Supergiant games had rapidly become a studio that i don't think can miss. Everything they make becomes gold. Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, and now Hades. They've not made a game less than 8/10 yet and Hades is gonna be no exception.
Hades is a rogue-like game that has been in early-access for most of the year and for that reason alone I have avoided it. I've wanted to play it, and I like Rogue-like games and everything else they've ever made so this game was always going to be a must-play for me. But finally the time has arrived that Hades is no longer in early access and has been released fully to 1.0.
HELL YES it's good.
Hades is a rogue-like game in which you play the son of Hades himself who is really kinda of tired of hell and wants to join the gods in Olympus for a much "cooler" time. In order to do that, you must battle through the layers of hell to reach freedom all the while your father and hell's general dickheads try to stop you. Hades plays in some ways like The Binding of Issac, in which it feels very room-based. The core loop seems to be you enter a room, clear out all the shit, get whatever reward that room contains and move onto the next room. But what makes Hades truly stand out for me is just how incredibly AWESOME the fucking combat feels. You move around with W,A,S,D and attack with the mouse, you can also dash/evade with the space bar, and everything feels so instantly responsive that I'm blown away. The game is certainly hard, as per usual for a Rogue-like but I've never once felt like my death's were bullshit because the character didn't respond. It's very tight controlling.
Because of the Rogue-like nature of the game every run feels different thanks to the rewards you get not only for clearing a room, but also through the permanent bonuses you unlock after each death. Clearing a room provides several different possible bonuses, ranging from currency that you'll use when you die for the more general upgrades, currency you'll use during your run if you happen upon a merchant, a blessing from the Gods which are the crux of making each run different as you have no control over which God appears and offers you a blessing, or keys that you can use to unlock different weapons back at your home base. What makes this all the more strategic is that each new room you unlock will tell you what reward awaits inside, marked by the reward symbol on the door before you open it. While sometimes there isn't a choice and you only have one room you can move onto, sometimes there will be two or three different progression paths with different rewards within, allowing you to pick the room you feel you need the most at the given moment.
Let me talk about the God's blessings for a second because these are the buffs that power you up through your runs and effectively give you the "Build" you are going to be using on this attempt. Each time you get a God's blessing you are given three choices, and each choice usually has a diliberate playstyle associated to it. Some give you elemental damage to your attacks, some give you the ability to debuff enemies around you when you dodge, some power up your projectile attacks, etc, etc. And each of the different God's have their own flavor to them. For example if your blessing comes from Zeus, then all of the options are going to make your abilities do some sort of lightning damage. Aphrodite likes to inflict the Weak debuff on enemies. These Gods appear at random and each one can drastically change your approach to the remainder of your run.
As per usual in Supergiant Games, the writing is amazing. Every character you meet along your journey to help or hinder you is brilliantly written, charming and even funny in their own way. From your Zombie friend who is totally happy with you beating the shit out of him as a target dummy to test your new weapons, to your father who runs Hell and is just kind of eyerollingly annoyed at you, yet also quiet amused each time you fail and die and have to come back home. Every character has a personality and charm that makes you smile everytime they appear. This isn't all that new from Supergiant, but it's nice to see that their writing team is still on point.
All in all I think Hades is fucking fantastic. If you are a fan of Rogue-likes, and want something with fun, fast, responsive and evolving combat, Hades is definitely worth $20. Get this fucking game.
Hades is a rogue-like game that has been in early-access for most of the year and for that reason alone I have avoided it. I've wanted to play it, and I like Rogue-like games and everything else they've ever made so this game was always going to be a must-play for me. But finally the time has arrived that Hades is no longer in early access and has been released fully to 1.0.
HELL YES it's good.
Hades is a rogue-like game in which you play the son of Hades himself who is really kinda of tired of hell and wants to join the gods in Olympus for a much "cooler" time. In order to do that, you must battle through the layers of hell to reach freedom all the while your father and hell's general dickheads try to stop you. Hades plays in some ways like The Binding of Issac, in which it feels very room-based. The core loop seems to be you enter a room, clear out all the shit, get whatever reward that room contains and move onto the next room. But what makes Hades truly stand out for me is just how incredibly AWESOME the fucking combat feels. You move around with W,A,S,D and attack with the mouse, you can also dash/evade with the space bar, and everything feels so instantly responsive that I'm blown away. The game is certainly hard, as per usual for a Rogue-like but I've never once felt like my death's were bullshit because the character didn't respond. It's very tight controlling.
Because of the Rogue-like nature of the game every run feels different thanks to the rewards you get not only for clearing a room, but also through the permanent bonuses you unlock after each death. Clearing a room provides several different possible bonuses, ranging from currency that you'll use when you die for the more general upgrades, currency you'll use during your run if you happen upon a merchant, a blessing from the Gods which are the crux of making each run different as you have no control over which God appears and offers you a blessing, or keys that you can use to unlock different weapons back at your home base. What makes this all the more strategic is that each new room you unlock will tell you what reward awaits inside, marked by the reward symbol on the door before you open it. While sometimes there isn't a choice and you only have one room you can move onto, sometimes there will be two or three different progression paths with different rewards within, allowing you to pick the room you feel you need the most at the given moment.
Let me talk about the God's blessings for a second because these are the buffs that power you up through your runs and effectively give you the "Build" you are going to be using on this attempt. Each time you get a God's blessing you are given three choices, and each choice usually has a diliberate playstyle associated to it. Some give you elemental damage to your attacks, some give you the ability to debuff enemies around you when you dodge, some power up your projectile attacks, etc, etc. And each of the different God's have their own flavor to them. For example if your blessing comes from Zeus, then all of the options are going to make your abilities do some sort of lightning damage. Aphrodite likes to inflict the Weak debuff on enemies. These Gods appear at random and each one can drastically change your approach to the remainder of your run.
As per usual in Supergiant Games, the writing is amazing. Every character you meet along your journey to help or hinder you is brilliantly written, charming and even funny in their own way. From your Zombie friend who is totally happy with you beating the shit out of him as a target dummy to test your new weapons, to your father who runs Hell and is just kind of eyerollingly annoyed at you, yet also quiet amused each time you fail and die and have to come back home. Every character has a personality and charm that makes you smile everytime they appear. This isn't all that new from Supergiant, but it's nice to see that their writing team is still on point.
All in all I think Hades is fucking fantastic. If you are a fan of Rogue-likes, and want something with fun, fast, responsive and evolving combat, Hades is definitely worth $20. Get this fucking game.
