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I've been playing Dead Cells recently.  It's a 2D roguelike metroidvania game with some Souls gameplay as well.  It's currently in Early Access on Steam but feels much more complete than most other EA games I've played.

 

Dungeons, enemies, and weapon/item drops are procedurally generated each time you die.  Some abilities are permanent once unlocked, allowing you to reach new areas or take a different path.  Enemies will sometimes drop a cell that can be used upgrade weapons/items or unlock new ones if you find a blueprint for it.  In between levels is an NPC that will let you use your cells, but if you die between levels you lose everything you're carrying.  Unlocking a weapon places it into the pool of potential drops and upgrades are permanent as well.  There aren't any permanent player stats, instead health, strength, and item skill are upgraded though pickups found around levels and reset upon death.

 

Enemies telegraph their moves pretty clearly so you can dodge-roll around them but they hit quite hard.  There's also a flask that refills your health and can be upgraded to hold multiple charges.  You can carry two weapons, two items, and one accessory at any time.  Weapons all have unique properties such as a sword that coats enemies in oil and increases fire damage, a pair of twin daggers that crits on the third strike, or a bow that can freeze enemies.  Items operate on a cooldown and can be things like grenades, traps, abilities, etc.  Higher level weapons/items can also sometimes have secondary effects like poison or deal/receive 2x damage.  Accessories provide passive bonuses like taking 30% less damage or granting gold when you pick up a cell.  Gold is used to buy weapons/items at stores during a run or for opening certain doors.  Gold is reset when you die although there's an upgradable skill that lets you retain a certain percentage of gold.

 

Gameplay wise it feels pretty good.  There's some slight jank such as climbing on things can sometimes be a bit awkward and the dodge isn't quite as responsive as I'd like.  It's pretty difficult as you'd expect from the combination of genres.  I really dig the look.  It's pixel graphics but the animation is smooth although I have noticed some slowdown at points.  There's a couple of neat things I like such as alternate paths that lead to harder areas and doors that lock after a certain amount of time (there's an ingame timer at the start of each run so you can get an idea if you're going to make a door or not).

 

In general I'd say I'm digging this game.  It almost feels complete already, although I have no idea how far I am in terms of progressions.  If anyone out there liked the idea of Rogue Legacy but hated playing it, I'd really recommend checking this out.

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This came up in chat recently, and it does look very much like something I would get into. 

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Though I finished Rogue Legacy, I think I fall in that category, SAM. How's the level design in Dead Cells? RL was hampered quite a bit by predictable and boring levels that quickly became a chore to grind through. The playthrough (and raving review) Polygon gave Dead Cells caught my interest earlier.

 

Coincidentally, I am finally playing through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for the first time. It's a blast, so I'm definitely in the mood for some Metroidvania.

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11 minutes ago, Roderick said:

Though I finished Rogue Legacy, I think I fall in that category, SAM. How's the level design in Dead Cells? RL was hampered quite a bit by predictable and boring levels that quickly became a chore to grind through. The playthrough (and raving review) Polygon gave Dead Cells caught me interest earlier.

 

Coincidentally, I am finally playing through Castlevania: Sympahony of the Night for the first time. It's a blast, so I'm definitely in the mood for some Metroidvania.

 

I actually liked Rogue Legacy but totally acknowledge the flaws that most other people found in it and for the most part I think this game does it right.  One area where Dead Cells might be lacking is the level design.  It's much more fluid than RL in that you're not moving through what are basically static rooms that change positions on a grid.  For the most part the levels seem to be mostly linear with branches that either lead to the next level or end in a chest/room with items.  There are a liberal amount of teleporters, so returning to the main path usually doesn't involve a ton of backtracking.  It is still procedurally driven, so it's piecing the levels together from a library of parts.  There aren't individual rooms like there are RL so the whole thing feels more natural but you will definitely see some repetition and occasionally things like a path with no reward at the end or two teleporters next to each other.  I'm willing to overlook a good amount of that in the name of Early Access though.

 

Visually I think they're great, if not a little busy.  I've only seen about 4 areas but there's lots of nice detail and each area has distinct looks.

 

As far as grind, this game definitely has it but the moment-to-moment combat feels much better than RL.  Tactics largely revolve around what weapons and items you're able to find, meaning lots of variation between runs.  Sometimes you'll get a combo of weapons and enemies that will totally screw you, other times you can totally clear a level without a hit.  The game encourages you to switch it up a lot too by dropping higher level weapons the further you progress, meaning you have to keep swapping up to do meaningful damage.

 

If anyone is interested I'd consider streaming/uploading some gameplay, although I'm sure that it can be found if you look.

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Yeah I've been playing this a bit recenty and really dig it. Enjoy that there is some carry over from run to run. Feels like you are at least adding to somthing. Some things feel maybe a little op if you are willing to play cautiously ie: meat grinder and turret combo is pretty great, especially if you also have a bleeding distance weapon.

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The meat grinder and turret definitely lead to some cheese tactics.  I'm a fan of freeze/stun items because they can get you out of trouble and make for great opening moves.

 

I think the only category of thing I've been consistently skipping is the shields.  If I could constantly block at the cost of some chip damage (with a well timed parry blocking full damage) then maybe they'd be more useful.  As it is you still need to time the block right so it's functionally similar to a dodge except the dodge doesn't take up a weapon slot.

 

I'll try and stream/record some once I get time.

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I wamt this real bad, but like so many things these days I wish it was on Switch too. Have to wait I suppose. 

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Good overview, SAM, nice to see you play it. It looks like something I'd enjoy! (Though I'm still worried that the environments won't be memorable/authored enough.

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Added to the growing pile of "check out when out of early access", which seems to never actually happen.

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I've been playing a bunch of hours this weekend, i really suck at it

 

i've managed to kill immortal one once.

but it's still really fun to run through the first area and collect cells and maybe get a blueprint if im lucky.

The weapons feels great and a good feel through and through

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On 5/23/2017 at 4:35 AM, SecretAsianMan said:

If anyone out there liked the idea of Rogue Legacy but hated playing it, I'd really recommend checking this out.

This is exactly me, and I bought and love this game. Good overview vid, looks like you've gotten a bunch further than I did.

 

So far the environments haven't started to bore/grate on me at all, I love the character they added with all the little graphical touches like the fluttering banners on the ramparts/promenade path etc.

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10 hours ago, Roderick said:

Good overview, SAM, nice to see you play it. It looks like something I'd enjoy! (Though I'm still worried that the environments won't be memorable/authored enough.

 

Honestly, if the environments are your main concern I wouldn't worry.  While there's nothing I'd call outstanding, they're not static either and there's enough variety to be interesting.

 

5 hours ago, bau said:

I've been playing a bunch of hours this weekend, i really suck at it

  Reveal hidden contents

i've managed to kill immortal one once.

but it's still really fun to run through the first area and collect cells and maybe get a blueprint if im lucky.

The weapons feels great and a good feel through and through

 

Some tips

Spoiler

 

Ranged weapons are very useful, but be careful of your ammo.  Arrows and other projectiles stick in the enemies and only return to you once they're dead, so against a boss you have limited ammo.  For this reason, the infinite bow and arrow is quite good.  The electric whip also has range and infinite ammo.

 

Weapons with critical damage are also good if you can avoid his strikes.  The assassin's blade and the rapier are especially good since you can crit from behind or after rolling.  Be careful of his red damage aura though.

 

The turret and meat grinder can keep chipping away at his health if you can stay alive.  I recommend placing the meat grinder in a corner once he starts using his jumping attack, although you can always reposition it.  Other useful skills are flashbangs and freeze grenades.

 

 

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Do you find it worth rushing throu early levels to get to the timed doors? so far i've only found money behind them the few times i've made it to them.

 

Twin daggers with phaser is such a fun combo to use!

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40 minutes ago, bau said:

Do you find it worth rushing throu early levels to get to the timed doors? so far i've only found money behind them the few times i've made it to them.

 

Twin daggers with phaser is such a fun combo to use!

 

You can sometimes find blueprints behind timed doors so yes.  But once you find the blueprint, I don't think anything else appears besides gold so you don't have to keep farming the door in hopes of other loot.  At least not that I've seen and I've been in every timed door at least twice.  If you're doing a door run I suggest not even bothering to fight enemies unless absolutely necessary.  Although there is a ten minute door behind the first boss that requires some good luck to get enough upgrades and decent weapon/skill drops to take him out in time.

 

The phaser pairs really well with the assassin's dagger too (does critical damage on a backstab which stacks with the phaser's damage boost).  There are so many good combos.  My personal favorite right now is the sadist's sword with the throwing knives.  The sadist's sword does critical damage on anything bleeding and the throwing knives are a projectile that causes bleeding.  It's so much fun to throw a knife into a guy then run up and smack him into oblivion.

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Aye, throwing knives are really good, read somewhere that they are "looking over bleeding" so we'll see if it gets nerfed.

 

I just found the assassin's dagger efter way too many times in the promenad :}

haven't had the luck to get the sadist's sword.. 

 

1 hour ago, SecretAsianMan said:

The phaser pairs really well with the assassin's dagger too (does critical damage on a backstab which stacks with the phaser's damage boost).  There are so many good combos.  My personal favorite right now is the sadist's sword with the throwing knives.  The sadist's sword does critical damage on anything bleeding and the throwing knives are a projectile that causes bleeding.  It's so much fun to throw a knife into a guy then run up and smack him into oblivion.

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There's an opt-in beta available now for the new update.  It adds several weapons, enemies, and some gameplay changes.  Some of the bigger things are elemental effects (like oil increasing fire damage and water increasing electric damage) and a change to shields (all shields will generate a brief force field when you take damage and you can reflect back some projectiles).  It's still a bit unstable so I'd suggest waiting for the next public release.

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I've been playing a lot of this game. My only quibble so far is that some boss attack hitboxes don't really seem to make sense. I feel like I'm getting hit a lot where an animation will eventually be before it actually extends to that point.

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6 hours ago, Kyir said:

I've been playing a lot of this game. My only quibble so far is that some boss attack hitboxes don't really seem to make sense. I feel like I'm getting hit a lot where an animation will eventually be before it actually extends to that point.

 

The shield enemies do something similar where if you're standing slightly behind them, their charge attack will still hit you.  This was fixed in the beta update, I'm sure other hitboxes are also on the list.

 

I might make a second video when the beta gets a stable release.  I've already had it crash twice so I don't think I could get anything usable just yet.

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Phaser/rapier is basically broken. If you get any other multipliers stacked on top it does massive amounts of damage. I did 7k on the first hit of the combo to the bridge troll this morning using Attack Power/Phaser/Rapier.

 

If you get the timed doors during normal play yeah go ahead, but it seems usually not worth it. I did find a blueprint behind the door once.

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here's what i said on the waypoint forums where the thread is less active

 

Quote

I bought and played this game for about... six hours, according to Steam. I really enjoy it, but I have one big problem with the game, and that's the way random weapon drops work.

 

I don't mind trying or starting with new weapons. But it sucks when I have a good combo setup, like say the phasing active ability combined with the backstab dagger, and I never get either of those again, and end up having to naturally replace them because the enemies have become too hard for a level one or two backstab dagger. Yeah, I can pump a lot of points into strength to compensate, but I still end up feeling weaker than I should, and I have to switch it up with a less desirable, and often less fun set of equipment. And the more weapons I unlocked, the harder and harder it became to find one of those good/fun combos!

 I wish I could... pay to upgrade my current weapon, even if it ended up costing more, instead of having to pray that the next shop has a new one.

I'm ready to feel like a fool if someone tells me there is a way to do that. O:

Also turret plus grenade is my go-to skills combo. But I tried magnet bomb and buzzsaws on my last run and damn that was nice and good and that might become my go-to, provided I can build it.

Weapon-wise, the electric whip makes a lot of the game super easy, but the rapier is so much more active and fun. O:

RE: Dark Souls comparisons, it really feels like anytime a game has rolling and shields people see the similarities and scream SOULS! It's a bit silly, and I don't really think it holds here beyond a shallow or superficial level. I do understand the devs cite inspiration as such, but even so. Not a big deal, though. C'est la vie!

 

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That's why I have a hard time with "unlock this item and it will show up randomly in the dungeon" type rogue-likes. The optimal play for them is to get the first few blueprints and then restart if they're not the ones you like, until you've gotten the perfect first few unlocks, then never get another blueprint again. It's similar to a CCG, where you want to find a good combo, then optimize the chances that you're going to draw into that combo.

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A number of these complaints have been addressed in the current opt-in beta. 

 

The rapier was reworked to have a smaller crit window (basically you can only get one critical hit in per roll and you have to be fairly quick).  The range on the electric whip was reduced some.

 

Timed doors have more rewards, as do challenge portals, in the form of extra cells (10 I think, though I'm not sure if this scales with level).

 

Weapons have more variety because of new effects (like poison clouds) and elemental synergy (like oil actually igniting and water spreading electricity/ice).  It's still a dice roll to have them line up but I feel like there's more overlap now and its easier to get a workable combo.

 

A bunch of new weapons and skills were added as well.  My new favorite weapon is the impaler, a spear that does critical damage to enemies against a wall.  It's quite fun with the Spartan sandals (which I otherwise dislike).  Shields also got a big rework making them a far more viable option than they were before.  Turrets/traps were reworked to require you to be within a certain range for them to work (though you can still cheese the crap out of them).

 

I can see why not having a static setup can be annoying to some people, but I really like it.  I know from past experience that I'm the kind of person who will always do the "optimal" strat given the chance which often leads me to get bored faster than I should.  Being forced to work with what's available forces me to experiment and adapt in a way that I normally wouldn't.  I'm also a big fan of improvisational tactics, something this game brings out quite a bit.

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I don't care about optimal builds in the slightest, it just sucks when I find something I'm having fun with and am forced to throw it away because it's now too weak.

 

It's good that they're trying to fix it. I'm skeptical, but hopeful.

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