I’ve been playing Dead Cells off and on since the earliest days of its Early Access period. As such, I’m intimately familiar with how much love and attention went into the game. I’m also a Castlevania fan, so it excited me greatly to see the Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania DLC announcement. This DLC is the biggest Dead Cells DLC yet, and it might just be my favorite.

Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania is a full, large DLC expansion that contains 2 new biomes (and 2 boss arenas), 3 bosses, a variety of melee and ranged weapons, a ton of outfits, iconic enemies, and over 60 musical tracks. All of the content is a love letter to Castlevania, oh, and did I mention there’s a mode that lets you play as Richter Belmont? You also get to see familiar characters such as Shanoa, Alucard, Maria Renard, Richter Belmont, and of course, Dracula himself.

Admittedly, I had been on a bit of a break from Dead Cells for a while. I go through phases with various Roguelikes where I play them heavily for a few weeks or months, and then take a break while new content is created. This works especially well for Dead Cells since the devs are always adding new features and things. As such, it took me a while to get back into the swing of things, but that was hardly a hardship.

Dead Cells feels as smooth and fun as ever, but it is made even more enjoyable traversing Dracula’s castle with iconic music in the background. Not only did the team at Motion Twin absolutely nail the weapons and abilities, but they also nailed the visual design and soundtrack. If Konami ever wanted to make a new Castlevania game, I think they’d be smart to ask Motion Twin to be involved. Clearly, this is a team who loves Castlevania, as there are tons of references and small details that make the DLC extra special.

I’m not going to spoil anything here, but I can honestly say that the Dracula boss battle at the end of the DLC feels exactly like it should. Everything Castlevania fans could want out of this DLC is here, and this is so much more than a crossover or promotional tie-in. I’d love to see Motion Twin get the opportunity to do other DLC like this. For that matter, I think more AAA devs should consider crossing their properties over with Indie darlings like Dead Cells.

We’ve seen it happening more frequently recently since the PowerWash Simulator Midgar DLC comes to mind. I have no doubt that Motion Twin could do wonders with a variety of other properties. I’m still surprised that five years on we’re still getting more DLC for Dead Cells. Most developers would have moved on to other projects, or even a sequel by now. Yet with the love and care that went into the Return to Castlevania DLC, I don’t mind if they stick with Dead Cells for a while longer.

I cannot overstate this enough. If you’ve been on a break from Dead Cells like I have, this is a great reason to return. Otherwise, if you’ve never played Dead Cells before, and this has you curious, I’d recommend it all the same. It has great accessibility features thanks to the Assist mode, and there are so many great bits of content sprinkled through this DLC. It fits seamlessly into Dead Cells and I’m so glad it was made.

A PC review copy of Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania was provided by Motion Twin for this Review.

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Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania

$9.99

10

Score

10.0/10

Pros

• A Lot of References to Classic Castlevania Content
• Fantastic Soundtrack
• Lots of Weapons, Outfits, and More
• Gorgeous Visual Design
• New Enemies and Biomes