One of the best roguelikes on PC is getting a farewell of sorts this week. Twitchy slashfest Dead Cells received its final major update, introducing new enemies, fresh weapons, and a few mutations. Unfortunately, all this new stuff is very cursed.
In other words, it all toys with the game's "curse" status effect, a hex that causes you to be killed if you take even a single hit. You'll probably die a few times as a result of this update, which in some ways is a fitting finalé for this fast-paced jar smasher of a game. You can see the new features in the trailer below.
Usually, you suffer the "curse" status by agreeing to open cursed chests in a risk-reward gamble for good gear. It's a Faustian bargain that plops a number over your head - kill that amount of enemies to lift the curse. But take even a teeny weeny bit of damage and you are toast.
With this final update, there are going to be some new ways to catch the curse, and new ways to benefit from it. Enemies like the Doom Bringer and Curser will curse you with their attacks. And a new "cursed flask" will let you regain health infinitely but you'll also take a stack of curse with every slurp.
There's also a mutation that increases your damage by 30% if you're cursed. The new mobs won't appear randomly like other enemies, though. They only appear in biomes marked as "cursed".
You'll see a special skull showing this is the case before entering the area, letting you make the decision to face those creeps or take another route. The upside is that all gear dropped in those bewitched biomes will be of a higher level. There is other stuff in the update, like new heads with which to customise your character, and new routes to take on your run.
I'll not explain everything, you can see the nitty gritty for yourself in the patch notes . Although this is the final update when it comes to special features (it's fittingly titled "The End Is Near"), there will still be minor bug-fixing patches in future, developers Evil Empire say. They've been working on this last blast of goodies for a while.
We've known about it since at least February, as they reported the studio was winding things down on Dead Cells to focus on a new game. We've since learned this new game is co-op roguelike Windblown . That swapover is a decision that Dead Cells's former lead designer Sébastien Benard called an "asshole move" out of frustration, although it's not particularly unusual for studios to move on to new projects in this way.
Benard later apologised for the strong words but clarified his thoughts . (Benard worked at Motion Twin when they created the game, but it has since passed onto Evil Empire as the de facto custodians). When I first reviewed Dead Cells , I called it "blisteringly fast when it needs to be, challenging without being frustrating, and packed with sharp, fatal toys.
" After eight years and 35 updates, it is simply more so. An exceptional game. In the endless butter churn of video games news, people may see talk of a game's final update through a mortal lens, adopting the rotten "dead game" mentality that feeds the anxiety of an industry (and an audience) obsessed with games-as-a-service.
I hope that doesn't happen here. There will be people who only get around to picking up Dead Cells years from now, and fall madly in love with its speed, fury, and playfulness. There will be folks who return to it again and again.
Nobody ever says "dead movie" or "dead book". And even though "dead" makes up 50% of this game's name, this franchise is as unlikely to perish as the flame-headed hero who carries it..
