Time to Beat: 18 Hours, 33 Minutes
In 2019 the Evil Empire created a plague that spread across the world, ruining entire kingdoms. No this isn't a Star Wars reference, a Reagan speech, a re-release of an album by Rage Against the Machine, or an article fifty years in the future describing the coronavirus. It's a game developed cooperatively by Motion Twin and Evil Empire.
Dead Cells is a metroidvania-roguelike set in a vaguely described kingdom. The player controls a recently executed citizen, their crime unknown. In the bowels of the Prisoner's Quarters they are reanimated by the Malaise, a virus with a mysterious origin. Every time the player dies their body is discarded, and they, as a clump of malignant cells, return to the Quarters, ready to revive another executed prisoner. The player transforms from a single organism, into a chaotic, unkillable cancer.
As an understated monstrosity they roam a decaying kingdom. Seeking vengeance? Truth? A sadistic glee at murdering other monsters? The developer doesn't concern itself with telling a detailed story, or prescribing a clear motive. The collective consciousness of the cells the player controls is a strange creature. It prefers not to speak, using a silly pantomime to communicate most of its thoughts. But it can read, and does talk upon occasion. Physically it can run, jump, roll, wield weapons and items, parry with a shield, and suffers no damage from falling (though it is stunned when falling from a great height). While Dead Cells demands the player navigate large dungeon levels and expansive rooftops, platforming is only perfunctory. The risk of a fall is rarely as great as in a proper platformer such as Shovel Knight, or even Braid.
Instead, Dead Cells
focuses on combat, a quick paced melee/ranged fusion. The
protagonist has four item slots. They wield two melee weapons/ranged
weapons/shields at a time, while using two traps/powers/grenades.
They have an additional backpack slot to hold onto backup gear.
Gear, regardless of the category, has a color, a level, a quality,
and bonus modifiers associated with it. Higher levels and better
quality increase damage output. Modifiers are as simple as bonus
damage on a burning target, or as crazy as enemies transmiting
damage-over-time effects to each other. Dead Cells
contains an incredible amount of Gear in all its varieties. Most of
them feel unique. Initially the player can only access a limited
range of Gear. Defeated enemies drop Cells. The player spends Cells
between levels at the Collector to activate Blueprints. Blueprints
are found scattered around the levels. Each blueprint is a piece of
Gear, a Mutation, an upgrade, or an outfit. Once activated, the
appropriate Gear is found throughout the dungeons.
In addition to Gear, the player acquires mutations, equipping one per level, to a max of three. Mutations are also aligned with the three stat colors.
A single life contains many temporary
elements. Because Dead Cells is a rogue-like, the
player loses their Gear, their gold, their stats, their mutations,
and even their Cells when they die. They retain their unused
blueprints, their unlocked blueprints (all Gear, mutations, costumes
to be found in the levels), and their runes. Runes are permanent
abilities. They don't help the player to defeat enemies. Instead,
they are like keys to unlock secrets or different levels. There are
eight in total. They are difficult to find, because Dead
Cells doesn't tell the player where to look. This
unnecessarily blocks access to areas. Also, the player can't check
what Runes they've found (or what upgrades/blueprints they've
unlocked), except at the very beginning of each run.
Between every level is the Collector's
room. The player spends Cells to activate blueprints and buy
upgrades, gain Mutations, heal, refill their health potions, and earn
rewards for their performance in the previous dungeon. Dead
Cells rewards the player for speed and precision. There are
rewards for searching the entirety of every area, and for finishing
as quickly as possible. Dead Cells seems to prefer
rewarding the player with a high level weapon of the same type they
already have, instead of a new type. Then it's onto the next area.
The visuals of Dead Cells aren't impressive either. Everything looks nebulous and cloudy, like a picture made by a sloppy water painter. The background, enemies, and objects appear blotted, and spread out.
If the player discovers enough of the obscure secrets needed to find the runes, defeats the enemies and bosses, and arrives at the final boss, they'll probably be defeated the first time, and forced to do it all over again. I beat the final boss on my third attempt. It took thirty-three attempts from start to finish to defeat the boss. And since this is a rogue-like, that isn't the final fight. The player is rewarded with a Stem Cell, a means of making Dead Cells more difficult and progressing the “story”. With the Cell activated the player begins again, but still with all their activated blueprints, upgrades, and equipment. When I played Hades, I defeated the final boss, and then returned again and again to lose and win. In Dead Cells, I felt I had had enough with one victory.
Though the maps of each level are helpful. The lack of a world map is a severe hindrance. Even with one players will still have trouble, because they need to locate certain runes to access them all, and the game offers no hint to where runes are hidden. But below I offer a simple map which shows the connective tissue between the areas. I spent more time mapping the connections between areas for Dead Cells than I did enjoying the game.
In conclusion, Dead Cells is one of the few games that has a massive variety of equipment, and actually makes them feel distinct. But, the levels, enemies, and even bosses, feel repetitive. The combat is an unenjoyable hectic hack-and-slash. The artwork doesn't compliment the game. Some of the artificial roadblocks to progress are unnecessarily opaque. But with the variety of Gear, its collectibility, and the possible fighting styles enabled by the variety, some may find this game an enjoyable endeavor, even if I didn't.Recent:
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