Mortal Shell 2 review – falls short of Elden Ring’s greatness

Published: August 17, 2026

I knew that Mortal Shell 2 was going to be a brutal experience – I’d be foolish to head into a Soulslike thinking otherwise – but the opening hour shows just how challenging it is, and that’s before you even get to the action RPG’s open world. Set in a dark-fantasy world, Cold Symmetry’s sequel expands its setting to a world of interconnected areas, to mixed effect.

You are the Harbinger, a being on a quest to collect the missing eggs (known as ovum) and return them to Marrow Keep, and to do so, you need to find and equip different shells. Each one comes with its own unlockable skills and benefits, and it’s up to you to track them down out in the world along with the ovum. Shells form the base of your build, something you learn very early on. However, each of these shells was a real person, which leads me to one of my favorite things about the game: exploring the characters’ history. Each one has a deep backstory, and the more you explore, the deeper your bond and efficiency with the shell becomes. It’s a mechanic that helps MS2 stand apart from other games in the soulslike genre.

Much like Elden Ring, Mortal Shell 2 features an open world that beckons you to explore as you search for ovum to bring back to Marrow Keep. As a similarly dark, fantasy-based action RPG like FromSoftware’s masterpiece, the Mortal Shell sequel also provides you with a base of operations, akin to Roundtable Hold or Firelink Shrine in Elden Ring. 

While there is plenty to explore, with plenty of dungeons lurking in the darkness, I can’t help but think that the world feels a little hollow, and I found exploring it to be rather frustrating from the offset. I don’t expect to be spoon-fed, but a little bit of direction beyond ‘here’s two shells’ would be nice, along with a clearer indication of where I’ll find map fragments. I can’t help but draw the obvious comparison to Elden Ring’s The Lands Between map, where not only do I feel rewarded for my exploration, but it’s a joy to do so and is rarely confusing as to where you need to go.

For its open world shortcomings, I have to complement Mortal Shell 2’s boss fights. Not only do they pose a real challenge, but they’re fun to overcome, giving that distinct sense of accomplishment I enjoy from these games. There are plenty to encounter, some even waiting for you in the open world, just like Elden Ring. I know I keep drawing the comparison, but it’s very clearly the inspiration behind some of the creative decisions in Mortal Shell 2, and that includes the bosses.

While the combat feels somewhat clunky at times, it’s also one of the game’s biggest strengths, with each shell you find offering an assortment of items to alter your skills. It offers you a bit more freedom than other soulslikes, as instead of leveling up individual stats, you increase all the Harbinger’s attributes in one go, and select what upgrades you want for each shell. It means I get to switch between playstyles and weapons easily.

One thing I’m a fan of in games is quality accessibility options. I love a brutal challenge, but Soulslikes are also narratively interesting, and it’s a shame that some people don’t get to experience them due to the gameplay difficulty. Mortal Shell 2 attempts to make your time easier if you so choose with the Slayer seal, but enemies still pose a challenge, enough so that I’d say it does little to truly make a difference. It falls short, whereas a game like Lies of P excels by offering an easy difficulty setting instead of a mere item, which doesn’t actually hinder your enemies. I had an easier time using a seal that enables parrying.

I played the game on the Steam Machine, so if you want to play Mortal Shell 2 on Valve’s new hardware, I have great news: it performs really well on its base settings, with minimal issues. However, I advise against high settings, as it had my game chugging along at a very pitiful fps. I also encountered an issue where my gloom would be waiting for me out of bounds after death, leaving me no way of getting them back – which is a pretty big deal, considering how important leveling up is in this game. Luckily, a day one patch is on the way, so I suspect this won’t remain an issue.

All in all, Mortal Shell 2 is okay – it fills the Soulslike void and does encompass everything you need in an action-RPG. The combat is fun, the bosses are interesting, and the shell system is intuitive, but I can’t stop thinking about returning to Elden Ring instead.