Hades was my first experience with any sort of rougelike/rougelite game. To be brief, I think it's a masterpiece on all levels, and a title that could stand the tests of time if it were stacked against games made 20 years down the road.
The long story is that it does everything right.
The art direction? God damn. You could run through the Underworld 1000 times and still notice things about each level that are beautiful. From the trinkets in Zagreus' chambers, to the backgrounds of the stages. Even the gods are created with such care that you can't imagine seeing them any other way. One bit I always came back to way the team's use of color theory. I find it difficult to think of another game that can use such an amalgamation of colors to create such a cohesive setting for a game. It's not often you find so many colors being used while them all complementing each other, especially with how vivid the hues are. Even before the game came out, the studio had a trailer released with some beautiful animation at the forefront. Spencer Wan of Grackle spearheading it with boards and two colossi, Chengxi Huang and Weilin Zhang blessing us with their action-packed animation work. Long before I would ever play the game, its art and world drew me in. I'm only sad I never experienced it sooner.
The characters have their own idiosyncrasies and pull from Greek history is tasteful ways. Apparently all the gods were British too, so that's fun. I never felt like any character was a different version of another. An added layer to this is that you could walk into a chamber and be so excited to be greeted by a certain god, or disappointed with the options of another. The dice-roll of the chambers is fun from both a power-up and character interaction stance.
One more run...one more run...one more run. As I said, I was completely unfamiliar with the rougelike formula before playing Hades. I felt myself going through a rollercoaster of emotions as I obtain ideal power ups for most of my run, then slowly become humbled when the tail-end of my attempt is soiled by the worst boons I've ever seen. Even so, hacking and slashing my way through the underworld never presented a dull moment. The challenge was there as well. I struggled quite a bit at first until I started to fully understand how to combine boons and certain blessings. That's the beauty of the game, though, yeah? Playing it enough to understand what combinations make you more powerful or provide you with the optimal advantage against whatever enemies give you the most trouble. I loved how it eases you into the game and doesn't bombard you with every facet at first. I think that would dissuade many new players. The game is considerably challenging as well. I know that's part of the formula, and escaping the underworld should be no easy feat, but it's hard to recommend Hades to someone who doesn't have the tenacity to stick it out until they understand the mechanics.
I also think the sound effects and music are worth mentioning because they further pull you into each interaction. They range from relaxing harp(?) work to a raging cacophony of guitar shredding. It seems like most of the music gets its backbone from strings, which I found nice. Darren Korb was the lead composer and blew it out of the water. The intro song alone is burned into my eardrums. It's one of the tracks that calls forth all the memories of the game with a single riff.
As was the Labyrinth of Ancient Greece, Hades is a meandering game that forces the player to battle the powers of gods, heroes of old, and many other wretches of myth along the way. It's a game I'd have no problem replaying down the line, and I'm deeply excited for its sequel.
The long story is that it does everything right.
The art direction? God damn. You could run through the Underworld 1000 times and still notice things about each level that are beautiful. From the trinkets in Zagreus' chambers, to the backgrounds of the stages. Even the gods are created with such care that you can't imagine seeing them any other way. One bit I always came back to way the team's use of color theory. I find it difficult to think of another game that can use such an amalgamation of colors to create such a cohesive setting for a game. It's not often you find so many colors being used while them all complementing each other, especially with how vivid the hues are. Even before the game came out, the studio had a trailer released with some beautiful animation at the forefront. Spencer Wan of Grackle spearheading it with boards and two colossi, Chengxi Huang and Weilin Zhang blessing us with their action-packed animation work. Long before I would ever play the game, its art and world drew me in. I'm only sad I never experienced it sooner.
The characters have their own idiosyncrasies and pull from Greek history is tasteful ways. Apparently all the gods were British too, so that's fun. I never felt like any character was a different version of another. An added layer to this is that you could walk into a chamber and be so excited to be greeted by a certain god, or disappointed with the options of another. The dice-roll of the chambers is fun from both a power-up and character interaction stance.
One more run...one more run...one more run. As I said, I was completely unfamiliar with the rougelike formula before playing Hades. I felt myself going through a rollercoaster of emotions as I obtain ideal power ups for most of my run, then slowly become humbled when the tail-end of my attempt is soiled by the worst boons I've ever seen. Even so, hacking and slashing my way through the underworld never presented a dull moment. The challenge was there as well. I struggled quite a bit at first until I started to fully understand how to combine boons and certain blessings. That's the beauty of the game, though, yeah? Playing it enough to understand what combinations make you more powerful or provide you with the optimal advantage against whatever enemies give you the most trouble. I loved how it eases you into the game and doesn't bombard you with every facet at first. I think that would dissuade many new players. The game is considerably challenging as well. I know that's part of the formula, and escaping the underworld should be no easy feat, but it's hard to recommend Hades to someone who doesn't have the tenacity to stick it out until they understand the mechanics.
I also think the sound effects and music are worth mentioning because they further pull you into each interaction. They range from relaxing harp(?) work to a raging cacophony of guitar shredding. It seems like most of the music gets its backbone from strings, which I found nice. Darren Korb was the lead composer and blew it out of the water. The intro song alone is burned into my eardrums. It's one of the tracks that calls forth all the memories of the game with a single riff.
As was the Labyrinth of Ancient Greece, Hades is a meandering game that forces the player to battle the powers of gods, heroes of old, and many other wretches of myth along the way. It's a game I'd have no problem replaying down the line, and I'm deeply excited for its sequel.