One of the best roguelikes on PC is saying goodbye this week. Dead Cells, the all-time favorite action-packed brawler, has received its final major update, introducing new enemies, new weapons, and a few mutations. Unfortunately, all of these new features are very cursed. In other words, they all play into the game's “curse” status effect, a spell that kills you if you take even one hit. You'll likely die multiple times because of this update, which is a fitting end to this fast-paced jar-smashing game in a way. You can check out the new features in the trailer below.
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Typically, you get the “curse” status by agreeing to open cursed chests in a risk-reward gamble to get good gear. It’s a Faustian bargain that puts a number on your head: kill that many enemies to lift the curse. But take even a little damage and you’re done for. With this latest update, there will be new ways to catch the curse and new ways to benefit from it. Enemies like the Doom Bringer and the Curser will curse you with their attacks. And a new “cursed vial” will let you regain infinite health, but you’ll also receive a stack of curse with every sip. There’s also a mutation that increases your damage by 30% if you’re cursed.
The new mobs won’t spawn randomly like other enemies. They’ll only spawn in biomes that are marked as “cursed.” You’ll see a special skull indicating this before you enter the area, allowing you to decide whether to fight these mobs or take a different path. The upside is that all the gear dropped in these cursed biomes will be of a higher tier. There are other things in the update, like new heads to customize your character with and new routes to take during your run. I won’t explain everything, you can see the details for yourself in the patch notes.
While this is the final update in terms of special features (aptly titled “The End Is Near”), there will still be minor bug fixes in the future, according to the developers at Evil Empire. They've been working on this latest round of goodies for quite some time. We've known about it since at least February, as they announced that the studio was ending work on Dead Cells to focus on a new game. We've since learned that that new game is a co-op roguelike, Windblown. The move is a decision that former Dead Cells lead designer Sébastien Benard called a “shit move” out of frustration, though it's not particularly unusual for studios to move on to new projects in this manner. Benard later apologized for his harsh remarks but clarified his thoughts. (Benard worked at Motion Twin when they created the game, but has since moved to Evil Empire as the de facto Guardian.)
When I first reviewed Dead Cells, I called it “incredibly fast when it needs to be, challenging without being frustrating, and full of sharp, deadly toys.” Eight years and 35 updates later, it’s simply more so. An exceptional game. In the endless whirlwind of video game news, people can view discussions of a game’s latest update through the prism of mortals, adopting the rotten “dead game” mentality that fuels the anxiety of an industry (and audience) obsessed with games as a service. I hope that doesn’t happen here. There will be people who don’t decide to play Dead Cells for a few years and fall head over heels in love with its speed, fury, and playfulness. There will be people who come back to it again and again. No one ever says “dead movie” or “dead book.” And even though “death” is 50% of this game's name, this franchise is as unlikely to perish as the fiery-headed hero who wears it.