Mortal Shell II

Is good.

BETA PLAYERS BEWARE OF THE EARLY GAME... Okay so I'm not sure how I feel about Mortal Shell 2, I am having fun as of now but the first 4 hours can feel really really rough. Mind you I'm someone who likes to do no damage runs on bosses in souls games so I'm quite persistent and like a good challenge but this game can get pretty frustrating. If you played the beta and thought it was manageable or pretty easy then it is no longer the case. The enemies have higher HP, more damage, hyperarmor and will absolutely swarm you at times. Now I can handle that to an extent but what makes the game more tedious than difficult is the checkpoints. They are either spread too far apart in areas where you really need them or are super generous in areas where you'd barely need them. This is a big issue because in the early game, you have limited healing, stats and tools to deal with a lot of the challenges you face so a lot of the time, you feel like you can't actually explore or take in the locations, you feel the need to just run past every enemy especially when you already struggled to move forward then die so you have to repeat the challenge. Some of the runbacks are also atrocious. I don't understand why new Soulslike games can't wrap their head around the idea that runbacks suck ass. Elden Ring improved this with Stakes of Marika and overall Grace locations and First Berserker Khazan did a good job as well. Meanwhile Wuchang screwed up in that department and I'm getting the same feeling here although sometimes it's perfectly fine. It also doesn't help that the locations can feel pretty expansive and branch into different paths which is simultaneously cool but problematic because you have zero clue as to where a checkpoint could be when you're already low on healing. Elden Ring had Guidance of Grace which would point you to major checkpoints or a visual trail to show you that you were close to one. As far as I can tell, there is nothing in Mortal Shell 2, no visual trail, no sounds, nothing. Now, the game does become more manageable and quite fun once you level up your character, shells and get new items and abilities, it actually feels like you can comfortably explore. And there's a lot to discover and The combat is super visceral and impactful while allowing for aggressive play since there's no stamina and unlimited ammo or uses for things like your sidearm or abilities as long as you keep fighting and keep your resolve up. It creates a pretty fun loop but it took a couple of hours to get to that point. So be careful of the early game.