Hades Review (PC)

It may have required fighting through the depths of the underworld to achieve it, but the rouge-like genre has emerged victoriously from the vile depths with one of its greatest builds to date…

Supergiant, the developer who brought us some of the most unique gaming experiences of the last decade; Bastion, Hyper-light Drifter, and Pyre, released Hades from early access in September 2020. The isometric rouge-like brawler unites fast paced, challenging, comic action, a unique anime art style and fabulously dry wit, both raising the bar for a genre, and assuming a position as a prime contender for my 2020 game of the year.

Hades has you filling the flaming shoes of Zagreus, the cool, calm and collected prince of the underworld, as he battles through increasingly brutal dungeons in adolescent defiance of an iron fisted, fatherly regime. Throughout your ascent of the unholy under-belly, you’ll encounter the entire pantheon of Greek mythology (mostly your aunts and uncles), colourful characters who’ll bestow you with a range of powerful gifts and abilities in aid of your rebellious ends. These abilities, or, ‘boons’, as they’re called in the game, become Zagreus’s main road towards the surface as he dashes and smashes and talks his way through hordes of foes towards greener pastures.

The fundamental loop stays true to the formulae of the modern rouge-like, each run earning you means to progress, either through new powers, currencies, or indeed, knowledge that carry over to your subsequent runs. Each attempt is preceded by some quick preparations, firstly choosing your ‘infernal arms’, you pick from a selection of six distinct weapons. This includes, to highlight a few, ‘The Twin Fists of Malphon’ a pair of hellish boxing gloves, ‘Aegis, the Shield of Chaos’, a Captain America-esque shield that pinballs between enemies to satisfying effect, and ‘Coranacht, the Heart-Seeking Bow’ which allows you to deal massive damage to enemies in a single shot. Each of the weapons represents a drastically different move-set and playstyle with which to approach each dungeon. Further upgrades to these, where lesser games might simply offer percentage increases to damage, or speed, practically constitute entirely new weapons, adding entirely new moves or effects to your repertoire.

Once you begin clearing dungeons, you’ll start receiving boons from the various Olympian figures which add a further dimension of chaotic fun and variety each run. Poseidon, the jolly uncle, and braggadocios sea god endows your abilities with effects that send enemies smashing into walls as they’re swept up in waves, whereas Zeus’s boons allow you rain bolts of chain lightning down upon the helpless minions. On their own these extra powers offer plenty of nuanced ways to send the servants of the underworld careering into distant pillars and traps, turning on their allies, or even exploding in dangerous shockwaves upon defeat. As you collect and experiment with various combinations of boons, you’ll begin to discover synergies between some weapons and abilities, and here one of the greatest joys of Hades is to be found. Whilst boons are awarded randomly you are given many means to turn the tide in your favour, increasing the odds of receiving boons from particular gods, or of a certain rarity, allowing you to eventually work towards particular builds. Whilst it’s unlikely you’ll ever get exactly what you want this element of randomness only helps in discovering more interesting builds for Zagreus to try on for future runs.

The feeling of progression is meticulously paced; over 60 hours of gameplay I was constantly offered roads to better my chances for success and whenever I thought I had the game cracked it would, in reaction, surprise me by dropping a new element, a new enemy, a new boon, or a new Olympian figure into the mix. Perhaps more surprising is that even this deep into the game I’m still regularly finding new narrative insights and dialogue with the characters, undoubtedly the result of an ungodly amount of writing and countless recording sessions. Hades offers a steady challenge throughout, and unlike contemporaries, the challenge presented never feels insurmountable, or the sole province of those willing to sell their soul to the game, pouring over wikis and appealing to cabals of dark-web information brokers to progress. It’s refreshingly accessible while still presenting a respectable challenge, and I’m sure this will result in many more players choosing to see it through to the end. For those seeking a more hellish challenge the ability to fully customize difficulty options is unlocked after your first successful run and is rewarded fittingly. It’s an approach I’d love to see adopted by more games; you can have your difficulty and complete it too.

What Hades achieves where many before failed is the integration of a coherent narrative, seamlessly woven into the looped structure of the game. Each run is punctuated by interactions with the underworld denizens, ranging from the hilarious to the melancholic, branching and culminating in a complex family drama that is both surprising and at times genuinely touching. Upon the failure of an underworld escape Zagreus is dragged begrudgingly back to the halls of Hades, emerging from the blood-filled ‘Pool of Styx’, the entry point from which the deceased emerge for their final judgement and in that regard, Zagreus is no exception. You will be mocked mercilessly for being thwarted by a measly floating medusa head, quietly cheered on by disgruntled shades, and finally scorned by your disappointed father and told to tidy your room. Beginning each run, I found myself not just preparing for battle, but also anticipating the characters I might meet, and the stories I might uncover along the way. Life in the underworld is depicted, less as a land of fire and brimstone, and more a dystopian branch of government; a world of stacked paperwork and hierarchy solidified in polished marble. This world is brought to life through rich use of colour and a fun but still classy, anime art style; it’s an aesthetic that the game’s ensemble of wacky characters and their wry quippy dialogue feels right at home in.

In the brilliance that radiates from most parts of Hades, its issues are easily overlooked. If I were to be overly critical, as is my role in this review, I might add that upon first use, some weapons do feel a little less fun to utilise than others. The slow-paced ranged weapons in particular, whilst at times effective, don’t quite flow into the frenetic action that the game offers and arguably encourages. As a result, I generally found myself remaining loyal to my preferred melee weapons, however, on one run using the ‘heart seeking bow’, and receiving a powerful boon, I found the slow firing bow had been transformed, absorbing the powers of other abilities and loading them as a kind of augmented ammunition, exploding in a storm of splash damage upon impact with an unlucky shade.

Hades is a game fast approaching perfection; where there have been holes in the rouge-like genre such as the lack of narrative or interesting progression, Supergiant doesn’t just fill them, it develops them into real strengths. The result is a game that hits on every front, a fully realized creative vision that is enjoyable to explore and populated with characters you look forward to spending time with. Crucially, these elements only enhance the core gameplay which is exciting, fast paced, pure, and bursting at the seams with heaps of chaotic fun!