Dead Cells’ ‘roguevania’ action launches August 7

Dead Cells is dodge-rolling out of Early Access on Steam and into its full release as well as onto consoles. Developer Motion Twin, which is an anarcho-syndical workers cooperative, is launching the game for PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on August 7 for $25 — although you can get a 20 percent discount to $20 if you preorder. The physical version from Signature Edition Games is still due out August 17 in Europe and August 21 in the United States.

Over the last year, Dead Cells has established itself as one of the brightest standouts in the Early Access program. It features elements of roguelike games, where you go on runs through the world and make incremental progress by upgrading the weapons you find in the world. But it combines that run-based structure with Metroidvania-style exploration and kinetic combat that changes drastically depending on the weapon you’re using and the enemies you’re fighting.