Cell Command

Shoutout to any OGs who remember Nightfall. Cell Command takes the Tiles Touched = HP formula and expands it in so many directions. You fill out your arsenal over the course of a run by obtaining and combining the four nucleotide bases, each of which has its own core theming which then mixes and matches based on how many of which ones you've picked. Modifiers you can select at the start of a run and purchase mid-run really shake things up with the novel abilities and status effects cells can have access to.

Before I start this review. I simply want to disclose that I was given a review copy key by the developer of this game. As a fellow indie dev (designer specifically) I wanted to give my thanks, but it also should be known I was given no other compensation Anyway, on to the review Cell Command is definately an oddball, and at first, you wouldn't think a strategy grid based rogue like that has a minimalistic style would work. Thankfully, I was very nicely surprised Cell Command is the spiritual sequel/follow up to Genome Guardian, and its made by the same developer, Both are very similar mish mashes genre wise. But at the end of the day, it comes down to their specific sub genres as to how they differ Both this game and its spiritual prequel are rogue lites that are genome/mutation focused and emphasize on mixing and matching abilities and DNA to get an ideal run/ideal build. But after that, this is where the similarities end. Genome Guardian was like an amalgamation of the following Black Widow, Geometry Wars, Missile Command, and Vampire Survivors This follow up however, feels more like the following Kirby-Much like how you copy abilities in Kirby, you essentially do the same in this game, as you eliminate enemy units, you unlock and discover them for future runs and unlock the ability to find them in future runs or even your current run if you're lucky enough a Slider Puzzle-The level structures remind me of slider puzzles, like the game Shove It or the Traffic Jam plastic car puzzle games. The entire level (each mission you do) is stylized like a grid like one of these puzzles. But just like those, if you're not careful. you can essentially make a mission impossible to beat. just like how if you get the wrong combination on one of those in real life, you have to restart THANKFULLY restarting or leaving mid mission and picking a different one is an option you have (For context, every level you can pick between 1 to 5 different missions/boards to do, if you lose during an attempt you lose a life, but its nice to have the quality of life and flexibility there) A Strategy RPG-The strategy elements feel like something akin to to a TONED DOWN take on something like Advnace Wars or FF Tactics, but a very MINIMALIST approach to it. I can't emphasize that enough, but be aware that is NOT a bad thing, just something to be aware of and emphasized Snake-And to clarify, I mean the old flip phone/90s to 2000s cell phone game Snake. Most units grow in length as you either move, attack, or eliminate enemy units. And that goes for BOTH sides. This needs to be taken into account and adds another layer to the strategy where you and your enemy's placement are MAJOR KEYS and can mean the difference between victory and failure The biggest element of a strategy RPG is different objectives however Sometimes you have to defend towers and survive up to a certain amount of turns,sometimes you have to eliminate all the enemies, and sometimes you have to destroy all the enemy towers or simply defeat the enemy before you run out of units But this keeps the variety at a decent pace With all this in mind? Do I recommend the game? Yes and No Yes if you can appreciate the mixed genres with the surprisingly positive execution But no if these particular genre mash ups don't line up to your tastes Either way though, I do recommend show this to your friends that you think would enjoy this, because even for the indie scene, this is quite a unique cluster of design and genre choices/ideologies, its just simply the fact that it will be some people's cup of tea and won't be a cup of tea for others It's good in execution, just buying it is subjective due to the unique blend of gameplay and genres, which is a blessing and a curse