Dead Cells Review

Dead Good:

I’m usually not a fan of early access – I find the distribution method to be a quick way to spoil a promising game – but every now and then a title comes out that proves me completely and utterly wrong, and for the last year I’ve been thrilled to have Dead Cells do just that time and time again.

From its debut last year on Steam’s early access program I was blown away – here was a game that felt so tight, responsive and fun, all whilst looking bloody gorgeous – and promised even more to come. Now the finished product has been released, however, does it live up to the year-long build?

Story:

In Dead Cells you play as an amorphous green blob of sewage with the ability to possess corpses. It’s not the most dignified protagonist I’ve inhabited this year, but I certainly can’t argue with the results. Dead Cells sees you puppeteer your fragile cadaver through an increasingly deadly series of low-fantasy settings, such as towering ramparts, overgrown gardens, dark and dingy dungeons, and stark, shining castles.

In search of what I was never quite sure – some sort of rediscovered mortality, perhaps, or revenge for all the bodies you’ve lost along the way, maybe? It’s not overly important, however. What is important is collecting Cells and powering up your enduring green blob so that future runs will end better than your current one is likely to.

Gameplay:

Dead Cells delights in murdering you. Time and time again, it will send you to your doom at the end of spiked traps, lumbering monsters, bottomless pits, lightning fast bosses or some combination of the lot. As a roguelike, you’re sent back to the beginning of the game, thrown into a new body and told to start fresh…. mostly.

You see, by making your way as far as you can in any given run, you’re likely to find new weapon blueprints to unlock for future runs, collecting cells and money to improve your base build and health-flask capacity, and overall make ‘fresh starts’ a little more promising. You likely won’t make it very far on any of your initial playthroughs, but thanks to a game that steadily rewards you (and a seemingly smart AI director that often threw me a bone when I was feeling particularly salty after a defeat) you’re never left too disheartened, or any less enthused to do it all over again.

There’s a slight balance issue in the overall squishiness of your lead. Even when I accumulated ludicrously high health pools, end-game enemies had the ability to shuffle off my mortal coil in just a few swipes. At least, that’s the way it felt from time to time. Thanks to a stupidly addictive gameplay loop I was never turned off Dead Cells for too long, but I certainly wanted to hurl a controller on a couple of deaths painfully close to the finish line.

There’s a really brilliant flow to Dead Cells, however, one that ensures you’ll pick it back up again once you’ve cooled off. Sailing through levels, hurtling down long drops with an incredibly satisfying ground pound and playing with the seemingly endless combinations of primary and secondary weapons, special powers and unlockable mutations, is always sheer gaming bliss. Every time I gave a weapon or power a try that I’d previously avoided I was surprised by just how well it all works, and how powerful you can feel when a certain set feels particularly synergistic.