What reviewers and players say
Every criticism raised about Mortal Shell II outside the Steam store page, grouped by what it is about.
Under each subject the sources run from the most considered to the most immediate: written reviews first, then video reviewers — quoted, with a link to the second they say it — then Steam Community threads and Reddit. Each subject also links to the Steam review data for how many players report the same thing.
- Subjects
- 20
- Publications
- 6
- Video reviewers
- 16
- Points quoted
- 115
Restrictive progression and scarce upgrade resources
14Reviewers and players report that limited currency and upgrade materials discourage switching Shells, weapons and builds.
1 press6 video7 Reddit & social694 Steam reviews →
Press reviews
“Even if you do manage to unlock them all, resources are scarce enough that you’ll only be able to fully upgrade a few of them.”
Video reviews
“I also kind of spent all my currency upgrading that one weapon, so you know, I felt kind of set back a little bit”
Getting bored of a weapon pushed him to hunt for new ones, but he'd already sunk all his currency into upgrading the old one.
“you can never get your glimpse back to spin on other shells to experiment. So you can't really go crazy with all the fun shells”
Glimpse is one-time only and non-refundable, so you can only max two shells per playthrough and are locked into your first choice.
“you should be able to experiment more freely with this stuff. It's clearly like the hallmark of the game, and they make it like weirdly difficult”
Glimpse scarcity means you invest heavily in one shell and are disincentivized from trying the others until the game is effectively over.
“require a heavy investment of resources... which again kind of pushes you towards a singular play style instead of the experimentation”
Weapons and loadout pieces demand heavy resource investment, again funnelling you into a single play style rather than experimentation.
“the devs made the stupid-ass decision to wildly limit what can be used in each play-through”
He calls the hard cap on how many shells you can level up in one playthrough a bad choice that locks you out of build variety.
“I was still at least a full upgrade behind on my weapon almost the entire game because of gold”
Even doing every dungeon, event and mini boss he was permanently broke and a full upgrade behind on his weapon all game.
Reddit & social
“That both money and upgrade materials for your Tarstones felt way too scant by the midgame, such that I had to force myself to grind enemies for cash.”
“Shells have to be upgraded individually. This means that when you discover a new Shell, it can be significantly underleveled compared to the one you’ve already been using, especially if you don’t have enough materials to level it up.”
“We get way too little glimpse, I feel like I can't experiment or I'll be SOL whenever I get a new shell I like”
“Every time I found a new shell, I’d want to at least use it for a bit and see what it can do, but now that I’m close to the end, I have 1 single shell at tier 3 upgrades. I will never be able to upgrade to tier 4 until NG+.”
“I don't like the concept of using a finite material to unlock shell tiers as it inhibits experimentation and it results in nobody wanting to unlock a shell's capabilities.”
“Nowhere in my post did I say I wanted to max out every shell, but I did invest glimpses into shells that I wanted to try out only to then figure out I didn't like them and could not get those glimpses back. I also would have liked to at least see the memories of the shells too.”
“I think once people learn where to run for weapon upgrades and their favorite weapons they will chill. I do think we need farmable glimpse thoooo”
Bugs, crashes and softlocks
13Players and reviewers report crashes, lockups, audio failures, geometry traps and combat-state bugs across PC and consoles.
4 press5 video4 Reddit & social1,360 Steam reviews →
Press reviews
“Ao longo de toda a campanha, encontrei não apenas um desempenho abaixo do esperado para esse tipo de jogo, mas também bugs como pop-in de inimigos e objetos durante a transição entre cenários, ausência de texturas e ataques que atravessavam paredes, entre outros problemas.”Throughout the campaign, I encountered not only performance below what is expected for this type of game, but also bugs such as enemies and objects popping in during transitions between areas, missing textures and attacks passing through walls, among other problems.
“Tehničko je iskustvo također moglo proći još koji krug poliranja. Doživio sam par rušenja nakon naročito teških bossova zbog kojih sam znao kontemplirati svoje životne odluke, a nadam se da će ih ispraviti ažuriranjem pri lansiranju igre. Bilo je tu i ponešto vizualnih bugova i drugih sitnica – srećom, ništa dovoljno ozbiljno ili učestalo da bi mi značajnije kvarilo iskustvo.”The technical experience could also have used another round of polish. I experienced a couple of crashes after particularly difficult bosses that made me contemplate my life choices, and I hope they will be fixed with the launch update. There were also some visual bugs and other minor issues, fortunately nothing serious or frequent enough to significantly spoil the experience.
“I had no outright crashes, but sound dropouts and getting stuck in level geometry was fairly common.”
“Tout n'est malheureusement pas parfait dans cette suite. J'ai pu constater la présence de quelques bugs un peu gênants au cours de mon test, mais heureusement mineurs pour la plupart.”Unfortunately, not everything is perfect in this sequel. I encountered a few rather troublesome bugs during my review, although fortunately most were minor.
Video reviews
“I kept getting audio bugs very often throughout my playthrough where it would just loop audio endlessly”
He repeatedly hit looping audio bugs, getting stuck in the world, objects failing to spawn, and falling through the map after a boss kill.
“there were a lot of bugs in this game. I had probably close to a dozen bugs in my playthrough, a couple of crashes”
He hit roughly a dozen bugs plus a couple of crashes, none game-breaking but enough that he wouldn't call the game polished.
“bugs, unfortunately, is the area where I encountered the most problems”
He says bugs were the single worst area of the game, mostly collision bugs that dropped him out of bounds plus a couple of crashes, though the devs were actively patching them.
“The bigger issue is the bugs and unfortunately, they aren't rare enough to simply ignore.”
He calls bugs the game's bigger issue, with enemies and even a boss going inactive or getting stuck in the environment.
“There may still be some bugs, but according to the developers, they are going to be fixed”
He notes the demo may still contain bugs and needs weapon balancing, while relaying the developers' claim that fixes are coming.
Reddit & social
“I’m in series S and everytime I try to go into the place where the forgotten crossbow is my game crashes and it’s currently not allowing me to progress because of the crashing”
“I've had 2 full crashes, once when rezzing from the first mini boss and another issue of a full lock up when unlocking Tiel after the cut scene. Had to force quit.”
“Since you are playing on PS5 just wondering if you've encountered a bug where your weapon randomly disappears mid combat and doesn't reappear until you get a riposte? This has happened to me like 5 or 6 separate times now and it's starting to get kind of frustrating.”
“Temple of Vatra is locked if you grab the main item there before the tarstone and health upgrade. Even in NG+. This has to be a bug right?”
Boss design and fights
109 video1 forum thread1,659 Steam reviews →
Video reviews
“This sucks, dude. I can't see anything.”
He complains about bosses that remove visibility or deny riposte and simply grab you instead.
“I wish this game had more of that”
The silly, humour-driven boss fights are his favourite part and he wishes the game had more of them.
“there's a ton of repeat bosses as well where it's just like a normal enemy that's scaled up... it's getting kind of tiresome”
Many dungeon bosses are just scaled-up normal enemies reused over and over, which he found deflating and tiresome.
“this can have a hand in making later game bosses feel underpowered as they don't scale in the same way you can”
He complains that late-game bosses don't scale with the player, so grinding and free respecs make them feel underpowered.
“The bosses are actually kind of trivial”
He beat almost every major boss in one or two attempts and found them trivial, which robbed him of any sense of earned victory.
“they have quite limited predictable move sets. And yeah, I was just a bit disappointed by that”
Beyond the generous mechanics, he blames the bosses' limited, predictable move sets and says he was disappointed by it.
“If that grapple hits you, you are just dead. It doesn't matter how much health you had. And while I don't love that personally”
Late-game boss grapple attacks kill outright regardless of remaining health, which he dislikes.
“there really wasn't a standout memorable boss fight that I'll remember”
Boss quality varied in design, move sets and difficulty, and none were memorable.
“I never found them to possess quite the same sense of scale or grandeur as those in FromSoftware games”
He felt the bosses never reached the scale or grandeur of FromSoftware's and that the game could have pushed further.
Steam Community
“Hard games don't have to be unbalanced though and being unable to understand this nuance is why we end up with ♥♥♥♥♥♥ soulslike lately. Getting two-shot by regular enemies is artificial difficulty and isn't fun. Bosses being damage sponges is just t”sad sword
“Your the perfect example of what is wrong with souls like now. "It needs to be hard". That was never the core of fromsofts games. Yes they were harder then other games at the time but they were built on balance. Having a few enemies that were interes”Glibglob233
“He’s not entirely wrong, though. Still, there’s more to it than that. Just because these games thrive on being difficult doesn’t mean that aspect is executed well. The balancing might be off, or there could be a bug, or... A soulslike should be diff”puRe
Camera and lock-on problems
8Reviewers report that the close camera can collide with walls, obscure attacks and make target lock unreliable in crowded fights.
4 press1 video3 Reddit & social315 Steam reviews →
Press reviews
“Ni zaključavanje kamere na protivnika nije savršeno. U gužvi zna postati hirovito, a sposobnosti koje ovise o automatskom ciljanju povremeno jednostavno prolete pokraj neprijatelja kojeg ste uredno označili.”Locking the camera onto an enemy is not perfect either. In a crowd it can become temperamental, and abilities that depend on automatic targeting sometimes simply fly past the enemy you have properly marked.
“And occasionally, when cornered or a little too close to a wall, the camera panics and gives you the most unhelpful view of the action possible.”
“Combat becomes considerably more frustrating when several enemies surround you or something pushes you too close to a wall, because the camera has a habit of colliding with the environment and obscuring exactly what you need to see.”
“Je me suis retrouvé aussi parfois face à des tremblements de caméra incessants qui ont rendu certaines situations vraiment inconfortables, surtout dans les phases de combat où il faut voir venir clairement les différents coups pour ne pas manquer une parade.”I also sometimes encountered constant camera shaking that made certain situations genuinely uncomfortable, especially during combat phases where you need a clear view of incoming attacks so you do not miss a parry.
Video reviews
“The most consistently mentioned one I found is the camera”
He singles out the camera as the issue that comes up most often and explicitly says it is a problem that counts.
Reddit & social
“The camera being stuck facing a wall because an enemy cornered me against it while I had lock-on activated, making it so I couldn’t see anything”
“I notice when using lock on reticle, if the enemy dodges or moves off screen it doesn’t stay locked on.”
“when you are performing a riposte, PLEASE let us move the camera or unlock.”
Sparse checkpoints and long runbacks
7Players and reviewers report uneven Beacon placement that turns deaths and dungeon attempts into long repeated runs.
2 press3 video2 Reddit & social747 Steam reviews →
Press reviews
“O lado negativo dessa estrutura é que a distribuição dos pontos de controle não é boa. Muitas vezes fui obrigado a refazer seções inteiras de uma área apenas para retornar a uma dungeon ou explorar novamente uma nova região.”The downside of this structure is that checkpoint distribution is poor. I was often forced to replay entire sections of an area just to return to a dungeon or explore a new region again.
“The placement of enemies and the distance between Beacons (until you find and unlock shortcuts) can make repeated runs feel a lot like work.”
Video reviews
“there's a couple of spots where there's no bonfires and it gets a little tedious”
Some stretches of the world feel empty, and bonfire-free stretches make repeated deaths tedious.
“they're very stingy with the amount of beacons... you end up having to make a ton of runs through it which is annoying”
He found the game stingy with bonfires, with entire islands lacking one, forcing annoying repeat runs.
“the checkpoints get really few and far between to the point where it becomes a bit of a slog”
After the opening areas checkpoints become sparse enough that fighting back through enemy gauntlets turns into a slog and pushes you to just run past everything.
Reddit & social
“Also the beacons are either right next to each other or wayyyy to far from eachother, so healing is at a premium.”
“the biggest painpoint is more beacons. more out of the landscape, more in bigger dungeons. or at least something that functions like the stake of marika in Elden Ring, where, once you reach a certain point (near a boss, mainly) you have the ability to resurrect there rather than a beacon.”
Limited enemy variety and repetitive encounters
7Players and reviewers report that regular-enemy variety diminishes over time and that repeated or recycled encounters make the later game feel monotonous.
1 press4 video2 Reddit & social403 Steam reviews →
Press reviews
“Au-delà de ces petits désagréments techniques, le bestiaire se montre un peu faiblard et très répétitif à la longue, ce qui peut accentuer la lassitude après une bonne vingtaine d'heures de jeu.”Beyond these minor technical issues, the bestiary feels somewhat limited and becomes very repetitive over time, which can increase fatigue after around twenty hours of play.
Video reviews
“There is variety to the enemies, but I still feel like there could be more”
He wanted more enemy variety, saying too many are engaged with in the same way.
“the enemy variety is really weak. I wish they had some new enemies to fight”
The second area recycles the first area's enemies with only new armor or recolours, leaving a long stretch of fighting the same things.
“it seems like most enemies only have one or two attacks”
Most enemies only have one or two attacks, so their patterns are learned almost immediately.
“it was still disappointing to see that so much of the variety is just a recolor and a status effect swap”
He was disappointed that by the halfway point you have seen every enemy type, with the rest being recolours and status-effect swaps.
Reddit & social
“It’s easier than most souls games. Parry time is extremely generous. Lack of enemy variety has made this game way too easy.”
“I don't think patches are going to make the game significantly better for me. I find the world boring, enemies get reused way too often, and the combat feels way too chaotic and unfair unless you're running some kind of broken build.”
Enemy tracking and attack magnetism
6Players report that enemies can slide, curve or snap toward targets during attack animations, making spacing and dodging unreliable.
6 Reddit & social229 Steam reviews →
Reddit & social
“When enemies skate towards you mid-attack animation it just feels profoundly cheap to me. It makes it way harder to gauge proper spacing when they can just extend their reach by 5 feet. It makes crowd control even more difficult, because enemies further away can just lunge aggressively.”
“The weird part is that a few recent games even seem to be borking the entire "high risk reward" idea of parrying by making parrying actually easier than dodging. MS2 is very guilty of this since it has an incredibly forgiving parry window but insane enemy tracking that makes dodging often WAY riskier than parrying and no reward.”
“Some enemy attack animations are a bit janky and they travel towards you similar to Ornstein when he gets blocked behind a pillar. Velocity is preserved and as soon as he gets unstuck he zips into you.”
“But unlike other games of the genre, a lot of enemies have tracking and homing magnetic attacks that will most likely get some hits in on your run, even while dodging sometimes.”
“yea thats not a solution to the issue you posted. Neither us or the enemies should have insane far reach tracking like this. I even noticed this with bosses in the beta”
“I do want to play Mortal Shell 2, but this style of melee interaction is incredibly annoying. I do hope that they consider toning down the homing effect in a patch at some point. I get why developers do it, but I don't think it works for souls-likes.”
Level and map design
66 video755 Steam reviews →
Video reviews
“I've lost quite a bit of time to stupid falls and slips and even little simple enemies knocking me off the map”
He complains about frequently losing progress to falls, slips and enemies knocking him off the map.
“doesn't completely fix some of the first game's nagging problems like how confusing it can be to navigate”
He says the game never fixes how disorienting Fallgrim is to navigate, with areas looking alike until you have logged travel time.
“I do still wish it had a more robust pinning system or a note option”
He wishes the new map had pinning or notes, since he kept abandoning and then forgetting points of interest.
“haphazardly connected them together with bridges”
The open world feels like self-contained islands stitched together and lacks the awe and hidden interconnection of its peers.
“aren't anything you haven't seen in other Souls-likes”
The locations are genre boilerplate and even the alien Giger-style areas don't feel novel next to other Souls-likes.
“some of the dungeons and beacon-related areas can feel repetitive in structure”
He notes some dungeons and beacon areas feel repetitive in layout, while still looking distinct enough.
Late-game damage spikes and one-shot balance
5Players and reviewers report a sharp late-game difficulty increase, with ordinary enemies and bosses frequently killing upgraded characters in one or two hits.
1 press1 video1 forum thread2 Reddit & social721 Steam reviews →
Press reviews
“Enfin, parlons du plus gros point noir à mon sens, à savoir la seconde moitié du jeu, où l'on fait face à une brutale hausse de la difficulté qui va très vite vous déconcerter.”Finally, let us discuss what I consider the biggest drawback: the second half of the game, where you face a brutal difficulty spike that will very quickly unsettle you.
Video reviews
“a lot of enemies that like to one-shot you. Like there's a warning on screen, but they're tough to dodge”
Many enemies kill you instantly and their telegraphed attacks are hard to avoid.
Steam Community
“As you progress through the game you level up, not only your character and strenghth, but your healing as well. You can add heals and increase how powerful they are. Every thing you mention is already in place. I am guessing you have not found a Shel”Ravyn Hood
“Cannot get to the first shell after an hour of attempts Somehow the beginning (past the into / beta content) is much more difficult than Elden Ring, Remnant 1-2 - for the same reason I've refunded Nioh 2 (and never bought Nioh 3 as the result) and wi”😎Astran😾
“There is an easy mode, just use the Slayer Seal if you're having too much trouble with the game. I think it's pretty balanced right now as it is. If you're having trouble in one area go explore somewhere else, or just use that Seal.”ColonelBaker
Reddit & social
“I'm not sure why I have this gigantic health bar when I get 1- or 2-shot by trash mobs.”
“She snaps to the player instantly, deals damage before her chair has even fully raised, and instantly kills any Harbinger caught by this.”
Parry, dodge and hit detection
55 video766 Steam reviews →
Video reviews
“there are some hitboxes that just don't work... the hit boxes and the tracking are a little wonky”
He says hitboxes and tracking are unreliable, with Teal's backstab whiffing almost always and some boss moves unable to connect at all.
“I would just inexplicably miss with abilities like Tiel's shadow stab every once in a while”
He says distance-travelling or auto-locking shell abilities are hard to land and sometimes missed for no clear reason.
“the models didn't quite line up properly and that did end up in some goofy-looking animations”
He noticed collision hiccups where character models did not line up with the action, producing awkward animations.
“This one's a little awkward to use in my opinion”
The harden seal is clumsy to use compared with block and parry.
“some clunky timings and animations that definitely don't match hitboxes”
He experienced many bugs and notes clunky timings and animations that do not line up with hitboxes.
Demo/beta did not match the release
55 video342 Steam reviews →
Video reviews
“They may not have delivered the whole product on that level.”
He concedes Cold Symmetry captured the Souls feeling but did not deliver a complete product on that level.
“It's probably the single biggest unknown hanging over this game”
He calls it the biggest question mark whether the opening area's density can hold up across a 30-hour campaign.
“Of course, there's no guarantee everything can be addressed in time.”
After noting the devs promised a launch patch for beta complaints, he adds his own doubt that everything will be fixed in time.
“Exactly how lengthy or complex these challenges are remains to be seen”
He withholds judgment on the 60-plus handcrafted dungeons, saying their length and complexity are still unknown.
“there are a handful of noted concerns following the game's recent open beta”
He frames the open beta as having surfaced a set of genuine outstanding worries about the game.
Broken balance and dominant builds
44 video39 Steam reviews →
Video reviews
“They need to nerf this ability. They already nerfed it. It's still too strong.”
He repeatedly says shells and weapons are so overpowered they trivialise the game, and that even a post-launch nerf left them too strong.
“Wait, this sucks. This sucks ass. What the hell?”
The shell that swaps normal healing for kill-charged healing heals for even less, which he calls outright bad and not worth investing in.
“I don't understand this move. Like, it's so inconsistent.”
The double light-attack tar stone produced wildly different damage on repeat uses and he couldn't tell why.
“game balancing. It kind of feels all over the place”
He built a cheesy ranged build that one-shot most enemies and first-tried nearly every boss, suggesting a few dominant builds will trivialise the game.
Combat feel and controls
44 videonot reported in Steam reviews
Video reviews
“my one issue is that melee still feels a little stale after a while combat-wise if you just stick with the same weapon”
He says sticking with one weapon gets boring because there are no combos or variations to the light and heavy attacks.
“any actions involving clicking the sticks like running and auto targeting were very finicky”
He found actions bound to clicking the sticks, like running and auto-targeting, very unreliable and frustrating.
“which does get a little confusing because sometimes the game refers to this perfect block as a parry”
The game calls the seal's perfect block a "parry" even though a separate parry seal exists, which muddles things.
“the movement in combat in particular can feel a little bit odd”
He says effective range and movement in combat feel off, with the character sometimes weighty and sometimes skating around.
Thin or incoherent story
44 videonot reported in Steam reviews
Video reviews
“Some parts are just kind of barren and empty... I don't think there's anything like extraordinary about the story”
Some regions feel barren with underwhelming enemies, and the narrative never gives you a compelling reason to be invested.
“The overall story is a bit of a cryptic mess”
He calls the overarching narrative incoherent, saved only by the individual characters' side stories.
“I didn't feel like much of it really led anywhere”
Despite many storytelling avenues, he felt the lore and characters were too scarce to land and finished 25-plus hours indifferent.
“I found the narrative to be bland, worthless, and uninspired”
He judged the narrative poor, though he was too absorbed in action and exploration for it to bother him much.
Performance and technical polish
44 videonot reported in Steam reviews
Video reviews
“You will see a couple of frame drops here and there”
He notes the PS5 gameplay footage shows some frame drops, while still saying it otherwise runs well.
“I wouldn't say Mortal Shell 2 is badly optimized... but I wouldn't say performance is perfect either”
Even though it ran well on his own PC, he refuses to call performance good given the stuttering reports.
“I also noticed some minor input latency on PC”
He noticed some input latency on PC, largely fixable via in-game settings, and grouped it with polish issues.
“There are certainly signs of roughness here and there”
Despite praising the presentation, he flags visible roughness in the game's graphics.
Mob stacking and overtuned trash enemies
3Players report dense enemy groups, aggressive pursuit and high trash-enemy damage that can overwhelm the combat system.
1 press2 Reddit & social868 Steam reviews →
Press reviews
“The problem is that Mortal Shell II sometimes substitutes quantity for complexity, filling areas with more enemies that have more health, deal more damage, and seem to be waiting around every damn corner.”
Reddit & social
“The first few hours are great difficulty wise, however as the game progresses it becomes a slippery slope of gangs of enemies that can delete 90% of your health with a quick attack.”
“Aggro range for mobs is crazy huge. I'll step into a new area and every cultist and bell-slug thing and fart dude in a mile radius is coming for me. It's kind of ridiculous.”
Difficulty options and modes
33 videonot reported in Steam reviews
Video reviews
“it felt like it just doubled enemies HP bars, which I didn't find super interesting”
He skipped the optional hard mode because it seemed to just double enemy HP and made the game uglier.
“that does come at the downside of turning off achievements if that matters to you, like it does to me”
He notes the Slayer Seal's power comes with the downside of switching achievements off, which matters to him.
“which is quite OP. This may disable some of the achievements if you use it, so be careful”
He calls a fourth seal in the demo overpowered and warns it can lock you out of some achievements.
Forgettable music
33 videonot reported in Steam reviews
Video reviews
“the music is a little bit lacking in terms of like amping up the game”
The same track repeats across optional boss fights and he can't recall any major boss theme, so the soundtrack fails to amp up the game.
“for the most part, the music kind of fades into the background”
He found the soundtrack largely unmemorable and low in the mix, and explicitly said this is something they could have done better.
“I don't think any of the boss fight music elevated the experience at all, and I was a little disappointed”
He felt the soundtrack did not match the visuals and that the boss music added nothing.
Late game and New Game Plus feel thin
22 videonot reported in Steam reviews
Video reviews
“it seems more or less the same as the first play through”
NG+ seems essentially identical to the first playthrough and the repeated enemies will discourage people from replaying.
“I think it kind of plateaus from there”
He rates the first ten hours as far and away the strongest and thinks the game plateaus afterwards.
Accessibility and options
22 videonot reported in Steam reviews
Video reviews
“We don't have much in terms of pure accessibility in the options”
While praising HUD and text customisation, he notes the settings menu offers little in the way of true accessibility features.
“I did have to crank the brightness up a little bit”
He had to raise the brightness for the darker areas, though he brushed it off as common to the genre.
Who reviewed it
114Everyone whose review is quoted on this page: 98 publications and 16video reviewers.
Publications — 38 scored, averaging 86%
- Game810/10
- Analog Stick Gaming9.5/10
- Game Lodge9.5
- Voxel95
- MeriStation9.2/10
- Critical Hits9/10
- Digital Chumps9/10
- Finger Guns9/10
- Gameliner4,5/5
- GameMAG9/10
- Gamesurf9
- Hinsusta9/10
- Mobalytics9/10
- ScreenRant9/10
- Shacknews9/10
- TheGameSlayer9.0/10
- Virtualni Kutak9/10
- República DG8.6
- CGMagazine8.5/10
- GAMES.CH85%
- Manual dos Games8.5/10
- One More Game8.5/10
- Vandal8.5
- WayTooManyGames8.5/10
- Fextralife8.4/10
- Gamer Guides83
- HCL.hr83/100
- Hobby Consolas83
- Game Sandwich8
- GameSpot8/10
- GamesRadar+4/5
- IGN8/10
- Jeuxvideo.com16/20
- Noisy Pixel8/10
- PSX Brasil80/100
- Push Square8/10
- Saudi Gamer4/5
- Tom's Hardware Italia8
- 3DJuegosNews
- ALG Veterans & Video GamesNews
- AltCharReview
- AreajugonesNews
- Between Levels PodcastVideo
- Bloody DisgustingReview
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Video reviewers
He came away genuinely enjoying Mortal Shell 2 as a pretty, exploration-heavy Soulslike full of absurdly powerful toys, while stressing this was sponsored play rather than a review and flagging wildly broken balance plus a few cheap boss gimmicks.
- Strong sense of exploration — The semi-open world gave him a genuine sense of adventure, with caves that each build around one distinct idea.
- Beautiful environments — He repeatedly stops to admire the caves, castles and ruins, calling the game gorgeous.
- Best-in-genre running attacks — He rates the combat animations, especially running attacks and weapon-stealing crits, above other Soulslikes he has played.
- Coolness over balance — He endorses the developers' willingness to sacrifice balance for spectacle and silliness in abilities and weapon concepts.
A largely enthusiastic first-impressions verdict: a stylish, well-structured Souls-like that is a fun, generous game worth picking up eventually, held back by shallow melee combat and some repetitive enemies.
- Structure, pacing, exploration — He names the game's structure and freeform exploration as what he enjoyed most, with something interesting around every corner.
- Shell system is rewarding — The collectible shells each change how you play and made hunting them genuinely satisfying.
- Standout art direction — He praises the heavy-metal, gothic and Giger-esque world for feeling unique next to similar games.
- Accessible for the subgenre — Generous parry timing, no stamina meter and open-ended routing make it approachable despite being harder than average.
He loved it, calling it a hugely improved, uniquely designed Souls-like that ranks among the best of its genre and a top-five game of the year despite lingering jank and one glaring progression restriction.
- Shells give unique playstyles — Each of the eight shells offers a genuinely distinct set of abilities that changes how you approach the game.
- No-stamina combat — Removing stamina lets you focus on aggression without feeling unbalanced, which he called refreshing and smooth.
- Extraordinary exploration — He 100 percented the world and says no Souls-like has been this rewarding to explore since Elden Ring.
- Build variety and weapons — Weapons, sidearms and tar stones combine into a large number of viable builds he wants to keep experimenting with.
A hugely enjoyable, massively improved sequel with the best world design he has seen in a Souls-like, held back by bugs, weak enemy variety, shaky balance and forgettable music, which he still highly recommends.
- Best world design in genre — He calls it hands-down the best world design of any Souls-like he has played, with secrets, hidden walls and puzzles making exploration the game's standout.
- Excellent, improved combat — Dropping stamina and centring deflects makes combat faster and more engaging, with unique parry animations per enemy.
- Strong build variety — Weapons, side arms, ten tar stone slots and eight shells let him run a ranged-only build and should produce starkly different builds for other players.
- Great visuals and performance — He loved the dark fantasy art direction and lonely atmosphere, and ran into few performance problems beyond occasional hitches.
The reviewer concludes that the expansion into a bigger action RPG is largely a success, with greatly improved world, combat and shells, held back only by technical roughness, confusing navigation and a too-easy endgame.
- Better in almost everything — Despite his scepticism about the sequel going bigger, he says the world, exploration and combat encounters are all greatly improved.
- Engrossing open world — He praises Fallgrim's design for constantly baiting him down side paths and rabbit holes.
- Active shell abilities — He calls the new per-shell active abilities the standout addition, making swapping shells genuinely rewarding.
- Striking monsters and aesthetic — He singles out the enemy design and dark fantasy setting as some of the most memorable in the genre.
A recommendation with reservations: Mortal Shell 2 punches far above its 30-person team with fantastic combat and superb build craft, but its trivial bosses, thin story and fragmented world keep it out of the top tier.
- Fantastic combat — He calls the combat fantastic, with weighty attacks, punchy sound design and great animations, and loves how ranged weapons are woven into the loop via resolve.
- Excellent build craft — His favourite thing about the game: shells act as real character classes, and skill trees plus tar stones enable deep, intuitive synergies.
- Visuals punch above budget — He is impressed by the art, especially the lighting and murky fog, given a 30-person team.
- Beacon dungeons and difficulty tools — The per-beacon dungeons were a consistent pleasant surprise, and he likes the diegetic Slayer Seal and eternal-night systems for scaling difficulty.
Overwhelmingly positive, scoring it a definite-buy 5/5 as one of the most fun Souls-likes he has played in years, with bugs the only real blemish and one he forgives because the devs are actively fixing them.
- Gameplay and build diversity — He calls the combat and the shell/tarstone build crafting the standout, offering huge experimentation with multiple viable builds per shell.
- World design and discovery — He loved the interconnected world, layered dungeons-within-dungeons, quirky quests and experimental world events.
- Strong performance optimisation — He reports 110 FPS native 4K ultra and 200+ with frame gen, reading it as a sign lower-end rigs will be fine.
- Good-looking Unreal 5 visuals — He praises the armour and environmental detail and singles out the lighting and fog work.
He had a great time with Mortal Shell 2 and considers it well worth buying, despite two progression and checkpoint issues he wants patched.
- Compact map avoids repetition — The focused, compact open world keeps exploration from becoming overwhelming or repetitive.
- Exploration and secrets fun — Hunting secrets and rewards across the biomes was enjoyable and well signposted.
- Loadout customization enjoyable — Mixing tar stones, weapons and sidearms into builds was a highlight.
- Runs smoothly, even handheld — Performance was very good for him and surprisingly solid on Steam Deck and Steam Machine.
He thinks the beta is an exceptionally polished, hugely promising Souls-like whose reworked combat fixes his main complaints about the first game, and he raises no criticisms of the game itself.
- Stamina removal fixes combat — He argues dropping stamina was the needed fix for the first game's stagnant hit-and-back-off combat, making fights flow.
- Exceptionally polished beta — He opens by saying he loves the beta and calls it one of the most polished he has played at this stage of development.
- Ranged weapons and resolve — He says ranged combat feels drastically better and the resolve economy adds depth by forcing choices between guns and abilities.
- Tactical parries, great ripostes — He likes that stagger-based repeat parrying makes combat more tactical, and calls the unique riposte animations superb.
An enthusiastic preview: he thinks the sequel looks like a bigger, more visually striking continuation of a first game he loved, and he is eager to play it.
- Dark fantasy atmosphere — He repeatedly praises the brutal dark-fantasy visuals and the lonely Souls-like ambiance in the new gameplay.
- Riposte animations — He singles out the individually animated, enemy-specific ripostes as a standout he expects to be a huge part of the game.
- Enemy and boss design — He likes the grotesque, horror-tinged enemy variety and says the teased bosses look visceral.
- World design and exploration — He credits Cold Symmetry with excelling at interconnected world design that makes you want to explore.
Based on the beta and other hands-on impressions he is genuinely excited and believes this will be a substantial leap over the original, with the camera, uneven performance and unproven long-game consistency as his caveats.
- Combat now its own thing — He sees dropping stamina in favour of pressure, posture and firearms as a shift that gives the game its own identity.
- Compact, dense open world — He is enthusiastic that the world is built for density and constant discovery rather than size for its own sake.
- Art direction and bosses — He praises the bigger, nastier aesthetic for finally giving the series a look of its own.
- Shells feel like characters — He likes that the eight shells have distinct abilities and backstories instead of being stat variations.
Despite bugs and some frustrating progression limits, he considers it a smooth-combat, atmospheric Souls-like that improves on the original and is worth its AA price, scoring it 8/10.
- Combat is the highlight — He says the heavily improved combat is where the game shines, with faster, smoother movement and no stamina bar.
- Excellent world to explore — He found the large, visually diverse map tense but a joy to navigate with constant risk-versus-reward decisions.
- Distinctive among Souls-likes — He praises its own style and systems for setting it apart from copycat Souls-likes.
- Strong value for money — He thinks 25 to 30 hours per playthrough at a AA fifty-dollar price is good value.
An excellent, tightly focused Souls-like with outstanding exploration, combat and build variety, held back by noticeable bugs and a weak story that never undermined the whole for him.
- Excellent world design — He rates the compact open world as exceptionally well-designed, rewarding both horizontal and vertical exploration.
- Satisfying combat blend — He found the mix of melee weapons, firearm sidearms and tar stone status effects highly enjoyable to experiment with.
- Engaging shell progression — The eight upgradeable shells and their abilities give the progression system real depth and build variety.
- Art direction and visuals — He praises the atmospheric art direction and calls it one of the better-looking Unreal Engine 5 games he has played.
A positive first impression: he finds the game fun, well-running and strong in its opening hours, with only the inconsistent-feeling combat movement giving him pause pending a full review.
- Decoupled progression systems — He likes that shells, weapons, tar stones and character level are separate systems, creating interplay instead of one dominant stat.
- Fun, runs well, good art — Wrapping up, he says the game performs well, is enjoyable to play, and the opening hours were strong.
- Compact world, free pacing — He thinks the small, gated open world works because progression opens up quickly and lets you explore at your own pace.
- Distinct shells, many builds — He says each shell's own powers make it feel unique, and the combined systems give room to build toward a playstyle.
A hands-on-the-demo preview concluding that the sequel is a big step up from the original and one of the strongest Souls-likes he has played recently, with only minor demo-stage bugs and balance caveats.
- Massive leap over predecessor — His headline judgment is that the sequel is a huge improvement on the first game and an amazing experience for Souls fans.
- Fluid combat, more polish — He credits the sequel with more polish and much more fluid combat, singling out the removal of the attack stamina bar.
- Beacon cleansing mechanic — He says he grew to appreciate the beacon cleansing system, comparing each beacon to a bonfire with its own dungeon attached.
- Sidearms feel powerful — He found the sidearms extremely satisfying, with the starting nail shotgun tearing through enemies that resist melee.
A pre-release buyer's primer rather than a played review: broadly enthusiastic about the larger scope, expanded arsenal and bespoke dungeons, while hedging that beta complaints and the actual quality of dungeons and bosses remain unproven.
- Ambitiously scaled-up sequel — He credits the sequel with taking the first game's lessons and expanding on them substantially.
- Sidearms are standout addition — He singles out the new sidearms as one of the sequel's best features for adding tactical range.
- Weapon classes deepen combat — He judges the four new weapon classes a genuine expansion of combat options that fits the aggressive style.
- Bosses look like real tests — He rates the bigger, more complex bosses as meaningful challenges for the improved combat systems.
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