Exploration: Secret rooms, hidden passages, charming landscapes.Opt for the path that suits your current build, your play style or just your mood. Nonlinear progression: Sewers, Ossuary or Ramparts? Once unlocked, special permanent abilities allow you to access new paths to reach your objective.2D Souls-lite Action: Tough but fair combat, more than fifty weapons and spells with unique gameplay, and of course, the emergency panic roll to get you out of trouble.RogueVania: The progressive exploration of an interconnected world, with the replayability of a rogue-lite and the adrenaline pumping threat of permadeath.To beat the game, you’ll have to master 2D souls-like combat with the ever-present threat of permadeath looming. It will allow you to explore a sprawling, ever-changing castle… assuming you’re able to fight your way past its keepers. It was released on the 7th of August 2018. So does daily challenge missions and mutations that will switch up your playstyle significantly.Dead Cells is a rogue-lite, Castlevania-inspired action-platformer from Motion Twin. Timed gates that lock if you aren’t speedrunning benefit those who want to avoid combing each stage for every single enemy adds gameplay diversity. Secrets are hidden in each level, and optional challenges - like opening a cursed chest - are there to reward the daring. Outside of the big line items I touched on above, there are other small intricacies that Motion Twin throws into the mix to keep each run of Dead Cells engaging. Mixing and matching these skills to find what works best for you is going to be entertainment in its own right, drawing some classic Borderlands vibes. It was a deadly chain reaction that the game opened up entirely accidentally, and disappeared into the RNG void as soon as it appeared (following a death three bosses in). Even better? Deaths from that turret cause nearby enemies to freeze. I would lob ice grenades at enemies, freezing them and throwing down a turret that does 200% damage on frozen enemies. On the other end, one of my favorite runs was where I was utilizing various freeze mechanics. These could be quick 15 minutes runs, where using a broadsword because it is typically more powerful would hurt me down the line. It also creates a compelling risk-reward system, where players will play cautiously towards the end of each leave to forgo losing every cell collected.įor instance, I was never above dying in the first two areas - even in later playthroughs. Between each level you can turn in these cells for permanent upgrades - collecting health flasks to heal mid-mission, upgrading your intro weapons, and assuring a gold-filled wallet all work to give an early-game advantage that pays off in each run.

While this is a fun take on the Roguelike formula, which likes resetting all progress previously made, it is also a fun wrinkle in the Metroidvania genre “backtracking” is hardly backtracking when you are necessarily returning to those spots anyway.Īlong with the Runes, the game’s unnamed Prisoner protagonist will collect enemy cells that drop like a form of currency.

These runes will unlock portions of the map and stages that would otherwise be unreachable in your first few runs. Dead Cells does go outside the bounds of a traditional Roguelike game, mixing in Runes (items) that will not reset with each death.

Dead cells gameplay