Is the game really that amazing?

[Azimet]

It's been topping the charts lately for a looong time, and was wondering what makes this game "so good". It's supposed to be kind of a roguelite + metroidvania and it's been taking people by storm, judging by the 94% positive reviews over 4000+ people. I don't know, I tried it on a friend's and I personally found it a bit repetitive with new enemies that didn't really have that many new patterns, there's some creative ones like the mushrooms with spikes, and just a few not-so-well designed, like the electric turrets. The combat does feel satisfying as a lot of people have pointed out.

So...does the game just get a lot better a while after the first boss in the bridge? Is it the "permanent" progression allowing you to explore new areas? Am I missing something? I've been watching it recently and have not yet formed a complete opinion on it.

[King of Sorrow]

Eh.

Game's a gear check in 3 locations, and if you don't have the stats/gear to take it, your death is inevitable. The game still needs proper scaling and difficulty curve before it can be a real 10/10. Sits at a tolerable 6 imo - not bad, but more stress than fun.

Plus devs have a nasty case of the "Nerfing Single-Player Content-itus", so methods that -kinda- helped against the cheapness of the graveyard and low power fog fjord are now useless, making the game that much more difficult. This age of gamers are masochistic though, so the -slightest- 'fake difficulty' experience will be praised like a god in a religious sect.

I'd say buy it, give it the "1.5 hour trial", and refund it if you don't like it. Was a waste of my money, but when multiplayer garbage is my only real other option, I just play this to pretend like I have a shot at winning, lose inevitably to crap drops and infrequent frametraps/corner juggling, and just give it up.

(20XX is wayyyy better.)

[Hunubul]

Do you know what rouge-lite is? If not, please watch this video, which also has the answer why is Dead Cells better than other rouge-lites, at least in TotalBiscuits opinion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cu5RkWoW2M

I know it's long, but it's worth every second. You'll know what rouge-like, rouge-lite is, what's the difference, etc.

But short answer: Dead Cells did everything that's rouge-lite better than any other rouge-lite, that's why it's so popular. For you to like this game however, you'll have to like the rouge-lite aspects.

[Hunubul]

Originally posted by 󠁁 󠁁:

Eh.

Game's a gear check in 3 locations, and if you don't have the stats/gear to take it, your death is inevitable. The game still needs proper scaling and difficulty curve before it can be a real 10/10. Sits at a tolerable 6 imo - not bad, but more stress than fun.

Plus devs have a nasty case of the "Nerfing Single-Player Content-itus", so methods that -kinda- helped against the cheapness of the graveyard and low power fog fjord are now useless, making the game that much more difficult. This age of gamers are masochistic though, so the -slightest- 'fake difficulty' experience will be praised like a god in a religious sect.

I'd say buy it, give it the "1.5 hour trial", and refund it if you don't like it. Was a waste of my money, but when multiplayer garbage is my only real other option, I just play this to pretend like I have a shot at winning, lose inevitably to crap drops and infrequent frametraps/corner juggling, and just give it up.

(20XX is wayyyy better.)

1.5 hours are far from enough to try this game. There is no problem with the games fairness or difficulty, it's possible that this game is simply not for you. (I mean it's possible rouge-lite mechanics simply aren't for you, it's built upon perma-death and some sort of permanent progression and random generation, essentially the definition of rouge-lite)

Also keep in mind that this is early access, a lot of things will change/will be added.

[dude]

Fluid combat,
Interesting zones with each having nearly their own atmosphere,
Large amount of weaponry and skills despite being an early access game,
Hard difficulty that feels fair (majority of the time),
Learnable mob patterns which gives you a noticeable increase in skill through each new run,
Permanent upgrades that carry on from run to run,
Devoted dev team that listens to community suggestions and complaints.

Honestly the list goes on and on. If you're mechanics driven and can handle dying without getting demotivated then I would definitely give Dead Cells a shot.
Just don't expect to be the greatest when you first boot it up. Stay humble, make observations, and have fun while doing it.

Btw, really just want to reiterate, you have to be willing to die and learn from past mistakes. That's what Dead Cells and many rogue-likes in general are all about.

[Hunubul]

Originally posted by PoisonSumac:

Btw, really just want to reiterate, you have to be willing to die and learn from past mistakes. That's what Dead Cells and many rogue-likes in general are all about.

*rouge-lites

[Frosthaven]

Game has no gear checks. Ignore that comment.

[Nosferatuno]

It's one of the best game I've played. I would recommend looking at in-depth reviews from critics, as there is too much to highlight in a steam comment.

[Luckytime]

The reason I decided to buy it was because Northernlion and Totalbiscuit both gave it high praises and I trust their opinions. It's in early access which is a positive because it's cheaper and you get to say "I was there from the beginning" as well as watch the game progress and change and get insight into what the developers are thinking and maybe even influence the game a bit. Also, the enemies and characters have so much charm and the writing doesn't take itself seriously. Enemies shout "Yolo!" when they fall to their death, the main character throws people the bird and is generally sassy, and even the cursed chests have some funny things to say. It shows (to me) that the devs understand what players want. Beyond that the gameplay is smooth and feels good, the weapons and enemies are all extremely balanced, and the variety in combos and level architecture is high. Not to mention the visuals which are amazing. This game is nothing short of a beacon in this dark, depressing world.

[Zefar]

Originally posted by Frosthaven:

Game has no gear checks. Ignore that comment.

Maybe for people who have mastered the game this would be true. But for most others, if you have crappy gears and gotten few stat points you won't be able to do that much later on. Because you would need to dodge almost all incoming hits in order to survive.

[RuinManiac]

Eh. There's a distinct lack of content for a roguelite in my optinion. Wait for full release so you don't burn out early, buy it when it releases so you get a nice, full experience.

[WereChicken]

I'd say the game needs more fine tuning and I hope they scale the difficulty of the two bosses back a bit when they release the other 2 bosses as having to get through the watcher every time before facing 2 more bosses is a bit much, especially if they are keeping time doors and having them in later levels. (unless they add ways to skip the bosses after you beat them (say with runes unlocked in the stage afterwards)

[frisch]

I'm very biased to this game because I love it. 80hours and counting. 1.5 hours is not enough to get into the game because the real fun begins when you start creating different builds and you need most items unlocked for that.

[Eon]

Certainly looks interesting. I got contacted by them to stream it via email and told to apply via a 3rd party site and decided to give it a go.
I got rejected.

Contacted them on twitter, said they'd email it and asked for email;
That was 2 months ago, and I never got the email.

Can't say I'm very likely to get the game any time soon based on those interactions, which is a shame since it looks solid.

[HoneyDrake]

Originally posted by Eon:

Certainly looks interesting. I got contacted by them to stream it via email and told to apply via a 3rd party site and decided to give it a go.
I got rejected.

Contacted them on twitter, said they'd email it and asked for email;
That was 2 months ago, and I never got the email.

Can't say I'm very likely to get the game any time soon based on those interactions, which is a shame since it looks solid.

Just buy it?

edit: could be a scam, because of that "3rd party site", so it was most likely not the developer at all.

[Eon]

@Dancing - Then their twitter was hacked too cause they responded to me on twitter.

EDIT - Third party site was an official key dispenser (keymailer) and their official email told me they got my email through another site (EVOLVE). All of this was confirmed by Motion Twin's twitter so...either its a long con by a hacker or MT doesn't know how to track their keys/offers.

Although considering what was revealed with the G2A debacle, the latter being true wouldn't surprise me; indie devs who experience runaway success always lose track of stuff.