HADES by Urizon

 

   I have been really holding off on doing a review of Supergiant's Hades for a while now. Almost as long as I had put off playing it. Honestly, I had just intended to one hundred percent the game before doing so, but having played many times, and now being stuck with like three trophies I just can’t get, I have decided to move on. I have way too many games to play that are building up on me.

   So, I had heard about Hades for quite a while now. I thought the trailers looked really cool, but I had noticed that it seemed like a top-down game, which I’m not terribly fond of. In the end, I held off for a while, until finally being convinced by others to give it a shot. Boy, am I glad I did.

   Hades is a rogue-like dungeon crawler made by Supergiant Games. The story deals with the son of Hades, Zagreus, as he attempts to break out of the Underworld and makes his way up to Mount Olympus. Along the way he faces a variety of enemies while also receiving aide from the Olympians themselves through the form of power ups called Boons. Along the way, more and more information is learned that slowly changes the story and gives Zagreus even more motivation to escape his father’s grasp.

   I love this game so much and am really glad that I gave it a chance. The rogue-like nature gave me real Binding of Isaac vibes, which I love, but without being as ridiculous and being a lot more story driven. Yet one good thing with Hades is, if you just want to sit back and enjoy the game while having a video or something on in the background, you can. For the most part, you can choose when to progress the story. If you don’t want to interact with someone or improve your relationship with them to progress the narrative, you can very easily skip out on those and just play. That being said, I find the story to be interesting enough to want to just constantly advance it.

   While the story is very engaging and fascinating, especially as it unravels, one of the major selling points for this game has to be the characters. I love most of them. Even with the ones that you hear less from, you get so much personality from them and they are all mostly likeable. I kept finding myself wanting to advance my relationships with all of them just to get more dialog and story unlocked. You even get to date a couple of the characters in a cool pansexual, polyamorous relationship. It was a good depiction of things and was handled in a good and respectful manner. Not to mention, all the characters also have some really amazing and unique designs with a somewhat limited voice cast doing a great job at bringing the personalities to life.

   What makes the game obviously the most enjoyable would be the gameplay. Being a rogue-like game, every play through is different. You go through and make your way through the different levels, starting with Tartarus, moving up to Asphodel, then Elysium, and finally up to the temple of Styx. Along the way, you unlock various weapons and different power ups that can change the outcome of the whole run.  My favorite is basically a set of claws you wear that attacks rather quickly which I like.

   What is also great with these weapons that you can get is, while pretty much every power up is essentially the same, they each interact with the weapons in different ways because of how they attack. As with everything else, it provides for a unique experience with every run. On top of that, you get different strategies and combinations going on that can really make a different experience every time. You really want to keep playing just to see what sort of synergy you can get with these weapons and power ups. Though sometimes early on in a run, you quickly realize that you just aren’t going to get anything good and you should just end it and restart.

   As I have said multiple times throughout, I absolutely love this game so much. While I didn’t really touch on it, it has amazing music, great gameplay and just overall a wonderful and kind of beautiful story. It is a game that even after having beat the main story and a lot of the side stuff, I could very easily go back to it later on down the line and pick it back up. Just like Binding of Isaac, I can easily just chill and play it absent-mindedly. If anything, I just wish I had gotten it on the Nintendo Switch so that way I could more easily play it with something going on in the background. Hades is a game that while it isn’t perfect, I don’t have anything really negative to say about it either. I’d say a solid 9 out of 10.

   If you have been thinking about playing Hades and are a fan of rogue-like games and Greek mythology, I think you should definitely give the game a shot. While it certainly plays with the ideas presented in mythology, it does some interesting twists to make sense to the context of the actual Greek lore. It helps make the story very interesting with you not knowing exactly what is going to happen. I really recommend people give this game a shot if they haven’t yet. It is a fun experience that can be enjoyed by many. You will surely find yourself spending many hours trying to escape the grip of the Underworld and the grip that the game itself will surely have on you.

   Now that this is over, I can finally move on to something else that is surely outdated by the time I get a review out!