Mortal Shell 2 beta hands-on: it deconstructs Soulslike mechanics even better than the original

Cold Symmetry shadow-dropped the Mortal Shell 2 beta during the 2026 Summer Game Fest showcase, pairing it with a new trailer and making it immediately playable. For fans of the original, that was enough — Eurogamer's writer downloaded it on the spot and put in nearly six hours.

On the surface, Mortal Shell 2 hits all the expected Soulslike beats: a grim gothic world, weighty animations that punish overcommitting, a death-drop currency system, and a bonfire that isn't called a bonfire. But the game's real identity comes from how it dismantles those conventions. The original's signature hardening mechanic — which lets you petrify yourself to absorb a hit — returns, but it's no longer a universal ability. It's now tied to a specific Seal, an equippable item any character can slot in, but only at the cost of other Seals. That trade-off is the heart of the system. Seals contain what would normally be baked-in Soulslike mechanics: tighter parry windows, posture-breaking ranged builds, even the ability to block at all. Blocking isn't a given here — it's a choice. The reviewer found no mechanic from the first game that hadn't evolved in some meaningful way across the entire session.

The original Mortal Shell had the right ideas but struggled to communicate them clearly — ambitious but rough around the edges. Mortal Shell 2 carries the same creative DNA with noticeably more confidence and polish, according to the hands-on. The Seal system in particular opens up build variety well beyond what most Soulslikes offer, and the decision to make even fundamental mechanics optional rather than assumed is one of the smarter structural calls in the genre recently.

The beta is live now alongside the trailer that aired at Summer Game Fest. No release date has been confirmed yet, but the early impression is strong enough that this one is worth watching closely.