Dead Cells Mobile Review: A Highly Replayable Rogue-lite Experience

As a hardcore lover of souls and soul-like games who has spent thousands of hours in the fictional worlds created by Miyazaki, his team, and other developers, I have always had a craving to try out roguelike and rogue-lite Metroidvania games. Over the years, while I have tried many in the genre, nothing came closer to the experience I had playing Dead Cells on mobile.

For players who haven't played this masterpiece yet, Dead Cells is a rogue-lite game from developer Motion Twins that was initially released in 2017 and is now available on almost every platform, including mobile.

With that said, this is our review of Dead Cells Mobile.

Table of Contents

1. Story
2. Gameplay
3. Visuals
4. Sound & Music
5. Performance
6. Microtransactions
7. Uniqueness
8. Conclusion
9. Final Rating

Story

Dead Cells is set on a fictional island plagued with an unknown infection called Malaise. You take control of a mysterious parasite-like being who takes over a dead prisoner as his host to try to escape the island, only soon to find out that you can't die and are in an endless loop where each death forces you back to the beginning, setting the main premise of the game.

Playing through the game, you will learn more about the epidemic on the island and how everyone succumbed to it, becoming the monsters that you have been fighting throughout your journey.

As you explore the procedurally generated levels, you will come across characters, items, and POIs that allow you to learn more about the game world and what happened there.

To me, Dead Cells' story was generic and easily overshadowed by its phenomenal gameplay. But that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy it or the setting.

Gameplay

Gameplay is where Dead Cells shines the most as it offers an engaging, fast-paced combat that you can use to get through ever-changing levels with fluid movement with little to no penalty as you cruise through the enemies left and right and use the wide array of weapons at your disposal to take them out.

Every run in Dead Cells feels unique, as from the levels to item placements, every time you die, you will find things changed. However, you will never get bored of it, as moving around the levels in Dead Cells is one of the best things I experienced in the game. To an extent, I even forgot to use my attacks and was just running around and exploring the levels.

Moving around the enemies while dodging their attacks and unleashing mine made me feel like an untouchable protagonist from an anime. The wide array of upgrades, bonuses that you get from killing enemies, buffs that you obtain from items, and other such powerups ensure you are ready to tackle the next challenge put in your way.

The game offers a lot of replayability where the combat alone will never let you get bored of the game and will always make you feel like you have to get better and push further.

Now, talking about the most important thing, does Dead Cells have controller support on mobile? The answer is yes. Now, did I use a controller to play the game? The answer is no. I had to experience the game using the on-screen buttons and to my surprise, they are responsive and placed in a manner that once you get used to them, you will never be tapping the wrong button again.

Visuals

When it comes to graphics and visual design, Dead Cells stands above many of the new Metroidvania titles. Its procedurally generated yet gorgeous levels, with their unique color palette, always feel good to explore and make the game visually appealing.

Sound & Music

Sound and music stand at the core of the Dead Cell experience that makes every action you make and the world around you alive and, at the same time, manages to put the tension around you, fitting the game's setting.

Thanks to the phenomenal sound design, everything feels real, from the swing of your sword to the arrows fired from your bow. The game also features a vast collection of background music that will keep you pumped and engrossed.

From the music that plays during the elite fight that kicks in the adrenaline inside you to the slow and grim prison music, every BGM in the game made me wonder why I didn't play this masterpiece before.

Music is one of the key factors, to me at least, whenever I am playing Metroidvania, a souls game or a souls-like as it makes the experience far better and makes the game world feel more alive to keep invested.

Thankfully, not once did I feel like any of the scores playing in Dead Cells didn't fit the theme, the level, or the situation.

Performance

I played Dead Cells on an iPhone 13 Pro with uncapped FPS, and I never encountered any performance issues.

When it comes to technical performance, Dead Cells is a highly optimized game that can be played on all sorts of mobile devices.

You can even play it on low to mid-end devices and tweak the relatively limited Video setting where you can cap the FPS and choose whether to use High Resolution for a more sharp and crisp image quality.

Microtransactions

Dead Cells does not contain any microtransactions. Once you pay an upfront price for the game, it's all yours. There are no power-ups, buffs, or special items that you can get as an advantage using real money.

Uniqueness

While other rogue-lite Metroidvania games deliver a somewhat similar experience to Dead Cells, I haven't played any other game in the genre that offers the same kind of replayability as Dead Cells.

The perma death game style, with the everchanging levels and the fast-paced movement and combat, makes it a unique experience that you will fail to find as a package in any other game.

Conclusion

Dead Cells is a must-play game that every rogue-lite Metroidvania fan should experience at least once. Although it may not offer the best story, it delivers on every other front.

From the gorgeous level designs to the enemies and bosses to the music, everything in the game is top-notch, and it never gets boring, even after multiple runs.

Final Rating

The final rating is based on how the game performs in every key area discussed in the review. This includes story, gameplay, performance, graphics, music, uniqueness, and the microtransactions in the game.

Here is an overview of the scoring in each area:

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