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Dead Cells

Dead Cells? Dead Cells! What a game! It's able to fuse the Metroidvania and rogue-lite playstyle into a near-perfect title. We're very fortunate to live in the second golden age of great side-scrolling-metroidvania games, as we do now.
Despite being quite old and being born in the backend of the Mega Man, Metroid, Castlevania and Symphony of the Night days, I've still played most of them. Today we have Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Salt and Sanctuary, Bloodstained, The Vagrant, Vigil and those are just the ones I've played and there are so many more I haven't played yet.
As a big fan of this genre you couldn't be happier. Most of them are of the highest quality and offer hours of playtime and "fun". Dead Cells manages to pay tribute to all the original games and the new ones at the same time.
So let's talk Dead Cells. Dead Cells is a side-scrolling metroidvania game mixed with rogue-like elements like permadeath and randomly generated maps. And one of the most difficult and demanding of the entire genres.
At first I didn't even think I could beat the game on normal, but after a few hours you get the deal, getting stronger and stronger and learning how do make great builds. And when you finally beat the game on the hardest difficulty and come back, it feels like a joke and you really wonder why you were having such a hard time back then.
So the learning curve is there and you must master it. And when you do, you'll have some of the most satisfying moments in video game history.
So if you've played Hades - which is somewhat similar on the rogue-lite side of the game - you might know what you're getting into, but it's definitely harder while also offering more variety. There are so many builds to choose from it's crazy. Well, some are more OP than others and some abilities and weapons are extremely underpowered, but there's certainly something for every playstyle.
You can also vary your route and don't have to play the same level over and over again. The overall story could be a bit deeper as the focus is definitely on combat.
Pros:
+Side scrolling Metroidvanian gameplay at it's finest with some rogue-like elements
+Fast paced combat using ranged, melee, magic, traps, shields, parries, dodges, blocks, really whatever you prefer
+Pixel graphics with amazing hand drawn backgrounds
+Randomly generated maps in a variety of biomes. You are not tied to one path, because you can choose from many different routes
+Lots of movement skills, secrets and lore rooms to discover
+Multiple endings and some great DLCs (most of which are free updates! Can't praise the developers enough for that these days)
+Great enemy variants and boss fights
+One of the best BGM I've ever heard, especially in later stages
+So many references and crossover elements, it's insane. From Castlevania, Hyper Light Drifter, Bloodstained, Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Guacamelee, Vigil, Skul, Dark Souls and many, many more.
Neutral:
+-Story and lore could be a bit deeper. It's still interesting, but don't expect anything like Dark Souls or Bloodborne
+-Difficulty. I can understand why people complain because the difficulty only ramps up at one point and the permadeath doesn't make it much better. You definitely need to be very patient, but the satisfaction of beating the game is priceless.
+-The balancing could be a bit better, but I can understand how difficult it is with so many weapons, abilities, powers and so on
Cons:
-Anyone who strives for all the achievements -like me- must be a bit of a masochist
-Spikes and traps. Ok, it's not as bad as Blasphemous, for example, but there were still moments where I dived straight into some spikes.Yikes!

Conclusio:

So if you're a fan of the genre and like a good challenge, don't think twice and give them your money. Definitely one of the best games out there, Dead Cells is an ode to all those wonderful side-scrolling metroidvania games and rogue-lites alike. Highly recommended at full price.
Personal Score: 9.5/10