Written By: Patrick Orquia
TITLE: Dead Cells
DEVELOPER: Motion
Twin
PUBLISHER: Motion
Twin
GENRE:
roguevania, platformer, action adventure
NUMBER OF PLAYERS:
1 player
PLATFORM:
Nintendo Switch
RELEASE DATE: 07
Aug 2018
PRICE: $24.99
To many gamers, dying is something that no one wants to
encounter while playing. In most games, especially contemporary ones, dying
doesn’t have much consequence: you just start with your last save, and you’re
out to try it again, hoping for a more positive outcome. But there has been an
influx of games in recent years that feature permadeath wherein you lose
everything and start from the very beginning again when you die, just like in
the old days. One such game is Dead Cells, an awesome game that has permadeath
as a primary feature, but with a twist.
Dying in Dead Cells is not really permanent per se. Though
you lose all of your accumulated money (at least, at the beginning) and
equipment and you start again from scratch, you get to keep your gold and
unlock persistent attributes, skills, upgrades, and weapons which you can use
on you succeeding runs. And you get to do so with the use of cells that you
accumulate by killing enemies, hence the title, dead cells. These dead cells
are the primary currency in the game, which encourages you to kill enemies and try
not to get killed in the process, because if you die before finishing a level,
you lose everything.
Ok, let’s not get too much ahead of ourselves. What is this
game about, really?
In this game, you play as an unnamed and undead goo that
occupies a headless soldier that you encounter every run. You will always start
your run inside a prison cell and you don’t know or remember how you got there.
This first section will let you pick up your primary weapon, usually a sword,
and a secondary one, either a bow or a shield. Every run is procedurally-generated,
so no two runs are ever alike. In every run, your goal is to traverse a level
and find an exit so that you can reach the next one. The levels would be the
same in every run, but the rooms, enemy placements, etc. would be different. At
the start of every levels, you are presented a bit of the story but not enough
to really wrap your head around. All you have to know, or maybe you don’t, is
that there is some sort of plague, called the Malaise, that has stricken the
world around you and you just have to escape so that you won’t be affected by
it too much. If you manage to stay alive
and reach the exit of a level, you’ll find an area where you can interact with
various NPCs that would offer you to use skills, upgrade weapons, fill up your
health flasks, and deposit your well-earned cells to unlock new skills and
equipment. As mentioned above, these cells are dropped by slain enemies. Not
all enemies do it, though, maybe because things would be just too easy if all
enemies would. Or maybe not, because the enemies in this game are tough to
beat, even the lower level ones, and they hit hard in return if you are not too
careful. It is kill or be killed right from the get go, so you always have to
be on your toes all the time.
The acquired cells are used to unlock different abilities,
weapons, and gears, but you can only do so upon completion of a level. Dying
before reaching the exit will make you lose all of your cells. And no, you
can’t go back to get them back because you start again a new run from the very
beginning. So you have to be very careful, and know when to quit. Being too
greedy without the skills to back it up will kill you, and having to say
bye-bye to your well-earned dead cells is frustrating as hell and any
weak-hearted gamer might just rage quit because of it. Again, unlocked items
are persistent, meaning they carry over to your succeeding runs, so that is
something to die for, quite literally. These items can also be further enhanced
by re-forging them and also you can change the additional attributes attached
to them. These attributes are randomly set and cost money to re-set, mind you, so
you have to risk it and stick to what you think will give you the most
advantage. My favorite is the one that makes enemies bleed to death and spreads
them to other enemies. I could watch from a distance as they die. It’s better
them that me.
Aside from those unlocked by dead cells, you can also
acquire different types of weapons and shields during runs, either by finding
them out in the open in blueprint form (you have to unlock it first for you to
use it), stumbling upon a hidden area, getting them from treasure chests, or by
buying them from a merchant. Once you have discovered or unlocked a weapon, it
will be part of the roster of primary and secondary weapons/shields that you
can choose from at the start of every run. Aside from primary and secondary
weapons/shields, you also get to acquire auxiliary weapons that range from
projectile shooters that make enemies bleed to death to bombs that ironically
freezes enemies. These auxiliary weapons are what, for me, will make or break
your run. Having a weapon that can attack from a distance means you get a
higher chance of not getting hit, and not getting hit means not dying, and not
dying gets you nearer to the end, where you will most likely die and start from
the beginning again. That could be frustrating as hell, but knowing what lies
ahead will make you prepare some more and anticipate the challenges that you
will encounter. Again, all levels are procedurally-generated, which throws
memorization of traps, platforms, and enemy placements out of the window. This
makes every run unique, and gives the game near infinite replay value.
The game is divided into different levels, each with its own
biome and enemy types. The levels get progressively hard, and you have to cope
by constantly aiming to upgrade your skills and equipment, and to do that, you have
to kill all enemies that get in your way without getting hit, or worse, getting
killed. All enemies have certain tells on when and how they will attack, and
you have to learn all of that for each enemy. Most of the time, you won’t know
how a certain enemy behave until it starts attacking you, and by then it will
already be too late because you are already dead. So you start again a run and
when you encounter that enemy again, hopefully you already know what to do
next. And then another a new enemy kills you. Rinse and repeat.
Starting a new run is a bit of a downer, especially after
getting killed due to your lack of skills, but most of the time, a new run
means a new hope for beating the game. You always start at the Prison Quarters,
but there would be at least 2 exits on each level. On your first few,
death-filled runs, you can only pass through one exit, the others are
inaccessible. The other exits will only be available after unlocking a
permanent skill required to access them, such as the ability to climb vines,
ability to walk on walls, etc. There are 5 unlockable permanent skills in the
game. These permanent skills can be obtained mostly through defeating bosses or
elite enemies. The levels also have teleport spots that lets you instantly
teleport to another teleport spot. Very handy if you want feel a bit greedy and
you want to explore levels completely for all the loots and to scratch that
monster-slaying itch that has taken over you. That is, if you don’t die first.
During a run, aside from having to use different weapons and
gears, you can also enhance your own character attributes. These attributes are
divided into 3: Brutality, Tactics, and Survival. You can find blueprints as
you traverse levels that will make you choose which attribute to level up.
Doing so will make the weapon(s) that share the same attribute level up as
well, and your HP meter gets increased. You may choose to stick to just level
up one particular attribute on succession, but the increase in your HP meter
gets lower and lower each time you do. To better fare later on during the
rougher levels, you are encouraged to level up a different attribute when the
chance comes to maximally increase you HP and for your character and your
weapons evenly levelled up. Being better-rounded will keep your chances of
staying alive better.
Beating the game once opens up further difficulty modes. Yep, it’s a hard game, and it gets even harder. Up to 4 more times, in fact. Beating the game the first time grants you a Boss Cell, which you can activate or not on your next run. Activating it makes the game harder. Much harder, like tougher enemies usually found on latter levels will now be trying to murder you on the very first level, you will not be able to fill your health flasks in between levels, enemies being much tougher and faster, etc. Beating the game with a Boss Cell activated will earn you a second Boss Cell, and so on. You can obtain up to five Boss Cells in the game. I have yet to acquire my second Boss Cells, truth be told, and I could only imagine how insanely hard playing with FIVE Boss Cells.
And if that is not enough, Motion Twin recently released a
FREE DLC (Rise of the Giant) that opens up a whole new biome with new sets of
enemies, challenges, weapons, gears, and a big boss at the end. I heard that it
requires five Boss Cells to see the true ending through that DLC, so… nah, I’ll
probably never be that good.
Overall, Dead Cells is one of the games that I have ever
played on Switch. It’s exciting and thrilling despite being so damn frustrating
at times but it’s all good. Definitely a must-buy for the console. Are you up
to the challenge? Get good and get it done, all the way to the end. Get those
dead cells and don’t be dead yourself, if you can manage it. But you’ll die,
for sure, and many, many times at that, but it’s all worth it in the end.
REPLAY VALUE: very high
PROS:
- Awesome retro-inspired visuals that doesn’t pull any stops in showing brutality and gruesomeness, at least what can be expected within the realm of 16-bit graphics, plus everything is well-animated and it makes the game very immersive
- Subdued musical score that doesn’t hinder the action but it is there to provide an atmosphere of being on your own while battling an insane amount of enemies out to kill you
- Excellent gameplay mechanics that will keep you playing for hours at a time
- Procedurally-generated levels are top-notch
- Non-linear progression: you can choose which level to go next
- The very high degree of difficulty will keep you on your toes
- High variety of enemy types
- Solid frame rate (you can set it to locked 30 FPS if you so prefer)
- Very good use of HD Rumble
- Plays very well in handheld mode, but I would recommend getting a Pro Controller and play docked to really experience the game in the best way possible. Also, a Pro Controller is way tougher that your Joy-Con, so there is a better chance for the Pro Controller to stay in one piece or at least still be usable after throwing it across the room while you’re rage quitting
CONS:
- Fragmented story that really doesn’t generate much interest
- The very steep learning curve may hinder new players, especially those who are not too familiar with the rougevania or rogue-like genres
RATING: 5/5 Deaths for Dead Cells
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