9 monitor support.

All in all an impressive little title. Some possible negatives for some is I read it’s short (about 20 hours), it’s epic exclusive ( they were up front about it though and said they simply needed the extra money to complete the game. I can respect that.) and it’s definitely souls like so if souls isn’t your thing then this game won’t be either. The beta was good enough to convince me of a day 1 purchase.

 

[SpoonFULL]

Tried the beta and gave positive impressions in Couch's general thread as well. Enjoyed the difficulty, enemies, surroundings, environment and atmosphere.

I did see some videos of the beta online where people were playing with other weapons and upgraded weapons. Indeed at the beginning of the dungeon there was a crafting stand to upgrade your weapons.

Likewise, day one purchase for me (even though its Epic exclusive) and the price is reasonable (£24.99).

Still waiting for Elden Ring news

 

[sakichop]

Tried the beta and gave positive impressions in Couch's general thread as well. Enjoyed the difficulty, enemies, surroundings, environment and atmosphere.

I did see some videos of the beta online where people were playing with other weapons and upgraded weapons. Indeed at the beginning of the dungeon there was a crafting stand to upgrade your weapons.

Likewise, day one purchase for me (even though its Epic exclusive) and the price is reasonable (£24.99).

Still waiting for Elden Ring news

Good to hear. I kinda rushed through it because I didn’t have much time and plan to do a more thorough play through later.

+1000 for elden ring news. I did find this video recently. It’s not much but it’s something.

Elden Ring news

 

[SpoonFULL]

Thanks for the news, and hope that they will reveal something about Elden Ring on the 23rd of July in this xbox conference.