I beat Dead Cells with 1BC… I’m a hero!
…wait, there’s more?
Did you guys actually finish the game on max difficulty?
I beat Dead Cells with 1BC… I’m a hero!
…wait, there’s more?
Did you guys actually finish the game on max difficulty?
Hell no. I beat 0BC, 1BC and… I think I actually beat 2BC but only once, with a very OP build? Or did I get super close to do it? I can’t remember at this point. But in no way I advanced beyond that.
Ok, I played Hades for close to 25 hours. Time to make a silly comparison! Dead Cells vs Hades
I think I’m going to actually give Hades the edge in how the combat develops, if only because it’s isometric, that allows for two real axis of freedom, vs Dead Cells 2d platform paradigm. Where yes, you can jump, climb up or down platforms, and in fact some enemies behave differently (some can jump platforms, other can’t, some can fire through walls, others can’t) but it isn’t the same.
On the other hand I will give Dead Cells the edge on pure visceral feeling of the action. the chunky sounds, the freeze frames and flashes, the gore, stuff like the stomp the ceiling and crushing down someone below, it’s superb.
In weapons & item variety, Dead Cells wins, with… 120sih? different implements of death, each one differently animated, with different stats and gimmicks. The game mixes everything, from melee weapons to bows, crossbows, two-handers, magic spells, curses, gadgets, traps, grenades, etc. Hades has more variety than it seems at first, with the weapon aspects and some radical modifiers you can fin while playing, but still I prefer DC’s design.
Hades wins in build variety, as the game is focused on that, on obtaining ~15 boons per run and mixing and matching them in different ways, creating synergies between them, your weapon and your keepsake. There are thousands of permutations. Hell there is the mirror too, that affects your build also. DC is more humble in this regard, with just up to three mutators to choose, three main stats to upgrade, and upgrade stats and random affixes for your weapons.
Biome and level variety, Dead Cells takes the win, 16 different biome themes are more than four, and the procedural generation makes more unique-ish layouts vs the limited room layout pool Hades have, I know already most of them by memory.
Plot and characterization, well, doh, obviously Hades wins.
Enemy variety is for Dead Cells, Hades isn’t bad, but I guess it’s an unfair comparison, as DC has obtained new enemies in the post-game support.
Huh, so there is a Way of the Samurai spinoff Mystery Dungeon action game.
There’s even a Shiren DLC to prove their roguelike bona fides.
The reviews seem pretty bad, though.
I hereby declare Watch Dogs Legion an action roguelite
(images removed)
This reminds me of a 3d version of Streets of Rogue. You die, you switch to a new character with new stats and unique powers, with a wide array of ‘classes’, from police and spies to hooligan and grannies.
So if anyone cares, I caved in and bought it.
It’s a mix of Way of the Samurai’s action and sword fetish, Recettear’s debt-repaying shop sim and Shiren’s mystery dungeon roguelike.
It’s a bit barebones, but it’s kinda fun and does the job. It’s the closest thing to a Sekiroguelike there is right now, I guess. You can block at the perfect moment and go schwing and teleport on the other side of the guy and he drops dead. What more could you ask for? Don’t expect the same quality in the controls, though: movement is kinda slow and unresponsive and attacks don’t seem to have the reach they should have.
That sounds awesome to me, concept-wise, but execution is oh-so-important.
I think they would have had a real winner if they polished it a bit more. Maybe a sequel? Still, I like it.
It’s funny the game has kind kind of yojimbo, warmongering thing going on, where you arm three factions, and the more they’re armed, the more they get nervous and start itching for a fight, the more weapons they want, etc.
You can sell an expensive sword to someone, kill them, then sell the sword right back again. It’s a thing the game lets you do. No sense in wasting good merchandise, eh?
My impression of Neon Abyss isn’t very good. Decent enough to play it a few days on gaps of free time if you get it from Gamepass or a future bundle, not good enough to actually buy it.
Action: The action is bland, it’s far away from something like Dead Cells or Hades. This is perhaps one of the most important points.
Mechanical action: The previous point was more about how it feels, if it’s visceral (it doesn’t. This is more about how interesting is the combat from a mechanical standpoint. Well, it isn’t. You can’t carry several weapons, they don’t have extra modes, nor there is ammo, there are no movement abilities like dashes, you can have a single ‘active’ ability but it seems to be rare to have one and its use is very limited as it uses up a resource, for now there is only on consumable I have seen, the grenades which sucks to use as they can’t be aimed. 98% of the game is hold fire while jumping/avoiding enemy fire.
Build variety. And this is the second most important. The first issue would be somehow admissible if in exchange the game would have a super crazy build variety, with an incredible amount of variation. But it doesn’t seem to be the case, from what I played and watched on some youtube videos. Most of them don’t really affect a lot on how you play the game.
In fact some of modifiers I have seen were ‘dupes’ with another skin.
edit: example, in my current game I have:
-extra damage when you are in the air.
-extra life? I’m not sure
-extra damge and rof… when I’m wounded, I suspect
-explosion around me when I’m wounded
-extra max health + slight more damage
-extra damage in this room each time you pick up something on it
-you can use a egg instead of a key
-chance of getting a key when I melee someone
-extra rof and movement speed
-chance of firing a laser in addition your normal fire
-chance of dropping a bomb or mine when using a key
-extra rof and and damage
-gold gained when you are wounded
-extra jump height
-extra damage when you are wounded
Pets. Perhaps the most distinct gimmick of the game is how your character is followed by three, four or even more pets, that shoot at enemies for you or whatever. It’s actually kind of annoying, because at some point you can have 7 or 8 sprites moving around you and confusing the action you see on screen more. And some enemies and encounters are bulle-hell-y so it isn’t something to dismiss.
Awesome or stupid? you decide
Information obfuscation. Items or weapons don’t show descriptions until you pick them up. You may thing is an oversight, but there is passive you can get that enable it seeing them before picking them up, so yeah, bad design decision. They punish the new players, and in addition make a passive without any use for veterans. The game has some stats because sometimes you pick up passives or perks that increase slightly your damage or talk of a % of chance, but no number is seen anywhere. Some descriptions, even when you see them, are gibberish, I have no idea of what the object does.
edit: hell in the shops you can’t even see the name of what you are going to buy.
Something that also dislike is how is one of those games that close the entrances and exits and spawn the enemies when you enter. In games with a bigger combat arena (like Hades) is fine, but here it feels more constrained, and sometimes it spawns melee enemies super close to you starting position. Lovely.
As a positive, I will say the game has three difficulty modes from the start, easy / medium / hard, and easy is noticeably easier.
Enemy variety is fine, if there are new enemies in the later world I haven’t seen.
That’s pretty much it.
The reviews do look pretty bad, though, and it reminded me that Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin still isn’t out. I give 2020 a 40% chance.
I exited to the main menu yesterday night in Neon Abyss. I went to resume my run… and it doesn’t have that option, it started a new one in the bar. Great.
On the other hand I’m intrigued by the total clusterfuck kitchen sink design that Dracula: Genesis features. Other games may have a more restrained design, where they focus on one thing. Not here. It has:
-different starting characters to choose from
-different classes that is basically another permutation on top of the character type
-world difficulties and game modification to choose
-you play using:
*a jump/dash/movement ability
*a sidearm (infinite ammo)
*up to four main weapons
*a special energy weapon (rmb), it uses energy
*2 abilities, they may use mana
*1 consumable
*a melee action up close
*1 unique alientech passive
*another UI slot that I still don’t know what is for lol
-there are onetime powerups you pick form the ground, too, from simple health kits to special bombs or a ghost mode
-Weapon have tiers, I have seen up to tier 3
-Weapons can have traits applied on top of it, beyond their normal unique characteristics
-Each weapon, except sidearms, can get up to 3 weapon mods, they can be exchanged.
-Weapons have an ammo system, and it isn’t unified. Although the game only drops ammo for your current weapons. Some reload automatically, others don’t need to.
-Some weapons can get charged up.
-There are perks you can find or get when you level up
-You also have a stat summary, affected by game modifiers, powerups, weapon mods, perks, etc
-there are special anomalies in specific areas that throw a wrench into the level, like ‘enemies provoke a fire when they die’.
-you have health, mana, energy, radiation, character level and gold for runs, and for the metaprogression you have a second currency and a global rank.
-the UI indicates that in the future there is going to be an inventory with four slots?
-there are several npcs that buy, sell, offer or get you something, each one is slightly different.
-there are curses
I just learned that SuperHot Mind Control Delete is something akin to a roguelite, so I guess another game to talk about!
It finally has a firm release date: November 10th.
That means we’re up to a 70% chance of it actually releasing in 2020.
It’s so good!
Sometimes I think indie developers create the gifs first and then try to fit a game around them.
The gifs are always amazing. The gameplay can be hit or miss.
I watched two YT videos and gameplay wise, it obviously remember to Dead Cells as it’s the other 2d platform action roguelite, but the pace is a bit slower, less frenetic. Combat encounters are notably longer, it seems enemies have 2-3x more health than in DC. The gimmick here is obviously the class system, instead of selecting weapons or skills, you can swap classes, each one has a predetermined set of weapons, passives and abilities; there are two dozens, but as seen above, they are adding more.