Dead Cells
2018
Audio: Japanese, Turkish, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Korean, English, Italian · Subtitles: Turkish, Chinese, Portuguese, French, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, German, English, Korean, Italian
- platform
- adventure
- indie
- action
- fantasy
- single player
The story
Dead Cells is a 2D side-scrolling action platformer combining roguelike and Metroidvania design. Players control the Prisoner, an immortal creature that possesses corpses and fights through procedurally generated levels filled with mutated enemies. Combat centers on melee weapons, bows, traps, and dodging, with enemy patterns that reward careful observation. Death is permanent for each run, stripping the player of most collected items, though an in-game currency called Cells allows for purchasing upgrades that persist between attempts. Levels are assembled from pre-designed sections in randomized configurations, and progression through the game unlocks new traversal abilities via collectible Runes.
What it’s like
Gritty pixel art rendered in saturated, high-contrast colour: sewer greens and bruised purples, sickly lantern-orange in dim prison corridors, and sudden washes of blue-white light in ruined courtyards. Sprites are animated with crisp, snappy frames, and the camera tracks a small figure through tight, sprawling sections of a decaying castle that feel grimy and lived-in. The soundtrack is driven by synth-rock percussion and thumping electronic beats that pick up tempo in combat, with wet splats, clangs and crunching bones giving each hit weight. Violence is constant but cartoonish: blood-spattered enemies burst into pixel gore, with dismemberment and bursts of colour rather than realistic horror, and there is no sexual content. The vibe is frantic, grim-but-playful and absorbing, best for a late evening session or a few tries before bed. Its rhythm is restless: short runs of dodging, parrying and sprinting interrupted by quick deaths and a restart that is immediately pulled back in. Players who enjoy tight, punishing action and the slow satisfaction of unlocking new routes through a roguelike loop will find it especially rewarding.
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