ucked away in a long-forgotten
prison lies a corpse. From time to time, a sticky mass of green goo slips into
the cell and gives the body a burst of life. Stomping forward, the armored mass
of carrion charges through zombies and hordes of undead on a vain quest to find
the way out. Fans of Dark Souls will notice… more than a few similarities, for
sure, but this particular outing isn't what it appears to be.
Dead Cells is a fascinating
amalgam of several of today's most popular indie genres. It juggles elements of
tough-as-nails action games and Metroid-inspired exploration platformers, with
the procedurally generated levels and random item allotments found in
roguelikes. It's impressive how it all comes together without a hitch,
especially given that the persistent character growth found in games like Dark
Souls or Metroid squarely conflicts with the randomized resets emblematic of
Rogue-inspired games.
The balance struck here is one of
unlocked opportunities. Each time your avatar stirs back to life, you're given
a fresh chance to press through the stages. You encounter them sequentially, so
you have an idea of what to expect, but your choices in each will determine
your ultimate path. So, for example, while the first stage is always the
Prisoner's Quarters, your next hop could be the Promenade of the Condemned or
the Toxic Sewers. At first, only the former will be available. But, in time,
you'll earn runes that confer permanent changes and open up new routes.
ucked away in a long-forgotten
prison lies a corpse. From time to time, a sticky mass of green goo slips into
the cell and gives the body a burst of life. Stomping forward, the armored mass
of carrion charges through zombies and hordes of undead on a vain quest to find
the way out. Fans of Dark Souls will notice… more than a few similarities, for
sure, but this particular outing isn't what it appears to be.
Dead Cells is a fascinating
amalgam of several of today's most popular indie genres. It juggles elements of
tough-as-nails action games and Metroid-inspired exploration platformers, with
the procedurally generated levels and random item allotments found in
roguelikes. It's impressive how it all comes together without a hitch,
especially given that the persistent character growth found in games like Dark
Souls or Metroid squarely conflicts with the randomized resets emblematic of
Rogue-inspired games.
The balance struck here is one of
unlocked opportunities. Each time your avatar stirs back to life, you're given
a fresh chance to press through the stages. You encounter them sequentially, so
you have an idea of what to expect, but your choices in each will determine
your ultimate path. So, for example, while the first stage is always the Prisoner's
Quarters, your next hop could be the Promenade of the Condemned or the Toxic
Sewers. At first, only the former will be available. But, in time, you'll earn
runes that confer permanent changes and open up new routes.
Countless other variables such as
the presence of doors (which can be opened slowly for a stealth attack or
kicked in for a stunning blow) work together to mix things up. Toxic pools,
spiked floors, etc. all come together to give the right mix of obstacles and
challenging foes. This also plays well with Dead Cells' overall look and tone.
Each enemy glows a bit and has a different color scheme and silhouette. The
same is true for the stages themselves. Together, these easily identifiable
coding systems make it intuitive to read the room and remain focused on the
ludicrously quick combat without losing sight of your next target.
That's especially critical
because of the zippy pace of bouts, too. Most of the time, you'll have two
weapons or a weapon and a shield. This, combined with jumping and dodging,
forms the core of your skill set. Once you get the hang of it all, you can
effortlessly combine attacks and dodges, and, for instance, freeze an enemy
with a spell before rolling behind them and unloading with a quick set of
slashes. All of this seems like a chaotic mess at first. And it is--to a
degree. Each piece of the combat puzzle is introduced gradually, so you very
naturally learn how it fits into the larger picture.
Your nascent exploration through
the Prisoner's Quarters and other early-game maps may take around 10 minutes
during your first few trips. It feels agonizing, too. You are vulnerable,
largely powerless, and unfamiliar with your very dangerous surroundings. So
much is left unexplained at the outset that the choice to just go and worry
about the rest later comes as second-nature. Still, the going isn't easy and
you'll struggle. At least at first.
But each round gives you a
different set of toys to play with. The stage will change each time. One route
comes and goes, perhaps a new treasure or den of foes takes its place. But that
doesn't really matter. The Prisoner's Quarters, while unique with every run,
keeps to a certain, persistent theme. The wistful music and basic ideas are the
same. Through repetition, you earn not rote memorization of layouts, but the
ability to take whatever weapons you get for that run and utilize them to their
fullest. In short order, what took 10 minutes at the start takes 30 seconds
once you've found your bearings.
What doesn't always quite workout
the same way, though, are the latter areas. Fewer opportunities to practice
with tougher enemies means that they never quite develop the same level of
familiarity. It keeps every attempt feeling tense and exciting, but it can also
lead to some frustration. Spending a whole run trying to make it to one spot
only to die and have to restart a 15-minute stretch of play again can be
grating, but the backstop there is the permanent upgrades.
Even if you can't make it all
that far, Prisoner's Quarters is simple enough that you'll have plenty of
opportunities to "bank" cells for the aforementioned upgrades. That
gives you a sense of constant progress, even when you bomb a run. In fact, the
only real issue with the adventure is that some of the better upgrades can take
substantially longer than they should. It stalls progress in the mid-game a bit
and can lead to a feeling of grinding your wheels. Besides that, though, Dead
Cells is a phenomenal effort to blend together some very disparate genres into
a tight, cohesive whole. It's one of the better examples of how to remix ideas
without losing their individual strengths.
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