Not even the term "roguelite" feels appropriate anymore. I'd say Hades is closer to a roguelite-lite, because now the meta-progression is the main event and the actual randomized dungeon crawl more of an afterthought. In hindsight, I'm surprised it's taken Supergiant, who historically develop games for the sole purpose of padding out a seemingly pre-written script, this long to make this game, since they're now given infinitely more nooks and crannies to cram situational dialog into. Critiquing it as a roguelike wouldn't be fair; it's not even trying to deliver a fulfilling, high skill-ceiling experience that hinges on the player's ability to take advantage of good luck and creatively adapt to overcome misfortune. It's addicting, yes, but for all the wrong reasons- instead of embracing the arcade philosophy of only giving players enough motivation to break through to the next level on their own, it buries its gameplay shortcomings under a mountain of extrinsic reward. It's specifically designed to be too hard with no upgrades and too easy with upgrades, in an effort to dripfeed the player story details in a way that appears natural. Though, it seems like this approach requires a substantial amount of willful ignorance to actually be effective. For me, at least, finally beating Hades (the guy) felt like less of a monumental accomplishment and more of an item on a checklist that I'd crossed off before being carted away to the next stop on the assembly line, which nullifies any potential benefit of the roguelike structure. That's not to say the concept is broken at its core, and it's hard to deny the appeal of the dynamic hubworld and the overall level of contextualization given to a traditionally abstract genre. I can certainly imagine falling in love with this game if it really did feel like all the dialog corresponded 1:1 with your actions, but I'm skeptical that this accurately describes every fan of Hades. Not to pluck my own lyre, but NPCs consistently felt behind the times for me, still praising me for reaching Elysium after I'd already escaped the Underworld several times, for instance. And it's not like the writing is exactly stellar- Zagreus's near constant quipping tells me that Supergiant's not fully confident in a tone that's more comedic than their previous games. But then again, this is all stuff that, in my eyes, would only serve to elevate an already good game and not to excuse combat that's fundamentally a slog. I don't think I have a single compliment for Hades's action gameplay, but despite runs that always feel the exact same, upgrades that are all roundabout stat modifiers with no room for personality, and non-boss enemies that never pose a threat, what's most offensive to me is that Supergiant hasn't at all evolved since Bastion. It's the same weightless, uninspired, utterly boring mashfest that it's been for the past decade, entirely inexcusable. Or maybe my heart only has enough room for one randomized trek through the realm of the undead.

"Back already?"

After spending around 20 hours with Hades resulting in feelings of highs and lows I've come to the only conclusion these emotions could finally ascertain. I love everything about Hades, except actually playing it. This is both the best roguelike game and worst I've ever played and it's impressive how much that swings backwards and forwards.

The interesting thing to me mulling this over in my head, and to use a Greek mythological term of phrase, is that Hades greatest strength is it's Achilles heel. This game wants you to die, yes it's how Roguelikes function, but I have never felt that more in others than in Hades. Each time you die you get a bit more character interaction, a bit more dialogue between characters by design. These interactions are eked between the protagonist, Zagreus the son of Hades the Greek God of the underworld and it's occupants. Each attempted escape from the underworld Zagreus gets a little more development from the mythical residents of the house of Hades such as Cerberus, Nyx, Hypnos, Thanatos etc. They will slowly grow and reveal more about themselves and the situation Zagreus is in and it's great. The characters are well written and the amount of content and spoken dialogue is absurdly impressive. Dying is how you progress this, dying isn't failure, dying is a reward for the setting, for the theme of Hades. Death is Hades business and Supergiant games was extremely clever in how it's implemented that as not only the known Roguelike mechanic but as a fundamental mechanic to the story of Hades.

I really like the cast. Getting snippets of conversations with the gods of Olympus and lesser known Greek mythological characters is a real treat each time. I also love their art design, it's pretty clear who each character is without stereotyping them too much. The voice acting equally puts in work to match the excellent writing. My favourite being Dionysus the god of wine who comes across as such an extremely laid back almost surfer like attitude but there is a tone of strength behind it all in his voice as well as art with his chiselled physique. Hades presentation really is excellent.

So where is the weakness here you ask? It's the actual dungeon runs in which the game wants you to die in to get these slow roll story sequences that hurt it sounds badly. This game is 40 minutes of gameplay dragged out into hours and I despise it for that. Each run has so little variety that it gets stale to actually play each time. Finishing a run didn't make me want to go again, it made me sigh that I would have to fight the same 3 bosses over again on the same levels in the same order. It's extremely linear and stale and the more I played the game, the less I wanted to.

I stuck with it for the excellent setting, art and characters. The thing is it actually plays really well. The animations are smooth, the combat is fun, there are 6 weapons to choose between that all have great moves and the boons from the gods of Olympus you collect can add some good variety to how the combat plays out. In the end though it's all the same, you will fight the same limited enemies, bosses and room types in the same order. I expected a variety of bosses that would be random on each run, corridors, challenges, just something? It's 40 minutes of game you play repeatedly. It felt like groundhog day.

Later in the game you can add modifiers to make it harder which can change things slightly and there are some prophecies to aim for in trying to get certain boons but it doesn't change those 40 minutes enough in any way to not feel like this is just a short experience painfully dragged out. To get the full credits you need to complete 10 playthroughs once you are strong enough or get lucky enough runs. It took me 25 runs just to beat it once. There is some permanent progress you can unlock with skills in a mirror and construction requests but equally they feel like padding to make it take you time to unlock all the story rather than rewards. This is felt more than anything with the god mode option. In the settings you can switch it on "To make it easier or if you just want to see the story". The issue is that the game wants you to die to progress the story and character interactions so god mode gives you some base damage resistance then 2% each time you die. Even trying to speed through the game after I had beaten it the first time it's still doled out at a trickle as it counters what the game wants you to do. It wants you to die, thematically and narratively, this is clever, this is great, it lacks the variety to keep that interesting in practice though.

It's a real shame too because a greater pool of bosses, levels and enemies to make each run feel fresh would have made this a truly great game. After a certain point though I died to Hades with a pretty sub optimal boon run and just felt, exasperation. I would have to do the same levels and bosses again and decided to put the game down. I watched the true ending on youtube and it was cute, I just didn't want hours of repetition to get there. I didn't feel I'd missed much by watching the ending and skipping the faff. Maybe it's me? I mean I played Vampire Survivors, this game designed for addiction. I did three runs for 30 mins each and put it down feeling like I'd seen everything. I guess that "one more run" mentality for games like this just don't have that effect.

I happily play 500+ hours in each Monster Hunter game though so what do I know?

+ Setting as a Roguelike is excellent thematically.
+ Characters, voice acting and artwork are great.
+ Combat is smooth and fun.

- Dungeon runs lack variety, same bosses and enemies makes things feel dragged out.
- Gets boring fast.

I don’t know who this game is for.

Roguelikes are unique in how well they fit the disparate ways casual and hardcore players engage with games. Runs can be enjoyed in short, non-committed sessions, or repetitively for hundreds of hours. Deep mechanics combined with high variability through randomness provides quick novelty for newcomers, and experts are challenged to adapt and get creative with the situation they’re given. However, in an attempt to streamline itself, Hades changed the formula in ways that make it less appealing to both sets of players. The amount of variety has been reduced dramatically from standard roguelikes, with the progression of areas being constant, the cast of enemies being small, and the synergies between boons being much tamer than in something like Synthetik or The Binding of Isaac. Even its meta-progression confounds both groups, requiring a heavy time investment to get to the point where gameplay can evolve beyond its most basic version. The weapons are an especially good example of this, since fully upgrading a new weapon’s unique bonus requires fifteen of a resource primarily gained by successful completion of a run. The most unique forms of each weapon are also locked behind upgrade investments in different weapons, along with dialog triggers the game never cares to communicate, meaning most players won’t be able to use them all until the fifty hour mark at best.

Fifty hours of investment doesn’t seem too bad in the context of a roguelike, but the aforementioned lack of variety in the boons makes it a drag. Each god has a theme for their boons, like Poseidon’s causing knockback and Ares’ spawning whirling blades, with very few surprises. Active effects also can’t stack, and simply fill in a slot to change your attack, dash, magic cast, et cetera. You’re not allowed to create a build where your magic is buffed with all the active effects you could find to hilarious results, the only option is to pick which god's predictable modifier should fill which slot. With only ten gods who can give boons, the ability to reroll, and knowledge of which god will be in each upcoming room, filling up on the active effects you want is fairly trivial. The passives can provide a nice boost, but provide comparatively small advantages that usually don’t change how you approach combat. After coming to grips with the game and getting a few completions, playthroughs are less of an interesting experience on their own and more of a formality to unlock other content. The most indicative example is the game’s difficulty-modifying Heat system, where completion rewards are earned for each unique level of Heat. In other words, you don’t get a ton of rewards for completing a run with the maximum amount of modifiers, you only get the same as if you had completed a run with just one change. This hurts the hardcore demographic the most, who are punished for immediately trying to challenge themselves. It’s a waste of time compared to completing a run at rank 1, then 2, then 3, and actually getting rewarded in a way that will eventually make playthroughs more fun.

The elephant in the room I have yet to mention is Hades’ story, which is the part that received the most consistent praise. However, it’s subject to the same problems that the gameplay suffers. Completing a single run is hardly the end of the story, and the credits only roll after ten victories, which is already expecting a time investment of around twenty hours. However, the epilogue, where the central conflict of the story is actually resolved, takes about ninety hours to reach. Players need to rank up affinities with the gods and collect a seemingly arbitrary list of dialog lines reliant on other unspecified criteria to unlock it, and I wouldn’t blame people who didn’t even realize the game has an epilogue at all. Who does a structure like this really reward? For casual players who just want to see how the story ends, they have to play the time equivalent of about ten standard single-player campaigns, when only about 30% of people bother to finish most games at all. The length is so gratuitous that the only players who get to experience the complete story are the ones who never needed that aspect to motivate them in the first place. I have to give Supergiant Games credit for voicing so many character lines and writing so much dialog for these characters, but when the majority of it is inconsequential commentary on your gear, boons, or current status instead of the actual narrative progression that players want, it can’t help but feel like so much wasted effort.

So to bring us back to the start, who is this game for? For casual players, the amount of time investment to see the complete story and get the full gameplay variety is way too high. For hardcores, the action is too strategically stagnant and the higher difficulties too unrewarding to compete with other roguelikes. The best I can guess is that it appeals to people in the middle, who enjoy the story details as they come, but not enough to where they want to actually complete the game, or enjoy the action enough to play for a while, but not much longer than the credits. This seems to be backed up by the achievement statistics, where only one in five people get the ten wins required for the credits, and only one in twenty will see the epilogue. It’s not that Hades is necessarily poorly made, but the shallowness and high time investment means that the vast majority of people will just get bored and quit before the game has shown everything it has to offer. I would have much preferred it to either be about a third of its current length, or to just be restructured as a linear action game with weapon switching and selectable buffs, like the studio’s previous game Bastion. Either approach would have made the shallowness less of a problem, and actually give the story-motivated players the conclusion they deserve. Obviously though, in spite of a (hopefully) reasonable argument, saying this game doesn’t appeal much to anyone is a laughable thing to state, given its universally positive reception. So, while I have to give up on knowing who this game is for, I can be certain it isn't me.

Easily in the top 5 most overrated games of all time. The only reason Hades doesn't deserve the lowest rating is the impeccable presentation from Supergiant Games. As with the developer's other work, it's easy to get sucked into Hades because of how good it looks and sounds. This time, the studio marries its distinguished production style with a business plan based on appealing to the lowest common denominator.

Hades' familiar, repetitive action has gotten a pass from critics and fans thanks to the game's shrewd psychological manipulation. The fast leveling provides a reliable dopamine rush, and the upgrade preview icons flatter and tempt players by letting them know the progress that lies just a room away. The actual combat and upgrading are unoriginal and unchallenging. Using the logic I learned from the Diablo series and its many followers, I developed tactics (after a mere handful of failed runs) that allowed me to dominate most rooms and defeat Hades on my first attempt. The game evokes hell while being formulaic and welcoming, offering an onion that you can always peel. The perfect recipe for ego-stroked addiction.

And the story doesn't live up to the hype. It's all cliched juvenilia about flipping the bird to daddy and running to mommy for wise words and protection and having funny conversations with friends after you get a boo boo. Hades exploits the infantilized gaming market like a shameless pimp. Game of the Year? More like Trick of the Year.

Alright, so I tried this game years ago, played for a few hours and then put it down because I was really turned off by it being a roguelike game. Just picked it up again after all this time and I’m so glad I did. The characters are so likeable and the art style is absolutely gorgeous. Took me a little while to get hooked at first because I really don’t like the idea of roguelikes (just personal preference, just not my style of game) but I pushed through and started finding my build and once I figured out something that worked for me, I absolutely loved it. I found the gameplay frustratingly addicting and the story was such an incredible use of the game style. The dialogue was hilarious at times, I found myself saving videos of interactions all the time. I know to fully “beat” the game you have to complete it 10 times and I MIGHT do that in the future but right now, I don’t have any urge to. I beat it once and that was enough for me, but the story does make me want to see more eventually.

Like a AAA indie honestly: All the content, production value and visual density of a big box game into a gameplay system that isn't 'western action rpg for jocknerd deadbeats'

Hades' universe and characters are great - if nothing else, the reason to play this. It's that eloquently-but-scathingly spoken brand of family drama that makes tales of foolhearty Gods so fun but depressing. The voice direction is superb - downright chilling in how smooth and airy the delivery is, and just how much recorded VA there is. Zagreus is a protagonist you can't help but root for, and his encounters with the well-meaning-but-emotionally-aloof Olympians is great setdressing to an equally-effective bad dad conflict.

The most surprising part of combat is how well the roguelike systems are handled - narratively AND mechanically. All your perks have meaningful boosts to your longterm strategy instead of feeling like a dripfeed and contextless percentages. It's the first time I played something of this caliber and felt the randomization was an intrinsic part of its identity instead of a binding for marketing and corner-cutting. You get a blessing from the Gods and it's just a new thing you can do for that run - more attack range, more damage, a status effect, none of this '3% poison buff when attacking airborne enemies undamaged' bullshittery (some of it does edge into that territory but the eventual damage payoff always makes up for it or is totally negligible). It's not the ideal I look for in arcade-paced games, but out of the roguelikes I have played, it's maybe one of the best to do it.

I felt less warm about the fundamental combat - specifically enemy design. There's so much visual flourish and the screen is so zoomed out, it's all too common for easily-avoidable hits to be obfuscated from view. Foes have these design quirks I don't like with how their animations wind-up and release; everything's a little too slow or too fast to deal with. The enemies in Elysium were the worst, trending closer to gimmicks and irritations than actually building on the game's difficulty. Bosses weren't hot either, as Western games tend to go unfortunately: Too much HP, I don't like how all of them summon backup minions to hide the fact they have so few moves, etc

I love all of the game's weapon types and the insane exploits you can build off their specials. Except the sword. The sword is garbage - which I wouldn't mind if it wasn't the default weapon. Encounters felt very bullet hell-y, where you have to pick a safe pivot point, attack from there, then micro/macro dodge your way to a better position. But the sword adds really average damage and movement momentum that forces you to take risks that don't feel properly rewarded. It's a weapon type built for a fluid, proactive combat system, where you can weave between enemies. It didn't click with me like I felt they intended it to. Its boons don't help it much easier; the strongest buffs were geared towards multi-hit attacks or barrages, neither of which the sword has. Even the similarly-melee-focused gauntlets felt like a better damage investment. It's on the box art, man; I wanna use the sword and feel any positive neurons about it.

I don't really know how to capstone this review. It's good shit. I'm late to the party; I assume everyone interested has already played it, but whatever.

Skelly is a dude. I'd get drinks with him, man. Chill guy.

It was my first time playing a roguelike!

The weapons allow for a variety of different gamestyles, and each one seems well balanced. The bow was my favorite throughout the game. And I was also a big fan of Zeus shield when I eventually unlocked it near the end-game.

There are game mechanics that incentivize you to change weapons & thus game-styles regularly. Everytime you go back to the main hub, one of your weapons will have a bonus on the amount of darkness you get, so you'll often be tempted to switch.
Another thing that motivates the player to experiment different builds are the quests available in Zagreus room; the ones that require purchasing every upgrade at least once.
It helped me to realize how strong some upgrades are, because I was willing to try them out to complete those side quests. It made each run quite different. (at least during the first few hours, but I eventually stuck to the bow near the end of my adventure)

Most weapons & spells have auto-aim whenever you use them, which is very appreciated. It made the game a lot more forgiving.

I was always excited to find out which upgrades would open up to me after I cleaned a room, and whether or not I would get Epic, Heroic, Duo, or Legendary boons.
The RNG involved in those rewards made each run really exciting!
It was especially fun to get the Hammer upgrade because it would vastly modify your weapon sometimes.

The game has great voice acting. I really dig Megaera's voice. She has the raspiest voice I've ever heard, it was butter to my ears!
Along with Nyx, she was my favorite character, and there's a nice chemistry between her and Zagreus.

I like how the roguelike aspect is related to the story, with how Zagreus can revive as much as he wants because he's in Hell and he is linked to the Underworld.
They also gave an explanation as to why Zagreus has to restart from the beginning everytime you finish a run, it's due to the sickness he gets whenever he reaches Greece.

After discussing with Persephone a couple times, we get to learn more about their family issues. She fleed the Underworld after Zagreus was stillborn, allegedly. She couldn't handle the shock and decided to live in Greece, far away from everyone. Seeing her reunite with her son & husband at the end was heart-warming.

Despite that, I wasn't really invested in the story because of the way it was told. But since it's a roguelike, I don't know if there would even be a better way to tell it. I know for a fact that it's one of the rare games in this genre to have a focus on its story tho, so I'll give it that.

The last hours I spent with the game left a sour taste in my mouth. I wish the last runs I did felt less repetitive. At some point, I only kept doing runs because I wanted to see the ending, by successfully completing 10 runs.
But since I wasn't engaged in the story and felt I had already experienced most of the gameplay features, I felt it dragged on by the end, and I was slightly disappointed.
I should definitely have stopped the game earlier, instead of forcing myself through the main ending.

There is another ending, but I need to play a lot more if I want to unlock it. And I need to drop dozens & dozens of nectars to unlock new dialogues with each character.
But I kind of had enough with the game, so I'll leave it at that. It was a nice experience nonetheless!

----------Playtime & Completion----------

[Started on October 28th & finished on November 13th 2023]
Playtime: 40 hours
I stopped after completing 10 runs and unlocking the main ending.

Good action-roguelite with solid combat, great build variety, and charming characters, but it doesn't respect the player's time at all.

It artificially prolongs its runtime by drip-feeding exposition as slowly as possible while making the player grind through 40 (!!!) tiers of difficulties. Endlessly running through the same 4 biomes got tedious long before I maxed out my upgrades or finished all of the story arcs.

Hades wants the longevity of games like Enter the Gungeon and Binding of Isaac but it doesn't enough content to really compete. This might change in a future update, but it seems that Supergiant wants to move on to new projects.

My final point is more of a nitpick, but Hades isn't as unique or experimental as the previous Supergiant games. It's unfair to expect innovation from all of their games (especially when their most innovative game wasn't too popular), but I still wish they took a few more risks with their worldbuilding and game design.

While I enjoyed Hades, I would have enjoyed it even more if it was half as long.

Roguelikes aren’t much my thing since I find losing all the progress you make in a run to be more frustrating than anything, and Hades isn’t really different about that. But it definitely takes an interesting spin on the formula with how it integrates into its story, along with just being a very well polished game.

I really love the art direction and how vibrant the environments are. The character designs are also fantastic, all the gods look dope and really bring the style to life. The music and voice acting’s great too.

It’s definitely not easy, it took me a lot of tries to get through the bosses and reach the end. And after completing a full run there’s even more difficult modifiers you can add for replays. Combat’s based around 6 weapons and a variety of boons that give skills and upgrades to help get through, and it’s really fun when you start putting together builds for your playstyle. I ended up sticking with the shield.

It did start to get a bit tiring the more runs I did, but dying a lot is expected and always lead to new dialogue from the characters, more skills opening up, and better upgrades that slowly make you stronger and more prepared for the next time. So it’s definitely the type of game that’s hard to put down since you’ll want to keep trying over and over.

In the name of Hades!

Creating a story-based game around roguelike gameplay is certainly a challenging task, but Supergiant did a fantastic job with the ludonarrative consistency throughout the game. The insane amount of (voiced!) dialogue really make you connect with Zagreus' journey through his eyes and all the various highs and lows he's going through. Also the gameplay is great, no wonder Zagreus is always going through those same chambers again and again!

Now about the cast, they're all great and unique and the artstyle paired with the designs really brings them to life. The friendship system and occasional encounters really help them flesh out their personalities. In my opinion the developers really did a great job on depicting Greek mythology in the way they did.

I should've mentioned this earlier, but the game is very casual-friendly for a roguelike and definitely worth looking into, even if you're not into these kind of games normally. Because of the sheer amount of dialogue and permanent upgrades the games presents you between your runs, you always have something new and fun to look forward to. It also has an easy mode, which still lets you experience the same journey with less stress - don't feel ashamed to use it!

Give Hades a shot if you love mythology or roguelikes, or the artstyle or anything! This journey has been truly unique, and I've hardly ever seen a gameplay loop integrated so well into a story. Can't wait for the sequel!

Its the first Supergiant game Ive sort of enjoyed. Its combat is similar to Bastion but a lot more satisfying and readable. Nevertheless, the action does tend to get lost in the billowing dust cloud of combat which turns into a goddamned bullet hell by some of the later chambers.

Its focus on greek myth and dialogue is admirable and I can see how the two phases of the game are appealing to a lot of people but I quickly found it tiresome. My eyes just sort of glazed over and I sighed as a new wave of monsters showed up. It just gets boring because the random elements dont really change the gameplay significantly. It becomes tiresome to die just at the end of a long run and have to do it all again. And yeah, that is the point of the narrative but Id rather play a game that didnt play out like this.

I admit I have never liked roguelikes, and hades not changing my mind on this is unsurprising, but I am glad for the "god mode" I swiftly turned on after a few runs and I can safely say that was the right call. Essentially after every loss your damage reduction gets increased by 2% up to a total of 80%. That got me enough of an advantage to eventually beat an escape attempt.

Spoilers, I guess.
That doesnt actually end the game, in fact it takes 10 whole successful runs for the game to actually, properly "end". And quite frankly, fuck that.

Oh and also I found the stock sound effects really distracting, might just be a me thing but still.

The best roguelites are all about toying with choice, expectation, and consequence. The very best games the genre has to offer often forces players to choose between an item or a weapon, a damage boost or a health pickup, a dangerous encounter with better loot or a safer encounter with a lesser outcome. They force you to make tough decisions and live with those decisions, with even early-run items and mechanics can have lasting consequence until the end of a run.

Hades is one of the most linear games I've ever played and it results in a game that barely feels like a roguelike. Each run features a fixed number of rooms that you move through, and a small variety of hand-crafted rooms that start to feel very retreaded after a handful of runs. Every run feels the same because there's no way to go beyond what the game expects of you with structure.

My favorite roguelikes feature very dynamic level design or offer a variety of additional challenges like bonus floors or areas, specific challenges to make the game have extra longevity, and secret bosses or bonus modes.

Hades is able to spice up a bit of its variety with options like the pact of punishment, but these are merely difficulty modifiers that tune numbers or force you to play more cautiously or quickly. According to Steam I spent around 22 hours in this game, and I reckon that's closer to 19 or 20 once you shave off extraneous dialogue and the few cutscenes the game has. Throughout those 20 hours I played about two or three dozen runs. None of them stand out. Every run felt the same.

A common complaint with roguelites is that they are often unfair and success relies on getting a good item that will win you the game. I understand these complaints but the genre is often deliberately designed to be unfair to make runs interesting. When a game forces you to play through the same components dozens or hundreds of times, it's essential that runs feel interesting and diverse. There are many runs I've had in games like Enter the Gungeon where I got screwed over by lack of good items, but for every one of those, there's a run where I got some incredibly unique gun or item that made the game extremely fun to play. Those runs stick out and are the reason why the best roguelites are paragons of good game design.

Because levels don't fundamentally change, all of Hades' variety is dependent on boons. Some boons make the game feel different, like Athena, whose boons are largely defense-related, or Hermes, whose boons alter speed and dodging. However, every other Olympian's boons usually have to do with a specific status effect. Chill. Doom. Jolt. Drown. Drunk. Charm. All these statuses are different names for the same general effects. Once you pass the opening hours of Hades, the smoke and mirrors dissipate and the game's façade of variety falls apart.

That's not to say that Hades is a bad game--it's an alright game. The art is gorgeous, and combat feels good to play in the most direct fashion, but combat is also extremely simple, with pretty much every enemy except the last two bosses being defeatable by spamming attack and dodge. The music is fantastic as it always is for a Supergiant game. Surprisingly, I felt like the story left a lot to desire. The thing that has always drawn people to Supergiant games is their stunning art, music, and writing--all the elements of games that other studios and developers often fail with.

The story in Hades is actually really underwhelming largely because there isn't really a story. There's no general plot and everything is communicated in through dialogue. The narrative is carried by loose relationships between thinly-defined characters, and as such feels like pretty much any other roguelite without a story. Early on I felt impressed by the fact that there was no repeating dialogue (which is certainly a feat), but after enough time I realized that this was just another gimmick. Non-repeating dialogue carries no importance when characters use a multitude of words to say nothing at all. Every dialogue or conversation feels identical to the previous and by the time I got to the end of the game I found myself skipping, or skipping through, most of these encounters.

It's really quite a bummer that I didn't enjoy this game more especially because of how much I enjoy world mythology and how much a strong impression the game made in the opening hours; but just like Doom 2016, even the most thrilling gameplay loops can stagnate without innovation.

Hades was initially a game I kept an eye on, but wasn't sure if I wanted to buy. Hearing friends talk about the excitement they felt encouraged me to buy it for 5 dollars off on Black Friday sale over other games I was considering and I can tell you right now I was not disappointed!

From top to bottom, Hades is an excellent game. It gets you right into the action with the plot and gameplay as Zagreus, half-human son of Hades, seeking to escape the Underworld for reasons unknown. One thing I appreciate about this game is how it treats the player as intelligent, as it uses smart and strong conversation pieces to establish relationships and dynamics easily in a story you're essentially dropped in the middle of. It only takes 1 or 2 interactions to get a basic understanding of any character while at the same time having pleasurable depth to explore. The game hits the ground running.

Gameplay is crisp and responsive, playing similar to Transistor as an isometric action game but much more smoothly and refined. Dash mechanics have particularly been removed, making the cooldown between dashes feel smoother and reducing the "hitch" it felt like Transistor's dash had. There is a ton of variation for all kinds of playstyles to be represented thanks to not only the greek god's boons but also a multitude of varied weapons with different playstyles, special equippable trinkets to modify what you do, a simple talent tree and other systems which layer on top of a great feeling combat system to add substantial depth to it all. Slashing through hordes of enemies with the blade while timing dashes, your special and your cast is exhilarating and tense.

The rewards of the rooms offer interesting gameplay choices in a variety of ways. There were times I did a run or two without even planning to try to make it out, but instead prioritized nectar rooms for NPC advancement, gemstones for unlockables and so on. Risk-reward management is emphasized and smartly woven into the gameplay. You'll never be screwed over just for making a choice, but you will have to deal with trade-offs and consider situationals. The decision making aspect is also important for the early rooms, as once you advance in skill level they will provide much less threat. Having reasons to approach ordering differently or to consider trade-offs therefor helps keep these interesting even as you get stronger while not being overwhelming to newcomers. It all comes together into an addictive package that I found myself returning to repeatedly even when I booted up my Switch with the intent to play other games.

Layered on top of the top notch gameplay is a strong story, which unfolds over multiple attempts and victories. One way this game feeds into its addictive gameplay loop is by granting you bits of story or character progress with each run: Even if you're not making headway gameplay-wise you'll be making headway into the overall narrative or into getting to explore the characters more. The story itself is pretty nice and feels a lot like one might expect the image of a "greek mythology" story to feel like, it is certainly no coincidence that Sisyphus is an NPC here, which is obviously fitting with the setting. Combine it with top notch character design (all of the gods are some GREAT interpretations!) and snappy dialogue that is pretty much entirely voiced (and this game has a LOT of dialogue, so it is impressive!) and you get a real winner.

My favorite character is probably Achilles. His gentle, weary voice really fits the characterization of a dead warrior looking back at what he's done with a different perspective and you get into his head quite a bit because he is the author of the game's bestiary and glossary which gives more insight. I won't go more into spoilers, but you eventually get to interact with him in more intricate ways as well. Characters can range from the more comedic, like Skelly, to much more straight edge series like Thanatos and helps keep the interactions feeling fresh. But the game keeps a consistent tone thanks to filtering through Zagreus' view and the lovely narrator keeping his drolling voice going. It is all very well done.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the game's graphics and ESPECIALLY its soundtrack! This game has some really good music all around, first time I really noticed is in the first areas boss as "Scourge of the Furies" is a pretty killer boss theme and later on "The Bloodless" also particularly stuck out to me as great, which isn't really a surprise given one thing Supergiant Games has always done well is having killer soundtracks. Who knew lutes and banjos would mix so well with greek rocking? I'll also use this section to give a shout out to the voice actors who really bring the characters to life. From Ares' soft spoken and mild mannered sadism to Achilles' world weariness and Megaera's husky tones. Visually, the game has very lush background art, exceedingly detailed models (to the point where some of the detail can only be seen by zooming in), distinctive character designs and some striking visual effects on things like attacks and item pickups. Even through over 30 attempts it hasn't stopped looking reeeeeally pretty!

For a brief mention of things I found flawed: While the area one bosses get mixed up with time, you never get new bosses for areas two and three. Because of that it can feel a bit more stale at the end. Personally, I wish they had an alternate boss option for those areas for just a little mixing up. While I didn't have a problem with it, clearing the story DOES require multiple runs and that won't be something everyone enjoys. And while I haven't gotten that far, from what I know some of the post-end game dumps for resources are kind of ridiculous. And, yeah, that's about all I've got for issues!

In short: Hades is the kind of game where I recommend playing it and giving it a try even if you aren't a traditional fan of its genre. It blends story with roguelike gameplay in a rather unique manner, the action gameplay itself is incredibly fun and addictive, it has all the bells and whistles of great graphics and music, and I'd say there's little in the way of large flaws.

Hades é uma obra-prima atemporal, inacreditável ter sido feito por um estúdio "indie".
A trilha sonora do jogo é surreal, excelente, sensacional, tanto nas partes de ação quanto nas partes de diálogo. Ela reflete o que está acontecendo no jogo muito bem.
Os diálogos então... coisa de outro mundo. Cada vez que você fala com um personagem após morrer, é uma interação diferente que vai mudando após cada vez, sempre adicionando um extra à história.
Sua Gameplay é um tipo de fusão entre "Hack N Slash" e "Roguelike", você sai descendo a porrada em ondas de inimigos, cada vez com combinações diferentes de poderes à sua escolha, com bosses que variam a cada run/morte, e que estão sempre mudando/evoluindo.
Pra completar o final verdadeiro é necessário passar pelo final boss dez vezes, o que pode ser uma dor no cool, mas que acaba passando rápido devido a diversão que o jogo proporciona.
A história do jogo é fenomenal, montada por uma série de diálogos ricos distribuídos pelo jogo.
Seus gráficos são uma belíssima mescla de 2D com 3D.
Em suma: um diamante bruto.
Tempo de jogo: 25 horas

Who would say that an aesthetically soft Tumblr game would use its structure to tell a boy's escapades to get to know his mother better for 30 minutes every day
I didn't see it coming (pam pam)
The word that defines this game is synergy, not exceptional, because in most good Rogue-Like synergy is the law, but not so many bring that rule to absolutely all video game departments, not like HADES does at least. The worst, this is very "alternative gamer" but anything here is truly alternative, that takes away some points

I stopped playing this at the 10 hour mark after becoming bored with the repetition, and even after a break I have no desire to come back to it.

Hades makes a strong first impression with its high quality art and voice acting, but the gameplay has neither the variety nor the systemic depth to justify being a roguelike. You are simply grinding through the same levels, same enemies, same bosses - over and over and over - just to get drip-fed a little bit of story or horny dialogue.

Ultimately, the roguelike structure only serves to obnoxiously pad out the game's length. It takes a short, entertaining button-masher and stretches it out to a lengthy, gossamer-thin grindfest. I can put up with a lot of things in games, but I just can't abide boredom.

É difícil falar de Hades com a verdadeira emoção que você tem ao jogar. Mesmo após mais de 100 horas em um único save, eu ainda continuo sendo tentado pelas forças desse jogo, me convidando para realizar mais algumas tentativas de escapar desse reino de punição eterna. E esse talvez seja o maior mérito dessa obra, criar essa afeição pela sua experiência. Alinhado de belíssimos visuais, um combate rápido e responsivo, uma trilha sonora que alterna entra o melancólico e o caótico e, principalmente, uma história familiar cativante, Hades conseguiu criar momentos inteiramente gratificantes num gênero onde raiva e frustração sempre reinaram. Mesmo as minhas mortes mais dolorosas se transformavam em mais conhecimento sobre cada uma dessas histórias, além de trazer bastante aprendizado e mais itens para me ajudar numa próxima tentativa, alimentando esse ciclo eterno de fugas. Tendo tudo isso em mente, minha única tristeza fica pelo fato de eu ter demorado tanto para finalmente me afundar nesse profundo Reino do Hades. Pela quantidade de vezes que me mandaram ir pro inferno, eu deveria ter jogado bem antes...