Hades felt different from what I came to expect when booting it up. The world is beautifully drawn, the story premise is cool, and the gameplay loop hold up better than expected. That explains how I've put decent time into post-endgame runs more than I honestly expected.

Being a Supergiant title, I expected good writing even if it isn't the focus. Can't say that I'm disappointed at all. Taking from Greek mythology gives them lots of ideas and inspirations, yet they made something great out of it. Each character is distinct, whether it's their writing or voice performances, can't say there's a boring person in the roster. Cohesive ludo-narrative overall even after the credits roll.
It takes its sweet time to develop, with some too long downtime but it gels well and ends on a good note.

Gameplay is quick and simple but the variety of builds and modifiers really extends the mileage of fun. I didn't care for min maxing but rarely did I feel that I end up with a bad build. It works even better on a pickup-and-play approach but that doesn't mean it doesn't stand out as a good game.

a game of patience. You hold block the entire match and then throw out a kick when you see that glimering opportunity...except when the enemy decides it can see the future and dodge all your attacks frame perfect. except when the enemy decides to do extra moves that didn't happen the past 10 continues, or when the enemy decides to grab you, and my favorite is when the enemy starts to see what is working for you so they never let you have those opportunities again. Lee you are my greatest enemy and i hate you >:(

First the Golem, now the Totem...

DLC finished, and it's excellent.
More adventures were expected, and they've come, that's it, in the form of a not-too-serious side quest, with a pretty simple lore, which in my vision is just an excuse for the additional gameplay, but it works. The fact that this is free is even better.
Everything is here, the great mechanics introduced in the main game, the humor, the graphics, the music (the guy did It again man, Beach and Totem Boss OST are FIRE), and the difficulty, which is a bit more increased here, and I found it very nice, since the main game had low to medium difficulty overall.

You can see they had fun with this one, trying new things everytime, bringing dynamism to the gameplay since the beginning with the Squid stage and boss, to the end, with a freaking Punch-Out-styled final boss, that was unexpected! (and well made)

In the middle of it, you have the Totem Boss which I really liked, besides seeing some people having trouble with it, it was fine for me, defeating him on the second attempt, that was a great battle, far different from the usual, which works very well with the DLC theme and has a FIRE background music (or should I say STORM?).

And there is also the run against your evil self Dark Messenger, a fast-paced platforming race right before the final battle. That was another great and personal experience, because something funny happened: I started winning every room, then I started to lose one by one in sequence, getting tied with the opponent, and then winning the match point by SECONDS of difference, truly a CINEMA moment. ( I even registered the moment with a print screen)

Thanks Sabotage Studios, your efforts were worth it, what a great piece of art.