SONG OF MILES
CELL-BLOCK
MAIN FEATURES
CELL-BLOCK is a fast-paced, top - down stealth combat game for Windows, Mac, Web, iPhone, iPad, and Android. As a reimagining of Cutscene Entertainment's first original game, Cell-Block, this game revolves around the same core game functionality. You, the player, a prisoner/test subject in a highly-secretive research facility, must use your powers along with your stealth skills to escape the facility with your friends. Along the way you will encounter new enemies, grow your skill, and use teamwork to succeed.
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FEATURES:
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- An advanced, streamlined combat system for close-quarters, long range, and stealth
- Intuitive, simplistic control scheme for iOS
- Multiple playable characters with unique abilities
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The gameplay in Cell-Block heavily encourages stealth. A simple system of sneaking up behind enemies while they aren't facing in your direction has been the core stealth gameplay since the original and has not changed. Simply making contact with the back of an unaware enemy will grab them and allow the player to either interrogate them, bribe them, or take them down. Using this technique wisely, a tactically savvy player could complete the entire game non-lethally and undetected.
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However, for the more aggressive player, this new iteration of the game, unlike the original, has an all-new close-quarters-combat system in which a highly-skilled player can take their aggressors head-on with brutal, fast-paced combat that's unusual for retro-style games. Since the game encourages stealth, this CQC system is very unforgiving and difficult to master, relying on the player's extreme reaction time as well as their knowledge of the control scheme in order to avoid being beat to death in seconds. If you're up to it, this version of gameplay could be exhilarating.
LAYERS OF NAVIGATION
In Cell-Block, the player characters navigate on only two axes across a flat terrain with a fixed camera perspective, much like in games such as The Binding of Isaac, Enter The Gungeon, Bleak Sword, or Minecraft: Dungeons. Players in Cell-Block will mostly travel on foot, but there also may be brief sections with vehicles or mounts, as well as an internal facility cargo train that serves as a fast-travel system throughout the complex.
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MOVEMENT EXAMPLES​
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WALK
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JOG
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SWIM
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DODGE ROLL
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Cell-Block can be played entirely with one finger. Most of the time the player will be using these controls to move stealthily throughout the environment, but this scheme also supports intense chases with highly responsive maneuverability as well as a full combat system for if the player potentially gets detected.
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G A M E F L O W
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LEVELS AND EVENTS
Initially the four children that the player must rescue are being held captive in different wings of the facility. Each wing is its own randomly-generated level filled with unique enemies, hazards, and resources, and the facility’s internal cargo train running from wing to wing serves as a secret hub for the children and as their only method of escaping the complex altogether. The player's job is to rescue all four children from their respective wings of the facility and escape on the cargo train, all with the aid and guidance of the train conductor, who is sympathetic to the children's cause and wants to help them escape. Because the player can choose freely the order in which to enter facility wings and rescue specific children, the individual levels of Cell-Block progress and build into each other at the player’s own pace and direction. The biggest trick to Cell Block is that if a child gets caught, not only do they have to be re-rescued all over again, but the captors running the facility learn more about that child's abilities and can use that research to start deploying more dangerous enemies and hazards specifically designed to either mimic or counter the captured children's powers and abilities.
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PLAYER EVOLUTION
The player can rescue the children in whatever order they please, sending in whatever child they please from among those children currently on board the train. Each child performs a unique passive support duty on the train while not being played as, thus making the whole team more powerful. Since captured children cannot perform support duties, the team grows more powerful with more children free and weaker with more children captive. Tactical use of player evolution is very important, because the more children the player has rescued, the more intense and deadly the facility becomes as the enemy dedicates more resources and energy to hunting them all down.
FASE
In the field, Fase is a great balance of speed, health, and silent movement. On the train, she acts a healer.
GEO
In the field, Geo is a Tank with loud movements and massive damage. On the train, he forges useful items and gear.
MEDULLA
In the field, Medulla is a wildcard of magic abilities. On the train, she can spiritually enhance her friends’ powers.
MILES
In the field, Miles is extremely fast and mobile. On the train, he can scout out upcoming levels and create minimaps.
The aesthetic of Cell-Block is very minimalist, monochromatic, and technological. Sporting the classic Cutscene Entertainment theme of pixel-art combined with more realistic environments, this game takes heavy design inspiration from some of my all-time favorite games such as Mirrors Edge, Portal, Wizard of Legend, Infinity Blade, Ultimate Assassin, and the Batman: Arkham series in both the design and gameplay. The simple controls are such that there is no HUD, which further emphasizes the game's unique feel.
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The world of Zone 52 - the facility in which the game takes place - is a military research facility for developing advanced weapons and equipment using alien technology (just like Area 51 in real life, but larger and more high tech, hence the name). However, the entire government is in the middle of a planet-wide civil war, and the facility itself is currently under attack from a formidable rebel insurrection, which is why new weapons and technology are being so hastily developed. The environment is high-tech and scientific but rather disorganized, government troops and the sound of war outside are ever present, and one of the levels of the game actually takes the player through an active battlefront. The dominant alien species on this planet use very little color in their world aside from using red the same way humans do on Earth, thus most of the environments appear monochromatic and sterile compared to the bright colors of the player characters.
WRITTEN PORTIONS
(5 MINUTES OF GAMEPLAY, GAME ANALYSIS, NON-VIDEO GAME ESSAY, OTHER GAME IDEAS)
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