Even if you're not a fan of the roguelite Metroidvania slashy platformer Dead Cells, it's hard not to admire the studio's approach to, well, everything. Since coming out of Early Access in 2018, the game has grown immeasurably with huge free updates and cheerfully cheap paid DLC. Oh, and developer Motion Twin has an equal pay system, describing itself as an "anarcho-syndicalist workers' cooperative"—a rarity in an often overly hierarchical industry.
Now, Motion Twin has announced The Queen and the Sea, a new paid DLC that will take you to two muggy new biomes, Infested Shipwreck and Lighthouse (one of which, according to the devs, "is definitely not the standard-issue Dead Cells level that you know and love"). Slash and dodge-roll your way through these, and you'll face off against an alternative end boss for the game. So yes, that means an alternative ending too!
The new DLC doesn't require the game's previous two DLCs, The Bad Seed and Fatal Falls. With that said, much though I love Dead Cells, the world-building and story seem to mostly entail the smoke-headed hero shrugging at sporadic diary entries of dead people, so beyond the levels and content you're probably not missing out on too much if you skip straight to this one.
Motion Twin also said in the announcement that "free updates will continue until the end of time, well for another year at the very least." The most recent one was an indie crossover, adding content from fellow roguelites like Hollow Knight, Hyper Light Drifter and Blasphemous.
The Queen and the Sea comes in at the usual Dead Cells DLC price of $5/£4.50, and while British gamers can join me in shared anguish at that currency conversion, it's still a very reasonable price if the offerings of previous DLCs are anything to go by.
