Think of such a game that you will not get bored even if you play for hundreds of hours. If you are looking for such a game, this game is definitely Dead Cells. The game is actually a classic Metroidvania and roguelike game. Even I, who hates roguelike games and is quite prejudiced against such games, absolutely loved Dead Cells.
One of my favorite things about Dead Cells is that the gameplay is almost endless. Its story, graphics, music, gameplay mechanics, level design, and retro-like structure really make it a great experience for those who play it. In my opinion, this game is one of the best games of 2018. I want to talk about the mechanics of the game rather than the story because the story is full of many plot twists, and there is great storytelling in the game.
To summarize the story of Dead Cells; we are actually a mutated creature and every time we die in the game, we mutate over and over again and enter a dead body. Our character has no head and cannot speak, but can respond with body language to the characters we interact with. The enemies we encounter are infected and mutated creatures.
As we progress through the dungeons, we can collect dead cells, gold, weapons, side items, food that helps to increase your health (ie health potion), and many more from the enemies we kill. The most valuable things in the game are dead cells and gold. When we die while progressing in dungeons, we lose all of these dead cells and our progress is wasted. In exchange for dead cells and gold, we can buy weapons, shields, bows, mutations, special boosts, and side items from traders we come across in dungeons, these are very important things for our progress in the game.
If we can survive in the dungeons, we may encounter one of the most important merchants of the game, the collector, in the safe dungeons we have just entered. Perhaps the best thing that can happen to you in the game is if you encounter a collector while your character has lots of dead cells. By giving your dead cells to the collector, you can invest in your upgrades, weapons, and extra power-ups, so you can use the dead cells you collect before you die. Actually, this game mechanic reminds me of souls games, there is a similar bonfire mechanic in this game, just like in souls games, but it works a little differently than souls-like games. The safe dungeons we enter after leaving the dungeon are bonfires, and the dead cells we spend at the collector's merchant are souls.
When you die, you lose all your dead cells and gold, in short, everything you have collected. After each death, you can make a small investment in your in-game build by choosing a mutation at the dungeon entrance. After the mutation selection, the game offers you 3 random weapons to start with and you enter the dungeon by taking 2 of these three weapons. You can immediately equip new weapons that drop while killing monsters/bosses in dungeons.
We can use weapons, shields, or bows in the game. Depending on the DPS, block, and mutation synergy of each weapon, we can use the weapons or sell the weapons we do not want to use. The game is very good in terms of weapon variety and we can find higher tier versions of almost all weapons or we can upgrade the weapons we use to higher tiers, we unlock this feature later in the game.
This is the build I'm currently using. I usually try to play the game with this build and invest in the RED (brutality) mutation to go for a more aggressive build because when I use a RED weapon, the damage bonus that comes with the buff synergy literally turns me into a DPS monster. When I use a full DPS build, my life points are very low and my defense is very weak, but I solve this problem by using the bow as a secondary weapon. Except for this build, sometimes I play with blood sword instead of daggers because it's so much fun.
These are the only upgrades I unlocked from the collector since I started the game from scratch again. The more upgrades you make, the longer your progress in the game will be, but remember that finishing the game once will not lead you to the true ending. :)
If you like 2D pixel art games and are looking for a game with long gameplay, you should definitely play Dead Cells.
Dead Cells is available on almost every platform. You can buy the game on Steam, Epic Games Store, Origin, and GOG for the PC version; Microsoft Store (Xbox) and, Playstation Store for the console version, and App Store & Google Play Store for mobile devices.
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