Playstack has announced an uncompromising, authentic, and hauntingly beautiful Souls-like action-RPG, Mortal Shell. Previously known as Dungeonhaven in its earliest days of development, Mortal Shell has been painstakingly designed by a prized coalition of veteran developers who are credited with working on some of the biggest AAA titles on the market.
Produced by a core team of just 15 people, Mortal Shell was only made possible due to the team’s pedigree and burning desire to honor the painful majesty of the genre.
Andrew McLennan-Murray, Anton Gonzalez, and Vitaly Bulgarov said in a joint statement:
“For a small team like ours, developing this title in many ways felt like crossing an ocean on a paddle board. To finally announce Mortal Shell is one of the most exciting and terrifying experiences we’ve had in our lifetimes. The last two years have been a time of non-stop growth, full of shocking revelations of sheer complexity that goes into creating a video game that you, yourself, would really enjoy playing.”
In order to celebrate this announcement, the publisher has released the game’s first screenshots and trailer. The trailer features a sample of its world, fearsome combat, and menacing foes.
Playstack aims to release Mortal Shell in Q3 2020 on PC.
Below you can also find the game’s key features.
Mortal Shell Key Features
- Discover “Shells” to Suit Your Playstyle – The lost remains of defeated warriors are yours to unearth. Awaken these Mortal Shells, occupy their bodies and significantly widen your understanding of different forms of combat. Inhabit a Shell that best fits your style and utilizes their own unique mastery of skills and weapon upgrades.
- Iron Sharpens Iron – Combat is strategic and deliberate. Survival demands superior awareness, precision and instincts. You must commit your sword only when an opportunity opens. Calculate your parries to unleash devastating counterblows.
- Non-linear Campaign – Draw your own path across marsh-infested lowlands, through a gargantuan cathedral of obsidian rock, and into an ancient crypt frozen into the crest of a mountain.
- Deep Upgrade Paths – The stronger your connection to each Mortal Shell grows, the better you can harness their innate talents. Craft unique upgrades, sharpen your blade with acid, and study dark arcane abilities that imbue your attacks with supernatural devastation.
- Face Haunting Foes – Behold creatures both pitiable and grotesque, but do not let fear halt your journey. Muster your courage and face them down.
Here are also the game’s PC system requirements.
Minimum:
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 7 SP1 or newer
- Processor: Intel Core i5-4590 (AMD FX 8350) or better
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 970 (AMD Radeon R9 290)
- Storage: 40 GB available space
Recommended:
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i7
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1070
- Storage: 40 GB available space
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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Looks very promising.
Very much. This dev seems to have made only mobile looking games so something like this I could very much see blowing up and making them a big name. I do like their message on their website playstack . com
None of that bodes well for this game.
It’s also extremely easy to edit together an in-engine video without having an actual game.
indeed, and it seems to have way more complex animations than its predecessors.
very good looking i suppose.
“NVIDIA GTX 1070 for recommended”
that’s probably why. the specs just bumped up.
This could be something good.
I want something arcade-y with this art style and graphics
something like the cancelled Deep Down or the ever so absent Project Awakening.
I have no idea if those two games were/are attempting a souls style gameplay but at least they had/have better graphics, physics and atmosphere.
the only From games that I’ve played and enjoyed were actually less souls-like with more aggressive mechanisms, namely Ninja Blade and Bloodborne
You need to play Nioh 1 it is fast and looks nice.
actually I’ve been meaning to, but never got around to it. I don’t want to spend years on a game to enjoy it. but I’ll definitely give it a try. thank you
Looks really good, especially the animations, but the art style is nearly copy-paste
OH GOOD BECAUSE WE DONT HAVE ENOUGH OF THOSE DONE WE?
Fcking h3ll man i cant wait for this fad to be over.
Fad lol?
Where are all those Souls like games you claim exist?
3 dark souls games, Bloodborne, Sekiro, 2 Surge games, 1 Star Wars game and then plenty of lower budget titles neither you nor I have ever heard of.
Doesnt count, the original games didn’t came on single day and people played them when they were released.
And other games that you listed, none of them are Dark Fantasy, i don’t find NIOH, Sekiro, Surge appealing at all due to their art style and location, especially Asian locations i cant stand them
“Doesnt count, the original games didn’t came on single game and people played them when they were released.”
Could you rephrase this part? I don’t understand.
As for the setting, it’s true that this game renders a scenario closer to Souls games than any other perhaps. But most people play Souls games for the combat so what difference does the setting make in the context of this argument (that Souls-likes do exist and whether there’s need for more).
LOL I meant to say: Doesn’t count, the original games didn’t came on single DAY and people played them when they were released, over period of years.
What came 10 years ago, was played and forgotten 10 years ago, and even DS3 came long time ago and it was finished and forgotten too, its time for new Dark Fantasy Souls style game.
For me personally the setting is very important, i would happily play 3rd person action RPG in Dark/Demon Souls setting or first person open world like Skyrim in Dark/Demon Souls setting.
I love Dark Western Fantasy looks and environments, like dark castles, European style demons, ghosts, zombies, skeletons, strange gods and demons…. all that.
I had BloodBorne pre-ordered, never played longer then first level, the Victorian settings is not appealing and the lack of armor and shields too.
I also tried Nioh but i hated the colorful Asian setting, the idiotic cutesy Spirits that look like frogs, foxes, etc, colorful demons that not really scary but more like from Disney movie, i didn’t liked Asian style houses, armors, wooden castles, and everything was IMO carooney, cutsey and not moody or dark.
Thats just my taste, I prefer medieval dark fantasy styles, ancient Egyptian style, Babylonian and Semitic dark fantasy [like in Conan books], and of course Christian based dark fantasy also works for me.
Asian, native American, Indian [the real Indians] etc doesn’t work on me
So, obviously far from being a lot.
If you don’t consider Nioh 1-2, Sekiro, Bloodborne, DS 1-3, Code Vein, Ashen, Darksiders 3, Godfall, Jedi Fallen Order, Surge 1-2, Elden Ring, Dead Cells, Remnant From the Ashes, Salt and Sanctuary, Outward, Lords of the Fallen, Immortal Unchained alot then I don’t know what to say…
Sekiro, Bloodborne and DS 1-3 are LITERALLY the “Dark Souls” games from the same company. These obviously don’t even count.
Ashen – no name indie game
Darksiders 3 – a basic hack n slash
Godfall – Not even out yet, we will see when it launches
Edlen Ring – Same thing, not even out lol and we don’t know much about it yet.
Dead Cells – Wow, do I even need to say it? A no name indie game that is most definitely not a “dark souls” game
Salt and sanctuary – Definitely not a Dark souls like game, not even close. Completely different genre.
Immortal Unchained – Yet another sh**ty indie title
Stop trying to buff up the numbers with no name sh**ty indie titles, or games just straight up are nothing like Dark Souls.
I’m done going through everyone’s false list of “Dark Souls like” games.
hahahahahhahaahah nice one, dont tell me you are serious.
Of course I am, there’s not that many Souls like games and you don’t know what a fad is.
AAHHAHAHAHHA you joking right?
surge 1 and 2 , code vein, lords of the fallen, inferno climber, salt and sacntuary, nioh 1 and 2, bloodborne, ashen, sekiro, titan falls, hollow knight immortal uncahined and you got in development this game, eden ring, dolmen, lords of the fallen 2 and hellpoint.
Lmafo, not all of those are even dark souls like games, but nice try pumping the numbers up.
It’s very clear that you don’t even know wtf you’re talking about.
The market is FAR from being oversaturated by dark souls like games.
“It’s very clear that you don’t even know wtf you’re talking about.”
Cool it with the projection there moron.
“The market is FAR from being oversaturated by dark souls like games.”
Thats some COPE if ever saw one.
Yeah it is, its done to death. But hey since you asked for more.
sinner sacrifice of redemption,remnant from the ashes, egress, featherfall, brume, bloody spell, decay of logos, necropolis.
There are more, please dont make me bring up more.
You know you’ve lost when you need to keep spamming no name indie games because the list just isn’t that big lol.
There are very few big company Dark Souls games out there. Some random a*s indie games that nobody playes or has heard of is just disengenuous.
Far from being “done to death”, far from being oversaturated.
You can now continue spamming more indie titles that are barely “dark souls”. I’m done arguing over this anymore.
lock into an enemy, roll, roll, roll again, attack, roll, roll, roll, attack.
this autistic combat system is ugly to look at, shetty and opposite of fun and requires little to no brain capacity.
if you prefer doing repetitive tasks (definition of autism and an autistic person) then you will love and defend this combat system because it’s autistic just like yourselves.
“The first time as tragedy, the second time as farce”
never ever, someone put this Souls like style game play down in word so poetically… *bows and takes off hat*
And as I have never played a single souls like game I bet this one will be my firts, Im a fan of the art director and it looks incredibly next gen
Will keep an eye on it.
Incredible lighting, not Ray traced?
Probably, but it’s a trailer, better keep low expectations
The headline feature are volumetric heavy fog and ambient occlusion, both features that help with the perception of depth. That’s what gives these scenes the sense of epic scale despite being 2D. There are only one or two scenes with a strong directional light, meaning bounce lighting is hardly needed. In this kind of dim light condition ambient occlusion looks most realistic and they have an extremely high quality solution at work. It could be ray-traced in real time but it needn’t be. It could also be baked in (for the large scale, static geometry) + post-process (for the characters, dynamic props). The lighting in Souls games is static so baking seems like the smart choice. Using only brightness (8 bit per pixel instead of 24 bit for colored bounce lighting) also keeps the file size down for a game with many large maps. The lighting will be standard deferred in any case. Ray-traced shadows would also be a waste in a game with a weak sun – you won’t see any sharp contact shadows.
If it turns out they’re using real-time ray-traced AO it’ll be interesting to see what the fallback solution is. Most people don’t have RTX cards and still won’t if the game really launches this year. The fallback solution must look close to this trailer or people will complain.
Yeah, next gen consoles will have RT, so i expect it.
Your reasoning was great, thanks for that, i was impressed primarily by the lighting of the character moving, hence why i thought about it acctually.
Another Souls trash ???. Skip.
If this trash then what isn’t? Online “survival” MMO with “base” building”? Minecarft? Online shooters? Online team shooters?
First off, thank you for politely disagreeing.
Second, no, not those crappy games that you mentioned I enjoy.
I enjoy Single-player FPS, TPS, action-adventure, hack and slash.
I’m intrigued by these “shells” and how they might effect gameplay. Could be what keeps this game from being just another clone, if they do it right.
Another Souls game
Another turn based game
Another x4 game
Gee, really wish my fave genres got that much love, all year, every year…
Funny how the people in those 3 genres above, are the same people that rabble against fps being an “over saturated” genre, and yet I’m absolutely seeing it with all 3 of the above, for the past 5 years now.
IKR? What happened to all the AAA FPS games from the PS3/X360 generation?
This is hands down the WORST console generation because:
1. The graphics aren’t really an upgrade from last gen, feels like an upscale
2. The over saturated trashy souls games
3. Lack of AAA FPS games. Seriously, in 2018 for instance, we only had 1 AAA FPS and that was Far Cry 5 (and I couldn’t care less for it because it’s pretty much in line with Ubisoft’s semi-annual agenda)
As you said, it’s funny how FPS haters babble about FPS being an “oversaturated” genre yet this is like the FOURTH Souls game this year.
I’ve compiled a list of upcoming FPS games, at least next gen looks better than this piece of shiit “Souls” gen. Here it is if you’re curious:
Announced FPS games coming in the 2020s:
GTFO (PC M I)
Prodeus (PCC SM I)
Valorant (PC M I)
Witchfire (PC S I)
Trepang2 (PC S I)
Boundary (PCC M I)
CrossfireX (PCC M I)
Deathloop (PCC S AAA)
IGI Origins (PC SM AAA)
Core Decay (PC S I)
Star Citizen (PC SM AAA)
XIII Remake (PCC SM AAA)
Halo Infinite (PCC SM AAA)
Overwatch 2 (PCC M AAA)
Atomic Heart (PCC S AAA)
Earthbreakers (PC SM I)
Serious Sam 4 (PCC SM AAA)
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 (PC SM AAA)
Cyberpunk 2077 (PCC S AAA)
Kingpin: Reloaded (PCC SM I)
Wrath: Aeon Of Ruin (PCC SM I)
System Shock Remake (PCC S AAA)
Bright Memory Infinite (PC S I)
Semi-announced or most likely coming based on strong rumors:
Rage 3
SiN Remake
Back 4 Blood
Bulletstorm 2
Wolfenstein 3
New Metro Game
New BioShock Game
New TimeSplitters Game
Systemic Reaction Game
Ghost Story Games Game
Summary:
10 are PC (PC-exclusive)
13 are PCC (PC & console)
8 are S (Single-player-only)
5 are M (Multiplayer-only)
10 are SM (Single-player & multiplayer)
12 are I (Indie)
11 are AAA
Note: The semi-announced games aren’t categorized because not much is known about them.
This actually looks good
Even the art design is a direct rip off.
Another video game.. Not one of those again! This rip off has to stop! People did the lock down damaged the remaining brain cells you had?
God damn I want Dark Souls 4 OR Bloodborne for PC.
Looks great, sounds great, I’m not a Dark Souls player but I’m interested.
They make a game “hard” as an excuse to not have a decent lore or gameplay.
Funny thing is that it’s working pretty well.
That looks very promising indeed!
The enemy design, and environments looks very artistic…not a big fan of the souls-like games, but I always appreciate the artistic design that these games present.
Grey – The Game