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In December of 2018, Hades entered early access. About two years later, in September of 2020, it was fully released. Greek Mythology re-imaginings and re-tellings are a dime a dozen. Despite that, Hades sets itself apart. The aforementioned fourth title from Supergiant Games earns its place as one of the favorite games I’ve ever played.

Please note, there may be very minor spoilers throughout this article. Read at your own discretion.

Graphics: 5/5

Hades boasts highly stylized and intricately detailed graphics, with a combination of 3D and 2D that blend seamlessly. It’s full of life and passion. Every character was designed with thought and care, as their designs are original and perfectly suited to their individual personalities.

The background isn’t skimped out on either, The game has beautiful landscapes with just the right amount of subtle animations. Enemies are well-done and unique, refraining from the common technique of simply recoloring other enemies.

Storytelling: 5/5

While you can certainly sail through the game without a single care for the story, I wouldn’t recommend it in the slightest. Every push through another run rewards the player with more information, more pieces to the great puzzle that is the game’s story. Through journal entries, dialogue and flashbacks, the story is revealed piece by piece.

The side quests are thrilling and endearing as well, incentivizing the player to keep going. The three different ‘romanceable’ characters are all unique and interact with Zagreus (the main playable character) in very different ways. Zagreus is one of the game’s greater mysteries only solved near the very end of the game.

The story isn’t just told through dialogue or journal entries. Music plays an essential role in telling the story. The soundtrack is gorgeous, genuinely one of the only game soundtracks I’ve ever considered purchasing. In-game lore is often delivered through song, particularly when sung by Orpheus and Eurydice. There’s a large catalogue for them to sing from, and each song tells a different interesting story relevant to the greater plot.

Characters: 5/5

Zagreus, the character you play as, is snarky yet kind and empathetic. He’s a joy to play, always commenting on everything he sees and quipping sarcastically to enemies and allies alike. Every character interacts with him in very different, personal ways.

Even the smallest side characters are fleshed out and multidimensional. They don’t just interact with Zagreus, they frequently interact with each other too. Dialogue is the main boat for characterization, and it is done so masterfully.

Game Mechanics: 4/5

Hades follows a repetitive gameplay loop broken up by new weapons, boons and items. Roguelites operate by allowing you to keep certain upgrades and progress between runs but completely restarting everything else. Each run is procedurally generated, and dying ends your current run. Each weapon available offers a diverse weapon kit with different strengths to match all kinds of playstyles.

The gameplay loop can get boring over time, and certain enemies can be quite frustrating and off putting. Since death means you reset the run, it can be hard to learn how to fight a boss when to do so you have to defeat everything in the chambers that come before it. Randomized rooms, boons and enemies greatly affect how smooth of a ride you’ll get leading up to the bosses. Some builds leave you almost completely ruined for certain bosses or enemies. Despite how crucial boons are, you can never build your playstyle off them as it is rare you’ll get exactly what you want due to multiple layers of randomization.

Controls: 3/5

There are a lot of things going on in Hades all at once. Different movesets, different enemies and different traps make it hard to learn how to play. Although, the controls are somewhat easy to handle once you get the hang of it. Certain combo moves can be difficult to perform, particularly on the Nintendo Switch.

Accessibility 5/5

Hades is available on Xbox, Nintendo Switch 1 & 2, PlayStation 4 & 5 and on PC. It is $24.99 across all platforms and is frequently on sale. Hades is also available in physical versions through disc and card.

27/30 Grade A

I picked Hades up while it was discounted a few years ago just because I could. I had no idea that I would enjoy it so much. Piecing together the story, deepening my relationship with the characters and even diligently bouncing around just to finish a side quest had me enraptured in the world Supergiant created.

The game is genuinely beautiful, the music is superb and the characters are incredibly lively. Hades does it all, and it does it well for a very decent price considering just how much playtime you can get from it. I can’t recommend Hades enough.