The starting point is that we wanted to write this review in elegiac couplets, so much is the love we feel for the new video game by Supergiant Games but we did not succeed.
What remains perfectly intact is instead the love that, pad in hand, Zagreus and associates made us feel because, we prefer to make it clear from the very first moment, Hades is a real masterpiece and it is the playful apex of the Roguelite genre.
We would like to use the first few lines of this text for thank Supergiant Games for the work done. The company should be thanked for being able to show the world how it is possible to create an early access that does not fully resemble a beta, capable of making a nice video game without having to crash.
In a videogame world that is progressively making people talk about themselves worse and worse, the small American software house is she is distinguished for having cared a little for everyone, players and developers.
The hope is that it will serve as an example for all those who, in the future, intend to do their utmost to develop a title.
No more chatter: let's see together what Hades is and why, nowadays, it is so deserving of attention.
The conclusion of a journey.
Part of the reason why Hades is so beautiful and so important drift from what Supergiant Games has done during the course of its life as a software house.
The title is the sum of all experiments that the American software house has done throughout its history, fishing the gameplay of Bastion, the experience personalization system of Hades and the intertwining of gameplay and narration from the last (and not too successful) Pyre.
All this has been inserted within the framework of a roguelite video game, where the casual encounters and the content-minded progression are incredible. they keep the player attacked game over after game over. It was from the days of The Binding Of Isaac that we did not see such a powerful roguelite from a purely playful point of view.
As we said before Hades owes the germ of its gameplay to Bastion, the development team's first job and one of the first indie games to achieve substantial success. Hades inherits its isometric-like view and the action gameplay with rpg tips, dramatically increasing the speed and fluidity with an animation sector of great value.
All this must be combined with the narrative department, created by Supergiant Games chiseling in a decisive way incredible the insights gained through the development of Pyre.
Pyre it used a procedural narrative system that allowed the player to always experience slightly different runs based on their actions; in Hades this concept has been greatly enhanced putting on your feet a cast of characters capable of respond dynamically to the events of the last run. If we die because of a specific enemy, for example, Hypnos will tell us something more about this type of adversary, Achilles will push us in some way and so on.
This system takes full advantage of the cast of characters of the title, making the ade a wonderful place to live, full of interesting personalities with which to interface, each able to fulfill a more or less precise role.
History and characters
This procedural narrative works because the narrative pitch is intelligent and effective. In Hades we will find ourselves impersonating Zagreus, son of Nyx and Hades in his endless attempts to reach the surface to escape the control of his father. This his journey will be supported by the gods of Olympus, his relatives who through a series of gifts will try to simplify the escape of the brave Zagreus.
Yes why escape from home, when one's home is the land of the dead of Greek culture, it's anything but simple, even because our protagonist is immortal and at every death he will find himself in front of the face of his not adorable father, ready to be covered with insults.
Zagreus's journey from underground to surface passes through four different biomes, inspired by as many places in Greek mythology. From Tartar to Styx, passing through the Elysée and the ardent Asphodelus, Zagreus's journey will see us fight against any kind of sadness, of all shapes and sizes, crossing when possible other well-known faces of Hellenic mythology: from Charon, Eurydice, Theseus, Cerberus, Thanatus are just some of the characters that we will learn to appreciate over time.
Since we have already talked about the goodness of the SuperGiant narrative, let's take a step back and move on to the physical aspect. The character design of Hades is one of most amazing things ever happened in recent independent video game production.
Strong a style of drawing poised between oriental coolness and exaggerated western proportions, Zagreus, Nyx, Thanatos, Achille and associates are all irresistible for their characteristics and composition, with unrealistic colors in sculpted bodies, for figures that evoke sensations simply thanks to the their image.
Impossible not to be fascinated by the coolness (forgive us the term) of a character like Ares or to be fascinated by the attractiveness of the beautiful Aphrodite. The characters in question recall their mythological supporting actors in different ways with details that will make your heart pound to fans of Greek mythology, a sign of how much effort there has been in the research phase.
The talent of SuperGiant Games, already very present in the previous productions of the software house, here explodes in artwork worthy of gigantographs and posters, with a main character on whom we hope to see an animated series with the highest budget there is as soon as possible.
Identical speech can be made for the more generic art direction of the title.
Even here SuperGiant flexes his muscles and has fun creating a series of settings incredibly full of details, using the right colors and the right shapes. Hellenic art is declined in a slightly different way from how we imagine it today, all light marble, coloring everything in a manner consistent with what we could define the common Greek imaginary. The reddish decorations, the decorated beaks, the draperies and the heralds abound.
The various biomes that Zagreus will meet during his journey are fascinating, from the boiling lava of the Asphodel which strongly recalls the heat of our own hell to the eternal peace of the Elysian Fields, a place where the heroes rest and where it is possible to meet some of the most fearsome adversaries. of the whole adventure.
Just another run ...
The sentence you have just read is arguably the most emblematic of the production. For a roguelite what is important is to keep the gameplay loop interesting at the center of the experience, forcing the player to do just another game thanks to a solid system full of small progressions.
Before that, let's do a small and almost useless examination: Hades is a roguelite with action gameplay that hybridizes everything with almost graphic novel sections.
This long series of terms want to describe the title with a video game where the combat of ours Zagreus takes place through in real time dodges and three types of attacks. When you don't fight you have a hub full of characters whereby speak e to communicate, obtaining usable items, other narrative fragments and resources to obtain other gameplay content in exchange.
Zagreus in his wanderings Fr.can find different types of resources, each with its specific use. The charon coins can be given to the merchant of the same name to obtain items to upgrade during the course of a single run, the units of dark they are used to permanently enhance our protagonist, the nectar to improve relationships with other characters, the titan bloodor is used to obtain new weapons, i diamonds to create cool pieces of furniture and so on.
Hades, better than many other titles, uses the contents to fascinate the player without suffocating him.
The resources described above have multiple uses and allow our Zagreus to strengthen itself in an almost infinite way, progressively unlocking new fighting styles, obtaining accessories to change the course of one's run (the so-called mementos); every run, in addition to being potentially more fun than the previous one thanks to the acquired expertise, it is always useful to obtain some progression.
This feature places the game above the vast majority of other roguelites because, in Hades, the sense of progression is both intrinsic and extrinsic, halfway between the classic level up of RPGiana memory and having learned the patterns as in a more vulgar soulslike (we recommend this video for further information).
Playing Hades is truly a "I do another run and then go away" because there are always a thousand million reasons to return.
The first of all, in any case, remains the incredible fun that the game system offers. Zagreus it moves very quickly and in general the feeling of the fight is of a rare goodness. The attacks of ours are divided into light, heavy and ranged attacks, the latter limited according to the number of bullets at our disposal.
The very interesting part of the gameplay is given by its variety, thanks to the presence of six weapons that radically change the approach to fighting.
Any weapon offers further customization possibilities thanks to the "aspects" that significantly modify a characteristic and has another layer of complexity, due to Hammer Of Daedalus.
The latter is a single-run buff that lasts to significantly modify the operation of one of the attacks and is usually the starting point for any build.
We understand well that there is a lot of meat in the fire, already like this, and it is heartening to know that this is only the beginning.
Oh yes, because all this complex system of levers and mirrors it must be integrated with a system of thematic enhancements determined by Greek gods we ask for help to improve our chances of escape.
Zeus will give us the ability to shoot lightning from any orifice, Artemide will allow us to increase our raw physical damage and carry out powerful critical, Demeter he will slow us down the enemies through his mighty ice, Bacco he will poison them with the effluents of his wine etc etc. Each gift has its own rarity and, as if that weren't enough, there are also enhancements capable of crossing the specialties and characteristics of two different divinities; literally the dream of every min maxer and every power player on the globe.
The end result is a incredibly interesting melting pot, varied the right and endowed with a not indifferent duration that asks the player at least twenty or thirty hours of time to be able to complete most of the contents.
A completist run requires, at least, double the time predicted above.
Of melodies and difficulties.
Another merit, as if we have not already listed in abundance, is the sound sector. Once again Hades proves to be a total champion thanks to a soundtrack of absolute value, which skilfully mixes environmental songs with classical instrumentation and more sung songs that took a blink of an eye to end up trending on Youtube.
Some of most exciting moments Hades is all about the character of Orpheus and the melodies that we will be able to make him sing, sometimes dedicated to a character from our hub, sometimes linked to his beautiful Eurydice, other times simply based on what we have combined during the course of our game. The quality at Hades is literally all-round and even the sound sector alone is likely to be worth the price of the ticket.
Let's try to talk badly about it insteadand, for once.
The one thing that, at the time of writing this review, is not particularly good in Hades is the difficulty, or rather, the difficulty curve with which the title presents itself to the player.
Hades bossfights, without applying any difficulty modifiers, are either too simple or stupidly difficult, with a rather curious peak at the third biome. Curiously, the best made and balanced bossfight is the final one, able to to keep the player always on the razor's edge thanks to the large amount of mechanics inserted.
Hades is a wonderful video game, one of the best ever among those present within 2020. The title of SuperGiant Games shows the incredible talent of the members of the software house in question to the whole world, including art direction of indisputable and very interesting quality narrative fabric, able to adapt to our gameplay and what we combined during the last game. To stand out in the midst of all this goodness, however, is the gameplay, incredibly fun and with an absurd depth, capable of keeping the player hooked for tens and tens of hours while always maintaining a remarkable sense of progression.
We do not know if SuperGiant Games will ever be able to surpass the quality of a title like this, what we can do is hope that they do an encore.
Buy Hades you won't regret it.
