Hades Review

Who made Hades?

SuperGiant Games, who are the team behind such indie darlings as Transistor, Bastion and Pyre. Though Hades seems rich and full featured, according to LinkedIn, the team is only composed of around 21 employees.

Is Hades independent? 

Hades is made by SuperGiant, who are a small indie studio based out of San Francisco with employees having experience working with EA and Blizzard. SuperGiant has been making a name for themselves since Bastion in 2011.

What genre is Hades?

Hades is a narrative driven dungeon crawling, rogue-like. As a massive fan of Diablo style games and good rogue likes along the lines of Dead Cells, Hades finds the balance.

Is Hades full price? 

Hades is only around $20 depending on your region, which is an amazing price for this exciting, well written and addictive original title.

How long is Hades? 

To fully experience the story with a some exploration and levelling, it will take you around 15-20 hours, which makes the value of the game pretty amazing at around $20. However, if you are looking for more of the completionism path then your time will be exponentially greater.

Is Hades fun? 

The game is a lot of fun for a multitude of reasons and you are able to enjoy Hades for one or for all. The inky, cell shaded art style, the satisfying combat and the engaging mythological story all work in harmony with one another. It has the true sign of a good game or at least an addicting game where you just want to always do one more run.

What is surprising about Hades? 

How well Hades blends genres of dungeon crawling with rogue like and weaves an extremely interesting mythological story is a testament to the talent at SuperGiant games. The way in which the storyline becomes your main motivator for pushing deeper for more answers feels fresh in a very crowded genre.

Does Hades look good?

The style and art direction look fantastic, with so many rogue types on the market the best way to stand out initially is with visuals.

Does Hades sound good? 

The visuals, the voices, the effects and the music are all excellently designed, however it feels like it has been overly compressed to fit on the Switch. I have seen documentaries on the making of this game and I doubt that the audio quality is anything but superb. However, on the Switch, it lacks fullness and comes across very tinny. Unfortunately, there aren’t any audio options to tweak in the settings as of yet.

Does Hades have technical issues? 

The game runs great with minimal stuttering or frame rate drops, even during very hectic engagements when docked. There is some minor slowdowns and frame rate drops on handheld only when the screen gets extremely crowded. Hades has hard crashed on me once in the middle of a very good run. This was the first game I have experinced on the Switch to crash on me, however Hades has a great autosave feature built in as it put me exactly back to the same room that the game crashed.

Does Hades control well? 

Playing Hades on a pro controller feels very intuitive. Playing a dungeon crawler on controller can be a challenge but the setup is reminiscent of Diablo 3 on console, which worked perfectly. Playing Hades in handheld mode is more than serviceable but there are occasions where the joy cons sticks lack accuracy when it counts.

Is the story in Hades good? 

The story is very original and engaging as you play as Zagreus, the unknown son of Hades (God of death), and you are tired of living in Hell. On your many attempts to escape to forge your own path you encounter a deeper story line and many other gods and deities who are all written well as they help flesh out the story. There is a layer of humour to the game about escaping hell, which goes a long way.

Does Hades have a campaign? 

Hades is only single player. It isn’t a live service game or a MMO, there aren’t any MTX, its just a well executed game with a enjoyable story that keeps you wanting to learn more every run.

Is Hades platform exclusive? 

As of right now, Hades is a console exclusive game for the Nintendo Switch, which is a great place for it, as you can pick up your Switch and do a fast run that could take 10 minutes or so and put it right back into sleep mode.

Is Hades family friendly? 

I think Hades is a game that could be enjoyed with the family as it is a learning experience of greek mythology. All the killing isn’t too violent based on the isometric view and it is underworld demons.

Is Hades couples friendly? 

Hades could be played together, as you could swap controllers every escape attempt, although the farther you progress runs will last longer as in any rogue like. Even if you don’t have a controller in your hands, there is plenty of dialogue and new story elements that unfold after each run.

Does Hades have replay value? 

The strength of a rogue like is the ability to play multiple times, however most rogue likes depend of just achieving a farther distance travelled or a stronger character, which can sometimes feel out of your control with RNG. Hades puts you in charge of levelling Zagreus the way you choose when you return to your home in hell. Hades always has carrot dangling just in front of you, whether that is adding a new feature to a weapon, levelling charms and attributes or getting another slice of the engaging story.

Can you binge Hades? 

You wouldn’t be able to finish it all in one sitting as it would take 15-20 hours to complete your first full run. However you could definitely string together multiple escape attempts as the combat is extremely addictive and times melts away.

What is the best part about Hades? 

The best part about the game is how you keep getting a new narrative beats after each run instead of just making it farther every time. The world around you is reactive as dialogue is context sensitive based on your previous runs. The usual fare of rogue likes is the enticement of making it slightly farther every time, which sometimes can get a little stale. Hades instead keeps entices the player not with getting farther or new weapons but with learning more about the world they have created unlike traditional rogue likes

What is the worst part about Hades?

One of the best things about dungeon crawlers is uncovering secret rooms and treasures. While there are a myriad of things to do each run from collecting resources, uncovering new parts of the story, trying to escape the depths of hell and even fishing, the world seems like it is ripe for secret treasures and hidden passages.

Do you recommend Hades?

Without a doubt Hades is one of the best rogue likes in a while that scratches the same addicting and quality itch that Dead Cells had when it came out of early access. Even if you don’t like rogues, the dungeon crawling is good enough to warrant playing and most importantly if you have any interest in Mythology then Hades gives it a fresh spin. This is easily one of the best games of the year.

Score 20/21 (95%)