Dead Cells is a game for fans of rogue-like games. Which is not me.
In its defence, Dead Cells is the first rogue-like I've ever played, and for those unfamiliar, a rogue-like game basically involves you starting the game mostly from scratch when you die, with some added bonuses to help you develop a sense of progression despite being thrown back to the start. And die yo will. Often! Maybe you'll unlock some new weapons or tools (like bear traps or turrets) to experiment with, making the next play-through more interesting. Maybe you'll finish unlocking new upgrades or mutations that either complement your play-style or provide you with an extra health potion to get further to your goal.Dead Cells also has a couple of extra game modes to keep you going, such as the Daily Challenge Mode, where you're given a fixed level and weapons load-out and allowed to compete with other players for a high-score (which for me isn't as appealing as being rewarded with a new blueprint for your 1st/5th/10th completion, and nothing afterward), or its Streaming Mode, which is both great for allowing a streamer's viewers to participate int heir game, and useless for everybody else.
Dead Cells is also coupled with the Metroid-vania genre, which is arguably what made the game most appealing to me in the first place. Here you unlock certain character abilities which open up whole new areas of a map, traditionally, which may be hidden away in the very first areas of the game. In this situation, you actually want to go back to the start of the game, not because you died and were made to, but because there's new and hidden content that was always there without you ever knowing. Unfortunately for me, the Metroid-vania aspect of Dead Cells just doesn't work that well. You still unlock those Metroid-vania skills, but there's arguably no reason to, or at least I failed to recognise their benefit. I made my way to the penultimate area of the game without unlocking two of the four upgrades in the game. Those extra areas you now have access to mostly just offer a new game aesthetic to enjoy, and game is certainly pretty in it's pixelated way. Maybe they offer a couple of new enemies to learn how to deal with, which may drop a new blueprint for a new weapon or upgrade, assuming you make it out of the area alive. Thing is, new enemies means unfamiliar attacks, which are likely to kill you and send you back to the beginning which you're already intimately and regretfully familiar with.
Each run of Dead Cells is procedural generated, which you'd hope would breath life into each and every game, despite how many times you've tackled an area. This is not the case, at least not for me. Every crossroad is the same crossroad, every T-junction is the same T-junction, every zombie encountered is the same zombie. It's not so much breathing new life into each play-through, as it is breathing the same air you've already been breathing for 19 hours. That's not to say Dead Cells is a bad game: 19 hours is a pretty decent chunk of time to sink into a 20-30 dollar game. Combat is great, slowly learning an enemies tells makes them easier to tackle next time, and learning the subtle nuances of the game's rolling, which is both generous enough to get you out of most situations while also not infallible enough to be abused. The music has an encouraging rhythm to it, urging you on and on, rolling, slashing, jumping your way a little further than you did before, of farming cells for upgrades a little longer than before, or rushing through an earlier even faster than before. It's very much a game you can play how you like, if it rewards you how you want to be rewarded.
The vast number of weapons you can unlock does initially give you pause to think about how exactly you're going to use them to your advantage against those enemies. After enjoying a combo that allowed you to freeze or trap enemies in place, allowing you to roll past in order to stab them in the back for critical hits, how now are you going to use a sword that engulfs enemies in inflammable oil before you get access to something that will actually set them on fire? That is, you consider these things up until you get handed some trash boots you can slowly kick enemies with for the umpteenth time, and realise you can simply reset the game and hope for better drops. I feel like this game would greatly improve if if gave you the option to either choose your starting weapons (thus giving you the option to experiment later) or at least limit which weapons are dished out at the start (in order to not have to deal with the aforementioned boots).
Dead Cells is sadly not the Metroid-vania I hoped for, but its solid gameplay loop definitely held my attention for a little while depsite that. It's a game for people with half an hour to kill, who typically don't have the opportunity or inclination to devote time to games for extended periods. It appeals to those needing instant gratification, with flash combat and swift traversal, though it fails players who really yearn for a real sense of progression, when adding a new weapons to an already large random loot pool dilutes its worth. Dead Cells is both several shots of fortified joy and the morning after where I ask myself "why, why did I do this again?"
Your mileage may vary.
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