Reviewing all of the additional content for Dead Cells, since I haven't played any of it before, and the game had some massive additions since 2020.
I haven't opened Dead Cells in a hot minute, also known as 3 of the worst years of my life. In that time it somehow turned into a massive Deadpool-like project for roguelite and metroidvania games. References to other games are littered throughout the levels, there are homage quests, homage items and homage secrets. Like these thing go, some of it made me smile, some of it missed the spot, cause I haven't played whatever was referenced. Overall it's not too memorable, and the biggest homage, the sprawling Castlevania DLC, is not for me, as I'm mostly familiar with that world through the animated series (not much of a classics gamer).
The quality of life improvements are huge, and very welcome. It is much more streamlined and responsive experience than it was years ago.
The additional content is hit and miss. The new items are fun, but the vast majority feel gimmicky and not very useful. If you want to survive a run with any Boss Cells activated you need to steer clear of all the new shiny things, and they serve as a major annoyance because they clutter the space in the shops and chests. The companion items are very cute and, unlike most of the additions, powerful, but have zero play to them, they just go around and kill stuff for you.
The added levels leave a better impression. They experiment with stuff a lot in them, for example Lighthouse level gives an exciting vertical moving boss fight with traps and a ticking clock of a fire underneath you. Even for someone who is not particularly into Castlevania, everything in those locations looks and sounds awesome, as is with most of the new levels.
The core experience of Dead Cells is still probably the best 2D action I ever played, and you can't take that away from the game. On balance, the new additions are mostly entertaining fluff rather than something substantial. After completing all the new levels a couple of times, I mostly stuck to the original routes.
I haven't opened Dead Cells in a hot minute, also known as 3 of the worst years of my life. In that time it somehow turned into a massive Deadpool-like project for roguelite and metroidvania games. References to other games are littered throughout the levels, there are homage quests, homage items and homage secrets. Like these thing go, some of it made me smile, some of it missed the spot, cause I haven't played whatever was referenced. Overall it's not too memorable, and the biggest homage, the sprawling Castlevania DLC, is not for me, as I'm mostly familiar with that world through the animated series (not much of a classics gamer).
The quality of life improvements are huge, and very welcome. It is much more streamlined and responsive experience than it was years ago.
The additional content is hit and miss. The new items are fun, but the vast majority feel gimmicky and not very useful. If you want to survive a run with any Boss Cells activated you need to steer clear of all the new shiny things, and they serve as a major annoyance because they clutter the space in the shops and chests. The companion items are very cute and, unlike most of the additions, powerful, but have zero play to them, they just go around and kill stuff for you.
The added levels leave a better impression. They experiment with stuff a lot in them, for example Lighthouse level gives an exciting vertical moving boss fight with traps and a ticking clock of a fire underneath you. Even for someone who is not particularly into Castlevania, everything in those locations looks and sounds awesome, as is with most of the new levels.
The core experience of Dead Cells is still probably the best 2D action I ever played, and you can't take that away from the game. On balance, the new additions are mostly entertaining fluff rather than something substantial. After completing all the new levels a couple of times, I mostly stuck to the original routes.