A few thoughts on... Hades

Hades (2020) developed by Supergiant Games

Hades is the new title from Supergiant Games, the studio behind Bastion, Pyre and one of my personal favourite games from the last few years, Transistor. And while it certainly owes a lot to the games that have come before it, Hades is very much its own thing, and a wonderful thing it is.

I'm no stranger to Roguelikes, I've sunk quite a lot of time into Rogue Legacy and Dead Cells and I remember playing the original Rogue way back and I'll agree that they aren't everyones cup of tea. But I do find them compelling, try a thing, fail, try something new, fail, try something off the wall, succeed! Rinse and repeat. Hades takes this and builds on it with wonderful art and environments and a simple to use control scheme. But the thing that keeps me trying, keeps me wanting "just one more go" is the dialogue.

Every character is fully voiced and the dialogue is snappy, witty and addictive. You play as Zagreus, son of Hades who is sick of being cooped up and wants out. So you pick a weapon (there are a few to choose from initially and more become available as you progress), make a dash for it and try to escape! Along the way you'll collect various items that can be used or sold, encounter new characters to talk to or buy things from as well as messages from the rest of your "family" being the Gods on Olympus. Each has a definite character and at times you'll be forced to choose one's boon over another. All of this weaves a wonderful tale until you inevitably fail and die, horribly - and yes, I'm looking at you Megaera.

Quickly you are returned to your fathers waiting room where you can interact with other characters such as Hypnos, Nyx, Achilles and of course Cerberus. You can also spend some of the items you've collected to unlock more information about the various characters, clean up the the old place and add some decorations or build some new features into the underworld to help you on your next escape attempt. As you progress you'll start ticking off items that are "fated" and being rewarded with more items you can use. And each death unveils something new - some new conversation tidbit, a new item to construct, a chance to talk to different characters or just listen in on their conversations.

And then you make another attempt, maybe getting further, maybe not if you've picked a different weapon or the procedural generation of the layout this time through doesn't help. But eventually you'll make it through to the next area and have to contend with a whole new set of challenges. And yet that's ok, it's fine, because you fail it and then try again. Roguelikes are hard, punishingly so in some cases, but Supergiant have in my opinion pulled off something unique with Hades. They have hit that exact measure of difficulty vs reward and created something that just has that pull, that "just one more go" hook that sinks in so easy and is hard to remove.

This game also went through "Early Access" which can be a trial by fire for any game and developer, let alone one with the previous history of the titles Supergiant have produced, but it worked.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go speak with Achilles, pet Cerberus and try to escape from hell one more time.