You know. At least, you know the principle, because the effect is of an unheard-of level in Hades. It excels where almost all competitors are satisfied with ‘good enough’. Forget the heavy weight of a word like roguelike or – lite : Hades is a game for anyone who knows how to use controllers.
Feeling
You play Zagreus, the son of Hades. The Guardian of Hell is not necessarily a great father figure and a healthy father-son relationship is low on his list of priorities. Zagreus therefore tries to escape from hell in haste. In every attempt the charismatic prince of the gods climbs out of his bedroom window, hoping to reach the mortal realm. That means a long journey up, filled with obstacles such as cunning traps, bosses and a lot of difficult choices.
When you have defeated all enemies in one of the many locked rooms, multiple doors will appear, each leading to a certain upgrade. Do you choose the route of more health, extra money or do you go for a new skill? If you want such a skill, a bean , you still have a choice of certain gods. These gods, from both the upper and the underworld, each offer their own upgrades.
Zeus is from the powerful electric attacks, while Hermes provides more speed. Beans of Dionysus, the Olympian god of wine and enthusiasm, give your enemies deadly hangovers. There are other ways to upgrade Zagreus besides the boons, of which the six different weapons are the most interesting. They each guarantee a refreshing way of playing due to their multitude of different playing styles.
It is wonderful to experiment with weapons and beans in Hades. The playing styles that you can adapt to yourself are still overwhelmingly diverse after tens of hours of playing. For example, you can improve the standard attack of your spear in speed, power and prevent you from mowing down a whole group of enemies with each press of the button. In that respect too, you feel like a god in Hades. Hades feels more wonderful than can be described with a pen.
That feeling is difficult to explain. The animations on the screen and your input on the controller degenerate into a symbiosis that you only understand when you experience it. It’s in the simplicity of your attacks, of which you know exactly when they hit which enemies where. Or how in the animation of a shield charge advance button can pose to the next shield charge . And in the dash , where you know exactly where you will end up afterwards; you dash through lava without thinking about it.
Zagreus’ pixel-precise mobility draws from muscle memory you never knew you had.
A lust for the eye
The fast action guarantees a true visual spectacle. Poseidon’s beans cause literal waves of seawater to splash through the chambers of hell. Especially during bosses, many different types of attacks dance across the screen simultaneously.
But Hades is beautiful in another way too: the game drips style. Every screen is bursting with color and small details. At times the game looks like a kind of interactive coloring page. Despite the isometric perspective, there are even impressive vistas in the game world, and characters are accompanied by beautiful portraits during dialogue.
The setting of Hades, literally the Greek underworld, is substantively worked out to perfection. After each run, you return to the palace of Hades, which serves as your home base. Drenched in the red waters of the river Styx, Zagreus is greeted there by many well-known mythological figures, including Hades himself – often with a cynical remark about aimless escape attempt number so much. In this house of Hades, the setting really comes to life: there are many rooms to discover and opportunities to play freely.
It pays to talk to the Gods and other inhabitants of the house: you gradually unravel the mysteries of the underworld and the bonds between characters. They come out beautifully through sharp, often viciously spoken dialogue. It is also special to see how much narration there is in this game; the chance that you will hear a certain sentence twice is really very small.
Implementing so much good dialogue must have taken an awful lot of work. The soundtrack also deserves to be mentioned separately. The musical accompaniment varies from soft harp playing in the House of Hades to hard metal during boss fights.
Never stop playing
Hades is currently only available on the Switch and on PC. I played on a 144 Hertz monitor, but the game reached a frame rate of over 500, even during fierce combat. Of course, the game runs less on the Switch. There is some image delay at very busy times, but that is not a big eyesore. In that sense, it doesn’t really matter on which platform you buy this game, although the use of a controller is recommended.
Are there no disadvantages? No. At least not really. Hades doesn’t have the emotional charge of Supergiant’s first game, Bastion. But the writing makes up for that with its humor and sharpness. All I would have liked to see was a co-op mode. On the other hand, the arenas aren’t really made for that; such a co-op mode requires a completely different design philosophy.
It’s been a long time since a game grabbed me like Hades. It’s been even longer since I played a game that seemed to get better and better. With almost fifty hours on the counter, I know exactly what to expect from Hades. But nothing makes me want to stop playing, a sentiment that still facilitates the endgame and the story very well. Hades is a rare total package. Never before have I dared to recommend a game so easily.
Hades – Conclusion
Hades plays like this, so very smoothly. But above all it is great that this game leaves nothing to be desired. Style, music, story, setting, replayability: Hades is as wide as it is deep and excels at everything. Games are rarely that unapproachable in finish. It’s been a long time since a game grabbed like Hades. It’s been even longer since a game played that seemed to get better and better.
Positives of Hades
- Setting and lore
- Writing and voice acting
- Great music
- Many playing styles and upgrades
- Almost infinite playable
- Plays like a train
- Beautiful style
Negatives of Hades
- A co-op mode would have been fun
Hades – BIO
| Release date | December 6, 2018 / September 17, 2020 Nintendo Switch release |
| Genre | Roguelike, Hack and slash |
| Developers | Supergiant Games |
| Platforms | Nintendo Switch, macOS, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh operating systems |
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