Dead Cells
Motion Twin · Action, Adventure, Roguelike
Overview
Dead Cells is a roguelite, metroidvania inspired, 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.
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Dead Cells puts you in control of a failed alchemic experiment trying to figure out what's happening on a sprawling, ever-changing and seemingly cursed Island. Immortal but crippled, your last resort is to take over bodies in order to move, explore… and fight.
While you may well be immortal, the corpses you possess are not. Each time your host is destroyed, you will be sent back to the dungeon to find yourself a new one and start again...
Experience a Roguevania, mixing an interconnected world, branching paths and unlockable skills with the constant adrenaline-pumping threat of permadeath. No checkpoints. You either vanquish the final boss in one go or you try again. However, you keep some of your progress for successive runs new paths you’ve unlocked, access to new levels, mutations, abilities and weapons.
Tough but fair combat, responsive controls, challenging foes, and of course, the emergency panic roll to get you out of trouble make for a visceral and cathartic action game.
From the game's Steam store page.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT10,000 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Players overwhelmingly recommend Dead Cells, and when they explain why, they usually start with how it feels in the hands. They describe the movement and combat as smooth, fast and precise, with rolls, parries and attack cancels that answer instantly. The game is hard, and the word players attach to that most often is fair: deaths feel like their own fault. The one-more-run loop, the pixel art and animation, the soundtrack, the number of weapons and the crossover items from other indie games all get steady praise. Players thank assist mode and the accessibility settings for getting them into the later areas, and Steam Deck owners who mention it call it an ideal handheld game.
Negative reviews return to repetition and the cell grind: the same opening biomes every run, high unlock costs and an item pool that fills with weapons people never use. Players further in describe the higher boss cell tiers as a run of one- and two-hit deaths, with the true ending locked behind the hardest one. The paid DLC splits opinion. Praise for the expansions, Return to Castlevania above all, outweighs complaints, but players who don't own them resent DLC entrances that dead-end at a store prompt in the middle of a run. Smaller groups report lost saves when playing offline, input and platforming quirks, and the end of content updates.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
Combat and movement that answer instantlyHigh
21% of the longer reviews talk about the combat, movement or controls, and 14% pair them with words like smooth, fluid, tight, responsive, precise or satisfying, more than any other praise theme below. Players single out the speed buff from chaining kills, attack animations that can be cancelled into a roll, the shield parry, and the absence of contact damage, so running into an enemy does not hurt you. One reviewer puts the feel this way: "every dodge, jump, roll, and attack happens exactly when you expect it to." Several reviewers who usually avoid platformers or roguelikes say the combat alone won them over. A minority calls the movement floaty or the inputs inconsistent; that complaint is covered under frustrations.
The one-more-run loopHigh
12% of the longer reviews call the game addictive, describe being hooked or confess to "just one more run". The stories involve looking up at 3 AM or losing a weekend: "I'd sit down for 'just one run' and suddenly hours had vanished." Players like that a run can be paused and resumed at any point, so a single biome fits into a short break, and that permanent unlocks mean a failed run still adds something. 8% of the longer reviews mention playing it on another platform as well, such as Switch, Xbox, PlayStation or mobile.
Pixel art and animationHigh
In 14% of the longer reviews the art, graphics or animation comes up, and in 10% it comes with praise. Players describe the pixel art as detailed and fluid, some note that the sprites are rendered from 3D models, and others point to small touches such as birds scattering or light through the machinery: "The rays of sunlight shining through the cogs in Clock Tower are a prime example of that." A handful find the style ugly or too busy, and readability in crowded fights is a separate complaint covered below.
A steep challenge that players call fairHigh
Difficulty appears in 29% of the longer reviews, more than any other subject, and in 10% it is paired with words like fair, rewarding or fun. Those reviews describe a game that kills you often but rarely cheats: "Hard, but feels fair. I can always blame myself for my deaths." Players joke that the first full clear is only the tutorial. They credit the boss cell system with adding new enemies, routes and secrets at each tier while taking healing away, instead of only inflating numbers. The training room for practising bosses gets a few thanks. Opinion turns at the top tiers, as the frustrations section explains.
Weapons, builds and replay valueMedium
Variety of weapons, skills and builds is praised in 8% of the longer reviews, and replay value in 7%. Players like that each weapon has its own moveset and conditions for critical hits, that the three stat colours (Brutality, Tactics, Survival) push each run toward a style, and that routes between biomes change from run to run. Synergies are the favourite topic: "Even a weapon that seems useless at first glance can shine when paired with the right item." Critics of the same system say only a few weapons are worth taking at higher difficulties; see the frustrations section.
Music and soundMedium
10% of the longer reviews mention the music or sound design, and 6% praise it outright. Players single out the tracks for the Clock Tower, the shipwreck and the Collector, and the crunch of critical hits and parries. One reviewer writes: "There are certain areas where I genuinely don't want to leave because the music is that good." The Castlevania DLC's option to swap in remixed Castlevania music is a favourite. A few find that the opening biome's theme wears thin after many runs.
Crossovers and referencesMedium
References, crossovers and easter eggs come up in 6% of the longer reviews, and praise (3% of the longer reviews) outnumbers complaints several times over. Players enjoy finding the Hollow Knight nail, the Hotline Miami bat, Risk of Rain and Terraria items, outfits from Shovel Knight and Blasphemous, and lore rooms nodding to other indie games; one calls them "honestly so respectful of the other ips they pulled from." A small group feels the crossovers dilute the game's own identity, saying "the constant, on the nose, cameos and references to other series really hurts the atmosphere".
Assist mode and accessibilityMedium
4% of the longer reviews bring up assist mode, the accessibility options or custom mode. Players list adjustable enemy damage and speed, continues from the start of a biome, a longer parry window, enemy outlines, a dyslexia-friendly font, larger text, and toggles for blood, screen shake and flashing. What they stress is that achievements and progress stay available: "Thank you for not disabling achievements or progression with assist mode, otherwise I'd never be able to see the final ending." One player writes, "as a disabled person, this game is one of my top for accessibility." A handful of short reviews argue the option cheapens the challenge. Custom mode, which lets players remove items from the drop pool, is the other tool reviewers use to tame the randomness.
Steam Deck and modest hardwareLow
Players who mention the Steam Deck or other handheld PCs (3% of the longer reviews) say short runs fit trains, planes and the sofa: "60/90 FPS on Steam Deck LCD/OLED while barely sipping any power." Others report it running well on old laptops, integrated graphics and Linux. Offline play on the Deck is the exception, covered under lost saves below.
Where players are split
The paid DLCHigh
17% of the longer reviews mention the DLC. Positive pairings (7% of the longer reviews) outnumber complaints (2%), and the expansions players name are Return to Castlevania, The Queen and the Sea and Fatal Falls. "Every single DLC is great or even better," one writes, and the Castlevania pack wins fans for Dracula, Alucard and a playable Richter section ("there's even a minigame with Richter that's wonderful"). The objections are concentrated: 12% of the longer negative reviews take issue with the DLC's price or with how it sits inside the base game. Players without the expansions describe elevators, doors and side paths that lead to a purchase prompt, sometimes costing them a timed-door bonus: "I took it up, only for the game to tell me to buy the DLC for that area." Others mention blueprints that can drop but stay locked without a DLC, achievements tied to the expansions, and the feeling that the base game is "half a game" without them; one reviewer adds that the free Rise of the Giant expansion is not labelled as free in the game. Some players say they learned to avoid the dead ends quickly. A few negative reviews also object to a main-menu advert for the studio's next game that cannot be removed. Several reviewers advise buying the game and DLC together as a bundle on sale.
Story and loreMedium
11% of the longer reviews mention the story or lore. Praise pairings (5%) outnumber complaints (2%): fans like piecing the island's history together from lore rooms, NPC lines and item descriptions ("The lore is not force-fed to you.") and enjoy the Beheaded's sarcastic gestures. Others wanted more, saying "the game I guess just isn't too interested in telling a story", and a few find the jokey dialogue grating. A few players who reached the true ending call it rushed or left on a cliffhanger.
Starting over every runLow
Losing everything at death and restarting from the Prisoners' Quarters comes up in 2% of the longer reviews. Roguelite fans treat it as the point, but players who came for a hand-built metroidvania map find it wearing: "having to go through several levels just to reach the boss 12345 times is not fun." A few insist the game is not a true metroidvania because the map is regenerated each run, while others say the permanent runes that open new routes give enough of that feeling.
The end of updatesLow
2% of the longer reviews mention that the game no longer receives content updates, and reviewers name "The End Is Near" as the final one. Some see a finished game: "When they stopped development, I wasn't sad. It felt complete." Others feel it was cut short, noting that "some legendaries feel unfinished" and that the story never got a proper close. A few long-time players add that the final update's focus on curses and the Malaise made the top tiers harder.
What frustrates players
Repetition and the cell grindMedium
6% of the longer reviews call the game repetitive, samey or boring at some point, and among the longer negative reviews that rises to 19%. The grind is named in 4% of the longer reviews and 12% of the negative ones. Players describe replaying the same first biomes every run, high cell costs for weapons, cosmetics and the Legendary Forge, rare blueprint drops, and losing unspent cells on death: "the grind is the content now." One negative review puts the repetition plainly: "slogging through the same starter-areas with the same weapons, facing the same enemies over and over is boring." Several players say the feeling fades once the movement runes open alternative routes, and that the fresh-save item pool is the least interesting part of the game.
The higher boss cell tiersMedium
Boss cells come up in 6% of the longer reviews, and the tone shifts from pride to frustration as the tiers climb. Players describe healing fountains disappearing, enemies attacking faster, the Malaise forcing a rushed pace at four and five boss cells, and runs of 40 minutes or more ending in a single combo. One reviewer who recommends the game explains it: "You could be doing well for 4/5ths of the run, only to get two-shot by some stray charging enemy, projectile, or boss attack near the end." The second and fourth boss cells are named as walls, and players object that the true final boss and ending are only reachable on the hardest tier. Some veterans call 5BC the best part of the game, and several who struggled say assist mode or slower, methodical play got them through.
Bugs, inputs and readabilityLow
Technical or input problems are reported in 3% of the longer reviews and 9% of the negative ones. Players describe dropped or swallowed inputs ("something like a third of your inputs will be ignored, just janky."), the drop-through command sharing the jump key, unreliable ledge grabbing and auto-climbing, rolls that sometimes cannot cancel an attack, a Steam Deck camera that drifts away from the character, freezes, crashes and frame dips in busy rooms. A smaller group struggles to read crowded fights, and one player had to "turn down the particle effects and add outlines to enemies and projectiles just to be able to parse what was happening during hectic mobbing sections." Several also complain about off-screen attacks that hit before an enemy is visible. Reports on PlayStation button prompts conflict: some players praise them and others say they are missing.
Lost saves and offline playLow
1% of the longer reviews describe lost or overwritten saves, a small share written in some of the angriest terms in the slice. Steam Deck owners report that offline play keeps a separate save, that a session played offline can be lost or overwritten when the device reconnects, and that cloud sync replaced newer local progress: "your save file is gone, reduced to atoms, obliterated even." Some reviewers recommend turning off Steam Cloud for the game, and one fixed a Deck problem by forcing a compatibility layer so the Windows version runs instead of the Linux one.
Weak weapons and a crowded item poolLow
A small group of players argues that the variety is partly an illusion. They say many weapons are not viable at higher tiers ("Most weapons are fun-yet-useless junk"), that slow and two-handed weapons fall behind, that stacking scrolls into one colour is effectively required but never explained, and that unlocking more items makes good drops rarer: "it is now permanently in your weapon pool, lowering the chance of getting a good weapon you already had unlocked." Several of them name custom mode as their workaround.
3. The player conversation
Most reviews are short shouts of approval, cell puns and affectionate rage ("I hate this game, 10/10"), and the longer ones often come from players who keep returning to the game on different platforms. Hades and Hollow Knight come up in 5% of the longer reviews, and players compare Dead Cells as having faster combat but a thinner story and a less hand-built world.
What negative reviewers complain about depends on how far they got. Those with under 10 hours most often object to repetition or grind, say the game simply is not for them, or raise the DLC dead ends. Negative reviews from players with 50 hours or more talk instead about balance changes and updates, about saves, bugs or inputs, and about the higher boss cell tiers and one-hit deaths. Several of these veterans still praise the combat and describe being worn down over time rather than disappointed from the start.
The mood held steady across the period this slice covers: the share of positive reviews sat between 95% and 96% in every half-year from the second half of 2024 through 2026.
4. What the developers could do
- Stop unowned DLC areas from interrupting runs. 12% of the longer negative reviews object to the DLC's price or placement, and the most specific grievance is elevators and doors that lead to a store prompt and cost players a timed-door bonus. Marking or hiding those entrances, and never dropping blueprints that need an unowned expansion, would answer it.
- Cut the early repetition and the cell costs. Negative reviews raise repetition (19%) and the grind (12%), and players ask for cheaper unlocks and cosmetics, a richer fresh-save item pool and more variety in the opening biomes.
- Soften the one-hit deaths at higher boss cells. Players at four and five boss cells describe losing long runs to off-screen projectiles, poorly telegraphed attacks and stacked enemies, and some ask for the true ending not to require the hardest tier or for curse and Malaise pressure to be optional.
- Make offline and cloud saves safe. Steam Deck owners describe separate offline saves and cloud sync overwriting progress, so a single local save that syncs when the device reconnects would address one of the angriest complaints.
- Fix input and platforming inconsistencies. Reviewers name swallowed inputs, drop-through bound to the jump key, unreliable ledge grabbing and auto-climbing, and inconsistent roll cancels, problems that matter in a game praised mainly for its controls.
- Let players banish weak items and explain the scroll system. Players say unlocking weaker weapons dilutes the pool and that stacking one stat colour is never explained, and one asks for a limited banish option as a lighter alternative to custom mode.
- Improve readability in crowded fights. Players report turning off particle effects and adding outlines just to see attacks, so clearer default telegraphs and warnings for off-screen threats would help.
- Remove the main-menu advert. Some negative reviews describe an advert for the studio's next game on the main menu that cannot be removed, and four of the longer negative reviews cite it among their reasons.
