Dead Cells

Great game. Nothing like dark souls. Some of the most fluid and satisfying combat in any 2D game I’ve played. I can’t finish a run on hard mode yet. Even with one boss cell. Have not played the dlcs like naughty seeds or fatal frame or whatever but I’ve played about 50 hours at time of writing. Thoroughly recommended for anyone who likes games.

I experienced action that I don't experience in 3D games.

Genuinely fun, if not too difficult at time. Love the different items and stuff, but I often found myself getting lost in the levels - but when the game fires it fires hard, and gives you an immense feeling of satisfaction. Found myself playing on repeat for hours at a time. Great roguelike.

As far as action roguelites go, for me Rogue Legacy has always been the best. I have to change that title for Dead Cells now, this game is just incredible. Right from my first 2 minutes with the game I fell in love with it, the controls are so smooth and fluid, I could really make my character do exactly what I wanted in the first minutes. You can really do everything fast, with either jumping, dodging, slicing or shooting enemies. Playing Dead Cells feels natural and it's really slick and fresh.

With such amazing controls doesn't mean the game is that easy however, this is a roguelite so you will die and die and die and die. But as you progress you acquire blueprints which will unlock new weapons and skills, but you must also acquire the cells to acquire them. Once it's fully unlocked, the item will appear in your future runs, so the more you unlock, the bigger variety of items you might find. As you progress you will also unlock some runes that give you some new basic abilities which will then open up more areas, and you will eventually have different paths to choose from and go from there. The areas are randomly generated to a certain point, but you'll always have the same exits for the next areas.

The early runs you do will only last a few minutes, but as you get better and stronger in the game the longs become much longer. The game can get a little repetitive as you keep having to do the same areas (although you can keep things varied by changing paths), but since the combat is so fluid I found it pretty fun to just play and play over again. A run or two a day is pretty fun to do, and everytime you progress a little more with your unlocks. I thought I would never finish this game as the 3rd boss looked impossible at first, but with a few lucky pulls and the 3rd Health Flask I managed to get it done to my surprise. For the hardcore players you can continue playing at higher difficulties with the boss stem cells, each time you defeat the final boss you will be able to raise the bar higher (and these levels also give you additional items not available in the initial runs).

Dead Cells is a very polished game. It's incredibly easy to get into and it's really fun and challenging, with just about infinite replay value if your are really into it. Definitely a game worthy of all it's praise, one of the best of its kind. Highly recommended.

Dead Cells is the shiny new roguelite everybodies talking about, and its pretty good. It calls itself roguevania, as it combines some of the elements of a 2d castlevania, notably the map design and some of the progression elements, and adds to it a roguelite elements of procedural generation, perma death, upgrades and unlockable loot.

Forget the story and the admitedly great pixel art. This is a game that is all about the gameplay, and Dead Cells is pretty good at that. It has a very floaty and freeform feel to the movement, which makes you climb and run and glide throughout the levels in a breeze. It really feels like this is what the developers want the game to be played, as fast as possible, as the game actively rewards you from doing so. The enemies usually take very little hits to take down, particularly once you get some upgrades on your loot and build, but so do you, and its a game where the easiest enemies can kill you if you dooze off. To destroy them you got 2 primary weapons and 2 secundary, these last two having a timer and are the likes of grenades and traps. For primaries you get a melee weapon and either a shield or ranged weapon. I cannot overstate how satisfying the game is on the moment to moment basis, as you destroy enemies and receive their loot through the levels, it remind me a bit of a diablo game in that sense though in here that stakes are much higher. The levels are also different enough that makes exploring them enjoyable, even in the 50th run in. And it all culminates in the boss fights, which are admitedly more health sponges than i would have liked, and proned to be abused with certain crowd control strategies.

Unfortunatly, outside of that moment to moment gameplay the game is a bit frustrating in certain places. A lot of runs can end because of really stupid mistakes that shouldnt happen, and you really die instantly at times. It isnt like say Enter the Gungeon where deaths happen with an accumulation of mistakes, in here a run can be destroyed simply because you were a bit too slow on your reflexes one time. This is particularly agravating in boss fights, if the RNG fucks you over and doesnt get you good enough items to make the fight easy. Compared to Enter the Gungeon and Binding of Isaac, the amount of weapons and abilities is also a bit limited, though i hope they will expand it in the future.

Overal its a very fun time with a few frustrating elements that prevent it from enterting the pantheon of the greatest roguelites out there. Maybe with a few expansions it can get in, and its still one of the best titles i played this year.