Mortal Shell - Beta Impressions

The brief tutorial area takes you through three quick battles that introduce the Hardening mechanic and give players a bit of practice before the beta demo opens up into the larger arena. A hooded knight is the first enemy that takes aim at you, swinging a two handed broadsword toward you, and a pop up instructs you to hold the left trigger down to Harden. At first I giggled a bit, thinking about the famously useless Metapod Harden ability from Pokemon, but I obliged. My character immediately turned to stone and froze in place, but took no damage when the knight's broadsword collided with me.

I immediately changed my attitude toward Harden and took a few swings at the knight. After a few successful blows, he withdrew his weapon, faded into the shallow pool below, and then the next gate opened. I proceeded down the road expecting another tutorial prompt and was met with just that.

This time I was greeted with a statue holding a broadsword similar to the one that was previously used against me. Approaching the statue, I picked up the sword and a new knight appeared. This time the game prompted me to Harden mid-attack. I expected to see an over-the-top animated special attack, but instead froze mid-swing. When the knight attacked me and made contact, it broke the Harden and immediately completed my broadsword's arc landing a surprise counter-attack. For the second time in the first few minutes of the tutorial Mortal Shell showed me that I underestimated how clever it was.

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