One of the greatest rogue-lite games out
In the Hive Gaming Community discord, @lunaticpandora had mentioned that he was addicted to playing Hades. I had seen some stuff about the game, but never really looked much into what it was and one of the trailers that I had seen was just cartoon stuff and never really showed any gameplay explaining what the game was.
That was until I saw this trailer for it and I knew that I had to play it. I love Binding of Isaac and games that are similar, but there have been so many rogue-lite games released lately that have let me down.
So I watched some reviews on Hades to see if it was worth it and I couldn't find anyone saying anything negative about it.
You play as Zagreus, the son of Hades and the Prince of Darkness. Your goal is to battle your way from the depths of hell and make it to Mount Olympus.
One of the first things you notice when you start the game is the beautiful hand drawn world. You start your adventure in Tartarus, which is one of the realms of Hell. You battle from room to room grabbing power ups and growing stronger.
During your first attempt in the game, you are extremely fragile and weak, so you won't last too long. I think I made it about 5 rooms before I was killed.
Be prepared to die. A LOT. Unlike many of the others games in this genre, Hades actually rewards you when you die, by allowing you to purchase upgrades with the different types of currency and keys that you pick up along your adventures.
You can use the purple orb thingys that you pick up when completing a room to access the permanent upgrades. These upgrades will persist through death, making your character stronger each time you play.
The ability to permanently upgrade your character gives this game a pretty strong replayability factor and makes death something that isn't that bad as if you were to lose all your progress each time you die. I hate those types of games where you have to start from scratch with each try.
There are upgrades that you get from the different Gods, which can drastically alter your abilities, and make some pretty cool attack combinations. One of the abilities that I like is from Dionysus, which gives your attacks the ability to cause "hangover" which is a damage over time effect that continues to harm the enemies after you land a strike on them.
There are also stores along your journey that you can use the gold you pick up to purchase hit points and other essentials to make your journey a bit easier. I usually ending up getting the Life Essence because when you are just beginning, life is hard to come by.
So far, one of my favorite upgrades is the one from Zeus that adds a lightning AOE to your attacks. I haven't gotten far enough in the game to see how all of the different upgrades synergies together, but I have seen some pretty cool videos that show some crazy combinations.
So far, I have only gotten to the first boss, Megaera. She was pretty easy to beat. She spawns some different mobs, which can be burned down pretty easily, but you will need to dash around to stay out of the traps and other crap. The dash with a deflect upgrade can help you when she shoots her AOE projectiles.
After you beat Megaera, you enter a new real named Asphodel. Once you get here, the doors leading to the next room have been replaced by boats that take you from room to room over a sea of flames. I learned the hard way that you can fall off the edge into the sea and you start burning up, so be careful with dashing around the room.
One of the cool things about the game is that when you die, you return back to your "home", which is actually Hades' home. Inside your home, there are many different NPCs that you can interact with and build up relationships over the time you are playing.
Some of the rooms have gifts that you can give these NPCs after you die, and those gifts unlock different aspects of the game. There are so many different things that the developers have done to make sure that your time playing is meaningful and makes you want to keep playing to continue unlocking everything.
All in all, Hades is a pretty awesome game and a welcomed addition to the rogue-lite genre. It is a challenging game, with great visuals and an amazing soundtrack. It is difficult, but not too punishing and does an awesome job making you want to keep coming back and dying over and over. I can't wait to make it out of Hell for the first time and see what the game offers after the first completion.