Dead Cells — Review
The Dead Walk Again. And Again and Again and-
Visuals: 7/10 Aesthetically gorgeous, but can be hard to tell what exactly you’re looking at enemy-wise
Soundtrack: 8/10 The kind of music you could listen to on repeat. And you will.
Controls/movements: 9/10 Smooth as silk
Difficulty: 8/10 Not quite Dark Souls, but close
Replayability: 10/10 It’s a roguelike. You’re going to replay this a lot.
Average score: 8.4/10
If you’ve been on gaming Twitter in the last few weeks, you may have seen a Kotaku article going around praising one Motion Twin gaming studio for paying all eleven of its workers equally instead of the typical top-down business structure. It was pretty solid advertising for Motion Twin’s upcoming game, Dead Cells. Available on Steam in early access since May 2017, the full game was due out only weeks after the article dropped. Dead Cells had gotten my attention before that for its high early access reviews, but that article firmly moved me from “mildly interested” to “I want it”, because that was the kind of company I wanted to support. So when the opportunity to support them with a review in exchange for a free copy of the game arose, I was on that like black on ink.
At its core, Dead Cells is a Metroidvania roguelike, a map-based platformer where gear is random and death has consequences. You’re dropped immediately into a corpse controlled by a writhing mass of cells, and into an executioner’s prison cell. They’re really going strong with the Cell theme right off the bat. The only thing it’s missing is a big green dude talking about perfection.
From there, you’re in total control, and I mean total. This is not a game where you yell at the main character for not grabbing ledges or jumping the way you want to jump. The controls are some of the most fluid and responsive I’ve ever worked with. A brief tutorial tells you how to jump, attack, and dodge, and from there, you’re entirely on your own. You have more abilities tied to these moves in certain situations, but it’s up to you to figure them out. You also unlock abilities through runes that, unlike most other upgrades you get per run, are permanent… as long as you can find them and beat the difficult enemy holding it.
The enemies are varied: no two types are the same, no one type less dangerous than the others. The most basic enemies you encounter at the beginning, zombies (it can be hard to tell what exactly some enemies are until you look at the stats screen, found in your prison cell), can take you out in just a few attacks if you don’t get the hang of dodging them fast enough or let them overwhelm you. Later enemies will shoot through walls, teleport, and more. The nicest thing about baddies? No contact damage. You can walk right by them and you will not be hurt until they attack. As a student of the school of “rub-your-face-against-it-and-attack-as-fast-as-possible”, this is a rarely encountered generosity in game programming. There are also, rarely, elite enemies holding better gear and money, but at a much higher risk.
Like other Metroidvanias, this is a game that rewards exploration, with everything from invisible paths to the classic Food in Wall. Exploring can also lead you to little bits of world building that aren’t necessary but give the world and your character a nice burst of flavor. If exploration isn’t your thing, it also rewards speedrunning, with special doors that are only open for a short amount of time from the start of your run. These rooms usually contain good money, a rare weapon blueprint, and a mighty handful of the collectibles used for upgrades (which are also called cells) so it’s a good thing to try for. That said, the timer is more generous than most, stopping entirely in some locations to give you the time to upgrade gear, spend money, or read world building tidbits.
Speaking of gear, holy moly, you are not short on choices with this game. As with roguelikes, you start off with a basic weak sword and the option of a weak bow or a weak shield. As you progress, you’ll add traps, bombs, and grenades to those (of which you can have two) find blueprints for more weapons, and find better weapons in general. Each weapon has different levels. While you can buy low level upgrades from a shopkeeper in each level, there’s no limit to the level you can find lying around or dropped from an enemy. Mix and match to your heart’s content,
Achievement hunters will have a bit of a grind ahead of them if they’re the sort to 100% everything. There are plenty of generous ones that pop for just playing the game as intended, but if you want them all, you’ll have to Get Gud, beating bosses without taking hits and upping difficulty levels.
Streamers get to enjoy an extra benefit: Streamer mode, which integrates with your Twitch channel to let your viewers give some extra involvement. Extras involve voting on which area you should progress to, spamming certain words to unlock chests, determine your stat upgrades, and more. The integration is as easy as selecting Streamer Mode from start-up, but it does leave you entirely in the hands of your viewers, so use with caution (and lots of fun).
The most unusual and charming element, I think, is the Diet option in the Options menu. Like other Metroidvanias, Dead Cells has food for healing, but you’re not stuck with Meat A and Meat B. Vegetarians can select Vegetarian or Fruititarian for carrots and cherries instead. Carb-lovers can get their fill with the Baguette option, and fans of the classics can pick Castlevania-esque for the wall chicken we all know and love. It’s a small touch of inclusivity, and I was immediately charmed by it.
In summation, Dead Cells is a game that is pleasing to watch, beautiful to listen to, and most importantly, fun to play. It’s difficult, but not unfair, a game that encourages tactical thinking but allows you to just go wild if that’s your technique of choice. There’s enough variety and enough to do to keep you playing for a long time, and it’s good enough to do so. 8.4 out of 10, highly recommend.
Dead Cells was provided to me on behalf of GirlStreamers Inc with a code for the purpose of this review.
