Hades Review
“A Perfect Match Made in Hell.” Written by: Hunter (ReaperHunter23)
Hades is a game I have been eagerly anticipating since its reveal at the game awards back in 2018. It has been available in early access in the time in between but I held off on doing that because I figured the wait would make the eventual official launch all the sweeter. Lo and behold I was not disappointed. Hades is a wonderful dungeon crawling roguelite where you assume control of Zagreus, the prince of the underworld, who is trying to escape to the human realm. The wildly satisfying combat system that feeds perfectly into an addicting gameplay loop. When this is woven together with the blood pumping music, stunning visuals, and charming cast, Hades shapes up to be an experience that I won’t be forgetting any time soon.
Image Credit: Supergiant Games
The moment to moment hack and slash combat of Hades pairs with the procedurally generated dungeon crawling masterfully. Zagreus gets a bevy of different toys to play around with during his escape attempts that make it so that no two runs will be exactly the same. To start with you unlock six different weapons each with a standard quick attack and special move that is more specific to the weapon. For example you can throw the spear and call it back, or the Bow has a nifty rapid fire volley maneuver. The cool thing about this arsenal is that while I took a shine to certain weapons quickly after unlocking them, with a little bit of experimentation I found that they were all equally as viable. The game also encourages you to switch it up by offering an upgrade point bonus for a specific weapon each escape attempt. Aside from the weapons at his disposal, Zagreus also has a dash that can be useful for evasion or closing the distance between you and those pesky underworld denizens. Lastly He has what the game calls a “Cast” move which is essentially a long ranged magic attack.
Once you are locked and loaded, one of the most important elements of your escape attempts will be the Boons. Boons are gifts from the Gods Of Olympus that serve as a buff to Zagreus in some form or fashion. Each action you can do can be modified, so your two attacks, the dash and the cast can all be changed.There are also several boons that serve as passive buffs such as revenge damage or movement speed boosts. There are Nine Olymians to receive these boons from and I think that the corresponding effect that each of them grant makes a lot of sense. Hermes is mostly speed buffs, Artemis deals with raising critical chances. Poseidon adds knockback waves to your moves, you get the picture. The one thing to keep in mind is that you can’t have two boons modify the exact same thing. For example I can’t have my special attack do Ares’s damage over time and Demeter’s freeze debuff at the same time. One would overwrite the other. The cool thing though is that there’s a lot of them that can play nice with each other. An example of this would be if you have Hermes buff your regular attack speed. Since your regular attack isn’t doing anything besides going faster you could still modify it in some other way. So say if you have your regular attack speed boosted and get a reflect from Athena you have the potential to be quite hard to damage.
The actual exploration of the dungeon is also loads of fun. Normally you will be given the choice of two doors, each one will tell you what the reward for clearing the room beyond is. The rewards vary from boons, to max Hp upgrades, to varying different currencies to either help you escape or permanently upgrade something back at The House Of Hades when you die. The game always kept me on my toes as well. Everytime I hit a point that I thought I was getting comfortable, I’d make enough progress for there to be another interesting wrinkle added into my next escape attempt. Be it a modification to a boss battle or some other point of fansication. Aside from the crazy amount of variety I believe that the gameplay’s other biggest strength was that I never felt like I was being walled by some kind of impossible task. Even if I happened to die to the same boss on a few attempts I always felt like I was improving, which just amplified the urge to jump right back into another run that much more.
Image Credit: Supergiant Games
The story of Hades is a powerful coming of age story with heavy themes on family, sacrifice, and failure. As previously mentioned the story is centered around Zagreus trying to escape the underworld. The game doesn’t tell you why right away but his motivations become clear pretty early on. The highest compliment I can give the story is that for as much fun as I had tearing through the depths of the underworld, I had equally as much fun witnessing Zagreus’s interactions with the menagerie of characters present in this game. Whether it’s was Hypnos remarking on how you died and offering some “Expert” advice, or Megaera being angry that Zagreus beat her on his previous attempt, or even just petting Cerberus every time I passed through I always wanted to see what new bit of dialogue awaited me. It isn’t just throw away flavor text either, most of the residents of The House Of Hades have full blown side stories that will unfold alongside the main plot and lead to some genuinely moving moments. Special mentions to the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, that was my favorite of the bunch.
My favorite thing about the way the game goes about delivering the plot is how it takes advantage of how the game is structured. Most other games like this would just call you a loser and tell you to try again. But this game uses dying as a vehicle to contextualize its unique story and weave it into the gameplay rather than the typical gameplay/story segregation that would be present in a game like this. It's a good way to drip feed you details about the world around you while still keeping the game focused. It also works to keep the game fresh in that regard. The NPCs aren’t all rigidly stuck to their spots, always there to greet you with the same “Oh tough luck, you’ll get ‘em next time” spiel. Sometimes Achilles won’t be at his post, sometimes Nyx will be having a chat with Megaera instead of just standing there. Sometimes the dead will be lined up as they nervously plead their cases to Hades hoping that he approves their claim, only for Hades to shatter their dreams and deny them. Other details like the ever changing “featured house servant” picture in the lounge go a long way to make the land of the dead feel like one of the most alive locales I’ve come across in a while
However, for as cool as I think the way they structured the story is, I can see how it could be a double edged sword. You typically only get one chat with any given NPC per visit to the house, two if you count when you give them gifts. I can see how this could be a little annoying if you are trying to advance one character’s story in particular. For example, Megaera seemed to be a pretty rare sight when I would respawn. And oftentimes when she was around, she’d be talking to someone else so I couldn’t advance the relationship, or give her a gift because she was locked into that conversation. Like I said, this didn’t bother me all that much because I liked all of the characters and was willing to just do things as they came up, but I can see how it’d be frustrating for someone else.
Image Credit: Supergiant Games
Hades makes use of Supergiant’s signature hand drawn art style to bring the underworld and its denizens to life. The environments come together wonderfully, each area that Zagreus treks through feels distinct from one another. Tartarus feels understandably like a massive old school prison complete with torture devices and other odd pain inflicting contraptions. Asphodel is the typical fire and brimstone you’d expect when someone say the word “underworld” to you, but I feel like it is the best looking version of that kind of environment I’ve seen in a long time. It probably helps that instead of being muted and overpowered by a thick layer of smog, like so many similar to it, the colors actually pop. Elysium stands in stark contrast to the other areas by seeming like it would actually be peaceful if you weren’t being attacked by the souls of the departed. It has a very strong ethereal forest kind of vibe to it. Styx feels kind of like an Indiana Jones temple what with its multitude of traps and such, and it is probably my least favorite of the bunch, but I still think it looks pretty cool.
As far as character designs are concerned, Oh doctor, they can’t make a bad looking character. Even designs such as Zeus or Poseidon, which by all accounts are pretty close what you would expect them to be but they are still really cool looking because of the art style. And then there others like Nyx and Thanatos who are easily the coolest depictions of them that I’ve ever seen. Other favorite designs of mine include Artemis, Megaera, and Achilles.
The characters are all brought to life by an impeccable set of voice performances. This is the first Supergiant game to have a fully voiced cast, previous outings have mostly relied on a narrator of some kind and the occasional line from another character here and there. They all come across really well. Thanatos pulls off the moody harbinger of death in a manner that always made me chuckle, Dusa’s voice brought the nervous housekeeper to life to a T. And Zagreus and Hades’s family squabbles are captured to perfection.
As always with Supergiant soundtracks the music in this game is top tier.I knew from the title screen song alone that I was in for another doozy. Most of the music is blood pumping to an impressive degree, I’ve seen some of the songs described as an ancient greek Doom soundtrack and I find that hard to disagree with. Aside from the head bang inducing fighting music there are a number of wonderful atmospheric songs as well as a few emotional chops to the throat. Seriously, the different versions of Good Riddance are flooring. Not to mention the game once again contextualizes the songs in game by adding musician characters in the game. When Orpheus shows up you can eventually have him start to sing songs found out in the world.
Image Credit: Supergiant Games
Summary
I don’t think it would be very hard for me to say that Hades is a must play. It is one of the best games that’s come out this year. Roguelites aren’t typically my thing and I still love this game so if you think that might be something that turns you away, I’d recommend giving a try anyway. And if you are a fan of rougelites, well this one is excellent. The game is very much the culmination of several elements from all of Supergiant’s previous games weaving it all together for an addicting gameplay experience with an equally enjoyable world and story that held me captive for well over 50 hours. And given that I still haven’t seen everything there is to see, there may truly be no escaping this game.