Mortal Shell, the upcoming Souls-like game from Cold Symmetry, has been released in beta by popular demand, with over 5 million people watching its Twitch and YouTube feeds, over 350,000 people playing, and the cat in the store has been petted over 150,000 times.

James played through several areas available in the Mortal Shell beta and found the game to be comparable to the best and worst of the genre, with excellent enemy design and simultaneously repetitive: "The Crypt Guardian took two swords from my torso to fight me. I clapped when he tore them off and shouted louder when he chopped off his own head and threw it at me before it exploded in a cloud of poisonous gas. It felt good to die that way, and I knew it wouldn't be a long way back. But when the ghouls in the next room and the Guardians gave me my fifth death, I began to lose my nerve"

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After all, he was "pretty excited" about a more polished final game scheduled for later this year. You can read his full impression and 25 minutes of gameplay here.