What makes a great roguelike? It has to be hard – or at least, it has to be punishing, so that every lost run feels like a brutal lesson, and every victory feels gigantic. It also needs to be stylish. You’re going to be spending a lot of time running and re-running these levels, so they need to look and sound good. You want a diverse array of enemies, a huge library of attacks and abilities, and a lot of variation. It’s a tough combination. But one of the greatest roguelikes, and a modern PC classic, Dead Cells pulls it all off with brio. Combining elements of Metroidvania and platforming, six years since its full launch, it’s having a sudden renaissance on Steam. And if you want to join in, it’s also available right now at a sizable discount.
Dead Cells has become the roguelike game by which all other modern genre peers are measured. In the same way that a turn-based, small-scale strategy game will always be compared to XCOM, or fantasy RPGs will always be rated alongside Skyrim, Dead Cells has become one of the gold standards for an entire subset of PC games. Fluid, fun, and furiously difficult, Motion Twin’s opus originally launched back in 2018, after a spell in early access. Now it’s taking off again on Steam, as thousands more players flock to Dead Cells for another challenge-filled run.
Based on figures from Steam DB, on Thursday, February 29, the Dead Cells concurrent player count peaked at 2,835. In the last 24 hours, however, it has almost tripled, reaching 7,687.
The fact it’s such a great game is always going to help draw more players back to Dead Cells, but a swift, spontaneous sale, which cut the game’s price on Steam by 50%, is probably the culprit here. And it’s still going on. If you want to try Dead Cells for yourself, just head right here.
Alternatively, you might want to try some of the other best indie games, or maybe the best Metroidvania games on PC.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.