Dead Cells (2018)
Dead Cells is a 2018 platform video game made by Motion Twin and Evil Empire.
A sprawling castle rebuilds itself every time you die, and you, a mass of animated cells inhabiting a headless corpse, fight back through it again. Motion Twin fuses roguelite runs with Metroidvania exploration and lightning-fast souls-like combat, where dodging and timing matter more than any health bar. No checkpoints soften the fall. Death strips your gear but feeds your knowledge, so each attempt reaches a little deeper into shifting biomes full of traps, hidden rooms, and increasingly nasty keepers. The result is a brutal, elegant loop of kill, die, learn, repeat, tuned until the failure itself starts to feel good.
Quick answers
What is Dead Cells about?
A sprawling castle rebuilds itself every time you die, and you, a mass of animated cells inhabiting a headless corpse, fight back through it again. Motion Twin fuses roguelite runs with Metroidvania exploration and lightning-fast souls-like combat, where dodging and timing matter more than any health bar. No checkpoints soften the fall. Death strips your gear but feeds your knowledge, so each attempt reaches a little deeper into shifting biomes full of traps, hidden rooms, and increasingly nasty keepers. The result is a brutal, elegant loop of kill, die, learn, repeat, tuned until the failure itself starts to feel good.
When was Dead Cells released?
Dead Cells was released on 6 August 2018.
Who made Dead Cells?
Dead Cells was made by Motion Twin and Evil Empire.
Similar games
Explore Dead Cells guides
Dead Cells in our writing
- Companion guide: Metroidvania: The Complete Guide to the Interconnected World
- Companion guide: Roguelike & Roguelite: The Complete Guide to Die and Retry
A few thoughts on Dead Cells
Anyone hooked on the die-and-retry rhythm should try Hades, which wraps the same loop in Greek myth and real story. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is the Metroidvania blueprint Dead Cells sharpens to a razor. And Judas Priest's Painkiller runs at exactly the reckless speed of a perfect no-hit run.
Merciless trials that punish every wrong step
Dead Cells resets you to nothing on every death, but each attempt reads the castle's traps and keepers a little better than the last. Made in Abyss punishes descent the same unforgiving way, Hunter x Hunter's exam arcs grind fighters down through escalating stakes, Saint Seiya's warriors take beating after beating and stand back up, and Oathbringer breaks its characters before it lets them mend.
Metal and prog rock made for grinding through hell
There's no soft landing in Dead Cells, just blades, spikes, and a soundtrack built to keep the pulse racing through the pain. Judas Priest's Painkiller, the churning riffs of IX Equilibrium, Fates Warning's The Spectre Within, and King Crimson's In the Court of the Crimson King all supply that same relentless, teeth-gritted intensity.
Decaying castles ruled by brutal, close-quarters combat
The castle in Dead Cells has rotted from the crown down, and every corridor ends in a fight settled by blade or bow. The Witcher 3's grounded swordplay, the crumbling thrones of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, and Wizard and Glass's gunslinger trek through a broken world all trade in that same close, unglamorous violence.