Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania Reviews

If there was ever a crossover that made perfect sense from the moment you said it, Dead Cells and Castlevania would be that perfection. When I originally played

Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania is an immaculate love letter to one of its inspirations, but it still retains so much of its own identity and humour as you explore Dracula's castle as The Beheaded.

If you’re a Castlevania fan who hasn’t played this game for some reason, you owe it to yourself to buy this now. And even if you’re not, it’s still more super high-quality content for an awesome game that clearly is standing the test of time, made with clear and demonstrated love by independent developers, and you should buy it anyway.

What makes Return to Castlevania better is that it essentially allows you to turn Dead Cells into a Castlevania roguelike, and a damned good one. The DLC serves as a fantastic love letter to one of the series that helped inspire Dead Cells, and that love absolutely comes across. I honestly wish that more games would let me just turn them into a Castlevania spin-off. What’s the matter, Mario? Think you’re better than Castlevania? Well, you’re not, so put on this leather cuirass and carry this whip. Wait, that sounded weird.

Dead Cells continues to be one of the very best rogue-lite games that have released in the past decade, and this just further cements its place as an outstanding entry in the saturated genre.

Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania is the dream DLC I never knew I wanted for one of my favorite games of the past decade.  It’s full of content that is all of supremely high quality. Whether you own the game outright or play it on Game Pass if any of this sounds the least bit appealing then spend $10 on this expansion.  It is phenomenal.

Also included in the DLC is “Richter Mode” where you can play as the man himself. After a certain point, you’ll be able to find a caged-up Richter who, after being freed, will allow you to swap to playing as him. Ritcher comes with a fresh set of gear and different controls as well like a dash instead of the usual roll, and a backflip instead of a double jump. It doesn’t flip the game of Dead Cells on its head or anything, since I still prefer playing as the Beheaded, but it’s a really fun inclusion in the DLC.