Moderator: JC Denton
by icycalm » 09 May 2017 13:39
Steam wrote:Dead Cells is a rogue-lite, metroidvania action-platformer. You'll explore a sprawling, ever-changing castle... assuming you’re able to fight your way past its keepers in 2D souls-lite combat. No checkpoints. Kill, die, learn, repeat.
by icycalm » 09 May 2017 13:41
by icycalm » 15 May 2017 22:23
SolarFlar3 wrote:This game has really satisfying combat, but its loop isn't well structured, and it makes getting to what you want to do a chore after you've played for awhile. Everybody else has talked about the good for this game, so I'll just talk about the bad though the things they say are good actually are pretty good.
The metroid element of this game is pretty bad. In most game like this, the upgrades you get that are keys also have functionality outside of opening up new areas such as double jump, or ground pound (both of which exist in this game but aren't keys that you have to collect). Instead the keys in this game are features that are locked to certain areas of the map that don't do anything except at those specific points. It isn't particularly interesting to unlock them because the game wouldn't change in any way if the little seeds that you turn into vines, or the sarcophogus that lets you teleport just let you do that from the beginning. It's map features that are already generated that are arbitrarily locked until you get some runes. It doesn't really take away from the game, but it was a letdown that the only real metroid element is so uninteresting. If the keys actually were the double jump or the ground pound, or the ledge grab that would be a lot better because that feels so much more natural.
Combat is really good until something goes wrong because there are a couple cool systems that don't work well together. The game doesn't give you invulnerability frames but still gives you a knockback timer. The game is designed so that enemies do a ton of damage, but you can recover most of the lost health back if you attack enemies quickly enough. What this means in practice is that if there are 2 enemies that are both able to attack you, and one of them gets an attack off, you are very likely dead at any of the level 4's or higher because 2 enemy attacks is enough to kill you if you didn't get lucky with health upgrades, which actually leads to the another point...
...the in game upgrade system makes a lot of the game feel like a chore. If I'm trying to get past the graveyard, but the butcher guy pulled me in and launched me into spikes to kill me from full health, I wouldn't be so salty if it didn't take like 30 minutes to get to that point despite being pretty certain I won't die before then. However, because you restart with none of your upgrades, you still have to explore all of the nooks and crannies up until that point because otherwise you will go there underfarmed. I just want to get past the graveyard, I don't want to explore the entire 4 levels leading up to it just to get there still underfarmed. I'm down with starting from the beginning, but lets make the health and melee and ability upgrades either permanent or consistent. Sometimes I'll get to the graveyard with 3-4 health upgrades, and sometimes I get there with 7. I would like a nice even 5-5-5 rather than 3-4-2 which sometimes happens with bad luck. I think it would be cool if the upgrades were permanent and they were hidden across all of the levels, but I would also be okay with a little consistency in the number of upgrades available across different runs. Alternatively, I would be happy if you had invulnerability frames while you were on your knockback timer. I've played a lot of proc-gen games, and in none of them do runs end as anticlimatically as they do in this game. Oops, you were hit once, hit twice, dead. 35 minutes and 40 cells gone. Better hope you get more than 2 health upgrades next run so that your 4 remaining health potions will actually serve a purpose
A lot of the other problems come because of unrealized potential in game design. The metroid elements are disappointing, but in a game where there are so many paths to the same goal, yould think that the paths might be differentiated in something other than enemy types and art. Wouldn't it be cool if when you went to the old sewer you were guarenteed to get sticky shoes that prevented you from getting knock backed? Or if you chose to go to the ramparts, you obtained a battering ram that could break down any door that would normally require a pressure plate. If the different paths you took actually gave the game an overall different feel, then the boring runes that currently exist would be more justified because they would give you access to the thing that actually did make the game interesting. Different levels should have different gear, traps, and run-length passives in addition to the different enemies that they currently do have. Maybe the toxic sewer has a chance that it will be filing up with toxin the whole time your in it, and so you have to quickly make your way to the top to get out of the level, but your reward is a gas mask that makes you immune to poison for the rest of the run. Nothing exist likes that currently, the entire game is exclusively satisfying combat.
Anyway, the game has good combat, but it has way too much room for improvement for me to recommend it. I love these kinds of games, so I'll update my review as it gets better. I dont need new enemy, weapon, or spell types for awhile, I want a more well-designed and interesting game loop.