I finally played Hades... Should you?

It’s not exactly new but it’s not long hopped on game pass and I wanted to give it a go. So here’s a pretty late take on Hades, an isometric action roguelike with a beautifully enchanting world. Let’s answer the burning question…

IS IT GOOD?

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World

Hades has a stunningly beautiful world with tons of character which is split up into 4 distinct biomes (these are the floors) the lush greens of Tartarus, the burning reds of Asphodel, the clean and polished Elysium, and then the grimy dungeons that scratch the surface. You will start to get familiar with the individual rooms that they offer, but the variety is great enough that you won’t get bored of them in a hurry. Which is good, because you’ll be seeing them a lot!

Game Loop

The core loop of the game is this :

1) Leave the house of Hades to start your escape attempt

2) Complete the room (by killing stuff) and claim your reward

This can be any of the resources that the game has, or a new boon/ability for your character to use on that escape attempt.

3) Pick a door, which will have a picture of the next rooms reward above it

4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 a few times. The game will give you random rooms and rewards

It can also throw in a couple of demi-boss rooms here and there!

5) Fight a boss at the end of that floor

6) Move to the next floor

The player will need to do this through 3 distinct floors and then finally a fourth slightly altered floor before the final boss and a possible escape to the overworld. During the run, you will gain currencies that you can spend in a variety of ways in the hub area.

Gameplay

There's a rewarding and wonderfully crafted combat system with 6 unique weapons that change the pace of combat. Your favorite weapon is going to say a lot about how you like to play but switching them up keeps things fresh and also helps you land all that juicy loot once you’ve seen the story through (the first time…). 

Movement and actions are crisp and immediate, you have full control over every hit you give and take. You will feel yourself improve with every escape attempt as you begin to understand the enemies and environments you’re fighting in. Once you do understand the enemies, and how to dismantle them quickly, you will start to feel like the demi-god you are!

Boons

Boons are the rewards that actively build up your character's combat prowess throughout your escape attempts. These are literal gifts from the gods and they can give a crazy amount of flexibility to how you approach combat. I’m sure like me you’ll soon get to know which are your favorites based on your play style. You can go for a min/max approach or give yourself a flexible variety of perks. This approach makes every run feel fresh, you might even change up your tactics based on what boons you’re collecting throughout your playthrough.

Enemy variety is also fantastic, with each biome offering up fresh enemies and mechanics to deal with as you progress. They will vary in size/shape/attack styles/speed/shields/and more! How you deal with them will depend on the scenario, your weapons, AND your boons, which keeps every run and encounter fresh.

Bosses

Each floor finishes with a boss encounter. These encounters start changing once you’ve done them a few times too, giving you new mechanics to look out for and sometimes even now bosses all together. There are also some demi-boss fights throughout some of the floors too! What you encounter changes every run, so you’re never sure which you’ll get next.

Spending your currencies

You can spend currency to renovate both the House of Hades and also aid your escape attempts. You can also spend other currencies to buy additional bonuses, enhance relationships, upgrade weapons and much more to keep you busy for the long haul.

Story

You play as Zagreus, both fine specimen (cheers mate) and son of Hades. You’re having some daddy issues in the House of Hades so your goal is to run away and find your mother in the overworld. Turns out the breakup between mum and dad wasn’t so clean either so you’ll be finding out what went down there as you try, try, and try again to escape the underworld.

Without spoilers, I will say that the story is fairly engaging and it at least held some of my limited attention span finding out why mum and dad broke up. It also gives a good enough reason to keep escaping once you’ve finally made it to the overworld, so that’s a bonus if the story is your jam. The team at Supergiant has done a stellar job of characterizing the varied cast. And they sound pretty sexy too if that’s your kind of thing. 

You can spend some currency to enhance relationships with the many characters of the game who will reward you with trinkets and maybe more! You’ll also get a good chuckle from time to time too, Murdererrrrr… (if you know, you know.)

End Game

Once you’ve seen the story through the game will then unlock a wide variety of difficulty options for you to work through that both keep the rewards flowing and the gameplay fresh, I mean, if you’re addicted anyway you might as well get stuck in right?

(if you can handle the heat!)

The Conclusion

Hades is a modern masterpiece, it doesn’t really do anything new, but it does everything to a fantastically high quality. As somebody who doesn’t play many roguelike games because of the repetition, I have been pleasantly surprised by all that is on offer here. The visual design work in this game is pretty breathtaking and the audio work is great. The interlocking systems of this game are truly what makes this game a triumph, the flexibility to play how you want to play and then play a  completely different and yet still viable style on your next run is something that few games offer. There are very few areas in this tightly crafted formula that doesn’t excel and I highly recommend giving it a go! If you have xbox game pass you can pick this up today for the low low price of the subscription you’re already paying for. If not, it’s still worth picking up anyway!

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