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.