As good as Hades?

[Atomsk]

^ Is this game as good as Hades?

Not sure if I should buy

[Skypris]

It depends on if you're accustomed to this genre. If Hades was your first venture into the rogue-like/lite genre, then I'd say not. Dead Cells is still a great game, but you're signing up for something else when you get Dead Cells when compared to Hades. There's no strong narrative here, just lore rooms. Combat is fun, but not really flashy like Hades. I love both games but hold Hades higher to the average person or people that feel the need to ask.

Hades is to Dead Cells what TW3 is to Skyrim. The formers having better story and the latters still being a blast to play, even if the story is negligible. Hades tries to give you a more rounded experience. Dead Cells is focused purely on the roguelike/lite aspects and is the better rogue-like/lite because of it. If you're a fan of Rogue-likes, this is the better game and is worth the purchase. If Hades was your first, step with caution.

If Hades is your first dip into the rogue-lite/like genre, I would pick up a different one on the cheap to see if you like them without the narrative backing them up. Nuclear Throne, Gonner, Risk of Rain, Spelunky, and many others go cheap fairly regularly, like $3 a pop.

[d.a.elliott]

My POV after more than 100 hrs in Hades and 400 in DC...

Controls? Even
Graphics? Even... Slight edge to Hades overall but DC wins on visual diversity
Story? Hades
Challenge? Hades
Core Stability / Mechanical Consistency? Hades
Unique Environments? DC
Enemy Variety? DC
Weapon Variety? DC
Music? DC (Hades good too though, just not as good)

Two totally different games in terms of gameplay. DC is going to be a side-scrolling Metroidvania with platforming elements; Hades is going to be an isometric Gauntlet-esque game with action RPG elements.

I adored Hades to no end, but unlike DC, it can feel monotonous really fast. Specifically, I can do 10 runs straight in DC without losing enthusiasm, but in Hades? I start to feel the repetitive nature, especially after unlocking the weapons and mirror of night features.

Does that mean I would never play Hades again? Absolutely not. It's a game I can return to every now and then when I have the isometric rogue-like itch to scratch, but after an hour or two, I'll probably have had my fill for another few months.

With DC, I felt like I could pick it up and play any day of the week and have a blast, but unfortunately, not so much lately... The unexpected changes to core mechanics just rubs me the wrong way, and at least for the time being, I'm kind of "done" with it.

[Uncle Fester]

Immo Dead Cells is way better. Hades got boring really quick for me, the runs are allways the same, no variety in enemies, areas or bosses. It also suffers a lack of weapon diversity compared to other rouge-like games, Hades has 6 weapons with 4 different variants each, and you cant change weapons once the run started. DC has tons of weapons and skills, 14 different biomes, 8 different bosses (wich you only need to face 4)

Also the grind is awfully done in Hades, while in DC you have to grind only for cells, in Hades you have to grind 6 different resources, and each run gives really few of those, also once you completed a run with a weapon you will be forced to increase the difficulty if you want to harvest more resources with said weapon (the amount of resources obtained doesnt increase with difficulty, that is not the case with DC)

DC 230Hs - Hades 26hs (and never got back to it)

[Sugam]

Is this one of those compare apples to oranges threads? Its all just opinion and peoples taste at this point. I'd just watch some videos or just buy the game, if you do not like it then refund it.

[fox]

No. Metroid was super overrated and so is this game.

[Senor Cardgage]

Dead Cells is considerably better than Hades in terms of the actual gameplay, Hades is mostly kept afloat by its story and characterization but Dead Cells in my view is superior in almost every way when it comes to how it plays, especially as a roguelike.

The combat is much more involved, Hades has an issue where a lot of the time you can just dumbly bash away at enemies with no real downside since your attacks can keep them in a stunned state, Dead Cells puts a lot more emphasis on timing (with parries in particular) to work around enemy attack patterns and tactical approaches to keep your distance and not get too mobbed if you are better suited to ranged builds. There are a lot more weapons and additional tools and powers you can use alongside each weapon that really rewards knowing each and every nook and cranny of how the game works on a deep level. In fairness the combination of weapons, weapon aspects, Daedalus hammers and god boons can give the player a fairly good number of options in build variety in Hades, but I think that DC probably has more overall variation and also has lots of ways it bends the mechanics so that builds can feel like they have absolutely nothing in common and that you are almost playing a completely different game from the last run depending on what you have.

I'd also say that DC is way, way more varied, when you've completed the game once for Hades you've kind of gotten an idea of what the game will throw at you almost every time, the rooms are very self contained and do not allow for any real variation in terms of layout or enemy placement and its the same bosses every time (with some shake up if you use the Extreme Measures pact of punishment though). Dead Cells has much more randomized and procedural level design and enemy placement, it also has a large number of alternate floors and routes you can go through that usually have completely different gimmicks and enemy types, and sometimes different bosses (though a lot of this is locked behind DLC). I think the Boss Stem Cell system is considerably better than the Pact of Punishments in giving the game longevity and a real sense of difficulty and progression. Each Cell significantly changes up the game so that you have totally different enemy layouts in addition to extra optional paths and more resources or better item quality. They also create a much more demanding increase in difficulty than I think the Pacts of Punishments really do in Hades, which for me kept me much more engrossed.

When it comes to areas that Dead Cells compares unfavorably to Hades, its certainly the case that Hades has a much more fleshed out narrative and characters, which are mostly restricted to some side rooms in DC with awkward attempts at humor and no voice acting. The story barely even exists in this game to be honest. Hades might also be a bit better looking, especially with the nice portraits they have for everyone, but by no means is DC an ugly game.

There's also a lot of controversy about some of the recent updates and how they changed things like the Malaise mechanic in particular, but that is still fairly subjective. I think Dead Cells is a really good game very much worth getting, I'd rate it far above Hades myself and I think its one of the best Roguelikes ever made.

[Leviathan]

Overall I don't think I'll play Hades, but I love Dead Cells. I mean, I don't usually like rogueli--s too much. The only ones I have really liked a lot are Dead Cells, Cadence of Hyrule (I like normal Necrodancer sometimes), and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, and the later two have the rogue part really softened. Next there is Spelunky 2 which I love and hate simultaneously so lol.

A reason I like Dead Cells is because of the 2D-platforming style of controls, with a lot of quality of life which metroidvanias tend to lack. For example, you can run really fast, dodge, attack, make good combos with everything, while in, say, bloodstained, before you get the hyperspeed skill you'll be going a lot slower.

I mean if someone made a metroidvania game which controlled like Dead Cells it would be a big hit for me.

About Hades, I'm not attracted to it... it looks like a really good game, and I've played transistor from the same developers; I loved that one. But I don't really feel called to Hades.

[rpmaia]

Both are wonderful games, and you won't be wrong qith any of them. That said, for me Dead Cells is the better one, as it features much more variety, more enemies, more biomes, more weapons, more skills. Hades has a more focused approach to its weapons and skills, but it came a moment were I grew tired of the same biomes and same settings.

Graphics: DC's vastly superior biome variety (Hades has four main biomes, a dungeon, a lava pit, a garden, and another dungeon, Dead Cells has a prison, sewers, temples, castles, graveyards, fisherman villages, and more), richer color palette, lovely faux pixel art, give the Beheaded the prize for me. But it's such a close call, Jen Zee's character designs are out of this world;

Music: Dead Cells. Not even a contest. The Arboretum, the Slumbering Sanctuary, the Hand Of The King themes are outstanding. Dead Cells is the only game OST I've ever bought.

Story: some will say Hades has the better one, but I found it to be really straightforward, Zagreus runs away from home because it can't stand his father and goes searching for his mother. And there's nothing wrong with that, very good things can be made with the most simple of stories. But Dead Cells has a deadly disease ravaging a nation, while misteries abound about man and plant hybrids and a misterious Time Keeper reverting timelines. True, not everything is totally explained, but I find it to give a sense of mistery that appeals;

Characters: also not a contest, Hades has fully realized, totally developed characters, that grow, emote, change, where Dead Cells has none;

Gameplay: as stated above, there's much more variety regarding Dead Cells weapons, skills, mutations, but Hades goes for the more focused route. But if there is a category where they are closest, is this one. However, one nitpick that really gets me every time is Hades featuring so many particle effects in such chaotic battles, specially in later biomes, that I totally loose track of what I'm doing.

Difficulty: if you want to see everything in Dead Cells, specially its true ending, you'll have to ramp up the difficulty so much that most players simply won't get to see it all. By this point, only 1,5% of its players have defeated the final boss, revealing the true ending, where in Hades 22% of its players have finished the game. Also, Hades features a clever Easy Mode, to ensure no one looses the story resolution

[cz]

I should probably give Hades more of a chance, but for some reason Supergiant's games just tend not to click with me despite them being gorgeous and made by an awesome team that treats their workers well. I played 3-4 hours of Bastion, 1-2 hours of Transistor, skipped Pyre, played one run of Hades... and just never came back to them for some reason. Meanwhile I find Dead Cells unputdownable.

[Senor Cardgage]

Messaggio originale di cz:

I should probably give Hades more of a chance, but for some reason Supergiant's games just tend not to click with me despite them being gorgeous and made by an awesome team that treats their workers well. I played 3-4 hours of Bastion, 1-2 hours of Transistor, skipped Pyre, played one run of Hades... and just never came back to them for some reason. Meanwhile I find Dead Cells unputdownable.

I know exactly what you mean, I kind of feel like they have the same core gameplay every time that's never really been all that engaging and is a bit disconnected from the stories they want to tell.

[Skypris]

Messaggio originale di cz:

I should probably give Hades more of a chance, but for some reason Supergiant's games just tend not to click with me despite them being gorgeous and made by an awesome team that treats their workers well. I played 3-4 hours of Bastion, 1-2 hours of Transistor, skipped Pyre, played one run of Hades... and just never came back to them for some reason. Meanwhile I find Dead Cells unputdownable.

I will join you in saying I could never really get into Supergiant's games either and I had a similar experience with Hades. I'd gotten it one or two updates prior to their full release and ended up returning it. I think (as it's the norm I do unintentionally) that I had expectations and when Hades wasn't what I wanted, it soured the experience. Playing it fresh ended up pulling me in hard. It might be worth giving it another shot if you still have it in your library.

[travistotle]

They're both great games for sure, but for me Dead Cells is the better game by miles. Sure, Hades is unquestionably better in story, presentation, and music. But at the end of the day, that's not what's going to keep me going back to a roguelike. That's going to be the combat, the variety, the gameplay depth, and the replay value, and Dead Cells beats Hades in that department and for me it's not even remotely close.

Hade's biggest drawback is in the post-game and replayability. The Heat system is interesting, but all it's really doing is making some tweaks to what you've already played. You're still going to be playing the same 4 relatively short levels, fighting the same enemies. I really feel like there should have been more features like Extreme Measures, which ACTUALLY changes how the game plays.

So yeah, they're both great games, but imo they really excel at different things. If Dead Cells manages to get its hooks in you, you might be playing the game for a looooooooong time.

[Ryxx]

If you are looking for great build variety and replayability, Dead Cells is the game you go 2.
Hades is good but after approx 50hrs (I got it on EGS), you can see that you pretty much do the same with little variety in each run. You play Hades for the story bits you get after each run, and that's cool but after that? Nothing draws you back in. Great game, don't get me wrong but extremely limited in what is important in a Rogue-like, that being replayability and build variety to keep you going.

Dead Cells also has the advantage that it's a bit old and used that to its advantage, adding things like new zones, weapons, foes and bosses, to make each run even more diverse that it already was. To each his own I suppose.

Honestly, I got em both and if you can you should do the same, because these games are awesome! I em both.
Cheers every1

[Beautiful Ham Sandwich]

Dead Cells is far more focused on what you'd expect from a Roguelite, whereas Hades has things you normally wouldn't see an emphasis on in a Roguelite like story and a metric ton of characters and character interactions.

Why don't you just buy Hades, play for under 2 hours, and if you don't seem to like it refund it? It's hard telling someone whether they're going to like a specific Roguelite.