Dark Souls inspired action-RPG Mortal Shell has gone out of closed beta into open beta. Previously available only to a few players of the closed beta, the open beta includes “the outskirts of Fallgrim and the Abandoned Chamber.” Developer Cold Symmetry and their publisher Playstack Ltd cited that demands and pressure from their fans as the reason that they are releasing the game into open beta earlier than they planned. The developers are planning to keep most of the story closed off from beta players for the time being.
The developers released a trailer out earlier that displayed the souls-inspired combat system and the exploration. The trailers did gain Mortal Shell a following due to its quality visuals. Later more teasers were released showing off the combat and some of the dark fantasy content that only helped the game develop more hype.
Mortal Shell was made for battle-hardened soulslike fans. It is vindictive design, assembled with spite. It will take the best among you around an hour to complete it. For everyone else, expect your progress to be much slower.
One of the largest differences from Dark Souls is the combat system. Instead of focusing on strafing, dodging, and waiting for the perfect time to get in a single strike just to roll away. Mortal Shell focuses on stringing combination attacks together along with perfecting counter times. “Your path is guarded by adversaries, devoted to inscrutable gods,” says the game description, “Behold creatures both pitiable and grotesque and muster your courage and face them down.” Mortal Shell’s open beta will be free to play on Epic Games Store. There is yet to be an indication of what the pricing will look like at full launch or if the beta players will get some incentive for playing early.