Hades if you want a story and characters, Dead Cells if you want the combat. Hades wraps its roguelike in the best narrative framing the genre has, with new dialogue every run. Dead Cells is faster, harder and more about weapon combinations than about why you are there.
Run-based action roguelikes where dying is progress, and both have exceptional feel moment to moment.
Every failed run advances a relationship, and the writing is good enough that you keep going for it. The boon system makes each run a different build, and it is very approachable.
More like this: games like Hades.
Fast, precise 2D combat with an enormous weapon pool and a difficulty ladder that goes much higher than Hades. Far less story, far more mastery.
Hades if you want a story and characters, Dead Cells if you want the combat. Hades wraps its roguelike in the best narrative framing the genre has, with new dialogue every run. Dead Cells is faster, harder and more about weapon combinations than about why you are there.
Better is the wrong question for these two — they are close enough that the answer depends on what you want from the next twenty hours. Pick Hades if you want to be pulled through. Pick Dead Cells if you want to be tested.
No. There are no scores anywhere on this page. This is a written opinion about what each game is for, so you can judge whether it matches what you are after.