“Dead Cells”: a title known for its brutal difficulty and unforgiving nature – one that is structured in order to punish the player for the smallest mistakes, yet at the same time reward them for adapting through their shortcomings and avoiding making the same mistakes again.
“Dead Cells” was developed by Evil Empire, a small indie company that stems from Motion Twin. Both divisions collaborate and share ideas, allowing for consistent content such as DLCs (including skins, which take a long time to make due to their unique art style), as well as hundreds of weapons that shake up the feel of every new run.
What sets “Dead Cells” apart from numerous other indie games is that players start with nothing, but permanent upgrades can be unlocked, and the layout of the map is unique.
Bonus modifiers that players collect change each time they load into a new seed; the developers do this to ensure no run has the same outcome and to promote inconsistency. For example, a player who might struggle with certain bosses and enemies before may experience problems if they do not synchronize their weapon build to pump out as much damage as possible.
The problem that lurks within every “Dead Cells” player’s mind lies within the core mechanics of the game’s most important features: stat scrolls. Stat scrolls (Survival, Brutality, and Tactics) allow for progression through the game, being that they increase damage for certain types of weapons. One common mistake among new “Dead Cells” players is that they pour their stats into the scroll that gives the most health instead of the one that spreads the most damage, which may initially seem helpful. Boss Cell difficulties produce minimal damage, but unbeknownst to more novice players, health is more important (and surely it is better to listen to the words of a bad player as opposed to the word of a seasoned veteran). While a good amount of health is important, so too are weapons that can kill bosses and enemies quickly. “Dead Cells” makes it clear that health is the weak stat, and those who experience the drudge of wasting seven minutes of their life killing the “final boss” only to die in the last few seconds because of how weak their build is learn this lesson the hard way. Nonetheless, these mechanics caution the user against brash decisions that can either make and break a run depending on how they decide to manage their stats. Evil Empire heavily encourages the idea that stat spreading is not the ideal playstyle for boss killing and demon slaying enjoyment.
While “Dead Cells” is known its level of difficulty at any stage of progression, it is important to know how dead cells diverge difficulty among difficulties; confusing, right? “Dead Cells” can be considered a short game, and a new player may think to themselves, “That was it? Wow, that was easy!” Little do they know the pain is only beginning.
The way in which “Dead Cells” exponentially increases difficulty is by the use of the aforementioned Boss Cells, which are dropped after beating the final boss. Now, due to there being three bosses because of new DLCs, players can receive these cells from either The Queen from “The Queen and the Sea” DLC, Dracula from the new “Return to Castlevania DLC”, or The Hand of the King, an original character.
Killing a boss makes them drop a Boss Stem Cell, which can be used to increase the difficulty in the game and earn new rewards. There are five boss cells players can collect, with the fifth boss cell – known as 5BC – being the hardest. With 5BC, players’ skills are tested: their infinite healing fountain is smashed, enemies teleport in front of them and hit like a flaming steel truck, food sources can infect a player, enemies shoot through the floor and become highly aggressive, and the Malaise bar is introduced – the most dangerous factor out of all previously listed.
The funny part is that there are even more disasters that really add to 5BC’s title “Hell Mode”.
While “Dead Cells” appears to be a high tier Metroidvania game, it has a way of promoting respectable content, and even other forms of popular medial. In the “Rise of the Giant” update, an item called “The Boy’s Axe” refers to the famous souls-like game “God of War 2018“, in which Kratos continuously called his child “boy”, which became a popular joke in the community. The weapon is a smaller version of the Leviathan axe, and attacks in a fashion similar.
“Dead Cells” also tried collaborating with popular shows such as “Dragon Ball Z” by adding two outfits: the Legendary Warrior Outfit, meant to mimic the appearance of the show’s main character, Son Goku, as well as the Piccolo Concierge outfit, which allows players to don the garb of Demon Piccolo.
The Metroidvania takes thorough and impactful steps when it comes to sourcing inspiration and promoting both small and large indie titles. For example, the “Everyone is Here Volume 1 and 2” updates, offered additional collaborations with companies to introduce weapons and skins from titles such as “Hollow Knight”, “Terraria”, “Curse of the Dead Gods”, “Risk of Rain”, etc. With “Dead Cells’” newest update, “Return to Castlevania“, players fight through Dracula’s Castle with the help of Richter Belmont and Alucard from the classic “Castlevania” games, tangling with beasts of the night such as Medusa, Dracula, and even Death itself! This update is a direct homage to the game that inspired “Dead Cells”, and features the largest number of weapons, skins, and bosses of all the previous “Dead Cells” DLCs. “Return to Castlevania” also ended the infamous three-year long reign of “The Queen and The Sea” trilogy, and is an update important to the heart of the developers who knows what the future of this game holds.
Those looking for a game that will test their determination and push their skill should absolutely consider “Dead Cells”.
