I played Mortal Shell II on PS5 and on PC. Cold Symmetry developed it. Playstack published it and provided the PS5 key and the Steam key used for this review. The game launched August 20, 2026 at 8:00am PT on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam. The standard edition is $49.99. The Devout Edition is $59.99 and adds Obsidian skins for all eight Shells plus up to 72 hours of early access. A Devout upgrade is listed at $10.99 if you start on the standard edition.
It is a standalone action RPG sequel. You play as the Harbinger, sent after the Undermether’s stolen Ova. The NA PlayStation and Xbox stores call those eggs. You possess eight forgotten warrior Shells, fight without a stamina bar, and walk a compact interconnected map. Playstack says more than 60 dungeons sit under that map. The NA PlayStation and Xbox stores say more than 80. The store line is Their Flesh Is Your Weapon. You dethrone false gods and try to redeem a ravaged world by wearing the dead. Sword fights, blood sprays, executions, and medieval firearms are on screen. The listing is single-player, rated ESRB M for Blood and Gore and Intense Violence. The NA PlayStation listing also flags Strong Language and Suggestive Themes. There is no battle pass.
A first main-path clear sat in the mid-20s on PS5, with extra sessions on PC for settings and combat feel. A fuller hunt of Shells and dungeons can run longer. The launch build had the day-one patch applied. Fifty-three Steam achievements sit in the background if you want a second pass. New Game+ is present. What you buy is the campaign.
A Session Starts At Marrow Keep
The prologue puts you in Harros. That body does not stay as a later loadout. The world opens around Marrow Keep. The first real Shell I used after the opening was Tiel, found near Mushroom Village. You leave the keep, you walk the surface, and you drop into a dungeon when the map offers one.
A session is that walk, the dungeon, a spend of Resolve on a Shell skill or a sidearm, a rest at a Beacon, and a swap when the next neighborhood asks for a different body. Shells swap at Beacons. Healing is Mether’s Pulse, which refills at a Beacon. Gloom is a wallet you lose on death if you fail to recover it. Glimpses are the other wallet, spent on Shell memories. You do not treat them as one pile. A Beacon is a rest, a refill, and the place you decide whether the current body still belongs on the next stretch.
If a Shell health state drops, you fall back to Harbinger form. Melee damage can recover the Shell. The listing is single-player only. You play until the next Beacon, then you choose whether to keep the body you are wearing or go find another.
Resolve Pays For The Swing
Resolve fills from melee. It pays for Shell abilities, sidearms, and Ability Tarstones. The arsenal is eight main melee weapons and eight ranged sidearms. Light and heavy strings can be mixed. The shotgun, the Gatling, and the lute-weapon all drink from that same pool. The lute can confuse or turn enemies. Combat is not gated by a stamina bar. Melee can shatter enemy posture and open a critical. The hits still fill the same wallet, and the wallet empties when you spend it.
Defense is a Seal. You equip one at a time. Harden, a wide parry, and a tighter guard are not on the same loadout. Harden briefly turns the body to stone and can fire mid-animation. The Slayer Seal is an easier defensive option if you want it. You pick a defense before the room, not during it.
Build space is Shell, weapon, Seal, and Tarstones. Tarstones slot into weapons and Shells. Ability Tarstones spend Resolve to change what a body can do. Shell skill points can be refunded and reallocated for free. The eight playable Shells are Tiel the Acolyte, Proxima the Broodseeker, Eredrim the Venerable, Gragu the Insatiable, Smert the Apostate, Lazlo the Justiciar, Sariel the Endless, and Genessa the Wayward. Each has innate abilities. Each story arrives through lost memories.
A sidearm is not free ammo. A Shell skill is not a cooldown you wait out. Dual katanas that can reconfigure into a battle axe sit in the melee set. You hit something, you bank the hit, and you decide whether the next room wants Harden, a parry, or a blast you can actually afford.
The Heart Of Vatra Is Not On The Main Road
Taking the Heart of Vatra from the Temple of Vatra to Gragu at the One-Legged Wolf Tavern is the unlock I can point at. Gragu the Insatiable is not sitting on the main road. The errand is the unlock. The Temple is a dungeon with a reason to finish it. The tavern is a destination with a name on the map.
Other bodies sit in other neighborhoods. Eredrim belongs to the Citadel of Penance. Lazlo belongs to the Crypts of Mammon. Sariel belongs to the Chamber of Becoming. The pattern holds. The map hides the next warrior until you finish the job that belongs to that place. You do not buy the roster from a vendor at Marrow Keep.
Eight Shells And The Dungeon Stack
The overworld is named Fallgrim. It is compact and tightly interconnected. Temples, forbidden forests, icy graves, and citadels carved from bone are neighborhoods on the same small surface, not flavor text. Six corrupted gates sit at the edges of the land and lead to larger dungeons. Many smaller self-contained dungeons sit in the overworld and inside Beacons. You walk the surface with a map, you drop in, and you come back out closer to the next neighborhood than a padded map would allow.
Marrow Keep is the hub the opening hands you. Zhirelle the Shellkeeper can reveal most remaining Shell locations there for Gloom. That does not place the body on the road. You still walk. A dungeon can sit a short walk from a Beacon and still take a real session. The campaign keeps travel short. The compact map is why the campaign holds.
Playstack still prints more than 60 dungeons. The NA PlayStation and Xbox stores still print more than 80. The design is meant to respect the player’s time. Explore and the file gets longer than a main-path clear. The surface stays small either way. The dungeon stack is the real length, not the walk between doors.
Quality, Performance, And The PC Minimum
The PS5 listing carries a PS5 Pro Enhanced badge. The Display tab offers Quality and Performance as display preferences. I used the smoother Display setting for combat. I switched to the Quality look when I wanted the prettier picture. Film grain, motion blur, and vignette can be turned off. DualSense vibration is listed for the PlayStation version.
The official PC minimum on Steam is Windows 10 or 11, an Intel Core i7-10700K or an AMD Ryzen 5 3600, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER 8 GB or an AMD Radeon RX 6600 8 GB, and an SSD. DualSense support is listed. Steam Cloud is listed. Full controller support is listed.
I used the PC key for settings and combat feel. Custom volume sits in the options, and the Steam listing says the game is playable without timed input. Adjustable text size and subtitle options are listed. English has full audio. Fifteen languages are listed. The Xbox Series X|S version shipped on the same day. I did not play that version.
When The Rooms Start To Rhyme
After enough of those dungeons the rooms start to rhyme. The wallpaper changes. The argument does not. You drop in, you spend Resolve, you rest, you drop in again. The small map is still a virtue. The dungeon stack is also the tax you pay late. A forbidden forest interior and a bone citadel interior still ask for the same read once you have done enough of them.
The Seal lock is the other wear. You cannot Harden through a swing and keep a wide parry in the same fight. A room that wants both defenses makes you pick one and live with the miss. The Slayer Seal exists if you want the easier option. I still felt the lock when I refused it. I still wanted the next Shell. I was less excited about the next interior. New Game+ is there if you want another pass through the same stack. It does not rewrite the rooms.
Final Thoughts
Mortal Shell II is for people who want a compact interconnected action RPG where you swap dead warriors and spend a resource you earn by hitting things. It is not for people who want a stamina bar, a default block-and-parry kit on one character, or a padded open world.
The campaign I finished on PS5 still works. The compact map is why the campaign holds. The rooms rhyme late. The Seal lock stays a lock. 8.5 / Great.
Good
- One melee wallet that funds abilities, sidearms, and Tarstones
- A Seal you choose before the fight, including Harden mid-animation
- Named errands that hide Shells off the road
- A small Fallgrim surface with gates, Beacons, and authored interiors
- PS5 Pro Enhanced listing, Quality and Performance preferences, plus DualSense and Steam Cloud
Bad
- Late interiors that feel familiar
- Harden and a wide parry forbidden on the same loadout
- A prologue body you cannot keep
- No multiplayer and no second mode besides New Game+
- A late loop that is still another dungeon drop
We prepared this review with a digital copy of Mortal Shell II for the PS5 and PC versions provided by Playstack.
