I mentioned this one back in May and it has stuck with me enough to make this list of my favorite things of 2017. It's also the game that surprised me the most.
Dead Cells is a challenging, Castlevania inspired, roguelike.
That description alone should have turned me off. I have a bit of a love
/ hate relationship with roguelike games.They don't often capture my
attention as I tend to dislike the loss of progress while replaying of
the same content. Dead Cells manages to mitigate just about everything I dislike about indie roguelikes.
I also tend not to like hard games. The whole genre reborn with the
popularity of the likes of Dark Souls. I primarily bristle at that type
of game due to the mechanical demands of the controls and the
frustration factor. So it was a double surprise to me when this games
managed to sink it's hooks into me!
The controls are very smooth, and honestly may be the best part of the
games design. When you make your game challenging you have to ensure the
controls are intuitive. It's really slick, and has a finely balanced
learning curve. The enemies attacks have just the right combination of
telegraph and timing to present an evolving challenge.
Then there is the fact that you carry forward some of your progression
between games. It's an inspired change to the format and ensures that
virtually every run pays forward in some way. If you managed to get to
the end of a level you can invest the 'cells' you have collected into
powerups and new weapon options. Those then become available across
games. It solves the central dilema that I often have with roguelike
games.
It's also a lot of fun. The controls are so good that this one really
triggers the nostalgia cells in my brain. This feels like a 90s
platformer in all the right ways.
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