State of the Game | Dead Cells

Dead Cells released on the Nintendo Switch on August 17th 2018 and I posted Impressions on the 25th. You can read the original post here.

If you follow me on Twitter, you will know I've been playing a lot of Dead Cells recently. Ten months after its release on the Nintendo Switch, I still play it frequently with a grin on my face. Over time, the game received a handful of patches, namely the "Pimp My Run" update which added custom runs and the more recent "Rise of the Giant" free expansion which added a lot of new content. And so, because of all this, here I am to tell you what game Dead Cells has become almost one year after its release.

Note: this is what the starting area looked like ten months ago. Not anymore...

To be perfectly honest, I can't really think of negative points about Dead Cells, an already good game became better and better over updates. Its core, rogue-lite, fast-paced gameplay of 2D combat with looter mechanics just grew more satisfying and fun to play. When I wrote the original Impressions, the game's performance had some minor problems when a lot of effects were shown on the screen, but even that was completely improved and now the game runs at perfectly smooth 60 frames per second at all times.

Content-wise though, the game was expanded a lot. For one, custom runs were added, essentially, dev tools to tailor runs (in a separate game mode) to your liking. New Game+ was also added, with multiple difficulties and modifiers and, last but not least, the recent “Rise of the Giant” free expansion added new enemies, gear, skins, etc.

Starting with the custom runs, these are separate from Normal Mode, which is where you actually progress in the game by acquiring runes, gear, skins, etc. Custom Mode basically gives the player dev tools to customize runs to their liking, with plenty of choices. Though, it’s worth noting some of the available options are affected by progress in Normal Mode. After all, Custom Mode doesn’t affect player progression, it just gives the player the opportunity to create its own ideal run.

Moving on to New Game+, Dead Cells implements it through Boss Stem Cells (BSC). The game is fairly challenging in the default difficulty, but that is just a warm-up for the other difficulty levels. BSC are rewarded upon the first defeat of the final boss in a new difficulty (i.e., the first BSC is obtained in New Game, the second in New Game+, and so on) and then the difficulty level can be adjusted at the start of a new run. There is a total of five BSC, that is, there are five additional levels of difficulty beyond the default one. And by no means think they are a walk in a park. These are not lazy NG+ implementations, as each difficulty level comes with very specific rules, which stack with each other. That's why I think the developers naming the last BSC difficulty (BSC5) “Hell” is a perfect fit. So far, I only have one boss cell, and the game still kicks my arse, even after playing for 45 hours. Each run I try to come up with new builds, strategies, optimizations, etc., and it's a lot of fun. The core gameplay is engrossing and the adrenaline-fueled moment to moment action is addictive.

Though, NG+s do have a lot of positives as well. For one, cells come in larger quantities, that is, it quickens the purchasing of new gear, mutations and skins. Plus, some of these are not available in the default difficulty. Also, BSC allows the player to access shortcuts in the levels (those doors which the character usually bangs at to no effect), "breaking" the sequence of the levels.

Lastly, I also want to mention the recent "Rise of the Giant" update. As mentioned before, it added two new areas and a new boss fight. Contrary to what I assumed, these were added to the middle of the run, not to the end or to somewhere that would make them more quickly accessible. The mine-inspired design makes them interesting additions to the areas already available, and the boss fight is one of the best and, simultaneously, one of the hardest. Of course, as someone that usually puts style over stats in RPGs, hunting down the skins that were added in this update is something I do with pleasure. They are dropped as normal items, by defeating bosses, finding them as secrets in the levels and they are distributed over NG+ difficulties as well. Overall, “Rise of the Giant” was an excellent addition to the game. I have defeated the boss once, but I still have a lot of new gear to collect and unlock!

And so, I reach the end of this first State of the Game. As you can tell, a State of the Game is more about documenting what a game has gone through since I first wrote a Review/Impressions for it, combined with my personal experience, rather than judging or reviewing the content. Dead Cells was an excellent game from the get-go, but it had just a few rough edges because of the performance. However, those were more than polished and in these past ten months Motion Twin, the developer, added a lot more meaningful content to the game, always hand-in-hand with the introduction of quality of life improvements as well as balancing updates to make the sure the game is as good as it can be. To conclude, Dead Cells is a game that is worth every single penny, it is probably my favorite game on the Nintendo Switch at the moment and will keep you entertained for hours. If you’re looking for a game to keep your attention for dozens of hours and you like the rogue-like/rogue-lite genre, then I can wholeheartedly recommend Dead Cells.

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