Windblown + Dead Cells

My first reaction to seeing this bundle was straightforward curiosity: Motion Twin built one of the most mechanically tight roguelikes of the last decade, and then quietly started over from scratch. That's either brave or reckless, and the answer turns out to be both. Dead Cells is the known quantity here. It's a side-scrolling roguelite where you play as the Prisoner, a cursed creature hacking through a procedurally generated castle that shifts every run. The combat is fast and readable - swords, crossbows, spears, turrets, grenades - and the progression splits across three schools (Brutality for melee, Tactics for ranged, Survival for durability) that quietly push you toward new playstyles rather than punishing you for switching. Cells collected from enemies fund permanent unlocks between runs, so even a bad run pays forward. The level design consistently rewards curiosity: hidden rooms, color-coded threat corridors, and branching paths mean there is almost always a reason to take one more corner before the exit. After years of post-launch support from Evil Empire, the version you're getting here is vastly more content-rich than what launched in 2018. Windblown is the bigger gamble in the bundle. Motion Twin ditched side-scrolling entirely and rebuilt around an isometric 3D perspective, floating sky-islands, and a dash mechanic with no cooldown whatsoever - that last choice alone changes the texture of every encounter. You play as a Leaper defending the Ark, a village being slowly consumed by the Vortex, fighting Sentinel machines across biomes that share the same run without loading screens between them. Two weapon slots plus Alterattacks (special combo moves that trigger when you chain specific weapons together), Gifts as in-run passive modifiers, Trinkets for alternate offense, and even Magifishes you can drop mid-fight for situational effects. The build space is legitimately wide. Up to three players can run together in co-op, though the game's "sudden death" co-op mechanic - where a downed teammate leaves the rest of the party dangerously exposed - has been a friction point for casual groups since launch. Motion Twin has flagged it for revision, which is worth knowing going in. The honest caveat is that Windblown launched into Early Access in October 2024, with a full 1.0 release still on the roadmap for 2026. Player reception has been strongly positive overall, but reviews from the early window flag the meta-progression as workmanlike compared to the combat, and enemy variety per biome as thinner than it should be. The game starts a little slow before the difficulty escalates sharply. Solo players should also know there is currently no pause option in single-player, which is an odd oversight for a game that otherwise respects your time. None of these are dealbreakers - the combat feel is genuinely excellent, seamless across islands, fluid in a way few action roguelites manage - but they are reasons to treat Windblown as a work in progress rather than a finished statement. For anyone who has already worn out Dead Cells, Windblown is the natural next run. For anyone coming in fresh, the bundle is a rare case of two games from the same studio that feel meaningfully different rather than redundant. Dead Cells is a masterclass in 2D action roguelite design. Windblown is that studio trying to outrun its own legacy in real time, and mostly keeping pace.

Alex · Scout Team

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