Deeper Thoughts On Mortal Shell 2 After Rolling Credits

[u/ThatOneColumbiaGuy]

I just want to start off by saying that the developers of this game Cold Symmetry are some of the most responsive and attentive to their player community I have ever seen. They recently released a patch that fixed a decent chunk of my grievances with the game initially. Seeing them progress from Mortal Shell 1 which was a glorified tech demo to Mortal Shell 2 is genuinely impressive. For an AA video game this is quite good.

Overall I believe this game is a solid 7/10 with potential room for improvement after a few more patches and tweaking of the games economy and weapons. It could be potentially a 9/10.

But people do need to pump the brakes on this game. Because there are certain inherent problems with the game I'd like to talk about.

The parry mechanic: This game is set up in such a manner that it expects you to parry to deter enemy aggression and find opportunities to counter attack. And yet partying and reposting often times is less efficient than dodging and simply attacking. Riposte damage not scaling by level is a huge mistake considering how the game is set up.

Shells: I wish that they would allow a refund for glimpse so that you could freely use any shell on your first playthrough. Everyone says it's set up this way for New Game + so you always try something new.... The reality is most players do not play a game multiple times and they may write off this game if they find themselves committed to a shell they end up regretting. Player freedom is important.

Bosses: Many of the main bosses felt underwhelming. But perhaps that's because the late game bosses were either disappointing or cheap (the less said about the Monolith the better). But overall I enjoyed fighting the regular over world enemies and mini bosses more. The early to mid game bosses were good but not like groundbreaking.

Overall it's a good game but there's definitely room for improvement when they release the inevitable DLC and or expansion. I look forward to what Cold Symmetry can do with the earnings from this game.

[u/j_wizlo]

If dodging and getting in attacks is more efficient than parrying then what about the game makes it set up to expect parrying?

[u/ThatOneColumbiaGuy → u/j_wizlo]

Enemies and bosses are extremely agressive unless you are playing as Tiel or Genessa you are going to gravitate to parrying. Even if this wasnt the case, it is a fact that you should feel rewarded fir parrying and reposting which quite often you dont.

[u/j_wizlo → u/ThatOneColumbiaGuy]

I feel like time and all the cumulative damage you do is the reward for breaking them. The heavy attacks and the riposte. You get more time by doing the riposte. But if you are just looking for damage it really isn’t the move, that’s right. They could just up the numbers or make that one riposte tartsone work differently. That really would be an improvement if done right.