Dead Cells Review

 

Published By Motion Twin
Developed By Motion Twin
Reviewed on PlayStation 4 (also available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC)

 

Dead Cells

Die, die, die is what you will doing in Dead Cells, a rogue-like, Metroidvania, and Souls-like experience that will keep you on your toes. Dead Cells is the newest title by developer Motion Twin and have they stepped up their game. The game starts when a type of mutagen goo falls from a pipe, rolls over to your headless, lifeless body, and brings you to life. Now if you’re looking for a story, this really doesn’t have one, but that’s not a bad thing at all. You wake up and talk to a couple of NPCs who tell you collect cells that make up your body, grab a entry level starter weapon, and start slicing enemies.

The dungeons are all procedurally generated so they are randomized every time, which makes the experience fair as if you knew where all the loot and enemies were every time it could get a little stale. This is were Dead Cells really shines with its Souls-esque quality on point controls. When you want to dodge, you dodge, when you want to attack, dodge, jump, it does that exactly with no hiccups. As you make you way through the dungeons you will come across warp stones that kind of looks like Stargates. These will help traverse the dungeon as back tracking is a feature in Dead Cells. Other things you will come across are chests that offer new weapons, secondary weapons or blueprints that you will take to a sort of like scientist. Each blueprint will cost you those cells you have been collecting to create items.

Dead Cells

The baddies of the game are each unique with their own abilities and patterns which you learn as you progress through the dungeons. The monsters can sometimes even drop power ups that you can also find in special locations if you search for them. These can grant you 1 of 3 attributes. You have the choice to level up your brutality which affects your strength, add more power to your secondary attack skills, and lastly boost survival which will adds to your health bar to provide you with much needed durability. Dead Cells can be miss, miss, or hit. I’m going to go with the first. Now you might say you have to “Git Gud” but its not at all that. Dead Cells will have you praying to RNGesus for some good drops. So make sure you explore every possible path in the dungeons or as much as you possibly can.

During most of my runs I came across new weapons and tons of power up that made me a powerful force to be reckoned with. Then there were runs where I barely found any new items and made it to the boss with the starter weapon, which made it really tough. Dead Cells may look like an old 16-bit game with its pixel art graphics, which I personally love, but there is much much more. The world of Dead Cells looks amazing from the beautifully rendered scenery in the dungeons to the creepy looking monsters throughout the game. I even found a small little nod to Dark Souls in it. See if you guys can find it!

There is another great work of art in Dead Cells: the soundtrack that was produced by Yoann Laulan. The music in Dead Cells is quite tantalizing and can change in a flash. One second you can be battling monsters while going through a walkway into a merchant’s lair and the music transitions into a rather catchy tune like you would hear in a tavern. I found myself almost in a different world in the merchant’s lair as I knew as soon as I walked out that door, baddies would try to kill me again. Kill you they will, like in any Souls-like baddies drop cells which are a sort of currency to help you increase your stats or are used to unlock a new blueprint for a weapon you just found.

Dead Cells

Dead Cells will have you grinding for these items as they will unlock health flasks or maybe upon death you’ll want to keep some of your gold. Unlike some rogue-likes which let you carry over some certain items, Dead Cells starts you fresh after every death. You can unlock better starter and secondary weapons as you collect more cells. Some of these items require lots of Cells and this might turn the game into more of a grind fest to unlock some more powerful items. Even if you are new to the genre Dead Cells is unique in its own way and I was never in a bash my controller to pieces mood, so newcomers will feel very welcome.

All in all Dead Cells is really fun to play and kept me coming back for more to get further to next boss. Dead Cell’s release date in on August 7th on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.