One of my favourite games: Dead Cells

Okay, so with the OnePlus phones lately they've really got the guts and the gas tank to put in some real gaming time with the device.  That and the GameVice Flex controller really make it my alternative to a Steam Deck.

But you need a good game to play, and I've struggled lately to find one, especially one with controller support.  Well, there has been this game that was always suggested to me, and I remember having it in my Stadia library, but I don't think I gave it a real shot.

The game did cost $13.99CAD to buy ... but I'd been doing those Google Rewards forever and had more than enough to buy it, so why not.

Definitely worth it.

So what really makes this interesting, sure it's a platformer and a jump and hack and slasher type, I like those.  (that's the Castlevania style of the 'metroidvania')

That really appeals to me.  But as you go along you can get better weapons, upgrade skills (okay, that's Metroid like).

But to keep it interesting to a guy like me is that you never really... win. (this is the 'roguelike' style..).  

Every time you play it, it's slightly different.  The map is created different every time.  


Your weapons you find are going to be different.

Speaking of weapons, you can go along and choose which you pick up and they come in 3 flavours:  

Brutality (high attack dps), Tactic (range attacks), Survival (shields and heavy damage slow weapons).  You pick what you like, change when you find something new.

Except, that as you go along you find scrolls that up your stats in one of those 'stats'.  

If you have a Brutality weapon, you'll want to choose that stat to boost.  If you've boosted it a lot and a decent Tactics weapon comes along... you may not want to swap out.

It's fun.  Every weapon has its own pluses and minuses to add to your gameplay.

And there's a TON... a literal TON of weapons to find along your route... well, you find the 'blueprints' for a weapon and you spend 'cells' you collect to eventually unlock it, meaning it may now start to show up in your 'runs'.  


No end to the vast variability now of the gameplay depending on what kinds of weapon build out you use.

Now, I called a game a 'run'.  It's because you want to run through and 'win'.  But it's not really a win.  You can find multiple ways to get to the end of the 'game', and when you do, you beat the last boss and ... well, you start over.

But, now that you've run through it 1x, you get 1 Boss Stem Cell.  So the game is now just a little bit harder.  Go through it again (I've not been able to beat on 1BC so far) you could earn your 2nd (2BC).  And so on, until ... 5, or so I've been told.

Also, now that you have 1BC certain doors are now starting to open (some are limited to 2 or 3 or...).

So even after you've been it, it's not just playing it again harder, the complexity opens up a little more too.

Endlessly entertaining and lots of fun gore and hack and slash through (did I even mention the costumes you can unlock).

Best of all, it syncs in Google Play Games so no matter which phone I'm using that day, I can do a run and see if I can't get through to the end.

I've been playing since Christmas, maybe an hour here or there and I've barely scratched the surface (you can see all the empty jars I've yet to find)



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