We finally get to the final door of the RPS Advent calendar. Behind this is our game of the year, and you know what? It has been a difficult journey to get here. We have gone through several areas. Many beasts and several family friends have attacked us. Our father has been strangely unsympathetic in all of this. But you know what? There seems to be a real blessing waiting behind the door 24 …
It’s … Hades!
Imogen: This time, last year, I took refuge in my parents ’house and blew up Hades while there was still early access. It is crazy to think that at that time this beautiful mythological roguelike was not even finished. Every run I completed received jokes about the fate of Zagreb, and as I would have to wait a little longer to know the rest of its history … Then it came to its version 1.0 this summer, I found out what it was Zag. looking, and it made me a little tearful.
I don’t think a roguelike has gotten me such an emotional investment. Zagreus is such a charming boy with one goal: to escape from hell. But his journey is intertwined with the travels of so many others, there is so much more feeling than I could have imagined. Inspire so much determination to complete each race, not only to learn more about this mysterious ending that Supergiant has been chasing you for so long, but to absorb you in all aspects of the world they have created.
Even now, long after I’ve finished the main plot, I can’t stop playing it. Hades has no end in the most wonderful way: somehow there is still so much more to hear from all my chthonic friends. I feel personally attacked when Eurydice does not invite me to eat a bite at Asphodel; or when my husband, Death Incarnate, doesn’t go through Tartarus to help me beat up some wretches.
I think the little stories you find in Hades are so compelling because the narration is included in the game, in a way that I don’t think many games do. My favorite example of this is one of the fights against the heads of Hades. After many races, these particular bosses began to change their tone during their jokes before the fight. At that moment I didn’t think much about it, until a few shots later it became clear that they had solved their character arc and their set of moves. permanently changed to reflect that. And they killed me almost immediately! I was so used to his old sequences that it really took me by surprise. Naturally, I jumped straight ahead to find them and fight them again.
Hades ’ability to continue to amaze and cheer is different from any roguelike I’ve played. Even when you fail in races, you are rewarded with fun exchanges between brilliant characters from your underworld mansion. Hades makes failure such an inspiring success and fun. Please play this game.
Ed: I like Hades because I like to run through doors that will give me loot, to rooms that will probably give me more loot. I’m a big fan of Binding Of Isaac, because en masse is about killing things in a room, choosing a door, and then waiting for the door you chose to have loot on the other side. I’m a glutton for power-ups.
Hades is great for making you feel powerful too. As you progress in a race, these Olympic gods will visit you and say, “You could use lightning to go with this shield, right?”, And I’ll gladly take them on offer, but not before slipping into a uncomfortable and very well-spoken “companion” to seal the deal. I really can’t shake the feeling that the character you play, Zagreus, is basically Robert Pattinson.
Finally, you will be handing out and cutting the whole place with a lot of powers that will be played. One of my best races was with a big sword, and I had this thing where I inflicted enemies with a Doom stack every time I got a hit, so after a short delay all those stacks would come together and it would just fall like a mini-nuke on any nasties I cut.
I also respect the fact that Hades is not extremely difficult and is not afraid to give you some grace for your efforts. That wonder that ran with the sword finally ended, but instead of crying in my void afterwards, I felt a solid sense of accomplishment. I could go back to my cozy downtown world and give friends prices I had found in my career, or spend money on items, or even try a new spear that I had unlocked. Heart, so many options!
I found Hades to be much darker, sowing that “just one more” feeling in my brain, even when my eyes threaten to collapse. I think this is because he’s a kind of bastard who’s excited to see you move forward, rather than root for your demise.
Alice Bee: I think what I like most about Hades (apart from being literally the only good roguelike game) is that everyone who plays it has their favorite god in the pantheon. As Ed says, they all offer you slightly different benefits, and as a result, everyone has their own favorite combinations to stack, to get the right attacks or passive skills for this first underworld run.
So you’ll end up with a couple of favorite gods that you’ll end up praying to appear soon and repeatedly in your career, and a couple of others that you don’t care about, but aren’t the best. I’m currently an Artemis / Poseidon girl, but I mean, I won’t say it no to Ares or Apollo.
It is in this way that Supergiant has managed to make us worshipers of the ancient Greek gods once again, in a way that I imagine people really were in the past. Because we’re all like “Yeah, thanks Artemis, make me this sweet critic who stacks up the damage!” but equally, since races can make or break in a single roll of hellish dice, we both look forward to no run into certain gods. “Please, please there is no Dionysus nor, oh, dear, hell, it is Zeus, uf ”. I can’t tell myself that someone from Ancient Athens had ever basically said that exact phrase. Time is a circle.
Alice0: I haven’t played Hades yet, but I appreciate everyone’s beautiful, creative, fun, and funny fan art. Thanks for drawing it. Keep up the good work.
James: What can I say about Hades? Every time I think I’m done, the game keeps pulling me back. Please stop reading it and play it if you haven’t already, even the most intense roguelike people I know have entered the genre after Supergiant’s Awesome Effort this year.
When I play games, as a dog of absolute content, I am naturally looking for captureable moments. These lines of dialogue that you can send to a friend and say “haha something you would say,” or a beautiful landscape, as well as everything in between. Well, Hades is absolutely stuffed with those moments. From the flirtatious talks with Meg to the fun Glossary of Achilles in the Codex, to the hand-drawn view of the Elysium plains, save some disk space. Press this PRT SCR button quite often.
“Still, if I had to recommend a single game that 2020 has to offer, it has to be Hades.”
However, capturable moments don’t make any game. Hades also has everything else. The game is just sitting there with a lot of characters, none of which I will forget in a hurry, some fantastic melodies to keep pushing you through the depths of the Underworld and some of the sharpest and most capable actions of response. I have never experienced.
The way the narrative expands in multiple runs is something I haven’t seen before either, and it’s extremely impressive how each line of dialogue (also with an excellent voice) feels relevant to your current situation. I haven’t heard any chats yet, and while you have to complete several rounds to get the “complete” story, it doesn’t seem like a chore thanks to the sweet variety of weapons to choose from, as well as the options to increase the advantage. and make things harder for you.
If you can, treat yourself this Christmas. Still, if I had to recommend a single game that 2020 has to offer, it has to be Hades. The supergiants have completely destroyed it with Hades, and I doubt I’ll find out all that this game has to offer for a long time.
Ollie: Supergiant Games has played an important role in my career writing about games. I wrote my college thesis on Bastion and Transistor, on the one hand. And I had only been working on RPS for three days when Hades was announced (and released simultaneously on Early Access) at the 2018 Game Awards, so I’ve been able to see it grow as I grow up on paper. It’s a pleasure whenever you can write about a Supergiant game.
Hades lacks the emotional narrative punch of the other Supergiant games, and at the same time, I can’t see it as anything other than his best writing so far. Before Hades, I couldn’t even imagine how you could build an effective story as part of a roguelike with permadeath and meta-progression. Supergiants have always done an amazing job of marrying mechanics with narrative in a way that elevates them both, but Hades is their great opus.
Even without any story at all, it would still hurt me to leave Hades. It’s an incredibly beautiful, polished and satisfying experience, and ticks all the boxes of what I’m looking for in a roguelike. But it’s thanks to the story that I feel like I can never be satisfied with another roguelike. I want those lighter moments where you talk to characters and know their motives and problems. I want it to make sense that I keep dying and going back to the beginning. I want to get to know the personalities behind every head-to-head fight every time I meet. Hades has ruined something fierce in me.