I'm a fairly old school gamer - cut my teeth on Ghouls'n'Ghosts and other so-called 'Nintendo Hard' games back in the late '80s and early '90s. Even nowadays I enjoy the occasional game like Furi or Grid Wars that have extreme difficulty curves and demanding skill profiles.
This reminds me a lot of those games, except without the talent or taste that went into them.
It's one thing to walk into a beautifully crafted trap because you weren't paying enough attention, or to miscalculate split-second timing and die in one hit. Those things are part and parcel of any high difficulty game.
However, this game does a great many little tricks to 'enhance' the challenge. They're not hard to work around, but they're tedious and annoying - such as:
-Enemies with melee attacks that hit through walls when yours can't (spinning guys in Ossuary)
-Enemies with projectile and/or AoE that penetrate walls and can detect the player with no line of sight
-Enemies that can activate off-screen and hit the player with ranged attacks that ignore line of sight
-A rather long delay between evade/rolls
-Cage match boss enemies with AoE damage fields around them (and other cheap tricks)
-Certain enemies don't count toward curse count-downs or heal-on-kill
Yeah, all of these can be worked around. It's not especially difficult, but it is tedious and it slows down progression through the levels - which are randomized (nice variety) so you can't just memorize the hot spots. Some levels are almost annoyingly easy, and others tedious. Most game situations can be resolved almost risk-free with a little patience and planning, but that's not really fun - so the player either has to play stupid (but fun) or slow and careful (but boring). There's very little reward for risk-taking except death and rooms that unlock if you reach them fast enough.
It's not a terrible game, but the lack of polish and taste makes it difficult to call it "good".
I'd rate it 2/5 for most gamers & 3.5+/5 for highly skilled gamers who don't mind artificial difficulty.
On the plus side, the graphics are very nice, the weapons are mostly interesting, and the flavor elements (random encounters, etc) are funny and add nice atmosphere. Just don't expect a masterpiece.
Update: after playing further, I have discovered a number of ugly control timing issues - under some situations, there is a very obvious (and repeatable) delay between inputs that can make tightly timed manoeuvres impossible. I am not sure if it's a programming issue, a platform issue, or a deliberate delay - but it makes the game considerably less fun than it would otherwise be. Another problem is the sheer number of useless powerups - I would say around 1/3 of the items in the game are better (except in terms of raw attack power) than the default beginner weapon, which means that you'll find the one or two good items in a run and lean on them exclusively instead of exploring a wide variety of attack techniques.
Another hideous flaw (which is, sadly, not unique to Dead Cells) is the bait-and-switch with play techniques. The main levels permit a great deal of flexibility and strategy in terms of how to kill things without being killed one's self - stealthy use of deployables, brute force, ranged, melee, or a blend of these are all viable depending on one's reflexes, planning ability, and preferences. Not so the boss battles. As nauseatingly expected, every boss battle is a cage match in a tiny, enclosed space with, at best, a few platforms to jump around or between. I've encountered four boss battles so far, and all of them feel very similar.
I can't reasonably deduct points for the cage match bosses (after all, literally every game I've played in the past decade has suffered from this malady), but the control issues force me to reduce my rating to 1/5 - 3/5 if, again, you don't mind contrived difficulty AND you don't mind iffy controls and minor input bugs.
Update #2: while I had stopped playing after updating my review last, I noticed on the news dashboard on my Switch that the game had pushed out a free DLC, so I decided to give it another whirl. I just want to say, up front, that I really appreciate developers creating free updates to existing games, and that I intend to keep an eye on this title in the future, since the developers clearly want to polish their product. However, I think that the DLC, as it was released, is a miss.
To begin with, the control issues and enemy design haven't been improved. Now, to be fair, they did rebalance many elements to make the experience less punishing at the default difficulty, which makes the control defects and design issues less of a problem. They also fixed many scaling problems by making recovery skills percentage based instead of flat numbers, so skills like Necromancy don't heal you for comically tiny amounts later on. However, at the higher difficulties, it is still profoundly annoying to be bombarded through walls by enemies off-screen, and this is compounded by the fact that the controls don't allow truly fluid response to evolving threats. It's quite frustrating to be fighting 2-3 enemies at a time, dodge out of an attack, and helplessly watch as a projectile from off-screen destroys your kill streak because you simply can't roll again in time to evade it.
Now, let's talk about the new content - the new biome and boss. While the designs are interesting, they're also comically unbalanced at the moment. The difficulty spike between the preceding level and the new one is ridiculous, and due to several factors it's very hard to mitigate most of the threats you encounter with stealth or ranged attacks, no matter how hard you try. On top of that, the new enemies seem heavy on resistances, and one of them cannot be attacked from behind at all, which means you _CAN NOT_ use rolling and attacking from behind. That wouldn't be too bad, except it's also a massive tank and has ranged attacks, so it feels like engagement options vary between highly risky and tediously slow.
As one might expect, the new boss is another cage match, except this time they've added some very light "bullet hell" elements (bullet heck, maybe?). Players who enjoy twitch close-quarters combat will continue to be pleased, while anyone else will not. However, maybe they'll adjust it further - I'm not especially hopeful, but I will definitely check back later.
Update the third: there have been a number of incremental updates since I last played; I also spotted a new item class, pets. I think I caught wind of a new biome in the patch notes, but I haven't exactly scrutinized them. However, underneath all of that, the underlying problems I have seen in the past continue to exist. Ultimately I think this game's existence is pretty one-dimensional. It's a shame, really. The window dressing (lore, art, music) are all superb. It's one of the best presented games I've ever seen; and the gameplay CONCEPTS are fine. But when you cut through all the prettiness, you have a very limited game with a few very specific ways in which the developers meant for it to be played. If you like that style, you're in luck. If you aren't, find another game.
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From the manufacturer
Dead Cells is a brutally challenging 2d action-platformer with no checkpoints. You’ll get better… eventually
Dead Cells puts you in control of a failed alchemic experiment trying to figure out what's happening on a sprawling, ever-changing and seemingly cursed Island. Tough but fair combat, responsive controls, challenging foes, permadeath and of course, the emergency panic roll to get you out of trouble, make for a demanding, visceral and cathartic action game.
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RogueVania: The progressive exploration of an interconnected world, with the replayability of a rogue-lite and the adrenaline pumping threat of permadeath. |
2D Souls-lite Action: Tough but fair combat, the iconic dodge roll, more than 90 weapons and spells with unique gameplay… The unforgiving action wed to the absence of any kind of safety net makes for an adrenalin pumping ride each and every run. |
Nonlinear progression: Sewers, Ossuary or Ramparts? Once unlocked, special permanent abilities allow you to access new paths to reach your objective. Opt for the path that suits your current build, your play style, or just your mood. Exploration: Secret rooms, hidden passages, charming landscapes. Take a moment to stroll the towers and breath in that fresh sea mist infused air. |
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Dead Cells - Nintendo Switch
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Try to beat this game on hard mode - Dead Cells
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Customer reviews
Great game worth the wait for the physical version
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2018
Even though I had to wait a couple of extra days for the physical version of this game I'm glad I did since I prefer physical over digital versions of games. Even though it was not posted in the listing it came with a mini art book included which is a nice little bonus. The gameplay is great after playing for hours and hours I kept coming back for more,the way the dungeons randomly generate is great giving you a new challenge every time you play. And since it is a physical version there is nothing quite like being able to share this with friends and family members that also own a switch.
Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2018
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Top reviews from other countries
Jason R.
Well designed, addictive and difficult.
Reviewed in Canada on August 27, 2018
a buyer
Good game but not as good as Castlevania
Reviewed in Canada on November 24, 2018Victor Lam
If you like Super Metroid or Castlevania
Reviewed in Canada on September 16, 2018
