Souls-like action game Mortal Shell was designed to punish players with its deliberate and challenging combat, and if you can’t wait to play the full game, you can try out a slice with the beta on Epic Games Store right now. If you’re skilled, you can get through it in an hour, but Cold Symmetry and publisher Playstack warn that it can take much longer for everyone else.
The big hook in Mortal Shell are the titular shells, which are bodies you can possess in order to gain their powers and arsenal. The beta contains two shells called Harros and Tiel, giving you a chance to shake up the combat to best serve your situation. We also discovered two shells during our time previewing the game.
The beta is spoiler-free and you can only access a small portion of the Fallgrim area in order to stop you from getting too far off-track. The deliberate and brutal battles should keep you plenty busy anyway, and if you’re struggling, you’ll want to carefully learn enemies’ attacks in order to create your own strategy. You can also use a “harden” ability mid-fight in order to take a non-damaging attack.
Mortal Shell is planned to release on Epic Games Store, PS4, and Xbox One later this year with a Steam release to follow in 2021. It was developed by a tiny team at Cold Symmetry but it looks to be a worthwhile addition to the genre.
GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.