Video Game Review: Hades

After beating Dead Cells in 2021, my desire to get more exposure into the roguelike genre has allowed me to experience a multitude of great games. Since then, I’ve endured the likes of Bloodborne, Elden Ring and Dark Souls 1 to name a few titles within this brutally challenging genre.  While those games were all phenomenal in their own rights, they themselves had a sense of structure and familiarity to them which allowed you to overcome their trials through repetition.  I figured after playing so many of those kinds of roguelikes, it was time to venture into an experience which had a more chaotic and unpredictable element similar to that of Dead Cells.  This is what led me to pick up and play what is arguably the very best in the genre when it comes to a true randomized roguelike experience which had me escaping from the very depths of hell itself. 

Developed and self-published by Supergiant Games, Hades is an isometric, roguelike, hack and slash roleplaying game in which you are burdened with the challenge of escaping from the depths of the Greek underworld as Zagreus, the son of the titular Greek god Hades. The game was initially released in 2019 on PC through Early Access and then ported shortly after to Nintendo Switch and then most mainline consoles by March 2021. Commercially and critically the game was a complete success, earning a plethora of gaming awards and standing at a high 94% on Opencritic.  Hades has developed a legacy of incredible esteem, being touted as one of the best games of the modern generation and one of the very best rougelikes in the genre.

The story of Hades follows Zagreus, the young son of the Greek god Hades as he seeks to escape the confines of his fathers domain and find his estranged mother, Persephone. Aiding him along on his quest are the Greek gods that reside high above in the realm of Olympus. By bestowing upon Zagreus their boons of favour Zagreus learns more about his distant family and gains their abilities to help face on the hordes of his own father’s minions. The realm of the Underworld is separated by four main regions; Tartarus, Asphodel, Elysium, and the Temple of Styx. Each of these regions consists of a multitude of rooms and arenas that Zagreus must fight through in order to progress.  The regions themselves are protected by a respective champion of Hades who seeks to stop Zagreus from reaching further up towards the surface. On his quest to escape and learn more of his mother, Zagreus will come to encounter a plethora of residents who reside in the Underworld who he can grow close to and progress through their own personal storylines.

Hades recognizes the core quality of its narrative setup in a near perfect fashion. I love how the drive to escape his father’s realm is given all the proper attention it requires. The story accompanies the gameplay format wonderfully as the idea is you will continuously die over and over in your attempt to escape and the narrative develops over the course of your attempts. Zagreus’ personal struggle with his own identity and the desire for answers from his mother makes his need to escape all the more relatable.  His difficult relationship with his father gives the struggle to overcome his trials all the more flavour too as you feel his overbearing presence come out in his dialogue as well as his actions to take you down in each encounter you face.  The extra compliment added to the narrative is its side content too.  The game is filled to the brim with memorable characters to meet and interact with and through the gameplay you can progress your relationship with them.  By developing relationships with the games characters, you get a chance to experience their own stories and even gain the chance to grow intimate with some of them. 

As noted prior, what compliments this games wonderfully layered story is the gameplay that ties it together.  The fundamental function behind the gameplay is progressing through the games rooms and clearing them out of their enemies. In the initial areas the enemies are easy enough to dispatch but they get trickier to dispatch the higher you climb out of the Underworld. What adds to this challenge is the randomness of how it’s delivered. You can never truly know what enemies wait for you in the next room you enter and what additional difficulties get associated to their encounters. What will help you with clearing these rooms out too is the weapons you will gain access to.  You start out by default with the handy sword weapon but you will eventually unlock weapons like shields, bows, spears, gauntlets and firearms.  Each of these weapons shifts up the gameplay considerably and it allows you to find an ideal setup that works best for you to defeat the enemies and bosses you come to face.

That randomness isn’t only associated to the challenge but to the benefits you get too.  The doors to the rooms you approach highlight the rewards you will gain for beating them.  Usually there’s one or two doors to pick from too so you have to consider carefully which room you want to take on in line with the challenge and the potential reward.  The rewards range from currency, weapon upgrades and boons, the boons and weapon upgrades stick out as the most noteworthy. The gods of Olympus are not only unique in their characters but also their powers.  The boons they give reflect the different kind of powers you can obtain to dispatch your enemies.  Zeus for example, will give you his lightning abilities to allow you to shock and stun your enemies.  Dionysus will bestow upon you his ability to weaken your enemies with the influence of wine.  There’s so much selection to choose from with the abilities you can obtain that it makes no one run the same and adds a lot of replayability and progression to work towards.

The games visual style is also brimming with quality.  The isometric view of the game allows you to take in the environments intricate colour and details into full appreciation while you’re navigating the encounters in each room. The animations and frame rate all perform fantastically to reinforce the fast pace format behind the game. Character illustrations are immaculate and vividly designed to give each individual their own unique presence in the game. As well as their unique designs the voice work in this game also give greater credence to their identity as each voice actor puts in their all to give their characters their much-needed definition.  One of the biggest standouts though is the games soundtrack and composer Darren Korb goes all out in delivering a score that represents all the quality and depth behind the game’s Greek setup.

Hades deserves every bit of credit it gets and more.  It’s a game that recognizes every creative facet at its disposal.  It delivers a fast paced, action-orientated experience that relishes in the wide world of Greek mythology and gives it all the best attention to detail it needs to set a firm impression in the modern gaming landscape.  It’s a roguelike experience that is challenging but rewarding in equal measure and gives the player an easily addictive gameplay loop to get lost in.