Finally, we reach the final door of the RPS Advent Calendar. Behind this is our game of the year, and you know what? It was a difficult journey to get here. We have already gone through several different kingdoms. Many beasts and several family friends attacked us. Our father has been strangely lacking support in all of this. But do you know what? It looks like there’s a real blessing waiting behind door 24 …
Yeah … Hades!
Imogen: At this time, last year, I was nestled in my parents’ house, blowing up Hades while still in early access. It is crazy to think that at that time this beautiful mythological roguelike was not even finished. Every race I completed was met with sarcastic jokes about Zagreus’s fate, and how I would have to wait a little longer to find out the rest of his story … So it came to launch 1.0 this summer, I found out what Zag was looking for, and it made me a little bit tearful.
I don’t think a roguelike has ever involved me so emotionally. Zagreus is a lovely boy with one goal: to escape from hell. But his journey is confused with the journeys of so many others, there is much more feeling in this than I could have imagined. This inspires a lot of determination to complete each race – not just to find out more about this mysterious ending in which the Supergiant makes you chase for so long, but to absorb yourself in all aspects of the world they have created.
Even now, long after finishing the main storyline, I can’t stop playing. Hades has no end in the most wonderful way: somehow, there is still much more to hear from all my chthonic friends. I feel personally attacked when Euridice does not invite me to eat at Asphodel; or when my husband, Death Incarnate, does not pass through Tartarus to help me beat some bastards.
I think the little stories you find in Hades are so compelling because the narrative is built into the gameplay, in a way that I don’t think many games do. My favorite example of this is one of the Hades boss fights. After several runs, these bosses in particular began to change their tone during pre-fight games. I didn’t think about it much at the time, until a few races later, it was clear that they had resolved their character arc and set of moves permanently changed to reflect it. And they killed me almost immediately! I was so used to your old sequences that it caught me off guard. Naturally, I jumped back to find them and fight again.
Hades’ ability to continue to surprise and encourage is unlike any roguelike I’ve ever played. Even when you fail the races, you are rewarded with fun exchanges between brilliant characters in your underworld mansion. Hades makes failure fun and success incredibly inspiring. Please play this game.
Ed: I like Hades because I like to run through doors that grant me loot, to rooms that are likely to grant me more loot. I am a big fan of Binding Of Isaac, because it largely involves killing things in a room, choosing a door and then hoping that the door you chose will be looted on the other side of it. I am a glutton for upgrades.
Hades is also very good at making you feel powerful. As you advance in a race, you are visited by these Olympian gods who will say “You could use a little lightning to go with that shield, wouldn’t you?”, And I will be happy to accept the offer, but not before slip into a strange and very well spoken “companion” to close the deal. I really can’t shake the feeling that the character you play, Zagreus, is basically Robert Pattinson.
Eventually, you will be advancing and cutting through all the places with loads of powers acting on each other. One of my best runs was with a big sword, and I had this thing where I inflicted enemies with a pile of doom every time I hit, then, after a short delay, all these stacks came together and just looked like mini-nuke. in whatever disgusting I cut.
I also respect the fact that Hades is not extremely difficult and is not afraid to give you a small gift for your efforts. That wonderful run with the sword eventually ended, but instead of crying in my emptiness afterwards, I had a solid sense of accomplishment. I could go back to my cozy central world and give friends prezzies I met on the run, or spend money on items, or even try out a new spear that I unlocked. Damn, so many options!
I found that Hades is super-greasy, sowing that “just one more” feeling in my brain, even when my eyes threaten to collapse. I think this is because you are a rascal who is excited to see you move forward, instead of rooting for your death.
Alice Bee: I think my favorite thing about Hades (besides being literally the only good roguelike game of all time) is that everyone who plays it has their favorite pantheon god. As Ed says, they all offer slightly different advantages and, consequently, they all have their own preferred combinations to stack, to get the right attacks or passive skills for that cousin to run through the underworld.
So, you end up with a couple of favorite gods that you end up praying for to appear early and repeatedly in your run, and a few others that you don’t mind, but are not your best. I’m an Artemis / Poseidon girl these days, but I mean, I won’t say not for Ares or Apollo.
That’s how Supergiant managed to make us all worshipers of the ancient Greek gods once again, in a way that I imagine people really were in the past. Because we all say “Yes, thank you Artemis, give me that sweet crit stacking damage!” but equally, because races can make or break in a single roll of hellish dice, we hope equally not run to certain gods. “Please, please without Dionysus or – oh shit, it’s Zeus, ugh. “I can’t say that someone in Ancient Athens has never said that exact phrase before. Time is a circle.
Alice0: I haven’t played Hades yet, but I appreciate everyone’s beautiful, creative, funny and horny fan art. Thanks for drawing. Stay up the good work.
James: What can I say about Hades? Every time I think I’m done with it, the game keeps pulling me back. Please stop reading this and play if you haven’t already – even the most intensely anti-roguel people I know have turned to the genre after Supergiant’s impressive effort this year.
When I play, as the absolute content hunter that I am, I naturally look for captureable moments. These lines of dialogue you can send to a friend and say “haha, this is something you would say”, or a beautiful piece of landscape, as well as everything in between. Well, Hades is absolutely filled with those moments. From flirting chats with Meg to the funky Achilles glossary on the Codex, to the hand-drawn view of the plains of Elysium, save a little disk space. You will press the PRT SCR button quite often.
“After all, if I had to recommend a single game that 2020 offers, it would be Hades.”
Catchable moments don’t make a game, however. Hades also has everything else. The game is just sitting there with a giant range of characters, none of which I will forget so quickly, some great music to continue to propel you into the depths of the Underworld, and some of the clearest and most responsive actions. I already tried it.
The way the narrative expands in several sequences is something I had not seen before, and it is extremely impressive how each line of dialogue (all with an excellent voice too) seems relevant to their current situation. I haven’t heard a repeated conversation yet, and although you have to complete several races to get the ‘complete’ story, it doesn’t seem like an arduous task thanks to the sweet variety of weapons to choose from, as well as options to raise the stakes and make things more difficult for you.
If you can, treat yourself this Christmas. After all, if I had to recommend a single game that 2020 offers, it would be Hades. Supergiant broke completely with Hades, and I doubt that I will discover everything this game has to offer for a long time.
Ollie: Supergiant Games played a big role in my career writing about games. I wrote my graduation dissertation on Bastion and Transistor to begin with. And I was working on RPS just three days ago when Hades was announced (and simultaneously released on Early Access) at the 2018 Game Awards, so I could see the growth as I grew up on paper. It is a pleasure whenever I write about a Supergiant game.
Hades doesn’t have the emotional narrative impact of other Supergiant games and, at the same time, I can’t see him as anything, except his best writing to date. Before Hades, I couldn’t even imagine how you could build an effective story within the framework of a roguelike with permanent death and meta-progression. Supergiant has always done an incredible job marrying mechanics with narrative in a way that elevates both, but Hades is his magnum opus.
Even without any history, I would still be pressured to put Hades on the ground. It’s an incredibly beautiful, polished and satisfying experience, and it fills all the boxes of what I’m looking for in a roguelike. But it is thanks to the story that I feel that I can never again be completely satisfied with another roguelike. I want those lighter moments when you talk to characters and learn about their reasons and problems. I want it to make sense to keep dying and going back to the beginning. I want to learn about the personalities behind every boss fight every time I meet them. Hades spoiled me a lot.