Dead Cells
Review

Dead Cells (2017) is a running, jumping and fighting game where you are escaping a prison. In a bright pixelated world you must accurately time attacks and dodges to defeat a wide range of enemies. It's intentionally hard, and you will die a lot. But each time you do you can start again with more knowledge and weapon options.

In each level you hack and slash your way to an exit, balancing your resources. The structure and layout of levels is different each time to play, making no two attempts alike. This means that progressing in the game is not just limited to how well you can memorize different levels but rather how you can adapt to situations, learn the mechanics and understand how to prioritise your time and resources.

As you progress through multiple attempts you find a variety of unique items and abilities, most of which, will be lost when you die. A part of the challenge is choosing which weapons to keep, develop and which to discard. Between each level, you can purchase permanent upgrades which you keep when you die. But again, care is needed to upgrade items that will make a difference as each upgrade is expensive.

Our examiner, Jonah Monaghan, first checked Dead Cells 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Ben Kendall and updated 3 months ago.