Mortal Shell 2 Review – A Bigger, Better Sequel, Clearly Inspired by Elden Ring

It’s fascinating to look at just how much FromSoftware has shaped the Soulslike genre over the years. Its influence can be felt not only in games like Lies of P and Nioh, but also in how action RPGs approach character progression, combat, level design, and even difficulty. That evolution arguably reached its peak with Elden Ring, a game that took the familiar Souls formula, expanded its sense of scale and exploration, and demonstrated just how effectively it could work within an open world.

So, why am I talking about Elden Ring in a review of Mortal Shell 2? Because after spending the last week with Cold Symmetry’s sequel, those inspirations are difficult to ignore, particularly in the way it approaches its world and progression, albeit in a more focused and compact fashion. More importantly, though, Mortal Shell 2 doesn’t simply live in the shadow of those influences but manages to provide its own spin specifically with regards to build and progression mechanics.

"Mortal Shell 2 doesn’t simply live in the shadow of those influences but manages to provide its own spin specifically with regards to build and progression mechanics."

The most obvious inspiration Mortal Shell 2 takes from Elden Ring is its open-world approach to level design and exploration. It isn’t as big as the Lands Between, obviously, instead focusing more on being compact and dense. On the surface, it may look like just another open world, but the deeper I ventured into it, the more familiar that design philosophy started to feel. Compared to the semi-open, hub-based structure of the first game, Mortal Shell 2 now features a far more seamless and interconnected landscape, with massive landmasses that encourage you to freely explore and carve out your own path.

There are several dungeons and beacon sites scattered across the world, with many asking you to cleanse the area or track down hidden items along the way. The overworld itself is exceptionally well designed, encouraging exploration both horizontally and vertically, while rewarding you for going off the beaten path. Although some of the dungeons and beacon-related areas can feel repetitive in structure, they still manage to look and feel distinct enough, with their own assortment of items and secrets to uncover, just like in Elden Ring. All of this is backed by fantastic art direction that constantly evokes darkness, despair and eeriness, you know, the familiar trademarks of a Soulslike game.

Individual character progression remains relatively simple: you collect Gloom, essentially the game’s equivalent of souls, and use it to raise your character level. Where progression becomes more interesting, however, is in how Mortal Shell 2 ties the discovery of new weapons, Shells, and other useful items directly into open-world exploration. The game clearly wants you to actively venture out into its world, and thankfully, it gives you enough guidance to keep that exploration focused. Want weapons like the Scythe, Crossbow or Martyr’s Blade? Simply purchase their respective maps from Merrick, the merchant, and the game will highlight a general search area rather than revealing the exact location. Looking for additional Shells works in a similar fashion, with their locations becoming available through Glimpses.

"The game clearly wants you to actively venture out into its world, and thankfully, it gives you enough guidance to keep that exploration focused. "

What I like about this system is that the resources required to uncover these locations, whether Gold Coins, Glimpses or Gloom, are fairly straightforward to obtain. As a result, exploration rarely feels aimless, with my travels constantly guided by clear objectives while still leaving enough room for discovery along the way.

However, the world of Mortal Shell 2 is intriguing enough that it’s incredibly easy to get sidetracked. Since I love exploring open-world games, I unlocked all the available map locations for items and weapons, they’re fairly cheap to procure, by the way, but even with those objectives marked out, the world itself would often pull me in a completely different direction. More than once, that curiosity led me straight into locations where an intimidating boss was roaming around, catching me completely off guard. There are a dime a dozen open-world games this generation, but Mortal Shell 2 creates that urge to explore by simplifying the systems surrounding exploration rather than constantly overwhelming you with them.

Mortal Shell 2 features eight Shells, more than double what was available in the original game, and each one brings its own abilities and playstyle to the table. For those unfamiliar with the system, Shells are essentially fallen warriors that you inhabit, with each granting access to abilities specific to that character. One, for example, can turn invisible for a set period of time, while another can perform a melee attack using a mechanical hook grafted onto their arm. Some Shells are even tied to bosses that you first need to defeat, allowing you to eventually make use of attacks you previously witnessed being used against you.

Unlocking each Shell also opens up more of its individual lore, returning from the original game in the form of short playable snippets that flesh out their respective backstories. You can access more of these by increasing your bond with a Shell, which also improves its revival efficiency. In practical terms, if you’re knocked out during combat, a stronger bond means fewer melee attacks are required before you can regain access to that Shell.

Each Shell can also be upgraded further to strengthen its defining abilities. The one I primarily used specialized in invisibility, for example, and investing in that ability allowed me to remain hidden for longer periods. Other upgrades can affect aspects such as movement speed, dodging and other traits tied specifically to the Shell you choose. Altogether, it creates an engaging progression system with plenty of room for build variety, and having that many meaningful choices available to the player is rarely a bad thing.

"The general enemy roster is also fairly extensive and changes noticeably from region to region."

Mortal Shell 2 doesn’t feature an especially large assortment of weaponry, with eight main weapons alongside a similar number of sidearms. While that may come across as a negative to some players, I think it fits the more focused experience the game is aiming for, something I touched on earlier. For most of my playthrough, I stuck with The Iconoclast, a two-handed greatsword found fairly early in the game, and simply focused on upgrading it. Although I did acquire several other weapons along the way, I found it more than capable of tearing through most of the challenges the world threw at me.

The sidearms, meanwhile, add a very different flavor to combat, with one resembling a shotgun and another functioning more like a submachine gun. Beyond upgrading these weapons individually, you can also find and equip Tarstones that grant specific effects, such as inflicting Bleed, imbuing your sidearms with burn, shock or poison, or increasing melee stagger damage. Tarstones themselves can also be upgraded, further strengthening their individual effects. The result is a combat system that blends more traditional weaponry, such as swords and greatswords, with more modern-feeling firearms and status effects, creating a combination that feels remarkably satisfying to experiment with and pull off in combat.

The general enemy roster is also fairly extensive and changes noticeably from region to region, somewhat reminiscent of Elden Ring. You might come across witches dancing around a village, immediately bringing the Celebrants from Elden Ring to mind, before venturing into swamps populated by corrupted snake- and frog-like creatures capable of inflicting Poison, or stumbling upon heavily armed knights patrolling more fortress-like locations. This mix of varied enemy designs and distinct attack patterns helps keep combat encounters feeling fresh as you move through the world.

From a difficulty perspective, Mortal Shell 2 offers a couple of interesting ways to tailor the experience. The default setting, which is what you begin the game with, provides a fairly challenging experience on its own, but you can bring the difficulty down somewhat by procuring a specific seal that makes encounters a little more forgiving. On the other hand, if you’re looking for something considerably tougher, you can activate Night Mode, which drastically ramps up the challenge while also increasing the rewards you receive in return. For the sake of our own sanity, we reviewed the game on its standard difficulty, and I found it to strike a reasonable balance between providing a challenge without becoming unnecessarily hard.

Likewise, Mortal Shell 2 is packed with bosses, whether they’re roaming the open world, waiting inside dungeons, or serving as story encounters beyond the corrupted gates. Boss fights are undoubtedly among the highlights of the experience, though I never found them to possess quite the same sense of scale or grandeur as those in FromSoftware’s games. That isn’t necessarily a criticism, because the bosses themselves are enjoyable and generally provide a solid challenge, but I do think this is one area where Mortal Shell 2 could have pushed things further.

"The bigger issue is the bugs, and unfortunately, they aren’t rare enough to simply ignore. "

It’s a limitation that many Soulslikes run into, understandably given their smaller budgets and development teams, but some larger and more spectacular encounters could have elevated the experience considerably. Still, the overall enemy variety is strong, and that’s something I certainly wouldn’t take away from the game.

On the technical front, I’ve already praised the game’s art direction, but I also think Mortal Shell 2 is one of the more graphically impressive Unreal Engine 5 games I’ve played recently. There are certainly signs of roughness here and there, but overall, this is a gorgeous game to look at, with its environments and visual design doing a lot of the heavy lifting.

The bigger issue is the bugs, and unfortunately, they aren’t rare enough to simply ignore. Some regular enemies occasionally stop attacking altogether or get stuck in the environment, and I even encountered a similar problem during one boss fight where the enemy simply became inactive and stood there doing nothing. I also noticed some minor input latency on PC, although adjusting the relevant in-game settings largely resolved it in my case. These are clearly polish-related issues that could potentially be addressed through a day-one patch, but as things stand, they’re noticeable enough to occasionally pull you out of the experience. Story-wise, I found the narrative to be bland, worthless, and uninspired, but I was so focused on the action and exploration that it rarely bothered me enough to detract from the overall experience.

To wrap things up, Mortal Shell 2 is an excellent Soulslike that gets so much right that its minor, albeit noticeable, shortcomings never managed to detract from the larger experience. Hopefully, some of the technical issues I encountered will be ironed out through post-launch patches, but even in its current state, there’s a lot here to appreciate. More importantly, Mortal Shell 2 feels like a significant step forward for Cold Symmetry, laying down a strong foundation for an even bigger and grander sequel should the studio ever decide to take the series further.

This game was reviewed on PC.