One of 2026’s new Soulslikes, Mortal Shell 2, provided fans a beefy first-look at its gameplay, revealing that one of the game’s mysterious new inhabitable shell characters can transform into a playable sheep.Mortal Shell 2 Lets you play as a sheepscreenshot: playstackThe original Mortal Shell, which was released in 2020, didn’t make a whole lot of waves outside of the Souls community despite being a well-designed, smaller-scale Soulslike with a unique twist: The ability for players to inhabit four different characters known as shells, each with unique skills and playstyles. Now, six years later, developer Cold Symmetry is back with its sequel, promising a larger world to explore, a set of new playable shells, and even an arsenal of ranged firearms for players to utilize in the sequel’s bloodier, more visceral combat.The game was first announced during Summer Game Fest last June, and since then, Souls fans have been eagerly waiting to see more following its vicious cinematic reveal trailer, and Cold Symmetry has come through with an exciting new look that features an unexpected twist.details about how Mortal Shell 2’s sheep combat works are still unclearscreenshot: playstackIn a new 11-minute gameplay trailer, Cold Symmetry showed off plenty of reasons for gamers to be excited for Mortal Shell 2. It showcased three shells total, the first two, Tiel and Eredrim, are from the first game, while the third and final shell shown off was Proxima, a brand new shell.The biggest surprise from the trailer, however, was that, in a montage transition between Tiel and Eredrim’s gameplay sections, fans can notice a few frames where the player character on screen transforms into a sheep and attacks surrounding enemies by standing on its hind legs and haphazardly swinging its arms. It’s not clear which shell was in play before the transformation occurred, but it seems likely it was a glimpse at one of Mortal Shell 2‘s yet-to-be revealed shells. The sheep didn’t look like it was doing much damage to the likely flabbergasted shadow monsters it was attacking. It’s possible that it could simply be an ability that’s most effective at crowd-controlling cannon fodder enemies, but perhaps there’s more to the ability that players might learn more about once Mortal Shell 2 gets closer to release.screenshot: PlaystackSeeing sheep combat in a brutal, gritty Soulslike is quite bizarre, but it makes one wonder about this mysterious new shell that has the ability to transform and whether there are other types of animals it can transform into. The game’s shell system is already quite a unique mechanic within the Souls genre, but the ability to fight enemies as a sheep will undoubtedly make the dark fantasy Souls sequel stand out even more. Mortal Shell 2 isn’t the only Souls sequel dropping this year, as Lords of the Fallen 2, the follow-up to the 2023 reboot, is set to release sometime later in 2026 as well. Neither game has a solid release date as of yet, but with Summer Game Fest just about two months away, that could change soon.Mortal Shell 2 is coming to Xbox, PlayStation, and PC in 2026.The post Mortal Shell 2 Gameplay Finally Revealed (and You Can Play as a Sheep) appeared first on VICE.