This is another quick survey review of the game Hades. I bought it during one of the sales.

From the tags on Steam, like “Action Rogue-like”, I expected just a sort of button mashing adrenaline rush sort of experience from the game.

But that’s not it at all.

There definitely is some cool action and it is fun to play. But the game is actually very in depth in the world building department and in character relationships. These two aspects balance each other out nicely, that you can actually take a break from grinding through dungeons to develop the story.

You play as Zagreus, Prince of the Underworld from ancient Greek mythology. Hades is your father. You’re in the Underworld.

There is a wide range of characters, from all of the Olympians themselves, to Primordial Chaos, to servants around the House of Hades such as a floating gorgon’s head maid and Achilles himself. You are required to speak with them all as part of the progress of the game, like thirty or so times (there is a tally going on that looks like “Conversations with Achilles 2/35” which means you’ve talked to Achilles twice. These conversations are recorded in a codex that Achilles gives you. They’re all voice acted very well and are quite entertaining at times. There is a vein of humor throughout the whole game that I think was a huge win for them considering you’re literally in the Greek version of Hell the whole time.

You have these conversations every time you die and are magically reincarnated back in a pool of blood in Hades’ castle. You’re trying to escape. I won’t tell you why but in order to do so, you wander out into the underworld caverns which look sort of like Zelda dungeons with hugely updated graphics and gameplay. You can’t go back. So you are there until you die. Or you make it through somehow, which I haven’t yet.

And you are meant to die because that is the only way to back to the House of Hades to continue finding out about what’s going on.

But you also need to keep fighting through the various rooms of the dungeons in order to gather resources so that you can progress with the conversations back at the House. So you can’t just suck it up. The longer you last in the underworld dungeons the faster the game progresses.

There is also a little ongoing side quest where you are renovating the castle and the gems you gather allow you to commission upgrades and repairs to the house, with your father Lord Hades questioning everything you do, kind of humorously.

I think the thing that I was most pleasantly surprised about was this depth of world building and story. I’ve never seen it in a roguelike game before. It’s as deep as a good RPG. I imagined I would play it for a half hour or so and grow tired of it. To be perfectly honest, a lot of pure gameplay games bore me to death. Not all. But I think I sat (on a wooden stool no less) for about ninety minutes before getting up. I must have died over a dozen times.

The art style impresses also. They did their homework here about ancient mythology and design. Everything looks correct, right down to the fonts.

It’s a cool game. I can recommend it. There is a Hades II which is in early access right now and follows a female character called the Princess of the Underworld on the Steam store page, so maybe it’s Zagreus’ sister. I am definitely going to check it out.

Take care!