Steam's New Castlevania-With-Permadeath Game, Dead Cells, Gets Release Date

Dead Cells, an intriguing new game that combines elements of Castlevania, roguelikes, and Dark Souls, arrives on Steam in Early Access in just a few weeks.

Developer Motion Twin today announced that Dead Cells arrives for PC in Early Access on May 10, with Mac and Linux versions to follow at a later time. A price has not yet been announced, but you can expect to see 30-40% of the full game's content available in the Early Access version.

Dead Cells is, as Motion Twin puts it, a "RogueVania" game, combining elements of Metroidvania-style games with those of roguelikes. Permadeath is a key element, but various progression systems mean you don't start from scratch just because you die.

Motion Twin also highlights its "punishing" difficulty and Souls-inspired combat. There's also an emphasis on exploration, with procedural generation used to mix up the exact layout of the otherwise "handcrafted" levels.

We got to check out Dead Cells at PAX East earlier this year and walked away impressed with how it blended its various inspirations together. You can read more about it here and check out a new trailer above.