Mortal Shell II is the rare sequel whose review consensus is almost boringly clear: Cold Symmetry kept the original game's identity, then fixed most of the reasons people hesitated to recommend it. The scores run from 7.5/10 to 9.5/10 among the reviews sampled here, while OpenCritic lists an 85 average from 61 reviews and a 92% recommendation rate as of August 21.
That does not mean every critic wants the same thing from it. Some see a looser, more expressive action RPG that finally escapes the first game's cramped ambitions. Others still feel the friction in its bugs, pacing, camera, and habit of explaining very little. The agreement is stronger than the disagreement, though: this is a substantial sequel, not a modest second pass.
Mortal Shell II review scores at a glance
- Developer: Cold Symmetry
- Publisher: Playstack
- Release date: August 20, 2026
- Platforms: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
- OpenCritic: 85 average, 92% recommended, 61 reviews
- Selected critic range: 7.5/10 to 9.5/10
- IGN: 8/10
- GameSpot: 8/10
- GameRant: 9/10
- Shacknews: 9/10
- Wccftech: 7.5/10
The short version is useful, but the numbers flatten the most interesting part. Mortal Shell II succeeds because its changes pull in the same direction. More freedom in combat, more reasons to explore, and more ways to shape a build all make the game's punishment feel less arbitrary and its victories more personal.
The sequel critics wanted the first time
The first Mortal Shell had a sharp premise: instead of choosing a conventional class, you possessed the bodies of fallen warriors. Its harden mechanic let you turn to stone during an attack, creating an unusual rhythm of commitment, interruption, and counterattack. The game was memorable, but it was also small, obscure, and often awkward.
Reviewers repeatedly frame Mortal Shell II as the version of that idea Cold Symmetry had been reaching toward. GameRant's Pam K. Ferdinand calls it "an impressive Soulslike that improves on its predecessor in nearly every way," awarding it 9/10. CGMagazine's Marcus Kenneth goes further, describing it as "one of the biggest improvements from one entry to the next" he has seen in the genre.
That distinction matters. A sequel can grow by adding more map, more enemies, and more hours while leaving the original problems untouched. Critics think Mortal Shell II grows by making its systems support one another. Its eight Shells offer different play styles. Weapons and upgrades give those bodies room to develop. A larger, interconnected world gives players a reason to test those choices rather than follow one rigid route.
IGN's Jarrett Green scored it 8/10 and called its expansion into a large-scale action RPG "mostly successful," adding that its new ideas are good ones. The restraint in that verdict is telling. This is not being praised as flawless. It is being praised as coherent.
Removing stamina changes the whole argument
The headline combat decision is the removal of a stamina bar. Soulslikes usually make stamina the tax on aggression: swing too often and you cannot dodge, block, or escape. Mortal Shell II instead lets players attack and move without that familiar meter, shifting the pressure elsewhere.
On paper, that sounds like an easier game. The reviews suggest something more interesting. The difficulty remains severe, but the player has more agency inside each fight. Combat becomes a question of positioning, timing, weapon choice, Shell abilities, and posture rather than waiting for a green bar to refill.
Giant Bomb's Chuck Zimmerheld calls it a "fun-forward" Soulslike that values flexibility and variety over raw difficulty. That is probably the cleanest description of the consensus. The game still wants to hurt you. It just gives you more entertaining ways to hurt it back.
GameSpot's Richard Wakeling, also at 8/10, praised the constant surprises: newly discovered Shell mechanics, layered combat improvements, strange bosses, and the freedom to make a build feel like your own. The key phrase there is "make it wholly your own." Critics are responding to expression, not merely volume.
The lack of stamina also gives the sequel a clearer identity in a crowded field. Plenty of games borrow bonfires, dropped currency, cryptic lore, and punishing bosses. Mortal Shell II still lives in that family, but its combat asks for a different cadence. You can remain active instead of backing away on a schedule. For players tired of imitation, that mechanical confidence may matter more than any individual boss.
Exploration finally earns its scale
Cold Symmetry describes the world as compact and interconnected, and the reviews generally support that claim. The map is larger than the original's, but critics focus less on acreage than on what curiosity returns to the player: Shells, weapons, secret dungeons, upgrades, and unusual encounters.
Wccftech's Kai Tatsumoto gave the lowest score in this sample, 7.5/10, yet still called the game both "frustrating and intriguing" and praised its secret-filled world. That is useful criticism because it marks the lower boundary of the consensus. Even a cooler review sees a meaningful improvement and a world worth investigating. The frustration has not vanished; it now competes with genuine discovery.
COGconnected's Mark Steighner scored it 90/100 while naming pacing, opacity, difficulty spikes, and bugs among the shortcomings. Again, the review does not deny the roughness. It argues that the overall design outweighs it. A secret feels worthwhile when it changes how you play. A detour feels worthwhile when it reveals a Shell rather than another disposable crafting item. Mortal Shell II appears to understand that distinction more consistently than its predecessor did.
Push Square's review notes roughly 30 hours to finish while exploring multiple biomes, fighting dozens of bosses, and entering numerous dungeons. That figure should not be treated as a universal completion time, but it helps describe the shape of the game: broad enough to support wandering, focused enough that the campaign is not sold as an endless obligation.
Where the shell still cracks
The praise is unusually consistent. So are the reservations.
Bugs come up often, particularly around bosses. DualShockers' Christian Bognar gave the game 8.5/10 but attached a clear condition to the highest praise: fix the boss bugs, and Mortal Shell II could sit among the best Soulslikes available. COGconnected also mentions bugs, while The Outerhaven points to camera trouble and frustrating progression choices.
Those are not cosmetic complaints in a game built around precision. A camera that loses the action can turn a difficult encounter into a cheap one. A boss bug can poison the satisfaction of learning a pattern. When failure is supposed to teach, technical failure breaks the contract.
The narrative receives less enthusiasm than the combat and exploration. Hobby Consolas scored the game 83/100 and cited a somewhat weak story alongside the need for more polish. Reviewers do not describe the fiction as disastrous; they simply spend far more energy discussing builds, Shells, weapons, and dungeons. If you come to dark fantasy action RPGs for character drama, that imbalance is worth noting.
Opacity is the other recurring fault. Secrets and uncertainty suit this genre, but withholding information can slide into inconvenience. Mortal Shell II seems happy to let players miss systems, routes, and useful knowledge. Some critics find that rewarding. Others see needless friction. The difference may come down to whether you enjoy making sense of a hostile world or would rather the interface explain the rules before demanding mastery.
Why the 85 average feels more convincing than it looks
An 85 is a strong aggregate score, but the distribution tells the better story. IGN and GameSpot land at 8/10. GameRant and Shacknews land at 9/10. Wccftech sits at 7.5/10. The criticism changes the intensity of the recommendation rather than overturning it.
Shacknews' Sam Chandler says the sequel expands every aspect of the first game while retaining its brutal play. PlayStation Universe's Garri Bagdasarov, at 9/10, recommends coming for combat and exploration and staying for "the fun and brutality." Those reviews line up with Giant Bomb's "fun-forward" description. Different outlets keep arriving at the same point: Mortal Shell II has discovered how to be punishing without treating punishment as its only personality.
The strongest case for the game is therefore not that one critic declared it a masterpiece. It is that reviewers with different tolerances for roughness agree on the underlying achievement. Cold Symmetry built a combat system with more freedom, tied it to meaningful build variety, and placed it in a world that rewards getting lost.
The weaker case is also clear. The story may fade behind the systems. Bugs and camera problems can interfere with demanding fights. Its mysteries sometimes look like poor communication. Anyone who disliked the first game's grim tone or basic genre structure should not expect a total reinvention.
Who should play Mortal Shell II?
Mortal Shell II looks best suited to players who enjoy Soulslikes but want more aggression and experimentation. The absence of stamina, eight possessable Shells, extensive weapon upgrades, and compact open exploration give it a distinct pitch. You still need patience, but the game seems less interested in forcing one approved response to every problem.
It is a less obvious recommendation for players who need a strong narrative lead, spotless technical execution, or generous explanation. Waiting for patches is reasonable if boss bugs and camera problems ruin this kind of combat for you. An 85 average is not a warranty.
For everyone else, the critical verdict is remarkably stable: Mortal Shell II is the leap the original needed. It keeps the flesh-possession hook and heavy-metal ugliness, then gives those ideas enough space and flexibility to work. The shell is larger now, but more importantly, there is a better game living inside it.
If you pick it up, save the result somewhere more useful than a half-remembered backlog. Perthro lets you track what you are playing, rate games on a five-star scale, write reviews of any length, and keep a reordered backlog with a next-up view. It is free on the App Store for iPhone and requires iOS 17.0 or later. For questions, visit /support, or join the conversation at /community.