Last week I managed to get my hands on Dead Cells, a game that describes itself as a “Roguevania”, a combination of the Roguelike genre, incorporating procedurally generated areas, with the Metroidvania style of play - action style combat mixed with map exploration. Dead Cells certainly does this well.

Dead Cells is currently part of the Steam early-access program, which allows developers to release a game in beta form in order to raise funds to complete the game, and get feedback from players with regards to balancing and changes they may want to see. It can be a bit of a gamble paying for a game that isn’t finished but, with what we have so far, I can easily recommend picking up the game. It also currently has over 6,400 overwhelming positive reactions from gamers. It currently goes for only R182 on Steam and was recently on special during their sale.



The player is basically a chunk of living cells that inhabit a dead body. You use this body to make your way through trap-ridden dungeons and corridors filled with various types of enemies. As you progress you pick up various weapons, traps, grenades, power ups, abilities, money and much more. When your body dies, you will lose most of what you acquired and are sent back to the beginning of the level to start your journey over again as the dungeon randomly generates new enemies, layouts and items.

Combat is fast and responsive. The player can have two primary weapons that range from swords to daggers to bows (and variants of each). Weapons can have various additional effects, such as causing enemies to bleed or throwing out an arrow each time you attack. In addition, you will also get access to two secondary weapons, usually in the form of grenades or traps.



Enemies have various abilities and attack patterns, and the player is usually pitted against various types within the same area. Understanding when to attack and when to defend is an integral part to the game and ensuring your survival. Sometimes you may also encounter an “”Elite enemy that are rather difficult encounters but grant you access to permanent power ups if you manage to defeat them.

While the thought of losing everything you obtained may put some people off, the game does feature permanent upgrades that allow players to start a new game with a bit of an advantage. However, it comes with a catch. As you defeat enemies you will obtain cells, cells will allow you to upgrade weapons or purchase new power ups, but you need to reach the end of a dungeon in order to spend these cells. If you don’t make it you will lose them.



Beautiful pixel art and sound add to the atmosphere of the game, pulling the player into the world. It’s a great game to play, look at, and listen to, so what more could we want? In fact the Studio behind Dead Cells, Motion Twin, have described the game as a passion project, during an interview Marketing Manager Steve Filby had this to say “So we said. … Right, let’s make the game we’d want to play. Let’s make something hardcore, ultra-niche, with pixel art and ridiculous difficulty. Let’s do the passion project and to hell with the consequences.” After playing the game, this certainly shows.

I would highly recommend Dead Cells to any gamer but it will resonate more with gamers who enjoy a challenge and love Roguelike games, such as Galak-Z, The Binding of Isaac[i] or [i]Rogue Legacy as well as those that enjoy the Metroidvania-style games, such as Metroid or Castlevania. The difficulty and slow progress may put many players off but, if you can stick with it, you will uncover a gem of a game. The last thing I can leave you with is the launch trailer.