Having been hidden for the majority of his childhood from his extended family on Mount Olympus, Zagreus — Son of Hades, is contacted by Athena in his plight to escape his father’s domain and ignoring the words of refrain from Hades himself ventures into the underworld seeking an exit in Supergiant’s take on the rogue-like formula — Hades
Being the son of a god, Zagreus is built as such. Muscular and lean, he looks the part. Growing up in the underworld has also offered him a chance to hone his skills with some fearsome combatants meaning that if you have the dexterity then he has the moves to get out of here alive. Hades, however isn’t as keen on your plan and instead dispatches various adversaries to relieve you of your life and return you to his domain, the House of Hades.
Leaving the house places Zagreus in the bottom most level of the underworld. As you make your way into the first confined area the enemies spawn and you go to war. Your go to abilities include a standard attack that can combo into a three-hit string, a special attack in the form of an Area of Effect slam and a dash for getting out of harm’s way. Zagreus also has a magical crystal attack, called a Cast, which can be thrown in any direction.
Although his adventure has only just started, it’s clear from your first encounter that the enemies Zagreus faces hit hard and life points are in short supply. Enemies come in several variants and the ranks you face are bolstered by newer and stronger types as you progress. As with any action game, half the challenge is recognizing enemy types and countering their attacks to create openings for your own offense.
But it’s not all bad news, his Dad might not be up for helping but his Mum is. Nyx has engineered a message out of hell with the news of his existence and the other gods want to meet their nephew. To aid in his progress against the underworld hordes, you’ll gain a boon from one of the respective Greek deities. This can be applied to either of Zagreus’ main attacks, his cast attack or his dash. Each Olympian has various boons but initially its pot luck as to what you get offered. To help players further, each boon is classified as standard, rare, epic or legendary with the more valuable items offering boosted effects over the run of the mill loot.
But unlike other games of this genre you won’t be able to find and collect every power boosting treasure in an area. Zagreus is essentially in escape mode and only ever moves forward. Rooms have one or a number of exits and you can see what will be rewarded when taking any given door as each is adorned with the icon of the treasure within. Need a boon? Choose a door with an Olympian god symbol. Got plenty of cash? Then choose a door with a shop symbol, if one is available.
Boons aren’t the only treasures on offer though, Hades has the most complex metagame on offer with the different number of systems at play. Gold is for shops and resets on each death. Darkness collected in the underworld is used to purchase stat boosting abilities which are a permanent addition to Zagreus, and form one of the main elements of progression. Gems found or earned can be spent in improving the House of Hades, offering new areas to explore and Nectar can be either consumed for positive effects during a run or gifted to Zagreus’ friends (and enemies!) for a reward. Hades has a lot on offer but most players will find a mechanic that suits them and hone in on that for the best outcome whilst dabbling in others if their plan of attack starts to falter.
Given Supergiant’s heritage in storytelling it’s not going to surprise you that there’s a fairly complex and intertwined narrative within the roguelike mechanics of Hades. We won’t spoil it here but it’s nice to see some depth and a welcome change to the hack-slash-die-repeat cycle that most roguelikes fall into. Zagreus is either moving forward or dead so the progression of the story is somewhat tied to his repeated demise and given you only meet characters in certain areas or at certain junctures in your grand escape.
“A roguelike with a story, how am I going to enjoy that as I’m bad at roguelikes?” Well SuperGiant have thought of that with a nifty option called God Mode. Hades, like most roguelikes, forces you to grind for meta currencies which persist after death but if you simply can’t save up enough then you are going to miss out on the rest of the game. God Mode automatically boosts your stats on death, only by a minute amount but enough that after enough deaths you should be suitably buffed to progress past the boss or area giving you grief. It’s an excellent addition that broadens Hades’ appeal and you always have the option of disabling it at any point.
It’s a beautiful looking game and the high resolution artwork is a joy to experience, again a testament to the experience with this type of art from the developers over at SuperGiant. It’s also buttery smooth with the engine keeping up admirably with the dance of death Zagreus performs without losing a step at any point.
With a different take on classic roguelike mechanics, exceptional gameplay, extensive metagame activities and a great story it’s hard to see anyone dethroning Hades as the go to game for roguelike fanatics and 2D action game fans alike
Hades is available now on PC and Nintendo Switch.
