Dead Cells with all the DLCs. After being obsessed with Nova Drift for several months I got burnout and looked for other games to play.
Mafia definitive edition was on sale, so I got that. However, it quickly showed that in fact I don´t enjoy 3D shooters as I used to.
So I thought about what I really wanted to play and it was clearly roguelites with retro or at least highly stylized graphics. The DLCs for Dead Cells had been tempting me for some time already and most of them were on sale at that point, so it was pretty much a no-brainer. I erased my progress from years ago and started over fresh and it´s so much fun!
My best run yet was when I found the Hotline Miami reference lore room, which unlocks and drops the (level I) baseball bat. Now the Baseball bat does not have particularly high base damage but very good crit damage and guaranteed crits on stunned/rooted targets. That is already really cool when you combine it with stunning enemies by stomping but I was sure I´d have to replace that weapon later in the run because it was just a level I item. A few levels later I stumbled over a golden altar with a legendary Boys Axe. This item is a throwing axe that roots enemies on hit and as I told earlier you get auto-crit hits on rooted targets with the baseball bat, so obviously I ditched my rampart shield for the Boys Axe and from there on a virtually all my baseball bat hits were crit hits. But it got even better!
Shortly afterwards I found a sinew slicer, which is a trap that causes bleed on hit and then I got incredibly lucky and was able to roll +60% damage on bleeding targets on BOTH, the baseball bat AND the Boys Axe! Obviously from there I just breezed through the rest of the run and killed the Hand of the King in just a few seconds with a level I baseball bat as my main weapon :D
On top of all that, during the run I was also able to figure out how to use certain weapons like they were one, as it had been possible years ago but was patched out. This also added to making the build ridiculously strong since I could spam the baseball bat and the Boys Axe like they where just a combo of the same weapon.
TLDR: Dead Cells is crazy! If you enjoy roguelites, get Dead Cells!
I just got dead cells because I was in a gaming rut. I got one run in. It’s fun
It is indeed! Especially when you get lucky on a run and find/roll some crazy strong synergies. The game has a pretty steep learning curve at first, just keep doing runs and it will get even more fun. I also very much recommend the official Dead Cells Discord, it has some really nice and helpful people hanging out there.
Do you play with controller?
I do so and very much recommend you at least try playing it with a controller too, except you have a strong habit of playing games of the genre with a keyboard. In my opinion using a controller is more intuitive.
Thanks! Yeah I’ll try with controller. Just did 2 runs with it and died both times in the second map. Just getting used to it. It’s much better with controller but my Xbox pro controller is so trash that the recoil of flicking my move button changes my direction which was annoying. I had to mess with the dead zone. I play brawlhalla on controller so the dodge button is messing with me lol
With m&k on my very first run playing the game I got past the first boss and died with like 8k gold. I got far. But I got a good combo I think. I’m looking forward to the steep learning. I beat hades 100% so I’m looking forward to synergies.
Yeah it was definitely beginners luck. I killed the concierge and died a map or 2 later. Since then I think I’ve done 25 runs and got to the concierge twice. But I am just trying to bull rush in. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve died in the first encounter so many times from that stupid shield zombie and jumping one. I can’t get the parry right. They do this stupid grunt then I parry then they jump. And if I wait for the “!” they do this weird timing if I hit them. Still getting used to it.
But I got rickety wrekt by death in the castle map. I thought I was doing so effing good, got him down to phase 2 (about 1/3 health down) and with 1.4k health he killed me in a 3 hit combo, first hit taking half my life down and I got so blown away that I just missed wtf happened next. Game is very unforgiving.
I haven’t tried any of the enhancements or crutches. Which I’m a father of 3 kids, one a new born and I’m not good like I used to be. I might check out some cheats to make things a little smoother for me.
I’m embarrassed to say I’ve died in the first encounter so many times from that stupid shield zombie and jumping one. I can’t get the parry right. They do this stupid grunt then I parry then they jump. And if I wait for the “!” they do this weird timing if I hit them. Still getting used to it.
Hahaha, the shield bearer is such a bitch when one is still learning the timing, right? However he is also a perfect enemy to initially practice your parry and roll with imo, at some point you will start to intuitively time it right and the shield bearer becomes almost harmless. I recommend using the training room for that.
Probably you already noticed that the “!” is only an indicator for the begin of the attack animation and that you have to factor in the distance between you and the enemy too, to time the parry right. Also keep in mind that only a tap results in a parry, while keeping the button pressed even for very short results just in a block / messed up parry.
But I got rickety wrekt by death in the castle map. I thought I was doing so effing good, got him down to phase 2 (about 1/3 health down) and with 1.4k health he killed me in a 3 hit combo, first hit taking half my life down and I got so blown away that I just missed wtf happened next. Game is very unforgiving.
How are you distributing your scrolls? You should decide at the start of a run if it is going to be a Brutality, Tactics or Survival run, based on what kind of weapons you want to use during the run. That defines your main colour and your two off colours for the run. The best practice is to take a scroll of your main colour whenever you can for max damage and distribute the two off colours 1:1 for max hp.
Game is very unforgiving.
Yes, indeed!
I haven’t tried any of the enhancements or crutches. Which I’m a father of 3 kids, one a new born and I’m not good like I used to be. I might check out some cheats to make things a little smoother for me.
Congratulations! In that situation I think I would experiment with custom mode a lot, it has many detailed options to tailor the game experience individually. I for example like to use custom mode to limit the item pool, once I have a lot of items unlocked that I don´t want to use on a run. If you find that you miss certain option in custom mode you should also check out accessibility mode as well.
Hey this is awesome thanks so much for all the pointers. I’m starting to get a hang of it. Maybe 50 runs in or so and made it to that dark level and had enough money for that new shiny bomb (the light bomb) and while reading it I started taking damage. I got confused and started attacking but I quickly died. Lmao apparently the dark kills you. I’m starting to use the wiki a little now.
I’ve pretty much exclusively been using melee and the red scrolls. I noticed one run I had 8 red and 1/1 and died with full health in what felt like 1 hit I was like wtffff. And then realized I was maybe 300 health or so? I should have been in the 1k by then and forgot to distribute to get max health benefit.
I’ll try the training room. I beat death today by taking it slow. Just got the ram so I can break those stupid floors lol. Thanks to the wiki. Lot of cool Easter eggs. Loved the gordan crowbar as I’m an avid HL fan.
I’ve been really into Pokemon Unbound (Fire Red ROM hack) recently, once I beat it I think I’m going to play around with the settings and play it again. It’s amazing having a Pokemon game that isn’t baby easy, and I love that I don’t have to impose rules on myself to make it harder. It’s really opened my eyes to ROM hacks, I think I’ll be playing more next year
Also a fan of Unbound! My last run I tried whatever setting it is that makes it so that all fully evolved pokemon have the same stat totals, which really made the game feel different and like I actually had options for building a team. Although I still found myself thinking “oh I can’t put butterfree on my team, it’s too weak”
My favorite hack is Gaia, it doesn’t have as many features as Unbound but it’s got the right vibes for a pokemon game while still having increased difficulty and QOL stuff.
I did this for ages fighting with various logitech and microsoft mice, always ended up getting cramps in my mouse hand. Eventually landed on the corsair nightsword a few years ago, very comfortable for a full palm grip, highly recommend. Maybe have a look there.
Picked up The Longing, and I’ve been working my way through it little by little.
Excellent game. Way more depth and much better paced than I anticipated. It’s an idle game that commits to the bit. Fire it up, wait 400 days, and you’re done. There’s other stuff to do within the game, but it all takes time, and it’s all optional but pleasantly engaging.
I give my little shade a task, then let it run in the background while I do other things, and now I’m suddenly 8000 words in to writing some fan fiction I’ve been bouncing around in my head. It’s been a very productive week.
Currently, I’m in between games. Tried Divinity Original Sin 2, my first CRPG, but it felt overwhelming. Planning to revisit it during Christmas break.
Gave New World a shot, found it boring, got a refund. I would rather spend those $20 on something better.
Enjoying the Tony Hawk remaster, likely to finish it in the next week or so.
Playing GTA IV, but it’s gotten dull after 3 hours. The story is interesting, but the gameplay feels like I’m just running errands.
I found the gameplay of GTA 4 and 5 to be “drive across town to watch a custscene” at their core, but GTA4 is very enjoyable if you a) relax into it, stop trying to take control and just accept that you’re kind of playing a movie, and b) get good at the driving, which has a surprisingly high skill ceiling. The feeling of just running errands won’t fully go away but the story builds and the missions get more exciting.
Part of why I liked RDR2 so much was it felt like being IN a Cohen brothers movie. Really did feel like “playing” a movie to me. The production value was just off the charts.
I circled back to vanilla no DLC RimWorld. I’ve owned the game for years, have quite a bit of time in Dwarf Fortress, but due to the fact I tried to mod the game right away it didn’t hook me. Turns out it’s really hard to learn a game and look stuff up when you have 200+ mods that alter things in tiny ways to make them completely different than base game. New colony is going strong! Just finished unlocking the advanced research bench, stable food source, strong outer walls. Such a fun game. I’ve been missing out. If anyone has any beginner tips or anything let me know. I’m gonna try to make it all the way and build the space ship!
That’s one of an important rule for me in every game, never mod a game before doing a vanilla run first. You won’t understand what a mod is changing until you know what’s the vanilla behavior. Especially for games like rimworld with 500+ mods, you gotta know every aspect on what the mod changes and what are the mods that can be clashing.
You can try a small list of qol mods tho, once you get used to some its impossible to play without them. And keep trying, you will eventually get there once you understand every possible problem and how to tackle or avoid it.
Just finished 100%ing all achievements in Factorio. Got the speedrun achievements over the weekend, and let my original factory run overnight for a few days to grind out the 20m green circuits.
Still got the itch to play more factory sim. Debating whether to dip my toes into Dyson Sphere Program or try my hand at the Space Exploration mod for Factorio.
I’m a bit leery of Satisfactory due to the first person perspective. Watched a few gameplay videos and I don’t think it works for the genre, at least not to my taste.
I’ll probably break down and pick it up eventually, but I don’t plan on it anytime soon.
I did end up picking up Satisfactory before they raised the price for 1.0.
Tried it out and it is fun but I do find it lacking.
The first person perspective is awkward and makes actually building the factories frustrating. The simplicity of the actual factory mechanics and limited resource availability (static nodes with no way to scale production) are a bit boring.
The emphasis seems to be less on making a productive or efficient factory and more on making an aesthetically pleasing factory while lacking any tools to make building the factory pleasant. No bots. Limited, feature incomplete blueprints. No way to unlock the camera and get a good perspective on what I’m building.
The snapping feature is unreliable and I have to constantly jump through hoops to get buildings and conveyors to line up correctly, only to go back over it and find some parts are clipping or it lied to me about where it was snapping.
It’s a very pretty game and I love that it exists, but it doesn’t emphasize the parts of factory games I enjoy. I want to work my way up the tech tree to macro-manage the factory construction. Satisfactory never gets out of the micro-management of construction. It’s way more personal, and that’s a beautiful concept that doesn’t work for me.
Still going to play it on 1.0 release. The factory must grow. I need my fix.
I tried playing Outer Worlds but my main complaint was that I was constantly being overwhelmed by just how garish and visually busy the game was. The area that I was exploring was a bit too colourful, a bit too cluttered, and enemies didn't stand out well enough for me to differentiate them from the background visual elements. I got frustrated with the number of times I wouldn't notice an enemy until I was right on top of them.
Another issue I faced was a classic dissonance seen in most RPG/FPS blends - it's where you can equip a high powered rifle and shoot an enemy in their unprotected head only to watch them shrug the shot off with ease as their HP bar drops by a measly 10%. It ruins immersion for me, just reminds me that I am not actually an adventurer exploring a strange new universe, I'm just a guy playing a video game.
Apart from that, there was a lot to like! I liked the story that I got to experience, the characters seemed cool, the quests were interesting. I just couldn't push past the things that bothered me to see more of the stuff I liked.
The combat was a low point. I spent most of the game up through the finale with a MK2 light machinegun. It was tinkered with and upgraded. My character had no points at all put into gun skills and I still chewed through enemies with ease. Whenever ammo ran low I switched to a MK2 heavy assault rifle.
Even the finale sub-boss robot was pathetically easy to kill.
I think they underdeveloped the science weapons! I started using some too late in the game but some encounters definitley felt “different” to the normal gunplay.
Mmm, crack cocaine of video games 😃 I always get bogged down after the blue science. This time I got yellow working too, but my logistics is crap. I kind of dislike making a main belt, so I make it more complicated for myself than it needs to be
That’s how it goes. The blue science wall is real.
My last run was the first time I pushed past blue. I just barely managed to get yellow and purple going but I overextended my base, everything was falling apart from resource bottlenecks, and the biters had spread so much that pushing out to new resource patches was like pulling teeth. I gave up while trying to get a fresh oil supply up and running.
Current run I just got red and green science going, and trains and my car are ready to go. Iron is starting to run out. Fixing to leave my starter base to go liberate some more iron and coal from the natives.
Yeah. I don’t have performance issues but the game feels empty without mods. It’s kind of hard to explain. There are only a few trees for decoration for example. Houses are half floating or do not connect to the road when there is a small hill. But I have confidence that they will sort it out.
That being said. Games that are not ready for release should not be released, period.
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