Dead Cells
PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
There’s a fundamental tension at the heart of Dead
Cells. Are you going to play fast, or slow? The former is going to get you into trouble in a game whose enemies take no prisoners. But there’s value to it. As you play, a timer ticks up in the corner of the screen, and at the start of each new level is a door bound to the in-game clock. A haul of loot awaits inside.
To get inside the first one, you’ll need to clear the opening level in under two minutes. A door after the first boss, which appears after three levels, must be reached within 15 minutes. Speed, however, only gets you so far; maps are procedurally generated, so level exits are in a different place every time you play. It’s a fine way of explaining Dead Cells as a whole: this is a game that puts tough, game-defining decisions in front of you every few minutes, but never quite lets you feel in full control of your destiny.
You’ve certainly got all the tools you need, even though death dumps you right back at the start of the game, your entire inventory lost for good to the winds. The protagonist is fast, mobile and an absolute pleasure to control, with an invincible dash, a double jump and whatever gear he can find along the way. You can only carry two weapons a time; one for melee combat, the other a bow, shield or projectile. This isn’t a game about hoovering up everything in sight, but making considered choices about your loadout. The same applies to two equippable skills bound to cooldowns – a range of traps, turrets and throwable status effects that can feel godlike in one situation and useless in the next.
Die, and you lose the lot, though Cells, which drop randomly from defeated enemies, ensure all is not completely lost. In between levels you visit a safe zone with a number of merchants where you can cash in your gathered wares and tinker with your loadout. The Collector will exchange Cells for permanent upgrades: extra swigs from your health flask, the ability to refresh a mid-level shop’s stock, or unlocking the weapon and gear blueprints you find in the world. Behind The Collector is a locked door that won’t open until you’ve spent all your Cells, a kindly design decision that numbs, if only a little, the pain of death.
Next, a blacksmith offers weapon upgrades and, crucially, re-rolls of their stats. Your aim is to fashion synergy from what you’ve scavenged: if you’ve got a fire projectile, say, you’ll want a sword with a damage bonus on burning enemies. The throwable might be re-rolled to extend its status effect, and to fire an arrow or throw a grenade at the same time. It’s a vital system if you’re to progress, and the reason new loot drops ask such a difficult question. That sword you’ve just found may have a higher DPS stat, but picking it up means losing your current blade’s 175 per cent ice-damage boost. Can you really be sure of reaching the level exit so you can re-roll it into something more appropriate for your build?
Mutations allow for even further specialisation. You can equip a maximum of three per run, conveying a range of passive bonuses. Ygdar Orus Li Ox is essential: as its acronym suggests, it allows you to carry on after your first death. Others might boost your HP, or double your projectile ammo, or offer timed damage bonuses after you kill an enemy, get hit, or chug your health flask. Mutations, like weapons and gear, are colourcoded, their effectiveness scaling with how you’ve invested the power-up scrolls across three tiers of stats.
It’s a dizzying web of interlocking systems that mean you’re constantly making decisions of weight and consequence. Some of our best runs have come not just from playing well, but making smart choices; likewise we’ve lost many a late-game charge to an ill-advised gamble. The result is, at its best, intoxicating, a fast, pacey, tremendously challenging game.
Yet no game built so brazenly on a foundation of RNG can consistently reach such heights. Some runs begin with gear so bad you might as well just surrender to the first enemy you see. The procedural algorithm handling level design can throw up some drab layouts, and occasionally a disproportionately unmanageable cluster of enemies. And while a middling loadout can get you a decent way into the game, if you don’t get a kindly weapon drop for the late-game surge, you don’t stand much of a chance.
Especially when the bosses are concerned. These are the game’s weak spot, with repetitive movesets and colossal health bars, even if you’ve got the best tools for the job. Dead Cells is in obvious stylistic hock to Dark Souls, but here the bosses respawn when you do; you’ll have to fight them on every run, and unlike the procedural levels, the fight’s the same every time.
The game’s biggest problem, however, is in weapon balance, which is odd for a game that’s been in Early Access for 15 months. The Ice Bow is by far the most useful weapon in the game, its ability to freeze enemies in place, then slow them as they thaw, trivialising most encounters. It makes other drops in that slot frustrating, and can push too many runs down the same path: get Ice Bow, spec for ice bonuses, and off you go. It’s hard to force yourself to deviate from such an obviously powerful build, and it rather undermines all the good work done on those complex, interwoven systems.
Yet that is only a blemish on a frequently wonderful game. Indeed, Ice Bow simply becomes another decision for you to make in a game that is full of them; one that is the same, yet feels different, every time, that makes you daydream about possible builds, about optimal routes to take, about a near endless array of new things to try. You might lose everything you’ve gathered when you die, but your love for Dead Cells will endure, and grow ever stronger.
The result is, at its best, intoxicating, a fast, pacey, tremendously challenging game