Publisher: Supergiant Games
Developer: Supergiant Games
Platform: PC, Switch
Genre: Rogue-Lite RPG
Ah, rogue-lites, not a genre of games am always fond of because of its repetitious nature. However, I have made exceptions on other games like Dead Cells and Enter The Gungeon. Then there's this. A game made by none other than Greg Kasavin. For those who don't know, Kasavin much like Jeff Gertsmann is a legend in the industry. Both of them worked for Gamespot till they've resigned and have since gone ventured to forge new careers in their own ways. While Jeff made Giantbomb, Kasavin was producing games like Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars and Spec Ops: The Line. So it shouldn't surprise anyone after the fact that his studio, Supergiant Games has been making lot of killer games of late and has come a long way since Bastion. Hades proves to be his magnum opus. It's also been in early access for almost 2 years before release.
While some aren't usually fans of rogue-lites, Hades proves to be challenging yet easily playable for newcomers or just these playing for the story. It's a game that will push you to the brink and back, get back to hell one more time just so you can do better. Even if you finish the story, you still want to go back. The replayability keeps bringing you back just to turn you into a glutton of punishment till you've proven yourself otherwise.
I can't tell you how much this game has grown on me, like I couldn't stop playing and losing, losing till I realized that even at my loss, I had learned a lot and earned something else in return as well. Each conquest to face multiple different foes in different chambers, you climb up to the top from Tartarus. My only wish was that while the going was getting good, if only it lasted a little longer. Even with the insane endgame playthroughs.
Story
You play as Zagreus, the son of Hades who is literally fed up with his fathers hellhole and wants to leave. He also wants to find his real mom. Hades not pleased and reluctant to help out his son, hires his minions and contracts others to kill Zagreus as much as possible in order to stop him from reaching the top and meeting up with his relatives in Mount Olympus. You know, like Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Dionysus among other Greek gods. As temperant and repressed the residents of the Underworld can be, they do their best to help out Zagreus reach the top and be free of Hades rule.
That's it, or is it? Yeah, no this game has a lot going on obviously from the small-time characters, Chthonic gods, slain champions to gods in olympus. No one knows what the current world has going on and no one cares, it's a god vs everything hell can throw. Even the god himself, Hades.
Most of the characters you meet are colorful, with different personalities and backstories as to who they are. Also these guys mean serious business so doing as you please isn't always an option. In each every run, you get to engage in conversation, updating your codex about them while also adding a lot of information dumps about their relationships with other gods, beings and why they're helping you per se.
Each and every time you accept a boon from these gods, you get to also gift them before then and thus strengthen your relationship with them till it pays off in large rewards. So going this far isn't necessary for the game's story but it's a greatly added mechanic that not only adds more lore but also contribute to the gameplay.
If you've read Greek mythology, this game follows its own version of it. But it does so to such an extent, you're captivated to keep playing even after you've reached the end. You still wanna go at it again. I love the game as much as the story as well. The dialogue is superbly written, like almost every dialogue beautifully captures the sensation that you're talking to gods in their most contemporary form. There's humor too, a lot of fun characters to engage with without your momentum being slowed.
Gameplay
Hades is a fast, frantic game that constant requires your attention glued to the screen. Even if you're going for easy kills, enemies are still putting up good fights despite their weaker strengths. As you progress further into more chambers, after the first 14, you finally get into a boss battle and then the next 10 chambers later, you get into another boss battle and so on.
It's a pretty simple game to play. For combat, you have normal attacks, special attacks, casts which shoots a red prism to enemy for more passive damage and call, provided you accepted boon from a god which is basically your ultimate ability. You can also dash. How many times you do it is based on the talents you unlock or boons you hold. The controls in this game can be crazy precise too.
Although it seems pretty lengthy, it's all about power. How many of powerful boons, talents, items and weapon upgrades you can muster up. How much of your health you'd increase before making the final confrontation and believe me when I say this, you need everything you can. Boons have rarities which are provided by gods and can be upgraded by pom of powers, talents are unlocked and increased by spending darkness, weapon upgrades of among the 6 you unlock can also be unlocked by titan blood.
Again, saving these up takes multiple attempts, sometimes you'd do it for farming even. Actually, no you do a lot of farming if you're really pumping up to push yourselves further. If you're looking for a real challenge, pacts of punishment really ramps things up in endgame.
And of course, right after you do, you get to interact with the denizens and ones in charge as well as the man himself, Zeus. You get sound advises while also buying items from vendors and unlocking cool stuff in between. Making your own bedroom look cozy as well. Though you might have to fork over some gems for some nice decor and all.
In between chambers, you get also get a break where you meet other individuals stuck in the underworld. Some are cozy, others obviously aren't. They'll also offer some things in return as well like bonuses, restoring health or grant more resources.
The boss battles on the other hand, is where this game finally truly shine. Is what your work gets cut for. Each one of them will push you hard, sometimes even push your luck. That's alright, just come back stronger and you can no longer bear the shame of being defeated. All your work gets cut out and you get to do it all over again in higher difficulties, with the exception that you truly turn into a glutton for punishment.
Hades is an amazing game, it has so much going for it. Heck, you think 20hrs be enough but next thing you know, you're playing this for a whole week and you don't feel like quitting. Just that I wish for the story, that was a little more going right around the end. Maybe am not a fan of endings reaching this soon, maybe this be that case for me.
Anyhow, you need to go a long way if you really want to best everything out. There's no stopping or anybody in this game from dying over and over again.
Presentation
This is a beautiful looking game and it doesn't need much of a hardware to run so. Everything from the artwork, smooth animation to the in-game effects. It just pops, accentuates even better than most games do. The color variety and range is too high even to count. Crazy how this is pulled off without even pulling so much from hardware.
The game's voice acting is brilliant, one of top tier stuff. The music is just crazy, at times reels you into the atmosphere but during battles, it goes crazy from Metallica to Dream Theatre crazy metal. Like, this is why I was glad I listened to either of them and more.
Sound design is designed to draw you into its theme and chaos, it's also diverse enough to tell what kind and where enemies are coming from. Pure quality stuff.
Score
As breathtaking, intense and full of content as this game can be, there's very few games that accomplishes it. I loved nearly every second of it and I can't wait to go back once again.
Pros
- Combat is exhilarating, precise, challenging and tons of fun
- So many stuff to pick up and manage
- Crazy, vibrant visuals and accurate texture drawing
- Great characters with lot of backstory to uncover
- Boss battles raises the stakes really high
- Dying isn't so bad, once you get used to it
- Endgame is crazier
Cons
- Game ending little sooner left little more to be desired