Mortal Shell II Review — What Reviewers Actually Say

The short verdict

Early reviews of Mortal Shell II (released August 20, 2026) land on a consistent summary: a recommended action RPG with standout exploration, art direction, and progression systems, held back by shallow melee variety and some uneven stretches. As gameranx's Jake Baldino put it in Before You Buy: "I think Mortal Shell 2 is mostly a really good time, and I'm going to recommend it to some of you."

The praise

From gameranx's detailed hands-on (551K+ views, review copy, spoiler-free):

• Exploration is the star. "You're constantly stumbling upon new, different-looking biomes, strange new lands, hidden crypts, illusory walls, and weird-ass NPCs." The open world "isn't the most massive ever, but they do a good job of making it feel big."
• The shell system works. Inhabiting dead warriors — each with distinct abilities like invisibility backstabs, grappling hooks, or self-generating flasks — made the reviewer "actively really want to hunt for stuff."
• Art direction stands out. "Heavy metal, medieval, gothic vibes and H.R. Giger otherworldly strangeness in a way that just really freaking works." Where other games feel generic mixing fantasy with the alien, "Mortal Shell 2 manages to stand out and be unique here."
• Progression is deep. Tar stones that level with use, weapon infusions at the tar forge, the resolve meter, and seals that rewrite your defense all give builds real texture.
• It's accessible for the genre: no stamina meter, generous parry timing, and an open world that lets you leave a wall you're stuck against.

Bigger channels echo the enthusiasm: Fextralife's review video asks "The BEST SOULSLIKE of ALL TIME ???" (225K+ views), and IHaveInsipidus posted "Mortal Shell 2 Is Incredible" after launch.

The criticisms

The same sources are honest about flaws:

• Melee lacks combo depth. "Just simple heavy and light attacks" — satisfying to land, with great animations and gore, but the reviewer "got bored of my weapon" after long stretches, which pushed him into (expensive) weapon-swapping.
• Enemy variety is decent but similar. Enemies exist in number, yet "a lot of them feel kind of similar in terms of how you engage with them."
• Uneven world density. Some areas "feel kind of barren" between the interesting ones, and a few stretches have no shrines, making deaths tedious.
• One-shot enemies and falls. Some foes can one-shot you even with a warning, and falls "lost quite a bit of time" — annoying in an open world with elevation everywhere.

The bottom line

gameranx's closing take captures the consensus: "It's not high art or obscure, fine-tuned, nerd-out RPG design... It's just a fun video game. And sometimes things can be that simple. Mortal Shell 2 is cool." If you liked the ideas of the first game but wanted a bigger world, this is an easy recommendation; if you need deep combo systems, temper expectations or check our weapons guide for how tar stones and infusions add variety.

For score tracking, see Mortal Shell II on Metacritic. Platform-specific notes: PS5 and Steam.