Even busting through a door and using the shards to stun your enemies is deeply satisfying. There's much to like that I haven't even mentioned: that satisfying stomp attack, the relief of an ice grenade, clever and useful teleporter placement, key items that unlock whole new sets of levels, secret areas opened with runestones, cursed chests that give you a powerful item but leave you vulnerable to one-hit kills (and who goad and tease you as you pass them). Mostly, the levels are warrens that you can vaguely recognise and predict. Sometimes the rooms meld together in less-than-ideal ways too, leaving you exploring to the bottom of a deep basement for no reason, or stuck in a flooded chamber where you have to jump and awkwardly roll in mid-air to get out through a tiny gap in the wall – one of the few instances where your character does not feel able and nimble.
If there are complaints, it will be from people who tire of seeing these same areas again and again, even if they are shuffled. It’s mostly the same, but you don’t remember all those spikes being there. It lends an odd feeling of familiarity to each level, you begin to know what to expect from the shape of the place, despite there being some randomisation to it all, like walking down your old high school corridor. You’ll see the same “chunks” of levels again and again, but arranged in slightly different ways. They also shift around, thanks to a semi-procedural generation trick. On top of that the levels can be large and they take time to unveil and explore – something essential for collecting the gear you want and the occasional power-up that increases your damage or health bar size. But I’ve been ignoring a whole half of the game so far, because I’m afraid to go into the sewers. There are only about ten levels for now and two bosses. I’ve played about 12 hours and have still only beaten one boss. You can get new weapons to start with, or magical spells like a freezing cone or lightning strike, among other skills and upgrades. Enemies drop cells of their own – big blue baubles – and you invest these in new powers when you reach the end of each level, thanks to a tall, creepy stranger who has a lab between each new area. This is how every new life starts, deep in the Prisoner’s Cells (see what they did there?) You get a crappy sword and a crappy shield and off you pop.
You’re a blob of slimy green cells, but you’ve also taken over the cadaver of a beheaded prisoner, presumably because you need his arms for weapon-wielding purposes. Just there, next to the pile of beheaded corpses.įirst, the basics. It styles itself after Dark Souls but, really, you should leave those assumptions at the gate. But every time you die, you get stronger, along with a chance to re-roll the dice of fate to see what vicious weaponry you can gather this time. It’s a tough game, often punching you in the gut with powerful enemies and sending you slithering all the way back to the start with each death. I’ve been toying with Dead Cells for the past week, relishing its roguelite slashing and crunchy pixel art. He must have learned that trick from the promising and punishing Dead Cells Every week we decapitate Brendan and throw him into the early access dungeons, and somehow he always comes back.