Both the title of my review and Nintendo have let the secret out: Hades from Supergiant Games has escaped early access and landed on Nintendo Switch and PC. It’s Rouge-like without equal is easily one of the best games of the year. The controls are as tight as the former genre king; Dead Cells. The art and sound direction are top-notch (as is the case with all of Supergiant’s previous games). But what puts Hades miles ahead of any other rogue-like I’ve played its narrative. If you have any interest at all in this genre, action games in general, or are a fan of Supergiant’s other work, quit reading and go play Hades. Otherwise, take a few moments to read what makes this not just the best game that Super Giant has created thus far, but the best rouge-like ever made.
As a fan of Supergiant’s previous games, I’ve been following the development of Hades for a few years. The team laboured over the project and released it as an early access title where it continued to bake for some time. It wasn’t until a surprise announcement during a Nintendo Direct a few weeks ago that the Hades 1.0 update was released and the wait was finally over.
I’ve played about 30 hours or so of the game thus far and completed only a single run but it’s the most fun I’ve had with a video game this year.
The narrative centres around Zagreus, son of Hades (lord of the Greek underworld). Tired of being stuck in the drab inferno of Hell, and spurred on by an event I won’t spoil, Zagreus decides it’s time to leave home. To escape, he must fight his way past hordes of the neither world’s undead inhabitants. Fortunately, he’s not alone in this mission because his relatives on Mount Olympus take a shine to him and lend him their strength through various boons. These power-granting boosts are just one of the ways that Hades balances game difficulty and choice, allowing players to craft unique builds so that each run feels powerful and unique.
More than the variety of powers that Zagreus will receive during each escape attempt though is the flavour that accompanies these abilities. Each of them is not only useful but imbues the gameworld with colour and each deity with their own personality.
Take Zeus for example; the god of thunder bestows the power of zapping foes with thunderbolts but he does so each time by addressing Zagreus as ‘boy’ and lamenting his ‘retched brother’s’ (Hades) exploits. Or, a personal favourite of mine, Dionysius the god of wine, drink, and song who appears to Zagreus always reclining on a chez with a goblet overflowing with wine. He never misses an opportunity to reward your efforts by increasing Zagreus vitality in proportion to his consumption. It’s these interactions with each character in Hades that evolve over time revealing a bit more about the characters, the setting, and the history of events that give the narrative an organic quality I’ve not seen in any other rogue-like.
None of this will come as a surprise to any player of Supergiant’s previous efforts as they’ve become masters of quality storytelling with fantastic art direction but what is especially impressive here is that Hades feels exceptional to play.
Past Supergiant games could feel a bit clunky and sluggish at times. They never felt bad to play but your character’s movement was never as fluid as I would have liked. Zagreus changes all that by being an exceptionally responsive avatar with a wide arsenal of weapons that each feel distinct and fun in their own right. Whether he’s swinging around a giant sword or darting around a stage pinging arrows at foes with his bow I never felt like the controls were holding back the gameplay as I did before.
So Hades is a fantastic game that’s an immense amount of fun to play but it’s also accessible to newcomers. Luckily for those uninitiated players, Hades is a standout entry point to the rouge-like genre. Each run you’ll find a wealth of items and currencies that can be used to help you in the next run. If you’ve been dying to the same boss over and over you can purchase an upgrade to give you an additional life each time you fall. Do you really enjoy Zeus’s lightning abilities? There’s an item you can equip so that they’ll be even more plentiful. Whatever your playstyle, Hades will accommodate without sacrificing a healthy amount of challenge.
Even better than that, Hades is completely transparent about in-game items and abilities. Many other titles of this ilk suffer from what I call the wiki-syndrome. That is, the game doesn’t tell you what any of the items you pick up do or what effects they have. This means I practically play the game with my phone next to me so I can research if I should get X or Y items. Hades is a breath of fresh air in this regard; each power or item tells you exactly what it is and how it operates before you pick it up.
So I’ve been heaping praise on the team at Supergiant for a while now but I do have to admit Hades isn’t perfect. As well optimized as it is on the Switch, running at 60fps 720p, it does drop a few frames when the action gets hectic and the screen can feel cluttered at times with so many elements present at once.
It’s not so bad that I’ve lost a run because of it, but it is noticeable. Although I’m hopeful this will be patched out in the future.
This is less of an issue if you have a capable PC and are happy to double-dip as it supports cross-saves between the Switch and PC versions.
With that, I have to get back to playing Hades and I recommend you do the same. It is as close to a perfect rouge-like as I’ve played, and even with the minor optimization issues there’s nothing I can think of that would convince me that every Switch owner shouldn’t add this to their collection. What Supergiant has done here is exactly what they set out to do: take all of their best ideas from their other great games and merge them into a title that is even more than the sum of its parts.
I can’t wait to see what they do next, but I have to admit, I hope it’s just more Hades.
As always a big thanks to you for reading this and to SuperGiant games for the review code.