Mortal Shell II goes beyond an imitation

There’s a section early on in Mortal Shell II where I, as a skinless, shell-less, husk with a giant sword came across an old town falling into disrepair. There was upbeat folk music coming through the gate and I peered around to see three old ladies dancing, one with an accordion. This is a world of beasts and unspeakable horrors, so I thought maybe I’d stumbled across an NPC village, but as soon as I got close they turned on me. I put my guard up and stepped back, a little hesitant to cleave apart elderly villagers wielding brooms and ridiculous instruments, but then they threw themselves at me. I barely had time to react before I was backed into a corner and beaten to a pulp by these ferocious hags. I was dead. On my way back to reclaim my souls I immediately blasted them in half with a shotgun, because that’s the kind of game Mortal Shell II is.

Remember when Saints Row came out? It was 2006, right between GTA: San Andreas in 2004 and GTA IV in 2008 (a four year gap between GTA titles, those were the days). It was obvious to anyone that Saints Row was cashing in on the popularity of GTA and was essentially a clone with a much smaller budget – even the design director, Chris Stockman, admitted they took the design “wholesale”. It cashed in on the brief period of time where a new generation of consoles had come out, but there was no GTA game available, so anyone who wanted an open-world crime spree on their new toy had to come to them. Saints Row was fine, but it was never anywhere near as good as any of the 3D GTA games. Then Saints Row II was released in 2008 and it took a slightly different path. It was still the same genre as GTA, but it was more self aware. Saints Row II poked fun at the GTA games and its own place as an imitation. The developers used their freedom in creating a game that no-one took seriously to do ridiculous things even Rockstar would never do in Grand Theft Auto. Saints Row II was a success because it played with the expectations people had for it, and subverted them to make something creative and fresh.

Mortal Shell II is to Dark Souls what Saints Row II is to GTA. The first Mortal Shell was nothing to write home about, a low-budget indie attempt to win over Soulslike players looking for another game to struggle through. But the newly-released Mortal Shell II is so much more than that.