February 25, 2018

Dead Cells Early Access Review

Have a fear of rejection?

Dead Cells will certainly test that fear.

because no matter how hard you try, rejection is just one mistake away.

but it's not about the destination it's about the journey. right?

The chase, the hunt, the challenge.

I've always said that the best way to learn is from making mistakes. To identify what you did wrong and go back and try again. To get a little further each time and make new mistakes along the way.

Fighting the bosses in Dead Cells reminds me of dating a girl for the first time. you try to do everything right, but it never turns out the way you expect.

Maybe she likes roses, maybe tulips, maybe flowers aren't her thing. maybe you should take her out to dinner. That's it! Dinner! And Flowers!

so you arrive at her door with tulips, roses, And chocolates just in case. You wear your finest suit, hand her the flowers and hold your hand out hoping she will hold yours. But instead she Sparta kicks you across the lawn and then proceeds to smash your face in with swords and lasers.

I dunno, maybe it's just me.

But I digress.

Dead Cells is a 2d sidescroller, souls-lite, metroidvainia, rogue-lite, RPG kill fest. It blends all these styles into a new and unique gaming experience.

I've never played a game quite like this before And it's so much fucking fun!

The pixel-art style is of the highest quality and the lighting is intelligent and reactive. The color pallet is bright and varied from level to level and the background art is absolutely stunning.

The soundtrack by Yoann Laulan is immersive and really enjoyable with a different track for each level and each one using different instruments. Apparently one track even has a cat purring in it.

You can approach the game in many different ways depending on your play-style, if you have quick reactions and mad skills you can speed your way through by avoiding traps and monsters as you make your way through the levels, or you can take your time and clear every room and monster you see. all the while getting different weapons and tools and levelling up your character as you go. it's up to you.

each time you die, and you will die a lot, your arsenal of weapons and tools increases, giving you more and more interesting ways to kill the myriad of monsters and traverse the levels.

the combat is fluid and reactionary with dodging and parrying becoming second nature to you as you learn the different patterns of the enemies you come across and it feels great to pull off a series of sweet moves.

One thing that's hard to get express is how it actually feels to play the game, it's so smooth and fun to blast through a series of enemies with different weapons and combos, you feel like a bad-ass every time. and this is what makes me keep coming back time and time again only to die time and time again.

you can use a controller or mouse and keyboard and both work well, I prefer the controller personally.

it's still in early access, and there are still a few issues with balancing and stage progression but Motion Twin, the developers are actively adding more and more content as well as USING community feedback and suggestions in order to make this game better and better constantly.

Having said all that however, I’m over 30 hours in, I’ve died well over 300 times and I look forward to dying another 300 times once the game is complete.

Your death will be swift

But you will come back for more

Kill, Die, Learn, Repeat

I Fucking Love This Game!

Dead Cells

9/10