Anything that kills you makes you stronger.

It wasn’t too many years ago that the genre of rogue-likes held little to no interest to me. I’m not sure if it was the prospect of losing most, if not all of my progress upon death that kept me from getting into the genre or if it was due to the fact that most games in the genre were relatively light on the story and characters, but the truth remains that I had written off the genre in the camp of, “not for me”.

However, things changed when I happened on Rogue Legacy which was a PS+ title back in January 2015 and ended up falling in love with it. The overarching progress of building up my base as I continued to explore the everchanging castle with challenging 2D side scrolling action was a recipe for success and I ended up seeing it to completion multiple times. From then again, I explored other critically acclaimed titles that arrived, Slay the Spire and Into the Breach being some of my favorite ones.

So, when I heard that Supergiant, developers of personal favorite titles like Bastion and Transistor were hard at work making a rogue-like of their own, I knew I had to try it.

That is, as soon as it was out of early access.

You can boil down the vast majority of Greek mythology into about 3 categories and Daddy Issues would most definitely come up as one of the front runners.

MSRP: $24.99
Platforms: PC, Switch
Played on: PC (Steam)
Played: 22~ hours

As the son of Hades, Zagreus toiled away in the underworld spending his time mostly being a disappointment to his father until one day he learns of a truth that turns his world upside down. With a newfound sense of purpose and determination, he vows to escape the underworld to reach the surface to the truth for himself. Unfortunately, such an act is easier said than done and he calls upon his allies in the underworld as well the Gods of Olympus for assistance on this Herculean task.

Despite the setup of, “Escape the Underworld” being a rather simplistic one to get the ball rolling, there is a much deeper story at play here which unravels naturally over time, presented by a cast of characters with strong personalities which are brought to life thanks to stellar voice over performances. It’s a strong incentive to talk to every NPC back at the main hub after a timely or untimely death to delve deeper into not only the overarching main story at hand but also the individual character plot points as well. Unfortunately, while it takes less than a dozen trips to the surface to get to the true ending of the main story arc, it can take dozens more to resolve character story arcs as they rely heavily on luck to see if you encounter a special event during your trip to the surface. While I understand that it’s a game designed to be played repeatedly, it got a bit frustrating not to get the encounter I was looking for after several trips.

From a visual standpoint, it’s aces all around as Hades boasts fantastic character illustrations and a colorful and vibrant art style that sounds like it wouldn’t fit the tone of the Underworld but somehow ends up being perfect for it.

I thought the Underworld would be a dark and dreary place but it turned out to be much more colorful than I was expecting.

As rogue-likes tend to put a heavy emphasis on combat, Hades doesn’t stray too far from that formula as most of the time spent in the Underworld is on the way to the surface, hacking and slashing a path out. Thankfully, combat and the various mechanics surrounding it is easily the best part of Hades.

As an isometric style hack and slasher, Hades is a fast paced with tight controls to really facilitate the action. Every time I was damaged, I felt like I had put myself in the position to get hit and never felt as though the game had been cheap or unfair and as I continued to improve, my feelings were validated as what initially felt like difficult encounter became more and more manageable until I was at last finishing most encounters without taking a single hit.

When starting out, Zagreus’s arsenal is limited with only his trusty sword but as I collected resources, I gradually unlocked new deadly weapons which have their own unique play styles. Even though I would lose all the gold that I would accumulate during a run whether I succeeded or failed, I was also making progress by collecting items like Darkness which was used to improve Zagreus’s passive abilities or other items like Keys which were important in unlocking new weapons. There is a sense of progress whether I make it all the way to the surface or if I died halfway through since I came back with all the important resources, ready to be spent on new unlocks/upgrades as well as the opportunity to progress the character story arcs by learning more about what ails the colorful cast of denizens in the Underworld.

This extended family comes with godly perks and deadly consequences.

During my trips to the surfaces, I was aided by the Gods of Olympus who bestowed various perks to my offensive and defensive capabilities. Even though I could see which God I would encounter before entering a new room, whether Isaw a particular God and whether I got a particular perk of varying different quality was entirely random for the most part which forced me to adapt and create builds out of what was presented to me instead of trying to go down a specific route that I knew worked for sure.

It was a great way for me to experiment and even though some builds ended up being big flops, I ended up creating some truly devastating combinations, one of which had me never swinging my weapon but instead dashing around the enemies creating deadly blade vortex that was shred them into pieces in a matter of seconds. I was even able to put together a build where I could stand there idle and the enemies would kill themselves by attacking me, getting annihilated by revenge damage even though I was dodging most of their attempts at damaging me. To say that there are countless builds would be a bit hyperbolic but given the variety of weaponry and the many different combinations of boons at my disposal, it would certainly not be a completely inaccurate statement to make.

The weapons could also be upgraded not only to increase their general effectiveness but also to unlock new aspects that vastly change their function. Thanks to this, the 6 weapons in Zagreus’s arsenal ends up feeling more like 18. There were also many different accessories I could collect by gifting nectar to other characters which could also be leveled up to increase their effect.

While all of these elements tied together made certain that I was carefully being drip fed rewards and new content as I made my way through the Underworld, I felt that the encounters with the same handful of bosses and enemies started to feel routine and I found myself wishing for a bit more variety in the baddies that were getting in the way. After completing the journey to the surface, I could add parameters to make the enemies more powerful and even add new elements to the bosses but at the end of the day, they were still the same fights with a little extra added on. That being said, the fact that this sense of minor tedium only started to become apparent after my 30th or so trips to the surface speaks to how well they manage to keep things interesting for so long.

All of the boss encounters are fun, I just wish there were more of them.

Hades stands not only as the finest, most well-crafted game from the exceedingly talented developers at Supergiant but as one of the pinnacles of the genre. If you never looked at rogue-likes seriously before due to differences in personal tastes and what you believe that they represent, this might be the very title to change your mind.

Fun Tidbit: I would be remiss if I didn’t highlight Darren Korb who is not only responsible for the excellent soundtrack to the game but also voices the main character, Zagreus. He brings a unique voice that’s very unlike anything I’ve heard in games before I hope to see more of his voice work in the future.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.