Dead Cells may be the greatest Castlevania game ever made. This is my impression after playing the new “Return to Castlevania” add-on on PC for five hours. The music is fantastic, a staple of the Castlevania series. The new monsters and loot look great. Almost all of the big names from the Konami classics appear in the game or in more than a dozen outfits. Motion Twin has made one of my favorite games even better.
DLC reviews tend to be short, so I’ll get right to the point. This expansion costs $9.99, which is double the norm for Dead Cells. It’s absolutely worth every penny if you love the main game, whether you care about Castlevania or not. The new weapons, enemy types, areas, and bosses are superb. There are a total of five new biomes:
There are ten new mobs, two mini-bosses, and the main man himself, Dracula. The expansion is masterfully woven into the flow of the Dead Cells game. The first time you download the new DLC, you’ll be greeted by Richter Belmont, follow the bats and you’ll be taken to the outskirts of the castle and the music will pull you in with all its beautiful nostalgia. Hell, even if you don’t care about Castlevania and know nothing about it, the music is so damn good that I caught myself singing along to it. Each area has its own track, and they’re all fantastic. There are lots of new weapons: six new melee weapons, three ranged weapons, one shield (you know which one), and three new powers. They are all references to the series and fit perfectly with the vast amount of content available in Dead Cells now, if you have all the DLC. Completing the content are 20 new outfits to find and unlock. Alucard, Simon, Richter, Sifa, Dracula and over a dozen others are available to unlock as new looks.
The DLC itself is essentially split into two parts. After defeating the first mini-boss, you will be asked to go through a typical game and go to a certain zone. This area is altered to match the DLC, and it looks terrible. A lot of work went into this, and it’s all Dead Cells at its best. The control scheme change for Richter’s mode took some getting used to, and it only activates at the end of the run. It’s weak to begin with, so you need to thoroughly clear Castle so he’s ready to finish off Vlad Tepes once and… bye. The only downside is that unless you have a late game save file or at least one file with basic abilities unlocked, it will be a while before you can get to Dracula.
Dead Cells: Return to Castlevania is the dream DLC I never even knew I wanted for one of my favorite games of the last decade. It’s full of content of the highest quality. Whether you own the game or play it on Game Pass, if any of this sounds even remotely appealing, spend $10 on this expansion. It’s phenomenal.