Game Review: Dead Cells

Dead Cells is proof-positive that the action-roguelite formula hasn’t been driven into the dirt just yet — which, come to think of it, is where your main character comes from. As a spongy blot of sentient green mold affixes to an infinite supply of headless corpses and dives into the fray, you face off with a procedurally generated arc of levels full of deadly enemies, traps, treasure.

It all amounts to a compelling and brilliantly crafted example of how best to implement the concept of flow as the primary draw of a roguelite game. In keeping pace with certain traditions of the genre, most every death in Dead Cells offers players an incremental boost to their discoverable loadout, filling out an arsenal which evolves over each successful completion of an area, so long as they can cash in their hoard. It’s a consistent loop that will see you playing through a level, collecting “cells,” and delivering them to The Collector at the end if you survive. That gameplay cycle feels slow but constant, and yet what ends up distracting you from the methodical grind of new loot is the delightful pleasure of movement and combat, the hypnotizing sound effects that accompany each successful strike, injury, and dodge. It’s a master class in gamefeel and flow, dazzlingly presented in a finely rendered pixel art aesthetic.

As you take control of your next doomed corpse, you pass through anthill-like levels filled with dangers, busy with enemy mobs pacing through corridors and antechambers. Much like Dark Souls, one of its many inspirations (if you drunkenly mutter “Dark Souls” it sorta even sounds like “Dead Cells”), even the lowliest Dead Cells critter can cleave your health in an instant, which teaches you to respect its creatures, big and small. I especially love how the initial area functions as a kind of ongoing tutorial of this design, where dealing with 1-3 enemies at a time slowly instructs you in the art of dodge roll timing to emerge unscathed. Those three starter enemies you find in The Prisoners’ Quarters — an archer, a bomb-throwing demon, and a little zombie with a leap attack — mix together wonderfully, educating you in how to intelligently aggro them, play defensively, and spot escape routes when overwhelmed. You might expect this unskippable starter level to get tiring, but that aforementioned gamefeel shines through. It’s as if the discreet tutorial doubly serves as a kind of testing ground, a mindful demonstration of your increasingly confident combat skills.

Dead Cells originally spent a considerable amount of time in an early access alpha state, with upgraded versions on Steam adding new items, bosses, levels, and bug fixes to a booming, content-hungry community. I count myself among that roster, but it’s proof-positive of the game’s enjoyable hooks that I couldn’t help but gorge on the incomplete version. Nintendo Switch owners should count themselves lucky — they get the reap all the benefits of Dead Cells’ patient path to release, with a picture-perfect port that looks amazing in both handheld and docked deployment, feeling every bit as responsive as the PC version, if not more so.

The soundtrack’s varied themes and magnificent sound effects round out the aesthetic intentions of the game, but Dead Cells has a bonus twist that really secures the sell: a sense of humor. Eschewing the grim conventions that seem inherent in any screenshots you might find, the game is surprisingly snarky, threading humor throughout its occasional asides, non-playable character interactions, and dialogue. Those NPCs are quick to confound and taunt the mostly-mute avatar, who retorts with a series of hilarious poses and animations in response; I have particular fondness for the character’s bird-flip, or his entreating “are you kidding me?” with outstretched arms. This sarcastic coat might have weakened the overall dark fantasy art style of a similar game, but it somehow serves as the magic ingredient, sweetening the harsh demands of the roguelite sensibilities Dead Cells otherwise holds fast to in every other respect.

The game is often referred to as a metroidvania/roguelite mashup. It’s an effective shorthand, although level-to-level backtracking is notably prohibited within a single playthrough. Interestingly, most levels can be traversed in a desperate dash (which leads to a series of treasure rooms, giving speedrunners a modest bonus if they can maintain their pace), but most starting players will want to scour each map for secrets and upgrades. Much like other metroidvania games, there are a series of rare drops — here they take the form of blueprints — but dying before reaching those interstitial safe-zones between levels results in a permanent loss of these items before you might even make use of them. An otherwise uneventful run becomes uniquely terrifying when holding a rare drop at low health, upping the adrenalized stakes.

But hey, that’s roguelites. You lick your wounds and try again, bringing the lessons of your tragedies into your next run. Where Dead Cells really stands out from the pack is in making its minute-to-minute gameplay so enthralling, turning a sprint through a cleared level’s architecture into a parkour-like experience, reliably satisfying and elegant, almost meditative. Your avatar is purposefully quick and nimble, another reason careful planning is required to succeed, especially in later levels where even the most common enemies are exponentially more lethal, teleporting around you and disrupting escape.

The combat is equally speedy, though each weapon adds its own set of wrinkles and complexities to your sense of timing. Sandals grant you a mule-kick that works great for sending enemies flying off of ramparts but is considerably less helpful against airborne threats, whereas shields and parries become more or less indispensable as you approach the endgame. The expansive armory is well beyond the scope of this review, and includes turrets, whips, elemental grenades, spells and crossbows, all of which can be modified, upgraded, and swapped or combined with others to completely transform the rules of engagement. Soon you’ll be prioritizing synergistic combos, mixing crossbow-shotguns (it’s a thing) that grant bonus damage to burning enemies with fire-modified broadswords. If anything, dying with a particularly good setup feels the most punishing because, with the plenitude of items you’ll unlock, it’s highly unlikely to find an identical loadout on your next run.

For completionists, there’s a surprising amount to unlock and upgrade throughout the main game, and an enjoyable Daily Run / Time Trial mode offers a reliable reason to return to it again to climb the leaderboards, even after you’ve reached 100%. Getting there will easily absorb dozens of hours, though, a grind which sounds daunting, but feels so much kinder than that of most of Dead Cells’ contemporaries, thanks to those finely-tuned mechanics.

In certain ways, I want to dignify Dead Cells as the perfect action-roguelite gateway drug for players unfamiliar with the genre, with its airtight controls, extensive content, and delightful sense of character. But it’s a potentially tragic lure — you’ll have a tough time finding the same intoxicating high in anything within a similar vein.

About the Author

Leonardo Faierman was born in Buenos Aires, raised in Queens, on the playground was where he planned most of his schemes. Since then he’s plowed a jagged path as a writer, editor, podcaster, comic creator, and mostly benevolent malcontent in New York City. Leo’s 1/5th of the long-running podcast @BlackComicsChat, 1/2 of horror podcast @TheScreamSquad, staff writer for Screen Rant, film editor for the independent sci-fi monthly newsletter Narazu, and generally has words all over the interwebs, but they’re frequently gathered up on Twitter at @LeonardoEff.