Introducing Mortal Shell – a soulslike slasher game with gore, detail and atmosphere

Unveiled yesterday, Mortal Shell is a brooding Dark Souls-esque action-RPG that’s expected to launch later this year. The announcement trailer is our first glimpse at this intriguing hack and slash title. 

Sinister voice over? Check. Big swords? Check. Blood and guts? Check. Mortal Shell is wonderfully dark and very, very reminiscent of Dark Souls, albeit with some of its own flourishes. Take a look at the trailer below.

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Mortal Shell is being developed by indie game studio, Cold Symmetry, which was founded in 2017. Cold Symmetry is a little-known studio hoping to make their mark with the arrival of their debut project – Mortal Shell.

“For a small team like ours, developing this title in many ways felt like crossing an ocean on a paddleboard,” Cold Symmetry’s three co-founders – Andrew McLennan-Murray, Anton Gonzalez, and Vitaly Bulgarov – said in a joint statement. “To finally announce Mortal Shell is one of the most exciting and terrifying experiences we’ve had in our lifetimes. The last two years have been a time of non-stop growth, full of shocking revelations of sheer complexity that goes into creating a video game that you, yourself, would really enjoy playing.”

A synopsis of the start point offers a little more information, seemingly suggesting that the memorable voice-over we hear in the game’s trailer is the voice of the game’s sinister authority figure, the ‘Dark Father’.

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It reads: “Awakening as an empty vessel, you will enter into a shattered and twisted world where the remains of humanity wither and rot. Implored to do the bidding of the mysterious ‘Dark Father’, you must traverse this tattered landscape and track down hidden sanctums of devout followers. There, in Mortal Shell’s most hallowed grounds, you must overcome formidable foes and harvest the sacred glands. You won’t be truly alone when the dead litter your path: Scattered across this land are the remnant anima of lost warriors who can be inhabited to gain their unique abilities and knowledge of weapons. The Dark Father is desperate for you to complete your task – but to what end?”

The game promises a non-linear campaign, “deep upgrade paths” and the ability to occupy the bodies of different “shells”, each of which offers a different play-style.

If you like what you’ve seen so far, head over to the Mortal Shell website, where you can sign up for the newsletter or try to bag a place playing the Beta. It will be released on PS4, Xbox One and PC in Q3 of 2020.