Dead Cells

Dead Cells combines the metroidvania genre with a roguelike structure of repeated runs, in which the player controls a formless, immortal entity animating a headless body, moving through a procedurally generated island full of prisons, catacombs and castle chambers. Each attempt starts from scratch with no equipment, but thanks to collected gold cells, players can permanently unlock new weapons, abilities and mutations between runs, gradually expanding the range of possible builds and strategies for future attempts.

The combat system is fast, precise and rewards an aggressive yet thoughtful playstyle combining swords, crossbows, grenades, traps and magic runes, with combinations of weapons and mutations allowing the construction of hundreds of different builds, from a silent assassin to a fiery berserker. Weapons are divided by three stats that also boost health, so choosing your equipment fundamentally changes not just your attack but also your survivability. The island also offers branching paths with different difficulty and rewards, so after each level the player decides whether to take the safer route or risk it for better loot. Each run's level design is procedurally assembled from hand-crafted segments, so the resulting map is different every time while retaining the good pacing and readability typical of metroidvanias. Time-limited gates that only stay open briefly further reward a fast, fluid playthrough.

The game gradually grew through a series of major paid and free expansions, such as Rise of the Giant, Fatal Falls or Return to Castlevania, the latter developed with Konami and bringing a direct crossover with the classic Castlevania series, including its characters and music. Pixel graphics combined with fluid animations create an unusually smooth sense of movement, which also suits portable play very well. Thanks to its addictive progression loop, precise combat and rich post-launch support, Dead Cells became one of the most successful and longest-living indie titles of the generation.