My father originally showed me this game a few months before it released, with its state of being in pre-official release I was already thoroughly impressed with how the game functioned and the amount of content already available. When the game devs announced Dead Cells official release I was so stoked that it would be getting a release on PC as well as getting official slots in the catalogs of Xbox, Play Station, and the Nintendo Switch, myself being most excited for the ability to play this wonderful souls like metrovania style game on the go as well as up on my tv. Within a weeks time of release I had gotten my hands on a copy of the game on my Nintendo Switch, albeit the game did not run as well and was a bit buggier than i had experienced on PC a few months prior, but that was to be expected with the switch being fairly new and not having the capabilities of a computer. Once i got home the game was instantly downloaded and posted up on my big screen, and once I hit the ground running I didn't stop. I played for a solid 6 hour straight and had yet to even bet the first boss, but that did not bother me because one of the main things that has made me fall in love with this game is its fast paced and fair nature of its combat, yet its ability to be just as unforgiving as a true souls like game with even the slightest slip up but is not to say that you aren't able to recover from a small blunder so long as you had acquired the HP to take the damage and escape with a few drops of health left to your name. With its difficulty and rage provokingly hard bosses it captured the essence of a rouge-like/light, YOU ARE MEANT TO DIE! I could continue to go on and on about the more than stellar game-play and amount of content that this game has, but I would like to take a second to acknowledge the phenomenal yet simplistic graphics and the amazing soundtrack. The game doesn't try to be a super high quality and resolution game, it TAKES PRIDE in its simplistic 16-bit graphics. Even with the old school style graphics they still managed to create amazing looking monsters, weapons, and level backgrounds. Now, let me give a little love to the soundtrack, I myself am a musician so I quickly found myself looking everywhere to find more and more of this games audio, I'm honestly not quite sure what it is about the music but just one minute of game play had me paying close attention to every beat of the music and I even found myself using the rhythm to time my attacks and dodges. In conclusion, this game as a whole is a phenomenal title and deserves way more attention and love from gamers of all ages, whether you be someone who grew up with games of this design or if you grew up with games of much higher expectations there is something for everyone to enjoy within this game.
I was very sceptical about the rogue-lite mechanics - especially the random levels and the fact, that you loose all your equipment and progress after dyding. Very unfamiliar for a Dark Souls fan ;-). And the first few hours were also quite frustrating for me. Starting all over after 1.5 hours, because some foe infected me with malaise - wtf? It took me 30 hours and a lot of patience to kill the hand of the king for the first time. At a certain point I didn't care anymore about loosing equippment or starting over - it is just a lot of fun to play and it gets really addictive. The controls are smooth, the visuals and soundtrack amazing. It is great to see brave developers who not only try new concepts, but also deliver such an intense gaming expericence.
I really liked the Metroid-vania + Roguelite mashup. The combat is very pushing, but it still feels fair (usually). The model of enemies only being able to hurt you with their actual attacks (instead of just by touching you) is great - I wish more games would use it.
I think that the Metroid-vania aspect could have been a little deeper. There were really only 4 abilities that you gain. And really only 2 of those actually change you movement/combat abilities (the other 2 just opening up different map traversal options).
The animations were great, and the main character manages to show a lot of character without saying a word.
The devs have clearly put a lot of work into the game and have continued to enhance it - including a free DLC that is pretty cool.
I know I'm just old, slow, and need to get good. But I honestly wish that the game was a little easier on 0 & 1 BC. There's plenty of room for higher difficulty as you move up. I hear that some interesting new stuff gets added as your progress, but I don't have the time to sink into working up into the higher levels.
Finally, I wish that you could get a little more info about the weapons/powers before you unlock them. You feel a tension that you don't want to dilute the available weapon pool with weapons that you won't like. But it's hard to tell if they will be worthwhile before unlocking them.
But overall, it's a great game. Very much recommended.