I had only heard the name Dead Cells once or twice, but never really knew what the game was. I looked into it and I can say that it peaked my interest. I bought it, spent some time with it, and really enjoyed it.
Dead Cells is a rogue-vania with a cool art style that can be hard to nail down. Dead Cells was developed and published by Motion Twin who have made some relatively popular games that, with the exception of Dead Cells, can be played for free on their site Twinoid. While the game is playable with keyboard and mouse, I highly recommend using a controller, as it makes the combat and movement more fluid and rewarding.
Dead Cells is a rogue-vania with a cool art style that can be hard to nail down. Dead Cells was developed and published by Motion Twin who have made some relatively popular games that, with the exception of Dead Cells, can be played for free on their site Twinoid. While the game is playable with keyboard and mouse, I highly recommend using a controller, as it makes the combat and movement more fluid and rewarding.
Though Dead Cells in still in Earlier Access as of writing this, Motion Twin seems to be staying rather transparent about what they’re doing on their end. They listen to the feedback from those who are playing the game and release large updates to fix any reported problems. With this being the case, I honestly haven’t seen any bugs myself.
You play as gelatinous slime that has taken over the body of a decapitated prisoner as you fight your way through the dungeons. While your goal is quite mysterious to even yourself, you still march on, facing the hordes of enemies that lay before you.
As I said earlier, Dead Cells has an art style that some would have a bit of trouble recognizing. At first glance it appears to be a pixel art game, but when you take a closer look at the animations of your character and the enemies, you notice that some things are rendered in 3D and others are handmade 2D pixel art.
Motion Twin released some screenshots and gifs of the process they went through. The 3D render, the pixel model, and how they are brought together to create the fascinating and amazing animation and art style.
Dead Cells is a rogue-vania, meaning it has elements of both a roguelike and a Metroidvania. While some may think that there may be a conflict between these two genres, Motion Twin has seamlessly sewn them together into a wonderful game with a rewarding combat system and a sort of permadeath.
The combat system, in simple forms, can be equated to any other 2D hack n’ slash, but with a bit of practice, you can learn how to string movement, dodge rolling, and attacks into a ballet of murder that will make you feel like a videogame god. Dashing down through platforms to stun the enemies below, freezing them with your frost magic, and finishing them off with your massive broadsword without taking a single hit.
After defeating your enemies, you are given a sum of gold, but also have a chance to net some additional loot that will help you much more than any amount of gold could. You have the chance of getting new gear, an upgrade scroll, or best of a, a dead cell.
Dead cells are the meta-currency of the game. The dead cells allow you to unlock upgrade that persist across all of your runs. These upgrades include things like new weapons appearing, mutations that give you special abilities each run, and meta-upgrade like more uses of your health potion.
Both halves of the rogue-vania are well earned by Dead Cells. Starting with the first half, roguelike, Dead Cells has a huge amount of randomization, making each run a new experience with a different map, different gear, and a different arrange of enemies.
Dead Cells also includes a sort of permadeath. When you are struck down by your foes, you lose all your gear, all your gold, and all your dead cells that you haven’t spent of furthering the meta-upgrades. Your death and pseudo-rebirth are explained in the story of the game in a lovely way, similar to how Rogue Legacy dealt with it.
Staying true to the Metroidvania aspect as well, Dead Cells also features permanent upgrades that unlock new areas for the player to explore and loot. These upgrades can be things like growing vines to reach platforms previously unreachable, or being able to use teleport runes to travel to isolated treasure troves.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the time I got to spend with Dead Cells and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys 2D platforming rogue-vanias. I think Motion Twin did an excellent job with this game and I’m excited to watch it as it continues to improve and become even better.
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