Hyped PS5 Soulslike Mortal Shell 2 Has an Easy Difficulty Mode, But There’s a Catch
Cold Symmetry’s upcoming Soulslike action game Mortal Shell 2 eschews traditional difficulty settings in favor of a more granular system using special in-game items that let players customize their experience. Rather than selecting Easy, Normal, or Hard at the start, players can equip specific items that modify gameplay mechanics to raise or lower the challenge as they progress.
Examples of these difficulty-tweaking items include one that makes enemy executions refill the player’s health, effectively lowering the difficulty, and another that removes the sun from the game world—presumably increasing the challenge. This modular approach allows players to fine-tune the experience to their preference without committing to a single difficulty level for the entire playthrough.
The approach mirrors similar systems seen in other recent Soulslikes, such as Lies of P, which added difficulty options via patch after its initial release. However, Mortal Shell 2 bakes this flexibility into its core design from launch.
In Mortal Shell 2, players take on the role of The Harbinger, a warrior on a quest to retrieve a sacred egg stolen from the Underm. The game maintains the genre’s reputation for challenging, skill-based combat while providing players with tools to adjust difficulty to their skill level or preference.
This approach is being seen as enlightened design, recognizing that not all players seek the same level of difficulty while preserving the core Soulslike experience for those who want it.