Mortal Shell II Review

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The sequel the first game deserved

The original Mortal Shell had ideas worth caring about, buried under systems that never quite clicked. Cold Symmetry clearly knew it. Mortal Shell II takes almost every criticism of its predecessor and does something about it, expanding the world, deepening the build options, and smoothing out enough of the roughness that the good stuff finally gets room to breathe.

I went in with measured expectations. I came out having put in well over 40 hours and already thinking about a second run. That says more than any score breakdown.

Shell loadout and abilities

Mortal Shell II is closing in on 1 million copies sold, and the reception makes sense. Critics have it sitting comfortably in the low-to-mid 80s, and the Steam player base is overwhelmingly positive. The consensus is real. This is a good game. My experience lines up with that, though not without some caveats worth knowing before you buy.

Exploration that actually pulls you in

The open world in Mortal Shell II is one of its best arguments for existing. A lot of games bolt an open world onto a formula that never needed one. Here, it fits. The environments have real character: strange architecture, bizarre landmarks, and enough weird little details that you find yourself stopping to look around rather than just sprinting to the next objective.

The game also has a sense of humour that catches you off guard. There are jokes and references scattered throughout, some obvious enough to make you laugh out loud, others subtle enough that you might walk past them entirely. In a world this dark and oppressive, those moments of levity matter more than you'd expect.

Smaller dungeons break up the larger zones well. They feel like self-contained side adventures rather than filler, and they consistently offer something worth finding at the end.

The navigation, though, is a genuine problem. Many areas share too much visual DNA, and the map does not do enough to help you orient yourself. I got turned around more than once trying to backtrack somewhere I'd already been, and a few of those sessions felt more frustrating than fun. Getting lost rarely meant wasting time entirely, since there's usually something worth finding nearby, but a clearer map would have made the whole experience noticeably better.

Build variety is where Mortal Shell II earns its reputation

Most of my time was spent tinkering. Find a new shell, pair it with a different weapon, swap some Tarstones, see what breaks. That loop never got old.

The eight shells are the foundation. Each one plays differently enough that switching feels like a meaningful choice rather than a stat swap. You can build a tank that absorbs punishment and keeps walking, or a poison-focused assassin that deletes enemies before they react, or several things in between. If you want a breakdown of how they stack up against each other, our Mortal Shell 2 shells tier list covers every option with locations and key abilities.

Weapons add another layer. The Axatana was my personal favourite, but the expanded roster means that changing your weapon can shift your entire approach to a fight, not just the numbers. Tarstones sit on top of all this, slotting active and passive abilities onto your gear and letting you mix combinations until something clicks.

The first game allowed for some creative builds. The sequel makes experimentation feel genuinely central to the experience rather than optional. That shift in emphasis is what makes the combat feel distinct from other entries in the action games genre.

Tarstone build customization

Cold Symmetry also deserves credit for how quickly they responded to early feedback. Within the first week after launch, a patch addressed complaints about material scarcity, excessive grinding, and upgrade restrictions. That kind of responsiveness is worth noting. The patch did not, unfortunately, fix the final boss.

Graphics and audio

Mortal Shell II looks the part. The environments are dark and detailed, with a visual identity that feels consistent across the whole game. Some areas are genuinely impressive to walk through, even when the navigation around them is a headache.

The music is one of the game's quieter strengths. The score fits the tone without becoming background noise, and specific tracks tied to boss encounters land hard enough that they stick with you after the fight. Sound design follows the same logic: weapon impacts feel weighty, enemy audio cues are readable in combat, and the ambient sound in each zone adds to the atmosphere without overdoing it.

Technical performance is mostly fine, though bugs do appear. Nothing I encountered was game-breaking, but there are rough edges that post-launch patches have only partially addressed. It is not a dealbreaker, but it is worth knowing.

Open world exploration zone

The back half stumbles

Here's the thing: Mortal Shell II is a strong game for most of its runtime, and then it gets noticeably weaker in the final third. Enemy variety is the main culprit. By the time you reach the later areas, you have already seen the majority of enemy types the game has to offer. New zones start to feel like remixes of earlier ones rather than genuinely new challenges.

Boss quality is uneven. The Scholar Prince, Droeg, and Malborn Offspring fights are excellent, some of the best boss encounters I have had in a soulslike in a while. Then there is the final boss, which introduces a mechanic so frustrating that it actively undermines an otherwise decent fight. I will not spoil it, but you will know exactly what I mean when you get there.

If you are curious how long the full experience takes across different playstyles, our guide on how long it takes to beat Mortal Shell 2 breaks it down from a focused run to full completionist.

Verdict

Mortal Shell II is the sequel the first game needed. Cold Symmetry took the criticism seriously and built something that fixes most of the original's problems while adding real depth of its own. The shell system, the Tarstone customization, the weapons, and an open world worth exploring all come together into one of the better soulslikes I have played in years.

The back half loses momentum, enemy variety runs thin, and the final boss has a mechanic that belongs in a different, worse game. The map needs work. Some bugs are still there. None of it undoes what the first 30 hours deliver.

If you bounced off the original, this one is worth trying. If you loved it, this is the game you were waiting for.