Dead Cells is getting an ‘easy mode’ and Evil Empire doesn’t care much about the community’s opinion on this. Started by old arcade games, and reignited by Demon’s Souls a decade ago, conversations surrounding the merits of challenge have been a laborious and long-standing component of the discourse around video games.
This is the 25th update and Dead Cells is recognizing something that we all know to be true: gaming is better when more people are given the opportunity to play. Marketing manager of Evil Empire, Matthew Houghton said: “There are a lot of people out there who enjoy the gameplay of Dead Cells but just hit a wall and can’t continue, which is a shame. Options like this allow those players to continue to have fun with a game that they like without messing around with mods. And at the end of the day, gaming should be fun!”
The ‘options’ that Houghton alluded to before arriving as part of the ‘Practice Makes Perfect’ update, update is live for PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Motion Twin and Evil Empire, the two teams share an office space and continue to work closely on the roguelite. Conceptualised by original creators and developers, Practice Makes Perfect “aims to ease the passage of new and occasional players without altering the overall difficulty of the game for its hardcore fans.” Dead Cells developers want less rage quitting and for more players to reach the Hand of the King.
Houghton also says: “We see lots of comments from players who enjoy the gameplay of Dead Cells, but just don’t have the time, skill, or energy to beat the higher difficulties. Also, the game is pretty long for a roguelite, so it can be hard to reach and practice the later stages of the game. Many people weren’t seeing some of the story or don’t have access to certain items and skills and that needed to change. We’ve already tried a few times to smooth the difficulty curve, with mixed reception, so the key this time was to create an easier way to play Dead Cells that was completely optional.”
What does this ‘easier way to play’ look like? First up, four years on from launch, Dead Cells is getting a Training Room. It’s here you’ll be able to hone your skills “against all mobs and bosses you’ve encountered on your travels”, giving you space and time to practice your tactics and sword swipes against any enemy that’s already given you a hard time. Given that Dead Cells is a roguelite where the smallest mistake can see hours of progression wiped away, any opportunity to get a handle on some of the trickier boss encounters and enemy mobs is a sweet addition to the game.
There are also smaller changes on the way Dead Cells communicates its intricacies too, such as total damage change being displayed when picking stats from a scroll, and an update to the world map that will give you the ability to see the various paths you can take out of your current biome and out across the island. But the biggest and most impactful change is the introduction of ‘Aspects’, abilities that can make your runs a lot easier by helping you.
Hoghton adds: “They’re basically 13 superpowers that you can choose at the start of your run, but you can only pick one! One is more than enough though, as they give you some pretty crazy effects, like healing 3% health when hitting a bleeding target, or dealing two-times more damage and receiving 50% less when speed-boosted. If you know Dead Cells, those are some tasty effects.”
And yes, they are indeed some tasty effects. He continues: “The idea behind Aspects is to let players easily reach the later stages of the game to see what they’re missing, or to just have a great time rampaging through the island. Obviously, this means that they have a pretty huge impact on balance, but you cannot unlock the next difficulty level while using an Aspect, so you’ll need to complete a run without one if you want to progress.” and yes, of course there are some restrictions to the system so they can keep the scales properly weighted.
“These options won’t change the core challenge of the game, which is to progress through the five Boss Cells difficulties,” he continues. “You still have to beat each difficulty without using the Aspects in order to progress, so the challenge will still exist as it did before for the players out there who love punishment. But now Dead Cells will be more accessible to people who just want to murder their way through a cursed island for an hour.”
Houghton says that he’s happy with the new way to play here. He also said that Evil Empire isn’t worried about any kind of backlash to the notoriously difficult roguelite having some of its challenges stripped away for players who want the option. “We’d be pretty surprised if fans get angry about it. Yes, the training room lets people practice end-game bosses, which can make the game easier, but all the new features are completely optional – if people want to keep the challenge then they can. If there is a ton of backlash then we’re not against reverting changes that turn out to suck, and we’ve done that before. But in general, devs do need to stand by their vision for the game, otherwise the whole game can quickly devolve into a hot mess. The idea is really to cherry-pick the best community ideas and weave them into the fabric of the game that the dev team is building, rather than blindly following every suggestion that pops up.”