Reviewed on: PC
Roguelike – a sub-genre widespread in a somewhat cult segment of games, only recently gained a certain popularity. Partly because it’s a lot of fun, partly because it’s extremely streamer-friendly content. Now just think: would it be possible to combine a game of the caliber of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, with good humor, with that Roguelike approach? Dead Cells shows it can be done and works extremely well.
An unwary soul, at first glance, might think Dead Cells is a Soulsvania, a metroidvania with tenser, more meticulous combat that requires some attention and less frenzy. But just a few minutes are enough for Dead Cells to surprise with the non-stop action, the frenetic combat and the almost infinite possibilities of combining weapons and abilities, ranging from the simplest little crummy swords to your good old giant swords; bows and crossbows; traps; spells… it’s all there, with extremely well-made and fluid animations.
The game’s frenetic pace is absurd, for hours. It’s a fast game, no doubt about it, but it’s a game that rewards the player who decides to play it even faster. When you kill a certain number of enemies in sequence, you get a speed buff and, as a result, end up running faster. This helps you and makes it easier to access certain rooms (packed with rewards) that are only available if you manage to do this as fast as possible. This exquisitely counterbalances the repetitive factor that roguelikes have.
Dead Cells is, above all, a metroidvania with roguelike elements and never a roguelike metroidvania. Roguelike is a “seasoning” element and not a defining element. The game has its “touch” of procedurality, generating the stages in a completely random way (with certain exceptions that always happen, like a room with a boss or rune – Power-ups that don’t vanish when you die) and has its “touch” of repetitiveness too, since even with the counterbalance mentioned earlier, you’ll see the same enemies all the time on the same maps. As said, it’s a metroidvania: each Rune will unlock more and more progress, more and more chances to drop blueprints for cooler weapons and skills and more opportunity to get large amounts of Cells – the game’s important “monetary” unit, since with them you unlock permanent upgrades for the Prisoner, the protagonist.
A few little things bothered me a bit, like the impossibility of “farming” Cells in the long term. Yes, it works very well for the game’s proposal and, as a whole, matches that roguelike “seasoning”, but losing all your cells when you die and being able to use them only between maps strikes me as somewhat odd, overall, since they are a vital part of the game. The customizable nature of Dead Cells is quite interesting, since the protagonist has 3 attributes that dictate all the values responsible for weapons and Mutations, passive abilities that are capable of – you guessed it – creating layer upon layer of possibilities and strategies.
Strangely beautiful, Dead Cells is a game that deals with somewhat heavy themes in a bizarrely fun way. The protagonist, although silent, is extremely charismatic and expresses himself through gestures in a very funny way, with fun “dialogues” and monologues (when you find the Mushroom-ologue you’ll know what I’m talking about). Sometimes with acid and black humor, but always fun – plus the coolest DOUBLE THUMBS UP™ of the last 5 years. The narrative, otherwise, is simplified and told in an easy way, almost drip by drip. Graphically, there’s nothing surprising, but its art direction and the way things are handled in the audiovisual aspect are what impress. The well-animated sprites look more like 3D models stylized into an aesthetic very similar to 2D (think of what Guilty Gear Xrd did, but on a smaller scale) and the whole mood of the game is sprinkled with a soundtrack that, although well executed, brings nothing memorable. It just does its job well.
Verdict? Simple: Dead Cells is addictively well executed. The amount of possibilities, things to do and raw content in this game make it a strong candidate for 2018’s “just one more run“. Mark my words: it will be Twitch’s darling. Motion Twin hit the bullseye with this gem.
SCORES
Audiovisual – 9
Mechanics – 10
Narrative – 9
TOTAL: 9.4
Max Xavier
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