Hades (2020)

Hades, developed by Supergiant Games, is a stunning masterpiece in the world of roguelike games. This game effortlessly combines captivating storytelling, breathtaking artwork, and addictive gameplay, resulting in an experience that is both challenging and immensely enjoyable.

One of the standout features of Hades is its narrative depth. You step into the shoes of Zagreus, the rebellious son of Hades, as he attempts to escape the Underworld. The game's characters are richly developed, and their interactions drive the story forward. The voice acting is top-notch, breathing life into these mythological figures and making you genuinely care about their fates.

The gameplay is where Hades truly shines. It's an isometric action game with fast-paced combat that feels incredibly satisfying. You can choose from a variety of weapons and upgrade your abilities using the game's unique "boon" system, which grants you divine powers from the Olympian gods. Each run through the procedurally generated levels is different, ensuring that you'll never get bored. The difficulty is challenging but fair, encouraging you to learn and adapt with each attempt.

Visually, Hades is a feast for the eyes. The hand-drawn art style is a work of art in itself, and the character designs and environments are brimming with personality and detail. The game's dynamic soundtrack is equally impressive, enhancing the overall atmosphere and emotional impact of the story.

Hades is more than just a game; it's an experience that immerses you in Greek mythology like never before. Its compelling story, addictive gameplay, and stunning presentation make it a must-play title for anyone, whether you're a fan of roguelikes or not. Supergiant Games has truly outdone themselves with Hades, and it deserves all the accolades it has received.

I only have two qualms with this game

1. Fishing for legendary fish is hard if you have poor reaction time (I eventually did figure out a pattern to it though)....considering fishing is such a random unnecessary (but fun) thing added to the game, it's fine

2. It has one of the most addictive gameplay loops I've ever experienced. if it was any bigger, I would have been in serious trouble. As is I spent about 110 hours getting all story bites and achievements (there are still cosmetic things to do in game, but considering I binged the game, I'm giving it a well-deserved break)

Seriously might be in my top 3 games of all time. Just amazing

If you have never played a roguelike game before I highly recommend playing Hades as your first. This was the first roguelike game that I played that actually helped me understand the mechanics of the genre. To explain the mechanics through story telling was perfect to help keep interest, even with the repetition of a roguelike. When you have a story that continues to progress, even when you are doing the same things over and over, helped to keep the end goal in focus and encourages you to get better.

I was so pleasantly surprised with this game, I know it won a bunch of awards before I even played it, but I just wasn't expecting it to be THAT GOOD. The art is amazing, colorful, and totally sets the mood for each area that you explore. The research that went in to the stories of mythology were so well done and helped me understand more about Greek mythology, which I loved. Then to bring everything together with a super heart warming story was just the cherry on top.

If you have a chance to pick up this game do it! You will not regret playing this game, so much fun!

This game is just amazing from start to finish. The music is phenomenal, the art is incredible and so distinct, but what truly makes this game is the gameplay. It is very fast-paced with so much variety and different builds that make each escape attempt completely unique. I did find that the weapons were not all that great to use, but the majority were fun. Lastly, the characters were of course iconic, and so well written, it truly made continuing to play the game worth it in order to advance the character interactions and find out more information. I completely love this game and even though I beat it with each weapon at least once, I can definitely see myself returning in the future. Hades is the best roguelike game I have ever played, very memorable.

Intro

Hades is a roguelike hack-n-slash dungeon crawler. You fight enemies in four areas, each with their own boss. Along the way you collect skills/upgrades and items to gain permanent boosts.

Rant

Once upon a time, you had to leave your house to play video games. You went to an arcade, fittingly named after Arcadia (Greek pastoral utopia). To start a game you had to insert a coin, and again if you died. These games were designed to draw people in with an easy start, only to get much harder later on so you would have to pay again. This may seem familiar because current-day "free-to-play" games often follow a similar pattern. The alternative to paying is waiting. Time is turned into a currency.

In Hades you will die a lot. It will take dozens of attempts to beat the game even once - and that doesn't even get you the "proper" ending. Every time you permanently die you have to start all over again, improving your character a tiny little bit. You're paying "time" to be able to progress. This is fairly normal in video gaming. The problem with Hades is that the balance is completely absent.

I've played this game for about 6 hours and i didn't even make it to the fourth level. My mirror wants 20 keys to unlock the next level of upgrades (you get maybe a couple per run). I don't think i've got enough keepsakes to even fill one row. The same goes for everything that can be upgraded by doing something x times (talking, clearing encounters, killing enemies, etc). This game loves to make you grind.

And it's completely unnecessary. There is no reason for this excessive repetition. There is no reason to make people start all over each time. There is no reason to feed the story piecemeal. Supergiant is just wasting our time. Heck, 6 hours is enough to complete Bastion.

Shame

It is such a shame too. Hades is stunning. The combat is generally fun. The weapons and upgrades combine in awesome ways. Every time i play it i think "if only this was a real game". Because roguelikes aren't real games. They're assets lazily shoved into a RNG. Just imagine if you could continue upon dying a la Diablo. And if it had skill trees instead of random nonsense. And if you could warp to fire-land/Elysium right from the start instead of having to play through the same content every single time.

Hades would have been great if it was a real game. Now it just makes me feel like a puppet being manipulated by a lazy developer. Shame.

I originally played Hades about three years ago on early access, way before the final release. I love roguelikes, and Supergiant is a really good game company that puts a lot of love and care into their games, so I was confident in voting with my dollars.

There are many things that have changed about the game, from the avatars for a lot of the npcs, the music, the gameplay mechanics that are completely different. To those who are on the fence about whether or not this wonderful adventure is worth their time, I would say "Are you joking? Go play it right now!

The game is fast paced, with each running spanning about 30 minutes if you are doing well and making sufficient progress. You can probably stretch that to about 45 minutes if you are taking your time, or end up with bad rolls.

The best thing about Hades is how all of the boons and power ups synergize with each other. Each Greek mythology god focuses on a particular type of damage and gameplay mechanic. Poseidon focuses on pushing enemies, while Artemis focuses on critical attack damage. Zeus's boons all have to do with lightning bolts, while Aries inflicts doom curses. Daedalus hammers upgrade how a weapon functions, such as instead of shooting 1 arrow far away, there is an upgrade that will allow you to shoot two arrows at once but a shorter distance, and will less charge time. There are very many combinations, and boons also have a rarity (increasing their effectiveness). The whole thing ties together to make the game different with each play through, and that is incredibly rewarding.

But it's not just the gameplay that makes this game shine, it's also the wonderful art, the atmosphere, the dialogue, the characters, the voice acting. It all ties together so beautifully that its hard not to fall in love with it. The main character, Zagreus has so much heart, and regardless of fighting with the deities in order to fight his way out of hell, everything he says is charming and supportive. The dude is a legit role model, kind and polite regardless of the circumstances.

The expansiveness of the dialogue is always a little jarring. Each run yielding very different dialogue between Zagreus and the greek gods, the furies, and Hades himself, really makes the game feel more alive. The characters become more than just avatars that show up when a certain voice is talking, they become people. It's so good its kinda spooky. I have played more than 80 runs and each time I have talked to Mag, she has always said something completely different.

Story spoilers below

As you begin playing and try to uncover the whereabouts of your mother Persephone, it becomes clear that this game, with its lightning fast mechanics and extra narrative storytelling, is really a story about a son trying to reconnect with his mother, and try to find a way to make his family whole again, despite heavy resistance from all parties involved. Its really quite heartwarming.

One thing I will complain about (I guess not really a complaint) is that I miss the old shield weapon mechanics. In early access, about a year or so after it was first available, the shield was the absolute best weapon to use. It used to ricochet more reliably, and much faster. This made it a prime target for use with the Zeus and Aries boons. I miss dashing around and using the special attack with the shield and create a rapid fire blinding flash that would obliterate my enemies. Though, the variety of weapons and boons is much more compelling than it was before, so that more than makes up for it.

The way Supergiant integrated their community with early access was phenomenal as well. More games should release like this! During early access, Hades often had a "days until next update" ticker located at the bottom right of the main menu screen. This kept me coming back for more periodically, instead of just wondering when things were going to happen and stumble upon the updates at the right time. They also took a lot of community feedback and ACTUALLY integrated it, which is UNFORSEEN IN THE GAMING INDUSTRY. I remember reading in the supergiant discord about how Boons should have synergies, and I thought "Pfft, thats not gonna happen, its so much work!". Lo and behold, there are legendary boons that synergize with each other. The upgrade path to them is a little confusing, but you have legendary boons that work together and create an entirely new effect that involves the mechanics of two different gods at once. ITS AMAZING!

All in all, a good time. You have to beat Hades 10 times in order to get the true ending, and once you get it, well... It really is quite beautiful, but I also was a bit sad, partly because the adventure had ended but also because I had waited so long in order to finish it. Having played this game for 3 years, by the time that I got to the end i sort of ran out of steam.

The game still has great replay value. I most likely will continue to boot up and do a run every few months. It was definitely worth the purchase price. If you're in the mood for adventure, be sure to give this one a try!

Actually I've finished this game 3 months ago, but I hoped to get all of the achievements here. Since I didn't play this game for a while, I guess it's time to consider it finished.

Hades is made by one of my favorites studio: Supergiant Games. I enjoyed all of their games and Hades was not an exception. It has same unique features like original art, great story and amazing music. Also they have a special talent to take some genre and make it slightly differently in a good way.

To be honest, I never understood rogue-like genre, I could play such games for an hour or so and then I got bored. In case of Hades, it was hard to stop playing it. In the beginning you die a lot, but there is a sense of progression: of your character, your own skills and the story. All of that create a situations like "one last run and then go to sleep". In short about gameplay: it's an action game where you need to kill all the enemies on the small arenas, and every run is unique because all you abilities are random generated. Control is very responsive (much better with a gamepad) and every battle is intense.

Story is based on Greek myths, so you will see a lot of familiar faces here. Your initial goal is to leave an underworld, but it's not as simple of course. Most of the story are told between your runs and there are tons of dialogues (and they are really interesting to read).

I've made over a hundred of runs in Hades (it took me 65 hours), revealed a story ending, and I still wasn't tired of this game. Nowadays, it's hard for me to find a new favorite game, but Hades is a truly masterpiece and absolutely deserve to become one of it.

Considering Hades was considered by many to be the best game of 2020, I picked up, assuming the game would be complete once I finally escaped Hades. In the lead up to buying Hades, I played Bastion (which I really liked), and Transistor (which I couldn’t stand), and I was excited to see how Supergiant had developed with this latest project.

In many ways, Hades plays like an updated version of Bastion. Weapons can be upgraded however the player sees fit, they can build the world around them, and tackle levels in any way the want. But Hades is far more brilliant, in that it asks the player to essentially play the same levels over and over, with gradual steps forward being made on every run. My experience with roguelikes is minimal, but Hades almost immediately won me over with its trial-and-error gameplay, and various ways of completing a mission.

At this point, I have done about 90 runs of Hades, and there’s still so much to explore and discover. I could probably to 90 more runs and still be discovering new things to this game. Hell, I didn’t even realize there was a second page of upgrades in the mirror until my 80th run! Which is sort of the beauty of Hades: the game throws you into this world and lets you explore to your heart’s content. There are times when the game will guide you along the way slightly, but it never holds your hand on the path.

But like I said, this is like Bastion, but done with such perfect precision and detail. Each weapon has its strengths and weaknesses, which also vary depending on what challenges you put in your own way with each run. The characters are rich, and even the most pointless characters have a captivating arc. This is strangely a heartwarming story about a family that took me by surprise, and the game’s openness in other relationships is a welcome addition.

I can’t say enough about my experience with Hades, one of the most addictive games I’ve played in a long time, and a vast improvement over the games that Supergiant has previously made. While I have yet to finish Hades, it’s the type of game I imagine I’ll come back to over and over, getting slightly better, finding every detail of this game, and then probably starting the whole adventure all over again.

Man oh man, I have never been more excited to die in a game. Hades is packed with so much delicious content, gameplay, dialogue, power ups, shenanigans and what not! It's no wonder it was a stronger contender for Game Of The Year.

Don't be intimated by it being a difficult game. You're supposed to die and that's the only way to progress. Just dive in, get the hang of the swift, think-on-your-feet gameplay and before you know it, you'd have clocked 100 hours.

Personally, I love the voice actors. I can't believe the guy who did the background score for the game was the voice of the protagonist as well. Hades is voiced by none other than the narrator of Bastion so you'll have some familiarity there.

All in all, Hades is an action packed trip to the depths of hell. Your inner mythology fiend will be very satisfied with what they've done with the classic demigods and lore.

Blindly buy the game.

hades. how do i even begin to explain hades.

hades is flawless. it has two whole romances with a side of flying medusa head. i hear its soundtrack is insured for $10,000. i hear the characters were famous in ancient greece. its favorite theme is family and the neverending cycle of life and death. one time, i met aphrodite on a plane of existence and she told me my hair was pretty. one time, prince zagreus punched a satyr in the face. it was awesome.

the good

• absolutely nut-busting grade a character art. not a single design is boring or uninspired, and given that most of them are of ancient gods depicted countless times in media over hundreds of years, that's saying something. i don't know much about the artist responsible for this aside from their name and instagram account (check them out here), but i do know they should be insanely proud of themselves. as an artist myself, if i had been responsible for hades, i'd most certainly consider it my magnum opus.

• a really good soundtrack. in my opinion, aside from the few voiced tracks (which are some of my favorite music i've heard in my life), i actually prefer the little i heard of bastion's soundtrack, but i can't deny that the sound design is excellent nonetheless. fights feel neither lifeless nor overwhelmed by sound and music, which is a perfect balance for a roguelike, where you spend most of your time indeed fighting things. the music didn't stand out to me particularly during downtime, but maybe that's the way it's supposed to be. it's unobtrusive and atmospheric unless you're watching a very important scene – then it usually rises to the occasion.

• ridiculously fun and varied combat. as usual for roguelikes, rooms are procedurally generated, but the layout of the areas themselves never feels stale. between the amount of weapons and variations within those weapons, upgrades that fundamentally change your playstyle for each run, and the heat system which gives enemies an edge against you in a variety of ways, there's more than enough content in hades to satisfy anyone. and the greatest part is that you don't need to be a roguelike fan or even all that good at this type of game in order to experience all of this: one of the options in the settings is god mode, which increases your damage resistance by up to 80% every time you die. so you can go hard with no buffs and full heat if that's your thing, or lay back, enjoy the story and learn the gameplay at your own pace. the accessibility it offers means that many people who would never have gotten past the first boss are now able to enjoy all the content the game has to offer, and that's never a bad thing in my book.

• a good story. due to the nature of the game's setting, i imagine a lot of the storytelling required mostly adaptation work and generally wrangling old myths into exactly what they wanted them to be, which was nonetheless done in an impressive manner. characters are affable and interesting, in particular i'd say the main character is extremely likable to the average person, which helps immensely in getting the player interested in his relationships with all of the cast and investing all those lavish gifts into improving them. but what really makes hades shine in this respect is...

• the dialogue system. i don't even know where to begin with this one, so i'll let this excellent video do the talking:

the complicated

• representation. hades has a fairly large cast, including many characters of color, and an even balance between male and female ones from what i can tell. most importantly, many of the female characters are equally important to the story as the men, and are written with the same obvious care. there are also several canonically lgbt characters with interesting personalities and stories. there still remain, however, a few problems to disentangle with regards to who is allowed to exist in the hades universe. everyone in the game is beautifully designed, as stated previously, but this doesn't have to mean they're conventionally beautiful – unfortunately, in hades, it does. i understand that these are, for the most part, literal greek gods, and their depiction in media has been consistently that of dazzlingly attractive entities, but that's precisely why it would've been far more interesting to do something different with their design this time around. imagine if aphrodite had been on the side of chubby, or even outright fat – she's the goddess of love and beauty, so what does this mean? what is real beauty? it would've raised questions and challenged preconceived mindsets, and that's something we need more of in games, especially if we want the medium to rise above its station and join other types of media in terms of complexity and respect from the general public.

• related to the point above, and i made an entire post about this earlier today that i later deleted due to receiving more conflicting evidence, but: the gay romance option seems to be on average more difficult to max out than the straight one, due to differences in the character’s spawning mechanics. i consider this a potential problem because the hoops you have to jump through to make thanatos show up can be downright prohibitive (100 runs on my savefile and i'm only now getting into his romance), while meg often hangs out at base at least once every three runs. the thing about this is, however, that i know people who had the opposite problem – meg was the one who disappeared for runs on end, an they finished thanatos' romance with ease. again, this is likely due to hades' extremely complex dialogue system. if i had more data to work with and conclusive evidence i could speak much further about this, but i don't, so i won't. still, i think it's important to note, in case any lgbt people read this far and are thinking of getting into the game specifically because they hear it has gay romance option: be prepared to do potentially hundreds of runs before getting any sort of real development between those characters. however, the same can be applied to the straight romance, though perhaps less frequently. perhaps not. i doubt anyone will ever gather more concrete info on this, so it remains a mere heads up and not an actual criticism.

the bad

• for story-driven players, even with god mode turned on, the grind might be a little too much. it's still a roguelike, and those are rarely for the faint of heart. hades goes a long way in bridging the gap between hardcore and casual players of the genre, but it can only do so much while remaining true to the formula.

• i literally couldn't think of anything else

hades is not only my goty, it's one of the only truly outstandingly good things to come out of 2020 at all. do yourself a favor and experience it when you can; it might be even better on an equally (and hopefully) better year.

I thought I was done with greek mythology. I felt like it was everywhere —movies, tv series, anime and specially video games— and I just wanted more stories about other pantheons...

And then, Hades came and made me fall in love with the greek gods and heroes again. I know everybody is saying the same, but I just can't shut up about how everyone in this game is so damn hot! I'm gonna romance Megaera and Thanatos at the same time and no one can't stop me!

As usual with Supergiant Games, the art is magnificent, the music is lovely and the game mechanics are bulletproof. I love how they used the 'try again and again' systems of the roguelike genre and used it to build a great narrative that really fits with the mythos. I died a lot (I love this game, but I'm not great at it, I was just able to defeat the final boss once), but I didn't care because two things. 1. every run is mechanically different from the previous ones thanks to different weapons you can choose and the builds you... welll... 'build' with the random boons. 2. Losing means new dialogue and plot reveals from the characters at Hades' house. That practically eliminates any frustration I could feel.

And did I said that the characters are hot af and has the sexiest voices ever?

Anyway, you can read my full review in spanish in GamerFocus, as usual.

So... any negatives? Well... the amount of enemies, flashes and obstacles some areas can make difficult to navigate the screen, the difficulty peaks are really harsh and the spanish localization has several bugs, but I can deal with all that.

It's deceptively simple and the level and enemy design seems limited, but over time you will discover there is a great deal of depth and reason to keep playing, well beyond completing a successful run the first time.

As someone into mythology, I got a lot of joy out of the story and characters. There isn't any more story than there needs to be to give you reason to be playing. it's not deep, but it's fun. The gods and heroes and made up characters are a reference to their mythical counterparts while being their own take and if you are a fan, there's plenty of references and inside jokes to make you delighted.

There is a good variety of playstyle choices to keep you from getting bored of re running the levels, and there is always something to be shooting for, discovering, and taking in. The only better example of the formula is Children of Morta, but this is a close second.