Rogue-like games have a thin line to walk. They have to be challenging but repayable; they need a bevy of upgrades, mods, weapons, loot etc, but also need randomly-generated levels that push discovery. Dead Cells is a roguelike that accomplishes this, and more is to come when Dead Cells adds it’s Fatal Falls DLC next year.
For those who haven’t played this critically-acclaimed game, it’s simple. You run through the levels killing enemies with random weapons given to you at the start. They get progressively more powerful as the levels get more challenging, until you die and restart with some collected items. Then you do it again. Again.
A Tough Cell
Some of the fun is the challenge and not knowing what lies ahead. Better yet, when a run is finally completed after hours of deaths and practice, it can almost reach Soulsborne-like levels of gratification. Things that conspired against you earlier come together to bolster your next run, giving you a steady pace of progress.
The upcoming DLC will follow the same path as the first, The Bad Seed, which released in February 2020. The Bad Seed offered a couple of new biomes (levels), new enemies, gear and a boss. The levels are accessible from a biome earlier on in the game (The Prison, actually).
Motion Twin isn’t using procedural generation when it comes to development. Fatal Falls will include 2 new biomes (The Fractured Shrines and The Undying Shores) both of which are outside the castle, and will feature a new boss fight. The biomes will be added as alternate paths to Stilt Village, Clock Tower and Time Keeper.
Fatal Falls will also add “a significant amount of new content” according to the developers. The best news? It’s the same price as The Bad Seed— $5 USD. What better way to celebrate 3.5 million copies of the game being sold than for Dead Cells to add the Fatal Falls DLC next year?
Dead Cells is available now on Mobile, Nintendo Switch, PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One. As always, for more reviews and gaming news you can keep up to date at Informed Pixel. Want to speak to the team and interact with other gamers? You can do so over on the Informed Pixel Facebook page or on the Informed Pixel Twitter account.
