Developer: Motion Twins
Publisher Motion Twins
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Tested on: PC
Dead Cells – Review
The newest game from Motion Twins hits that spot in the market that we didn’t know we need. After making smaller games on the internet, they made their first game for the bigger platform and they went big. The game is playable on every platform you can imagine. In this journey you’ll have to fight through various undead creatures and gather all kinds of weapons. Along the way, you get to fight strong bosses where you’ll need reflexes.
Story
There isn’t that much of a story. All that you know is that you’re stranded in an unnamed prison and that you want to escape. You are referred as the humanoid prisoner which is described as humanoid with a smoky flame as your head. Don’t expect too much conversations because you’re a silent protagonist. You do have some output of emotions during some talking with the NPCs.
When you die in the game, your head will magically appear back to the beginning cell, so you can start you new adventure. The guard mentions that you’re convicted for a crime, but he never specifies what crime.
Graphics
Deadcells uses 3D rendered objects with pixel shading on it. The developers really want to make the game playable for lower end devices and they succeed in this. By keeping the graphical quality, you’ll be guaranteed a fluid gameplay at all times since the game isn’t heavy on the GPU.
They did a really good job on the undead creatures. Every creature has his own distinct color and looks. You can easily distinguish the different types of enemies. The background has the same types of graphics and every zone has hit’s own look and feel.
The visuals are different than what you expect from games nowadays, but the small details are what really matter. The little jump actions where a little platform appears, the grinding off the elevator where the sparks fly off the walls. All these small details are what makes this gam beautiful. It is one of the best examples that you have that you don’t need that high definition qualities to make a game seem more appealing and beautiful.
Sound
The sound while playing is nothing fancy. It fits perfectly with the theme of the game and you get a medieval-like vibe from it. It sits on the background and accompanies your game. Although they repeat the same track over and over again, it’s nice to see that they have a different track for every place. In the first area, you’ll notice a smooth relaxing sound, but as you move further to where the enemies are, the beat takes a darker, more empowering turn which is perfect for gaming. You get absorbed in the game when wearing headphones and you lose track of time. The sounds your character makes fits perfectly with the background. You get a heavy action feeling, while the music isn’t that upbeat.
Gameplay
When Motion Twin released this game, many were surprised with the choice for a roguelike, Metroidvenia game. In this 2D scroller (with occasional 3D effects) you are tasked to escape from an unnamed prison. You do this by traveling through many different regions with their own mechanics and enemies.
When playing this game, you’ll notice that Deadcells takes a lot of factors from other type of games such as Dark Souls except when you die, you don’t go back to a checkpoint you have to start at the beginning of the prison and all your power-ups are gone. You also collect cells along the way which you can spend on bonuses in between the zones.
As you progress further into the game, the difficulty will be raised. This is where power-ups come into play. You start every time as a base model so to speak and along the way, there are power-ups that you have to discover. These effects are for you to choose. The options are red, purple or green power-ups. They each have their differences. The red power-up increases the attack of red items and gives you a medium HP boost. The purple power-up gives you an attack bonus for purple items and a small HP boost. The green power-up gives you an attack boost for green items and a large HP boost. You can only choose one of the options. Some power-ups only have two of the three options.
While going through the zones, you’ll need to defeat the enemies and collect gold and most importantly cells. These cells can only be spent at the shops between two zones. When you die in a zone, you’ll lose all the gold and cells you collected.
You may think that this game is repetitive and always the same, but this is most certainly not the case. The zones are always changing so the experience is never the same. There are also hidden places that you can access if you’re fast enough to open gates. These time-locked gates hold treasures that are worth speeding through the game. This makes the game fun to play since you have different play styles. Speed runs are rewarded well with upgrades along the way, but you lose upgrades during the game.
Conclusion
Dead Cells is a fast paced Metroidvenia, roguelike 2D scroller game with lots of replayability. The many options for weapons and playstyles makes this game worth your time. The more time you put in it, the better you’ll become. For some people, it will be too much grinding, but it’s definitely worth the effort since the next runs will be much easier.
Dead Cells - Review,
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