Hades (2020)

Still hooked on this one.

One thought that occurred to me is that this is the only Supergiant game not featuring a whole novel world. Whereas Bastion, Transistor and Pyre took place in these weird new places about which the player didn't know anything, Hades is firmly founded on the Greek myths, which most people have at least some familiarity. The upshot is that characters feel a bit more like references than actual people. Meeting Sisyphus is less an invitation to discover the personality and intentions of a new person (like meeting Volfred in Pyre) but more of a "huh, let's see how they adapted this guy's deal into the game".

I'm not saying it as a bad thing, necessarily. It's just that is a different feel.

After just one sitting, I can confidently say this is one of the better games of the year, with a great style and fun combat. I’ve already gotten comfortable with the bow which is quite fun to use thanks to the power shot ability.

I don’t like that the game refuses to explain what anything is in the middle of a run, even when I as a player am making critical choices about which item to buy, which upgrade path to take, which weapon to buy, etc. I am offered no explanation or demo of what any of it is until I select it. Combining this with how good some of the permanent upgrades are and it makes for an annoyingly limited feeling during early runs, but obviously I understand that I’m meant to try again and again. It’s going to be tough to swallow doing yet another roguelike game but of all of the ones that come out, this is the one I’d want to do, I guess.

Like I said, the game feels great—takes not all but many of the best aspects of their past games and improves them as they slot into a new genre, and it all works super well. I am doubtful this will beat Pyre for me as my favorite, but we’ll see how it plays out. Glad I waited for the official 1.0 release.

It's only a 1 Heat run, but this is the first run I've had where the Adamant Rail actually felt fun to use. (Thanks, Zeus.)

I was absorbed with the Stardew 1.4 update, but then Hades swooped in. Dunno how many hours have gone into this already, but I'm approaching 100 escape attempts... ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

I was initially in love with Hades but the more I've played the less I've enjoyed the actual gameplay. My first 45 runs included a 21 run streak (and a 6 run streak) where I was notching up the difficulty as required to continue progressing in rewards, so it's not git gud type thing. In the end, I think the game relies far too heavily on the i-frames provided by the dash, which leads to, in my opinion, poor enemy design both in bosses and regular encounters. Everything is spamming everywhere, and the best way to handle it is, almost universally, just to mash dash. This problem only gets worse as you activate the "Heat" options, which are necessary to continue progressing.

On top of that, I think the majority of the weapons have a clunky-but-weak feel to them, which I find really off-putting. In particular, the shields basic attack maintains momentum in a way that makes you feel like you're fighting on a slip 'n slide and the gun's rooting/reloading/lack of stagger feel way out of place in the game in general. At the end of the day, the only weapon that I think feels universally good to wield is the sword, which is a big disappointment to me.

The art/music/writing kept me going for a while, but the basic design of combat has really just stopped being enjoyable to me. I'll admit that I'm at a bit of a bad point in my life right now, which could be coloring my opinion of this game (though, I'm still enjoying others!). But, for now, my as-honest-as-I-can-be opinion is a 4/5 if you're looking for 20-30 hours, but a 2/5 for the long haul. Since they stated their goal was to have a replayable rogue-lite, I'm putting the 2/5 on here.

I'll definitely check back in a few months when a couple more updates are out and I'm (hopefully) feeling better, since I really enjoyed this game for the first bit.

I can't stop playing. HELP.

I've been halfheartedly doing runs with the sword. I mislike the sword - attack movement with it feels sorta clunky to me? Maybe it's just me though. Meanwhile, I've started doing heat runs with the shield, just upping the level one at a time. Proud of myself for finishing a run with no Death Defiances used. uwu #ShieldMeta for life

Having a lot of fun with it so far! Favorite weapon so far is definitely the shield. :D

Finally made it out of the Temple of Styx on my 23rd escape attempt only to die three-quarters of the way into Dad Fight. orz

I don't know how much more of the game there is after Dad Fight. I'm hoping there's more ̣- or more to be added later - because it felt sorta short to me? I thought it would take me way more than 20-ish runs to reach the surface :V

Still gonna be on the grind tho, because I can't get enough of talking to Death. uwu