To demonstrate how fucked up that is, take a note that the game actually has the option to use DS4 button prompts. Given how few games actually have that option, you'd think a game that did would be sure to have support for the thing.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Mortal Shell beta is now open for everyone on EGS
- Thread starter Saucycarpdog
- Start date
Yeah, I noticed that too and wondered why the hell the game wasn't recognizing my controller. Then I thought maybe it was just something I needed to set up in the Epic launcher (I've played a single game through it, and used a mouse and keyboard), but couldn't find any. So I just resorted to using DS4W.
I liked it quite a bit but I feel like enemies are satisfying to fight but not satisfying to kill due to enemies just falling dead in place. The lack of death animations or ragdoll physics can make combat feel like it has little to no weight.
With that said - I'm also slightly worried that the games mechanics will lead to frustrating cheesy deaths. I'll take the opening section of the game as an example -everything that doesn't hit like a wet noodle poisons you, which just causes the game to slowly chip away at your health and you might die from that. Which is fine for the opening section, but sticking a bunch of poison enemies in a cramped corridor with no way to block feels like frustrating game design. I'm also not a giant fan of sometimes having parry and other times not having parry, it makes me just not want to use parry and instead makes me wish I could trash the parry option for some other useful skill.
I do like the whole "learn more about an item by using it" mechanic though and I do like the shell system as well. I also like that environmental hazards like traps can be used to help you just as much as they can be used to hurt you. I also really like the harden mechanic, its pretty unique and a solid addition. I'm hoping the weird balance and spam of early game poison is just a demo quirk, because I feel like it would be a poorly thought out experience otherwise.
The game also feels like it has a bunch of ways to cheese it that just become needlessly grindy and could use more streamlining - cooldown on growing mushrooms is a good example. It's neat that they regrow, but all it encourages is people backtracking to these spots and either AFKing to gather more or doing something akin to farming blood vials. Being able to skirt poison via switching shells (at the cost of respawning enemies) and some of the other mechanics just seem like they could be balanced better than what we have.
With that said - I'm also slightly worried that the games mechanics will lead to frustrating cheesy deaths. I'll take the opening section of the game as an example -everything that doesn't hit like a wet noodle poisons you, which just causes the game to slowly chip away at your health and you might die from that. Which is fine for the opening section, but sticking a bunch of poison enemies in a cramped corridor with no way to block feels like frustrating game design. I'm also not a giant fan of sometimes having parry and other times not having parry, it makes me just not want to use parry and instead makes me wish I could trash the parry option for some other useful skill.
I do like the whole "learn more about an item by using it" mechanic though and I do like the shell system as well. I also like that environmental hazards like traps can be used to help you just as much as they can be used to hurt you. I also really like the harden mechanic, its pretty unique and a solid addition. I'm hoping the weird balance and spam of early game poison is just a demo quirk, because I feel like it would be a poorly thought out experience otherwise.
The game also feels like it has a bunch of ways to cheese it that just become needlessly grindy and could use more streamlining - cooldown on growing mushrooms is a good example. It's neat that they regrow, but all it encourages is people backtracking to these spots and either AFKing to gather more or doing something akin to farming blood vials. Being able to skirt poison via switching shells (at the cost of respawning enemies) and some of the other mechanics just seem like they could be balanced better than what we have.
I had no option to do that... it tells me to "Seek name" for the shells
Yeah I resorted to using that. Can't believe EGS doesn't have controller support for ds4
They have had a steam page for ages now so the egs exclusivity is probably a more recent thing and when they were working on the controls they probably weren't thinking about releasing on a platform that didn't support the control devices that steam does. Their steam page has pushed release date to 2021 but it used to say 2020.
Might be that you don't have enough of the tar and glimpses? It tells you how much you need to reveal the name.
Anyone else getting lots of UE4 crashes?
After playing the demo, I'm a lot more interested in this game than I was before. There's a few cool ideas going on that help separate it, even if the similarities to Dark Souls are there ("You'll find no merriment around a bonfire here.")
The Shell system is neat and I'm excited to see the other shells in the full game. I love that they have their own upgrade paths and do different things. I think the second shell you unlock even had a skill in there that makes you heal from poison damage, which seems like it would trivialize the otherwise punishing Crypt area where everything is poisoning you, so there's a bit of strategy involved in prioritization of skill acquisition.
I found the game to be pretty punishing but with a rewarding learning curve. Using Harden to interrupt attacks that would have traded is cool, and the game having a meter that builds on parry, allowing for riposting, which in turn allows for healing, gives the combat this certain flow to it that I enjoyed. I loved setting up a parry when my health was low because it's so high risk high reward. Like, I need to heal but if I mess the timing of this parry up I'm dead.
The weapon skills were neat, too. I've seen complaints about the death animations not feeling very good but the weapon abilities and riposte animations are pretty flashy and if you're using them frequently (which you should once you've got meter for it) the combat can be relatively weighty.
I absolutely love the idea of items having their functions and lore entries hidden behind usage. That's a pretty neat way to put a twist on From's item description lore dumps. And the lute being something that you get better at as you play it, and the fact that you can even sit and play a lute for some brief respite is entertaining.
My only concern would be that I hope the game opens up a little more after the opening hour, with more branching paths.
Also you can pet the cat, so bonus points there.
The Shell system is neat and I'm excited to see the other shells in the full game. I love that they have their own upgrade paths and do different things. I think the second shell you unlock even had a skill in there that makes you heal from poison damage, which seems like it would trivialize the otherwise punishing Crypt area where everything is poisoning you, so there's a bit of strategy involved in prioritization of skill acquisition.
I found the game to be pretty punishing but with a rewarding learning curve. Using Harden to interrupt attacks that would have traded is cool, and the game having a meter that builds on parry, allowing for riposting, which in turn allows for healing, gives the combat this certain flow to it that I enjoyed. I loved setting up a parry when my health was low because it's so high risk high reward. Like, I need to heal but if I mess the timing of this parry up I'm dead.
The weapon skills were neat, too. I've seen complaints about the death animations not feeling very good but the weapon abilities and riposte animations are pretty flashy and if you're using them frequently (which you should once you've got meter for it) the combat can be relatively weighty.
I absolutely love the idea of items having their functions and lore entries hidden behind usage. That's a pretty neat way to put a twist on From's item description lore dumps. And the lute being something that you get better at as you play it, and the fact that you can even sit and play a lute for some brief respite is entertaining.
My only concern would be that I hope the game opens up a little more after the opening hour, with more branching paths.
Also you can pet the cat, so bonus points there.
i didn't like the beta very much but i do think the visual of your weird soul thing being hit out of the body you possess is really cool
I didn't beat the boss yet, game crashed during the loading screen, which forced a full reboot of my PC. Great.
Impressions so far:
- Game crashed the very moment I launched it. GG
- Second launch worked OK but controller (DS4) did not work, despite support for the button prompts in-game. Had to resort to adding it to Steam as a non-Steam game. That's... kind of sad.
- Combat is very, very clunky. I lost track of the number of times my follow-up R1 or R2 attack simply didn't register (and yes, I had plenty of stamina). Hitboxes are often very sketchy.
- The camera is terrible, especially in close quarters. To be fair, Souls/Nioh games struggle with this too, but this is much worse, IMO.
- The harden mechanic is not that interesting. OK so it allows you to tank one hit, but as a replacement to a superior dodge mechanic, it's just... meh? Not really fun, and not really helpful in many situations such as vs groups of enemies or a boss's combo who isn't staggered back by the hardening. Maybe it'll grow on me, but so far I'm just kind of 🤷‍♀️ about it.
- Level design is pretty generic.
- The respawn system is weird. If you reach the 2nd area (catacombs), and leave to return to the forest, and die in the forest, instead of respawning near the catacomb exit, you respawn at the opposite end of the forest (where you started). This is pretty clunky.
- Game needs a better healing mechanic, copy the Estus system if you have to, but those mushrooms... the respawns are incredibly tedious.
- The item system needs work. Learning more of the item as you use it is nice, but for semi-rare consumables (especially those you buy, like the golden bell), that's simply... stupid. You can easily waste items that way. Some items even poison you at first, and then eating it again gives you poison immunity... while that sounds cool on paper, it's just frustrating when playing. The first item use should at least be displayed without requiring a use.
- I think the level up lady is bugged. I pressed X to "seek name" to unlock the skill tree and nothing happened. I held X and nothing happened. I switched to mouse and clicked (like the prompt said) and nothing happened. I spammed click, nothing, I waited a few seconds in frustration, started spamming click again, and at some point, boom, the skill tree unlocking animation played.... wat? (And yes I had enough tar/glimpses)
I know it's a beta, but so far I'm not super impressed. The game is more frustrating than fun right now.
....On the other hand, you can pet the cat 🤔
Impressions so far:
- Game crashed the very moment I launched it. GG
- Second launch worked OK but controller (DS4) did not work, despite support for the button prompts in-game. Had to resort to adding it to Steam as a non-Steam game. That's... kind of sad.
- Combat is very, very clunky. I lost track of the number of times my follow-up R1 or R2 attack simply didn't register (and yes, I had plenty of stamina). Hitboxes are often very sketchy.
- The camera is terrible, especially in close quarters. To be fair, Souls/Nioh games struggle with this too, but this is much worse, IMO.
- The harden mechanic is not that interesting. OK so it allows you to tank one hit, but as a replacement to a superior dodge mechanic, it's just... meh? Not really fun, and not really helpful in many situations such as vs groups of enemies or a boss's combo who isn't staggered back by the hardening. Maybe it'll grow on me, but so far I'm just kind of 🤷‍♀️ about it.
- Level design is pretty generic.
- The respawn system is weird. If you reach the 2nd area (catacombs), and leave to return to the forest, and die in the forest, instead of respawning near the catacomb exit, you respawn at the opposite end of the forest (where you started). This is pretty clunky.
- Game needs a better healing mechanic, copy the Estus system if you have to, but those mushrooms... the respawns are incredibly tedious.
- The item system needs work. Learning more of the item as you use it is nice, but for semi-rare consumables (especially those you buy, like the golden bell), that's simply... stupid. You can easily waste items that way. Some items even poison you at first, and then eating it again gives you poison immunity... while that sounds cool on paper, it's just frustrating when playing. The first item use should at least be displayed without requiring a use.
- I think the level up lady is bugged. I pressed X to "seek name" to unlock the skill tree and nothing happened. I held X and nothing happened. I switched to mouse and clicked (like the prompt said) and nothing happened. I spammed click, nothing, I waited a few seconds in frustration, started spamming click again, and at some point, boom, the skill tree unlocking animation played.... wat? (And yes I had enough tar/glimpses)
I know it's a beta, but so far I'm not super impressed. The game is more frustrating than fun right now.
....On the other hand, you can pet the cat 🤔
Yeah I saw that lol
See above. I somehow got it to work but I don't even know how. Pressing or holding X in her screen simply didn't work. Go figure...
Use Steam. I'm serious.
Pretty mixed on it so far, though I do appreciate the originality of the harden mechanic and the shells for classes. Am I alone in finding the inexplicable endlessly resetting bear traps infuriating? Not fun to get stuck in or have to keep an eye on repeatedly, and trivializes fights when I can just repeatedly bait enemies into the same trap over and over
On these two points:
The first shell you unlock actually has upgrades specifically for the Harden mechanic to do things like reduce the cooldown, and make it last through the first hit, so you can actually tank additional hits after regaining movement. And the second shell has way higher stamina, allowing you to ignore Harden and focus on dodge defense if you want. It's a tool in the arsenal that can be improved if you like it, but you have alternate options if you really don't.
And as for healing, you get a ton of health back on riposte. You can riposte when you have meter. And you build meter on hits and parries. So the game really wants you to learn proper parrying techniques and take advantage of your meter burning to counter hits and lifesteal.
This is not a solution against bosses, though. A missed parry will completely fuck you over and a lot of its attacks can't even be parried, plus when I restart I'm at 0 resolve. -_-
That could be another benefit of Harden is that it gives you the opportunity to stand there and observe an entire attack animation to get a feel for where the point of impact is so you can time the parries better.
Lol why this little 29.99 indie game have better graphics than from's shit and run better than the last from game too. Shit crazy.
I had stuttering on ultra despite having a pretty beefy and From's games run perfectly fine on PC 🤷‍♀️
man the graphics on Mortal Shell looks amazing, but they need to do something about that swing animation- not enough impact
Oh I'm playing it on a work laptop, it runs better than sekiro at similar settings somehow (high).
Lol it seems to be running well on a 1050ti high(around 40). 1060 should be getting it to high.
Not sure it was a good idea to have a mini Road of Sacrifices followed immediately by a Blightown-esque version of The Catacoms/Depths. Nioh's first area isn't that hard, and Code Vein's start is very creativity/beginner friendly.
First impressions of your character feels like they are out of your control and unpredictable -sometimes its seems like the game eats your inputs. Second impressions is that the harden mechanic is such a very, very risky try on the devs part. Every Souls-like I've ever played lets you block, but this game saying "fuck that!" is... hard to stomach. Over the top, hardcore player focus towards souls vets is a gamble.
The learning curve is steep in regards your player character, while the enemies are simple. They can spot you a mile away and they don't have any invisible barriers that stop them from chasing you for a long ass time into a corner. The cave is a gank fest, literally a bunch of (POISONOUS) assholes hiding around corners constantly. Every enemy has an egregious amount of tracking (you can see it during the tutorial boss - when he's shelled, he can still 180-trickshot you coming out of it if you're not careful) You can do the same, like its the Demon's/DS1 days again. I don't see any benefit in trying to attack without using lock-on, it feels hectic and hard to get a grip, at least with so little experience.
The cave boss has short stubby arms that make parrying difficult, but looooooong strings + phantom hitboxes. A pain.
At the start you're given no other options but learning to combo/parry with a basic sword - no magic, no range weapons, nothing unique, nothing offhand. When do you get the hammer/dagger weapon? I got the name for the thief character, but he doesn't come with anything new and I'm still using the longsword. The special attack for that looks pretty cool, but the longsword's special is kind of eh. The final game needs to a have a class select at the start, imo. I get that each Shell is a defined character w/ lore that needs to be uncovered, but I still think they should let us pick how we want to play at the beginning.
Gotta to sleep on this one.
First impressions of your character feels like they are out of your control and unpredictable -sometimes its seems like the game eats your inputs. Second impressions is that the harden mechanic is such a very, very risky try on the devs part. Every Souls-like I've ever played lets you block, but this game saying "fuck that!" is... hard to stomach. Over the top, hardcore player focus towards souls vets is a gamble.
The learning curve is steep in regards your player character, while the enemies are simple. They can spot you a mile away and they don't have any invisible barriers that stop them from chasing you for a long ass time into a corner. The cave is a gank fest, literally a bunch of (POISONOUS) assholes hiding around corners constantly. Every enemy has an egregious amount of tracking (you can see it during the tutorial boss - when he's shelled, he can still 180-trickshot you coming out of it if you're not careful) You can do the same, like its the Demon's/DS1 days again. I don't see any benefit in trying to attack without using lock-on, it feels hectic and hard to get a grip, at least with so little experience.
The cave boss has short stubby arms that make parrying difficult, but looooooong strings + phantom hitboxes. A pain.
At the start you're given no other options but learning to combo/parry with a basic sword - no magic, no range weapons, nothing unique, nothing offhand. When do you get the hammer/dagger weapon? I got the name for the thief character, but he doesn't come with anything new and I'm still using the longsword. The special attack for that looks pretty cool, but the longsword's special is kind of eh. The final game needs to a have a class select at the start, imo. I get that each Shell is a defined character w/ lore that needs to be uncovered, but I still think they should let us pick how we want to play at the beginning.
Gotta to sleep on this one.
Yep, happened to me ALL the time. Very frustrating.
I did manage to kill the boss in the end, but the experience wasn't entirely satisfying.
It's at the start of the catacombs, it's hanging by a sconce near where the mushroom grows. Super easy to miss, I missed it the first time too.
About the poison, if you eat enough poison mushrooms, you later develop an immunity to poison if you eat these mushroom later, which is pretty neat
Im one of the few people who totally agree with you. Also the harden didn't really liked it during the tutorial, but the more i play with it, the more i like it.
Honestly, i think it's too early to say anything about the level design yet, this is really just a tutorial, first part look exactly how DS3 started.
I only tried the demo briefly, but as a sucker for these kinds of games, I'm sold. Or at least I would be if it released on Steam at launch. There were a lot of smaller niggles (why do character's switch to running at 30fps, when they step on a bear trap?) and the impact connections were lacking. Still didn't take me more than a few minutes to determine it's something I'd like to play.
Lots of interesting things going on in the game, but i absolutely hate how it plays. It doesn't feel heavy and deliberate, it just feels like everything is in slow motion.
Eh, this doesn't sound like this is my cup of-
Brb, creating an EGS account.
I feel every parry or dodge/roll mechanic has input lag or something else, they doesn't work as i wanted and that resulted in a lot of deaths. Some didn't register my input or my character decided to do a dodge (instead of a proper roll) who simply doesn't work.
If they go full Bloodborne (dodge) instead of trying to making work dodge/roll and harden, it will work a lot better.
The hit feedback feels amazing, it doesn't feel like you're hitting air like in almost every game, you can feel how the sword hits the enemy and his weight.
Tried the beta and the combat just does not feel right. It feels so incredibly unresponsive, like there is a ton of input lag on every attack. I have hundreds of hours on Souls games and this really kicked my ass because everything just felt so off. I actually quit playing before I got out of the first actual area because I did not enjoy it.
I really, really hope they fix the combat problems because the potential is there. The graphics are great, enemy designs decent and the harden and getting thrown out of your shell mechanics are cool.
EDIT: Had to fire up Dark Souls 3 for comparison, using a greatsword to have a bit similar moveset. In DS3 all the swings launch immediately and overall responsiveness is just from another world.
I really, really hope they fix the combat problems because the potential is there. The graphics are great, enemy designs decent and the harden and getting thrown out of your shell mechanics are cool.
EDIT: Had to fire up Dark Souls 3 for comparison, using a greatsword to have a bit similar moveset. In DS3 all the swings launch immediately and overall responsiveness is just from another world.
Last edited:
What? I have zero issues playing Sekiro at 1440p/60, and there was no stuttering anywhere. Can't speak for the console version. This game ran fine too, but felt weirdly sluggish. Not simply "weighty", but sluggish, and as it was already pointed out, it had some very questionable hitbox issues.
Unreal Engine 4 is pretty powerful so even a small team can make impressive graphics. The major difference to say DS3 is the lighting. I think visually this is not all that different from say Sekiro and that runs at 4K 120 fps if you mod it and have a beefy enough GPU.
Or DS4Windows, reWASD, and many other game profilers. There are some of the best off of steam. reWASD allow you to use dual joycons. The UI is also better, no sluggish response and it looks great, but reWASD has a price.
DS4Windows could be the one to use though for people that just want it to work without setting stuff up like linking games to Steam, and getting Steam Input to work with whatever game.
I'm a Steam Controller fan, and do what I have to to get games to work with Steam Input, but one of the reasons I'm going to move to DualSense is to not have to deal with GLoSC (Global Steam Controller) anymore. Steam Input can be a pain, frustrating, and glitchy (phantom activators), but I kind of like figuring out solutions. Steam is updated frequently, and one random update can mess up your non Steam game's setup causing it to not work the way it did anymore, and it's not easy to deny Steam updates like you can with a stand alone game profiler like DS4Windows.
Some pretty cool ideas in the game. I like the shell aspect and how a riposte can heal life.
The controls seem off though, and not sure how easily fixable that is before release. Also some of the times it takes control away, like that little side tunnel to get to a boss just feels unnecessary.
I'll probably get it on discount after some patches.
The controls seem off though, and not sure how easily fixable that is before release. Also some of the times it takes control away, like that little side tunnel to get to a boss just feels unnecessary.
I'll probably get it on discount after some patches.