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Dead Cells (top tier roguelite)

Started by The Boston Crab, August 07, 2018, 04:11:30 PM

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Art style is side-scrolling Hyper Light Drifter, zoomed in a bit.


Movement feels quite like Flinthook, or a thousand other double jumping games. You have a dodge roll, feels more Soulsy than Gungeon.


Combat is a cross between Wizard of Legend's melee-type spells and items on cooldown with further ranged and melee attacks from Castlevania.


Structurally, it feels like a cross between Flinthook and Gungeon, regular generous upgrades and new weapons, with permanent upgrades, unlocks and incremental unlocking of new starter options. It's more generous, though. You feel you're making progress each time, both with your own skills and your RNG opportunities, more so than in any other roguelite I've played.


There is nothing original about this game at all but it's taken the more appealing bits of many similar games to make one of the best of its kind. I'd rather play this than anything below Isaac tier.


It has some very mild Metroid style unlockable gear but it's inconsequential re: your choices.


Oh, actually, if you are fast on your run you will get some better shit from bonus areas, that's pretty cool.


Dead Cells is a very well made game. A no brainer if you like any of the above and want more.




madhair60

Game is very good and one of the few procedurally generated games not to have entirely dogshit level design. Great feel

madhair60

Jesus they've made the levels easier and the bosses harder. Fuckpipe

I've only fought the first boss. Banged him because I had a gold tier electric whip 2k DPS but I've reached him quickly a few times and spent ages grinding away and dying after a few minutes. I suppose that's fair enough though, you need to be pretty tooled up to beat him.

Yo this game is top tier shit. Takes a little while to get going but once you start to get into the groove, it's immensely satisfying. I just had a great run where I had ice blast and a serious heavy crossbow which was like a shotgun. No melee weapon, no shield, no traps, no nothing. I just ran through, freeze, BLAMM. I was taking names and numbers, cutting heads. Brutal build. I picked up a wolf trap and spinning blade turret and dissolved the first boss, just locked him down, froze him and blasted his health away in monster chunks. I can't get past the second boss unfortunately but I reached him three times this evening so I'll get there.

Junglist

I've been rinsing this the past few days. Had it for a while but I don't like playing stuff in Alpha/Beta. Movement is so so good, especially now I've got all runes. Combat is intense and satisfying. Finished my first run last night, end boss was about two hits away from killing me. The build (non-stop burning was glorious):


Hecate

Thanks for reminding me about this. I didn't want to play it too much in early access because of the permenant progression, I figured that'd probably end up getting wiped a lot during updates.

Took me a good few goes to get back into the combat but everything's flowing really nice now.
The combat is so much fun, really fast and tight. Getting a powerful weapon and one hitting cunts you were previously chipping away at, rolling about like a daft carpet, feels so good.

Does anyone use a shield in this? Am I doing the right thing just going full rambo?

Junglist

Quote from: Hecate on August 12, 2018, 11:22:23 PM
Does anyone use a shield in this? Am I doing the right thing just going full rambo?

Shield is decent for the parry but once shit goes mental its useless bar damage reduction. Multiple enemies makes the parry kinda redundant. I mainly go sword/main weapon + bow.

Kelvin

Did anyone see the apology by the (now former) IGN Nintendo Editor who plagiarized a review of this game, and got caught, then fired?

He's taken it down now, but it's worth finding a mirrored version on YouTube just to see how not to do an apology video. All the cliches you'd expect (opens with a big sigh, ends with a fade down to black), and totally refuses to admit his guilt, despite saying he accepts responsibility. Best of all, he then attacks the journalist that investigated the story and acts like a victim.

Multiple reviews are now looking plagiarized at this point. Not just one or two.

Hecate

Quote from: Junglist on August 13, 2018, 12:33:14 AM
Shield is decent for the parry but once shit goes mental its useless bar damage reduction. Multiple enemies makes the parry kinda redundant. I mainly go sword/main weapon + bow.

Yeah, that's what I figured. They're easy enough to pick off on their own once you learn their attack patterns.
When the game throws a bunch of different enemy types at you on the same platform, that's when things get tricky and you just want to be attacking and keeping an eye one when to dodge, you don't want something else to think about time when all that shits going down.

bgmnts

The only Dead Cell i'm interested in is from MGS2.

brat-sampson

I'm interested in the structure, because despite everything I read making me think... 'so it's like Rogue Legacy.' nobody seems to actually be saying 'it's like Rogue Legacy.' which makes me feel like I might be wrong.

Different progressively harder tile-sets/areas that shift around every time you re-enter the castle temple gungeon whatever realm this thing's set in, but with permanent lasting boosts to attributes, shortcuts, movement abilities etc?

But they're saying Metroidvania, which makes me think you're meant to go back to earlier levels with your new abilities? Are there, say, secrets generated in the first 'area' that you can't get until you find a random thing from the...third?

I tried to watch some Let's Play type stuff as reviews were glossing over this and I wanted to see some actual progression, but all the main ones I know had been playing the EA version since ages ago so I wasn't getting a sense of what discovering things in the game feels like because they were already familiar with the systems, and all of their actual first impressions were with a version of the game that could have changed drastically since then, so less meaningful in this context.

madhair60

Rogue Legacy is dog shit, this isn't dog shit that's the main difference.

Hecate

Aw, I liked rogue legacy, had to plug in my snes pad to play that game, it was awful with an analogue stick.

It's not as hard as rogue legacy, though I haven't got too far yet so that might change, the permanent progression is quite similar, you're unlocking new weapons that are added to the pool so you might find them during your next run.
I don't like metroidvanias, it's not really like that, you're not backtracking and there are lots of teleporters around for if you do reach a dead end. Some abilities you can unlock which will allow you to get to certain places on your next run.
It's all about the fast, fluid combat, using a combination of grenades and traps and bows and whips to knock folk about. It feels very satisfying when you get good at it.

madhair60

more nuanced: Loved Rogue Legacy til you unlock all the parts of the upgrade tree then it's just Number Go Up

Getting close to completing this, maybe. I reached the penultimate area but I basically didn't have a required upgrade to get any further. Busy unlocking the last rune at the moment and then I can see how it'll open up even more. Love going for a pure ranged build, traps and bows and firebrands. I play it pretty stealthily and just let my tools work for me. Fantastic gameplay loop, very addictive, yes, but enormously fun, which is most important.

A+ / A / B+

Hecate

Cwoar! Look at the gear on that - https://i.imgur.com/ZtFRAzZ.jpg

Made an absolute pigs ear of the king bit, didn't even get a chance to use my potion once. Think I'll do it next time.

Hecate

YAAAAS, MAN! By the skin of my teeth - https://i.imgur.com/h8KroYB.jpg

Such a great game, can't wait to sink my teeth into the harder difficulties.

Looks like there's nice mods for it too, that one that doubles the enemies might be fun.

Hecate

Oh, come on!
Have you seen the state of this - https://i.imgur.com/rBxK6q9.jpg
On hard you don't get to refill your health flask before the final boss.
Well this is gonna take longer than I thought.

Good skills. I've dropped it for a bit but it's such a satisfying little thing that I'm sure I'll come back when the urge takes me.


Hecate

Yay, I did it! - https://i.imgur.com/c4Vf39i.jpg
Check out the gear I had though. I kept thinking "I'm definitely gonna do it this time" but the game just kept showering me with golden gifts - https://i.imgur.com/pvOcdrE.jpg
Look at the modifiers for very hard though, NO health fountains between stages! - https://i.imgur.com/NO0kHdZ.jpg

Moribunderast

Fucken hell, this game's pretty bloody addictive, huh?

The upgrades are spaced out in such a way as to always be close enough to keep you playing but distant enough to require some effort and a few decent runs. Looking at the gear some of the people in this thread had by the time they completed a run, I'm still a ways off, I think. Not unlocking weapons anywhere near that deadly yet.

Just got to the Time Keeper for the first time and had him down to only a bit of health left but he cornered me and I couldn't get out or use a health potion in time. Ah well. After not really getting in line with using the traps much in my early runs I'm now finding them vital once I get to the Ossuary/Clock Tower onwards. The Wolf Trap and Crossbo-Matic are great for sweeping dangerous areas. Thus far finding my best runs come if I can equip those traps and get some quick daggers and frost blast as my weapons.

The controls in this game feel brilliant. It's rare to find a platforming game where you never feel like a missed jump is a result of dodgy controls or balancing but this just feels fluid as fuck. Any deaths are purely a result of getting greedy or having dumb thumbs - it's all very fair which is so important for a game of this style. Finding it much more enjoyable than Isaac, which is okay but feels much clumsier than this to play.

remedial_gash

Totally agree, finally beat beat HOTK after 115 runs - though only the third time of facing him. Also got to him in first run on one boss cell. It's a beaut of a game where you really do get better with every go.  Old school as fuck but the controls are sublime.

remedial_gash

If you're having problems with time keeper - get an ice bow, a trap, a shooty thing like crossbowmatic and any sword  - you'll fuck her in under 2 minutes.

Junglist

I currently am up to 3C mode but be warned at that point its a lot less about fun combinations and more about specific combos unless your skill is off the chart

Barry Admin

Shiiiiit, I've been waiting for this to go on sale, and finally it has!

Moribunderast

Oof, that Hand Of The King is a rough mamma-jamma, isn't he?

Am now tooled up enough and have gitt'n sufficiently gud that I can reach the final level and generally the final boss on each run-through but thus far he is handing me my arse on a platter whenever I get there. I've read that it's advisable to use a shield against him but I have pretty much ignored shields throughout my entire experience with the game.

Great game. Quite soothing to just put on headphones, listen to a podcast and do a 30-50 minute run every second day or so.

remedial_gash

For HOTK on 0 cells, I found the best way to beat him was with a largely tactical build, so a heavy turret and another turret of your choosing, and Ice bow and either a pyrotechnics for range , or a balanced or frantic blade. Also healing flask 4 charges if struggling.

I am at 2BC now and have hit a road block due to the lack of healing fountains.