Tag Archives: Roguelite

Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania Review

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It’s time for another big roguelite game! Hades really helped me get into the genre and it’s been nonstop Ws since then! This one isn’t quite as story based but there is definitely a lot of story content here to sink your teeth into. This collection also brings 9 DLC waves with it so that’s a lot of extra content at the ready. Get ready to lose a lot but every death will take you closer to your big victory.

You play as an undead guy who just won’t stay dead. For some reason you are doomed to regenerate after every death. There is some kind of a grand plan at work here and the hero knows that he will have to defeat an ultimate evil. Problem is he doesn’t have much of a memory either so the whole thing is like a never ending mystery. One thing’s for sure, escaping this realm is not possible so he will have to keep on moving forward.

There is a lot of lore within the game’s universe but it’s all told within interactable objects. There is the occasional cutscene with some vague dialogue but the atmosphere is the top priority here. Additionally if you want to get the true ending then you have to complete the game on all 5 difficulty levels. Props to anyone who is able to accomplish that because this seems like an incredibly difficult task to me. Beating the game on normal and hard was tough enough.

The gameplay feels a bit like a Castlevania title. It is 2D and you use your weapons to clear out the enemies and make it to the next room. Each room has around 2-3 exits which lead you to other levels. There is also a rest level in between each one for you to heal up and gather your bearings. You will be presented with many different weapons and bombs as you go through the levels and you need to choose the ones that you prefer to use. There are many different ending rooms since each of the DLCs are baked into the game as well. It makes for a lot of variety and of course the room layouts are randomized so don’t think that you can just memorize all of the spots.

Defeated enemies drop orbs which you can use to unlock permanent power ups as well as alternate costumes. Be warned that every weapon you unlock becomes part of the random rotations. So if you really don’t like a weapon, you should not unlock it. There is no way to turn off unlocked weapons unless you go into creative mode. For the most part I tried not to unlock new weapons after I got my initial set and just focused on mutations and the permanent ones. Still, it’s possible that you will miss out on some really cool ones as a result so you shouldn’t be too picky.

Each weapon has a rank from 0 to 10 and those ranks have 3 levels to them. As you progress through the levels in each run they will get higher. What that means is that you might start a run with your favorite weapon but it’s in your best interest to upgrade soon. Yes, that means getting rid of your favorite weapon sometimes but that’s just how it goes. There is no benefit to staying with a grade 0 weapon and in fact it’ll make defeating some bosses nearly impossible.

The enemies scale up with each room so you need to keep pace with them. In each level there are also scrolls which you can use to amp up the power of one type of weapon. Red, Green, or Purple. You want to focus on always using the power ups on whatever color you are going to prioritize. They scale like crazy with compound interest so trying to do a little of everything is a super bad idea. Definitely don’t fall for it and stick to one. That’s the best way to make a lot of ground here.

My favorite setup was the mega hammer and a freeze gun. I would just freeze the enemies in place and then land my power move. It’s not good against the boss at the shipyard but works on just about everyone else. I was able to use that combination to beat the game on my only 2 successful attempts. I have a harder time reading the enemy movements so going with the faster swords didn’t really work for once. The game also puts a lot of work in for setting up shields for parrying/blocking but admittedly I never really tried it. I mean literally I never used the shields. I feel like this game is more about DPS and I didn’t want to bother trying to learn how to use the shields effectively.

The game has over 110 trophies which is incredible. That’s thanks to the DLCs of course but I’ll take it. I got over 60 trophies during my run which was a satisfying number. Getting the platinum is not something that I’m really going to attempt though. It would definitely be really difficult as it is and you need total mastery of the genre. It would be a true milestone to get that though. It’s something that most players won’t get anywhere close to.

The graphics look pretty good. It has that indie type vibe to it while still being pretty colorful. It does well in the retro side of things and the soundtrack is also good. I would say that the Castlevania tracks tend to be the best ones though. The remixes were a blast and there was a lot of care put into that one. The Castlevania DLC also was the most story based one which was pretty cool. You’ll easily be here for at least 20 hours or so. Honestly I’ve been getting some pretty good bang for my buck lately as every game seems to last at least 20 hours or so. It’ll probably be time for the shorter games to make a comeback at some point but it’s just hard to turn down the longer ones.

Overall, I would definitely recommend Dead Cells. As long as you enjoy the Roguelite genre then you can definitely appreciate all the work they put into this one. The amount of content you get is super impressive and the gameplay is extremely smooth. Some things may be really difficult to figure out without a guide so I recommend checking in with the community. Then you will have fun unlocking the final levels and slowly improving your home base. You get to see new weapons and items pop up on the ceiling and I guess one goal you can have is to get them all up there. I don’t know if there is a reward for that but there might be one.

Overall 8/10

Hellboy: Web of Wyrd Review

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This is one of those games that may have been on my radar earlier if I had already been on my rogue marathon. Well, better late than never as they say. It’s pretty interesting to play a Hades styled game that’s in 3D. You can feel a lot of similar elements here from the soundtrack to the level designs and gameplay setup. It definitely feels much lower budget though with certain parts of the game really needing quality of life improvements. All that said, the game was really fun to play through.

The game starts off with Hellboy and the BPRD heading to a castle because some weird things have been happening there. One of their guys named Lucky is nearly trapped in a parallel dimension known as “The Wyrd”. He warns Hellboy that weird things are going on in there but Hellboy has to risk it. Somehow the Nazi’s have invaded the realm as well and may use that to stage an attack against the real world. If they aren’t stopped quickly, then it will all be over.

The Wyrd is the game’s way of explaining the death mechanic. Right before fully dying in the Wyrd, Hellboy’s teammates pull him out of the dimension using the tether. That way he can keep trying until he wins. As in any rogue type game, you are expected to die over and over and over again until you get strong enough to complete the game. When you die you keep your orbs which is the currency you use to upgrade your weapons or physical stats.

Right away that is one difference here since usually you would have more than one currency which would match with how many things there are to power up. This game doesn’t actually have a ton of content for that and as a result you can get nearly every trophy easily. The only tough one is getting all of the lore and that’s mainly because there is a ton of RNG at play here. Additionally the game plays the same message no matter how many times you pick up the same piece of lore so you will really have to remember which ones you got.

The platinum seems easy enough but a little too time consuming to go after it seriously. Keep in mind that every run will take you around 2 hours because of how many rooms you have to clear. You also aren’t going to be clearing it all that much faster as you power up since the differences are slight. It’s a bit excessive as titles like Hades can cram a ton into 30 minute run. That’s a lot more doable than something that’s around 2 hours.

This game is fully in 3D like I mentioned so you are mainly alternating between your punches and gun shots. For the guns the best one is easily the grenade launcher which makes sense as it’s the final one that you unlock. It can deal devastating damage so you should try to max that out as soon as possible. Then you have your punches which are strong enough. You mainly want to focus on learning when the best time to dodge or parry is. This will help you immensely as you make your way through to the game.

Every attack can be dodged and so if you play your cards right then you shouldn’t lose much. I died maybe twice so it can still happen if you don’t let your guard down. Now, while I had a good time with it, the lack of attacks does mean that you may find this repetitive if you don’t really enjoy the combat. So it will all come down to that in the end. Particularly since there aren’t any other real modes to this. You will keep bashing away at the same enemies until they have all gone down for the count.

The graphics are really good though. The atmosphere works really well for a horror type game. Everything is very eerie and suspenseful. The colors are all really strong as well with how bright the red is and how sharp the colors are in general. It’s a game that really stands out. The soundtrack is also pretty good since it is really trying to capture the rock feeling from the Hades titles. So the technical aspects don’t disappoint in these two areas.

Ultimately for the game to turn the corner and get to an 8 I would have just needed a little more content. Maybe a wider range of enemies to go up against or some more levels. Instead of making the runs so long I would have more runs that are shorter in length. I guess it would mean less opportunities for power ups and such but it just seems to fit the genre a bit better this way. You could also make the levels more linear instead of having doors that basically take you in a loop. With no map, it could be easy to waste a little time. Especially when you are also checking the ground for items and gold since they really don’t stick out.

Let me just focus more on the action and then we’re good. Without the grenade launcher, the game would definitely have jumped quite a bit in difficulty. I was effectively able to cheese it to an extent since the explosions are so powerful. Without the launcher, I’d have to go in swinging the whole time and naturally that comes with a whole lot of risks as well. If you miss a parry, you eat an absolute ton of damage.

Overall, This is a pretty good game. I do think it should have had more content or at least been able to tell you when you’ve found a new collectible. It’s the little things like that which makes a difference or the game not having a map. This feels like it just didn’t have a big production team. Still, the combat is fun which is easily the most important part. I’d definitely recommend playing through this one. It will give you a good amount of fun for as long as it lasts.

Overall 7/10