Hades

Despite last year being a pretty phenomenal gaming year (especially for PlayStation owners), and getting a new batch of consoles - that came coupled with weak-ish launch titles, a smaller indie known as Hades was winning GOTY with various/many review sites and nominated on even more. 

It was enough to pique my interest to wonder what kind of game it was, but...alas! It was only on PC. So I quickly got past it and forgot about it. Earlier this year, it was announced it was going to come to the PS5 (and for a discounted rate for that matter) so my interest started back up again, especially as this summer was a bit of a lull for gaming. 

Knowing Hades was a rogue-like, and fresh off the [mostly] enjoyable experience of Returnal, I decided to take the dive without much research. 

I was met with an exciting, fresh, addicting, and rarely frustrating game that surprised me, even despite all the praise it had gotten. I don't know what it was: the art style, the fact it was only on PC, or something else, but my expectations for Hades weren't low...just that I wouldn't love it as much as others did. 

I was wrong because I quickly grew attached to the game and its smart and challenging progression through the Greek underworld. 

Oh father dearest...why do you hate me so?

Right off the bat, the thing I appreciated more about Hades than the only other "rogue-like" game I had experience with is that there's almost always a sense of progression. Whereas Returnal would crush my spirit into oblivion and keep me coming back with awesome gameplay and worlds, Hades always felt easy to come back to. I felt like I was always getting deeper, stronger, and that there was always a high potential to have a great run. For the most part, I still only played 2-3 rounds per session because I'm not a masochist, but outside of a handful of frustrating times, those 2-3 rounds felt meaningful. The frustrating times would come when it felt like I was taking steps backwards...having poor runs due to weirdly feeling underpowered, even in early stages. Luckily, as I've mentioned, that was rare so it never had me thinking I was going to quit playing the game like Returnal did on more than one occasion. 

Also awesome is how much you unlock about the story each playthrough. I do wish there were some "cutscenes" of a sort (especially once I fell in love with the animation style) so it means there's a lot of text blocks that deliver the story and are voice-acted without an accompanying performance. Even still, it felt like the story was always unraveling, particularly between the relationships of Zagreus (Hades' son) and the other characters. Zagreus is trying to escape his abusive father in the underworld and join the gods of Mount Olympus. That former feat has never been accomplished, hence the death-loop nature of the game. You do your best to escape the realms of hell...die...and start back at square one. If rogue-likes aren't your thing and you're confident in that, then Hades will do little to sway you. If you've never tried the genre, I'd recommend Hades as a starting point. Not because it's easy - it's most certainly not - but because it's runs are shorter, and the repetition is cleverly masked with progression, which in turn makes you better at the game because of practice that doesn't feel like it. And that means that by the time you have a powerful loadout (a huge "luck" factor in rogue-likes), you'll be ready for most anything the game throws your way. 

Bright and colorful visual style

Although it's an "animated" game with a distinct art style, Hades looks and sounds gorgeous, especially on PS5. Its colors pop and every distinct art stroke, whether it be a background character, a light in the walls, particles of an enemy's attack, or the flash of your weapon all look sharp and like a cartoon come to life...but even better than a low-frame-rate cartoon. Each level of the underworld has a distinct look and feel (and enemy variety) that the art style captures perfectly through various architecture, colors, landscape, and more. This is complimented nicely by the sound editing and music layered over top. Weapons and enemies and power-ups have distinct sounds that you'll become familiar with and presented with the memorable and addicting music, this game starts to become one of those "classics" that you'll be able to remember its theme song 10 years from now. 

*shouts at TV*
"Athena help me!!"

I've left the best for last though, easily, as Hades gameplay - a staple of rogue-likes - is it's biggest strength. Much like Returnal, it's what keeps you coming back despite having to "start over"...so it better be good! With Hades, you eventually unlock 6 weapons, each of which having a very distinct play style. The game tries to suggest ones you should play with each new round (which I usually listened to for the bonus) and as you go through the levels of hell, your game is never quite the same. Power-ups and buffers you acquire can urge you to play with different styles and even weapon enhancements along the way can drastically alter certain ones (e.g. the auto fire on the bow and arrow is deadly!). Between each round, there's ways to power yourself up, unlock secret passages in worlds for the next time you go, and find trinkets by fostering your relationships with characters. That's all to say, there's a LOT to do in Hades to make yourself more "survivable" on top of just getting better. But even "getting better" is fun. Gameplay is fast, hectic, and will require that you are almost ALWAYS pressing a button. It's a simple light attack, heavy attack, "cast", and dash button mapping but thanks to the enemy variety, weapon variety, and responsiveness of the controls, gameplay always feels tight and adequate. I never felt like the game cheated me out of a good run due to controls (though the same can't be said for power-ups). 

Now that I'm two games in to this "looping" genre, I'm really starting to dig what most of these games have to offer. I still feel like it's one where I have a few toes in, before I totally claim it's up there with 3rd-person-adventures or FPS games, but Hades has done a tremendous amount to help me love the genre and everything it has to offer. It's easy to see what it was nominated, reviewed, and regarded so highly on the PC and I'm excited that it decided to make the jump to consoles because more people deserve to play it. 

CONS

• Like other rogue-likes, there's still an element of "luck" involved with your runs
• Can be really frustrating when you feel like you're taking steps backwards
• Repetition prevents me from ever playing > 60-70 mins
• Game could have probably used some animated cutscenes vs. all text blocks/voice-acting

PROS

• Fun, engaging story that delves deep into Greek mythology and it's abundance of interesting characters, coupled here with stellar voice acting
• Constant feel of progression whether that be through actual power-ups, unlocks, or just getting better at the game. Rarely did I feel that Zagreus had plateaued
• Gorgeous, distinct art style
• Memorable, likely "iconic" sound effects and music
• Quick, twitchy gameplay that's hard to put down. Repetition is greatly avoided due to enemy variety, changes in the story, random generation of world maps, and weapon variety
• Feels fair most of the time. It gives you quite a lot of tools to deal death to escape
• A very fun, accessible, but challenging rogue-like in this emerging genre. If you've been on the fence before, pick it up (especially since it's only ~$25!)

Rath's Review Score | 9/10