It is safe to say that Dead cells is more alive than ever. First released in 2018 for PC and consoles, the excellent side scrolling roguelike presents you as a revived soldier. You wield weapons chosen at random, which you use to kill randomly generated enemies as you scroll through randomly generated biomes. It’s deliciously chaotic.
The developer Motion Twin continued to bring the game to life, releasing a constant stream of extra content and diversifying the platforms on which you can play. Today we see the launch of the most recent expansion, Fatal Falls, $ 5 downloadable content that adds new areas, new weapons and a new boss to the game. A good reason to play, if you ask me.
It looks like fun. Where can I play?
Dead cells it was initially available on Switch, PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Currently, there are mobile versions for Android and iPhone players. It is also part of the Game Pass library and can be streamed on PS Now (well, next week). To like Fifteen days and Minecraft, Dead cells it is practically everywhere. Personally, I prefer the Switch.
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What about these expansions?
Over the years, Motion Twin and it is Dead cells– focused label, Evil Empire, launched three major expansions for the game. They are:
Giant’s Rise: This is free and adds a stage called Cavern to the game, as well as allowing you to face a new boss called Giant.
Bad Seed: Last year’s expansion, The Bad Seed DLC, added two new biomes, the Dilapidated Arboretum and the Banished Swamp. These serve as alternative routes for the second (Walk of the Damned, Toxic Sewers) and third (Walls, Ancient Sewers, Ossuary) stages, culminating in a boss fight against a gigantic 90-eyed monstrosity called Mama Tick, an alternate boss in the middle of the game for the Concierge. Altogether, it is an excellent way to shake up the early segments of your runs. Five dollars.
Fatal Falls: Today Fatal Falls the expansion also adds two biomes. The first, Fractured Shrines, aims to serve as an alternative to the Stilt Village and Slumbering areas. The second, Undying Shore, diverts players away from the Clocktower and the absolutely feared areas of the Forgotten Sepulcher. It culminates in a boss fight on a stage called the Mausoleum. (All those who hate that frustrating fight against the Time Keeper, rejoice!) This one also has five dollars.
Altogether, after the expansions, there are more than two dozen biomes. With the two expansions downloaded, your runs through the biomes generated procedurally from the game will be much more varied than they would be with the base version.
What’s up with the story?
Dead cells‘history is not absurd. It is extremely reduced. You play as a disembodied entity known as Headless. Your goal is to escape from prison, which you do by overtaking a headless body at the start of each run. The whole world is afflicted by a vague disease called Malaise, which seems to have revived a lot of corpses in monsters of various sizes and strengths. When you die, you will take on another headless body in the starting area.
O Giant’s Rise added a fun aspect to the overall storyline by revealing that the Collector – he is the guy to whom you give all the cells won in exchange for new equipment and powers – turned out to be the great evil of the game. Apparently, the Collector was trying to work on a cure for Malaise, the Panacea, but he went crazy in the process. You can only achieve it with five Boss Stem Cells activated, a ridiculously scary task that I didn’t even consider tackling.
Boss Stem Cells
These little globules of … blood (?) Are Dead Cells’ approach to difficulty levels. You can activate them in the starting chamber – each significantly increasing the challenge more than the previous one – and you must overcome each difficulty level before unlocking the next one.
At the end of the day, you play Dead cells for skillful combat, the steady platform, the irresistible sense of incremental progression, the eye-popping pixel art or that deliciously crunchy sound design. For better or worse, history exists on the margins.
So… should I play?
Yes! Go! Go! Go! Dead cells still strange rules. You heard it here first.