Okay, Dead Cells is definitely one of the best modern 2D platformers. And French developer Motion Twin went and released some DLC. Hurray!

The Bad Seed

The game is a rogue-lite, Metroidvania experience. Putting that into English, it’s basically a platformer with complex gameplay.

It’s not like, say, Super Mario Bros. 3. You don’t just run to the right and end a level.

Everything is generated automatically, so each playthrough is slightly different.

Games like Dead Cells actively expect you to die (Enter the Gungeon is a fine example), but you keep certain power-ups and abilities when you start over again.

More importantly with Dead Cells, it’s fast, it’s furious, it’s intense as anything, and it draws you into its world.

And the Bad Seed adds to that with a whole batch of new Stuff. Including news levels such as The Dilapidated Arboretum and The Morass of the Banished.

It’s quite staggering just how much content this game now offers. We picked it up in early access from Steam back in the summer of 2017.

It was brilliant then. And when it launched properly in 2018 it’s good enough to have notched up a lot of gaming time from us.

The DLC provides the usual macabre visual flourishes, but there’s also a wealth of new items to discover.

But there’s also more to enjoy from Dead Cells’ outstanding soundtrack, which is really one of the best we’ve come across in gaming.

The extent of the new content we’re only just starting to scratch at. Motion Twin’s extra work means Dead Cells is know unquestionably one of the greatest ever indie games.

Everything about it is addictive and enthralling. The little flourishes and touches in the soundtrack and visual style.

Its black humour, the crunchy nature of the combat, the difficult levels etc.

A mammoth achievement from an indie team previously famous for lighthearted mobile games. This was their first effort at a “hardcore” game.

And the critical acclaim is now just piling on up.

Whilst Dead Cells may appear deceptively simple and even devoid of much content on your first few plays, stick with it and something else happens.

You start to realise how clever its design is, how intricate and complex all of its nuances are.

The way you can slam jump down into the floor to injure some enemies. How you have to strategically pick weapons to wipe out tough baddies. The glorious nature of the chamber music.

Dead Cells was already magnificent prior to the Bad Seed content. This just makes it a heaping load better—for £5, an enormous splat of new features.

Let’s hope Motion Twin has more on the way, too. Dead Cells must not die!