Cold Symmetry clearly had something to prove with Mortal Shell II. The original Mortal Shell was an intriguing but also somewhat limited take on the Soulslike formula, built around a handful of genuinely clever ideas that never quite escaped the constraints of its modest scope. Its sequel feels like the point where those ideas have finally been given room to breathe. Mortal Shell II is bigger, more ambitious and considerably more confident, but what makes it particularly interesting is that it does not simply try to imitate FromSoftware more convincingly. Instead, it takes familiar Soulslike conventions and starts pulling them apart, most successfully through its Shell system and the decision to remove stamina from the equation. The result is a dark fantasy action RPG that can be exceptionally satisfying when its systems click, even if some rough edges keep it from reaching the very highest tier of the genre.
The story puts us in control of the Harbinger, a mysterious entity born from one of the Undermother’s remaining Ova and tasked with recovering the others after they have been scattered throughout a decaying world. It is suitably strange material, involving fallen warriors, corrupted creatures, ancient powers and a landscape seemingly built from the remains of forgotten civilisations. The problem is that Mortal Shell II sometimes confuses being cryptic with being compelling. Much of the lore is delivered through conversations, environmental details and scattered information, and while that approach suits the Soulslike tradition, the pieces do not always come together into a satisfying whole. The central quest is functional rather than especially memorable, and some of the world’s mysteries remain frustratingly underdeveloped. The Shells themselves fare much better. Each fallen warrior has a distinct history that can be uncovered as we develop them, and these personal stories occasionally intersect with bosses and events in ways that make the characters feel like more than interchangeable combat classes.
Exploration is where the sequel’s expanded ambitions really pay off. Mortal Shell II does not offer an enormous open world on the scale of Elden Ring, and that is arguably one of its strengths. Its regions are compact, interconnected and packed with reasons to leave the obvious route behind. You can stumble across new Shells, weapons, Tarstones, smaller dungeons and other secrets simply by following an interesting path rather than blindly chasing the next objective. The world also has considerable visual variety, moving between corrupted forests, icy tombs, bone-built citadels, ruins, swamps and other suitably miserable locations. There is a satisfying rhythm to the exploration because almost every detour has the potential to improve our character or reveal something new. The numerous smaller dungeons are particularly effective as optional distractions, although their repeated structural patterns eventually expose the limitations of the game’s content. Even so, Mortal Shell II understands something many open-world games forget: a world does not need to be enormous when it consistently gives us a reason to investigate it.
Combat is the sequel’s biggest success, and removing stamina is a surprisingly effective way of refreshing the formula. We can attack, dodge and reposition without having to constantly monitor an energy bar, which gives encounters a more aggressive and fluid rhythm. That does not turn the game into a mindless hack-and-slash, because attacks still commit us to their animations and mistiming a heavy swing can leave us wide open. Instead, the emphasis shifts toward reading enemy behaviour, choosing when to commit and making proper use of our defensive tools. The familiar Harden ability returns, while Seals allow us to customise the defensive side of the combat system with different approaches to blocking, parrying and risk-taking. Resolve, meanwhile, is generated through successful melee attacks and spent on special abilities and ranged weapons, creating a pleasing loop in which playing aggressively can replenish the resources needed to become even more dangerous. The controls feel markedly more responsive than those of the original, although occasional collision problems, camera oddities and small animation glitches can still interrupt an otherwise excellent sense of physicality.
The Shells are what elevate that combat system beyond simple Soulslike competence. There are eight of them to discover, and each effectively functions as a distinct class rather than merely a different health-and-stamina configuration. One might favor heavy attacks and stagger damage, another speed and evasive play, while others introduce abilities that alter the rules of an encounter altogether. Crucially, the sequel separates Shell choice from weapon choice, allowing us to combine a preferred character archetype with different melee and ranged weapons. That opens up considerably more experimentation than in the original. Tarstones and Shell-specific upgrades add another layer, allowing builds to be shaped around critical hits, status effects, special attacks or other bonuses, while the ability to refund progression points makes experimentation less punishing. The weakness is that the game does not always encourage that experimentation as much as it could. Weapons require substantial investment, and by the time a new one is discovered we may already have poured scarce resources into something else. Some Shells and weapons are also noticeably more effective than others, creating balance problems that become increasingly apparent later in the adventure.
That balancing issue is especially unfortunate because Mortal Shell II can otherwise produce some fantastic encounters. Enemies generally have enough variety in their attack patterns and behaviours to keep us paying attention, while the mixture of melee weapons and unusual ranged options gives combat a welcome degree of unpredictability. Some of the smaller bosses, however, are less convincing, occasionally relying on straightforward patterns that make them feel more like obstacles than memorable tests of skill. The game can also become surprisingly forgiving once a strong build comes together, while other encounters feel unfair because of cramped spaces, groups of powerful enemies or environmental hazards. Falling to our death is particularly frustrating in a game where knockback and positioning are so important. These problems are compounded by technical issues, including collision errors, enemies becoming unresponsive, physics oddities and situations where lost resources can end up somewhere they cannot reasonably be recovered. For a genre where death and resource retrieval are fundamental parts of the design, these things carry considerably more weight than they would in a less demanding action game – but they’re also things that a patch can fix.
Visually, though, Mortal Shell II makes a strong impression. Its dark fantasy world has an appropriately grim identity, mixing medieval decay with grotesque organic forms and occasionally biomechanical imagery. More importantly, the environments are varied enough that exploration rarely feels visually monotonous. The art direction does more of the heavy lifting than raw technological spectacle, and that proves to be a good choice for a studio of Cold Symmetry’s size. On PS5, the game generally presents a stable experience, although occasional frame-rate dips and the aforementioned technical oddities show that there was still some polishing left to do. The audio work is considerably more consistent. Music helps establish the oppressive atmosphere during exploration and gives major confrontations additional weight, while the sound design makes every heavy strike, parry and gruesome execution feel appropriately tactile. The soundtrack does not merely sit behind the action; it helps give the world its sense of dread and desolation.
Mortal Shell II ultimately feels like the game Cold Symmetry was trying to make with the first Mortal Shell but could not yet build. It retains the original’s best idea, turns the Shell system into the foundation of a much deeper combat and progression framework, and surrounds it with a compact world that rewards curiosity rather than simply demanding that we follow a quest marker. Its narrative is less successful, its technical presentation needs more refinement and its balance can become questionable as increasingly powerful builds start to undermine the intended challenge. Yet those shortcomings are difficult to ignore precisely because the underlying game is so much fun. The combination of stamina-free combat, highly distinct Shells, flexible builds, satisfying exploration and chunky, responsive attacks gives Mortal Shell II a personality of its own. It may still live in the considerable shadow cast by FromSoftware, but on PS5 this is no longer merely an interesting alternative to the genre’s giants. It is a confident sequel that demonstrates Cold Symmetry has earned its place among the developers worth watching in the Soulslike space.
Score: 8.3/10