This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
After 9 1/2 hours and unfortunately only 375 gamerscore, I finished this Soulslike. There is a lot of potential in the game and it could be really, really good in a successor with a potent publisher.
story
Well ... just as cryptic as you know it from the soul titles: D. They have already decided to imitate that. I was interested and am happy about the background noise. I cannot say what it has to do with ascent, envelopes, etc. in full detail.
Here, too, you can learn more about the story, the world and the shells via items, skills, etc.
Graphics / performance / glitches
Graphically, the game didn't upset the trees, but it had an aesthetic that I really liked. Everything kept pretty gloomy, the tutorial is almost Sci-Fi-like and a total of 4 different areas, some of which I liked very much, some less. I found the world with these obsidian-like rock shapes to be terrific.
The armor, weapons and characters, as well as bosses looked very cool and I would have liked to see more different types of enemies.
The game ran mostly smoothly at 60 FPS, so it had no noticeable drops (Xbox Series X).
Glitches, on the other hand, occurred relatively often: opponents bug into walls, I get stuck, opponents bug onto unreachable platforms or the lousy texture reloaders in cutscenes. I don't like that at all, because it always pulls me out of the moment. When that happens almost all the time, I can't overlook it.
Gameplay
It's soul-like. Nasty areas with different and many NPC opponents, as well as different bosses. With the tar and the discernment there are equivalents to the souls. You lose it again when you die and you can get everything back again.
There are different weapons and "classes" (long sword, two-handed, crossbow bazooka, dual 1h and a piston), all of which you have to find first or fight your way through in a boss fight. I played through with the long sword and the character Eredrim, who is extremely healthy.
Unfortunately, there are no attributes or a deep role-play system. The individual shells simply have different status values (more life or more stamina, for example), here I would have wished for more depth, also with skills.
Fighting also consists of dodging or rolling, as well as parrying. The first aspects in particular do not make so much of the gameplay. Parrying, on the other hand, is essential because you can heal yourself with it, especially healing items are very rare if you don't buy them with an embraced tar. In addition, Mortal Shell has the hardening mechanism, which can ward off a complete attack and then has to recharge. I think the idea is great and it makes the gameplay sufficiently different to Dark Souls, but it's also way too easy. This ability should require more skill, similar to a parry, because theoretically I can stay petrified for a very long time and wait for the attack and then strike .. then just repeat once it has charged up. Furthermore, you acquired the so-called determination through attacks, with which you could then use parry or special abilities (very cool, it is also worth playing aggressively).
In total I only died 43 times, the game is not really difficult. In the beginning it takes time, but when you are in you just have it out. Even if it is much easier, it is still a lot of fun to combine hardening, parrying and special skills.
I actually really liked the optics of the bosses and the fights themselves were very nice, but unfortunately too easy. The final boss was e.g. right on the first try.
Sometimes the hit boxes were also weak, you hit or get hit and don't really know why. I like the directness in Souls a lot better. Being able to use items several times to understand their effects is not my thing. Sometimes that felt too wasteful just to know what the item was doing in the first place.
Conclusion
To cut a long story short: A soul-like with a lot of potential that could lead to a really good second part. The foundation is well done and now just needs a little more in everything to my taste (role play depth, opponent diversity, challenge, boss opponent, areas). For me, very good 6/10 tar lumps. This is a promising entry for the makers into the soul genre.… Expand
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