Almost exactly four years ago, Mortal Shell first shipped onto the market. It’s an indie game from a tiny studio called Cold Symmetry, and every second of it is shamelessly inspired by From Software’s Dark Souls franchise. At first glance, the games might even seem too similar — but it only takes a few minutes playing Mortal Shell to realize that it’s got enough different vibes going on to be its own weird thing.
It’s clear that the game had a lower production budget than a colossal beast like Elden Ring. Rather than feature an involved character creator with hundreds of different weapons, armors, and abilities to pick up — Mortal Shell has a small core set of titular “shells,” which are basically wearable character classes. You find these as you explore the game’s surreal world, and each one has its own play style. In a fun mechanical twist that was probably kind of “borrowed” by last year’s Lords of the Fallen reboot (the one with the excellent doors), dying in the game doesn’t mean immediate failure. Instead, it simply knocks you out of your current shell, giving your true more vulnerable skeleton-like form a chance to get revenge and keep playing the game.
This sort of fun weird mechanical twist is present throughout the game, from top…
