There’s been an indecent amount of amazing games coming out lately from independent developers. Some, like Spelunky 2 and Spiritfarer, were ready right away – they did not need any content updates and were polished to a shine. Others, like Risk of Rain 2 and Hades, have been marinating in Early Access for over a year, but even at the earliest stages seemed promising. This is especially true for the latter – the Supergiant Games team, as you know, does not knit brooms. Well, this time the studio has surpassed itself and secured its position in the pantheon of the best indie developers.
Blessing of the gods
Only one plot of this “bagel” seems original – in the role of the prince of the underworld named Zagreus, who is not lucky enough to be the son of Hades, we are trying to escape from the realm of the dead. Hades is sure that this is impossible, because the world is rebuilt randomly after each death. However, Zagreus enlists the support of the gods (and other heroes of ancient Greek mythology), thanks to which subsequent attempts to leave the kingdom will become a little easier.
Not a single run is wasted here – even if the first region was not completed, along the way it was still possible to collect some valuable resources that will not disappear anywhere and will be useful for something. Gems allow you to improve the central location or add certain rooms to the underworld. Darkness is the local currency for buying passive skills, like increased damage when hit from behind or the ability to respawn after death. Keys are spent on unlocking these same skills, and are also needed to obtain new types of weapons. Bosses also leave behind items that are spent on the right things. Thanks to an excellent progression system, the next death does not spoil the mood.
Hades uses the structure familiar to such games: the underground world is divided into several regions, each of them consists of a dozen rooms, and at the end of each one you have to fight the boss. An element of non-linearity has been added here – although sooner or later you will still get to the end of the area, the path to it may be different. Many rooms offer a choice of what reward you want to fight the next group of opponents for. The doors can be painted with icons of resources, a store (there you buy goods for the collected gold coins that are not saved in case of death) or gods – in the latter case, you get passive skills that are relevant only for a particular race.
Hall help in Hades
The gifts of the gods affect the ability of the protagonist in combat or outside of it. Athena has a shield icon – her abilities allow you to reflect the attacks of enemies when dashing, hitting or taking damage. Dionysus, the God of Winemaking, will help you apply a Datura effect to weapons, which will cause opponents to take additional damage. With Zeus, everything is connected with lightning: attacks create chains of electrical discharges, when nearby opponents are jerked, they are shocked, and so on. The goddess of beauty Aphrodite’s skills weaken monsters – their attacks deal less damage. Chaos stands out especially against the background of the rest, offering to suffer for several rooms due to difficult conditions, but granting a strong increase in performance after that.
Since there are a lot of gods, and you don’t receive gifts from them too often, each attempt to complete the game is different from the previous one. Sometimes you will run into Hermes and increase your movement and attack speed, sometimes you will get Poseidon abilities and push enemies towards traps and magma. Some doors lead to a power grenade that upgrades gifts you already have, and sometimes you get the opportunity to upgrade or modify your weapons. This also affects the behavior in battle – there is a difference when your bow shoots one arrow or three at once.
In total, Hades has six types of weapons – from a banal sword to the ancient Greek “firearm”. All are completely different: the shield allows you to block attacks and run forward, knocking enemies on the way, the spear can be thrown, and then called back, in addition to damaging them from the back. Numerous gifts from the gods also affect how you start to eliminate enemies within a few minutes after the start of the next race. Whether you get close to them to leave traps on the ground after the dash, or you start to deal damage from afar more actively – the deeper you dive into the game (and learn about dual and legendary gifts and much more), the more you are amazed at the level of development.
A delightful combat system makes the adventure especially exciting: what smooth and beautiful animations are here, how tastefully drawn special effects are, how easily the character changes attacks and can hit an opponent right after a dash – even for Supergiant, this is an impressive level of quality. Outwardly, some opponents may not be very interesting (there are all sorts of skeletons and flying skulls), but this seems to be done on purpose – for Zagreus, they are all obstacles that he will forget about after clearing the next room. But beating them after a dash behind their backs, pushing them to dangerous areas and pressing them against columns, achieving destruction of structures and additional damage, is fun in any case.
In addition, the game throws up bonus entertainment over and over again. Then you face a choice, whose gift to receive next, and then you try to escape from another angry god – he floods the room with dangers. Then you stumble upon a treasury with a test, destroying opponents as soon as possible in order to receive a worthy reward for this. Then Hades decides to interfere with your journey through the realm of the dead, locking you in a small room and forcing you to survive for almost a minute.
What about talking? – Hades
The main feature of Hades is a great emphasis on storytelling, which is very rare in the case of “bagels”. You can remember RAD (Double Fine), where people commented on the mutations of the protagonist, but here everything is much bigger.
In the central location – the house of Hades, something constantly happens when Zagreus returns there after an unsuccessful attempt to escape. Hypnos will definitely comment on the death of the hero (even name the enemy) and give not very useful advice, Achilles will say parting words, Hades will certainly repeat that his son is wasting his time. The characters often talk to each other, and eavesdropping on their conversations is also exciting. This is not a game where, after death, you immediately start the next race – you can do this, but it’s better to go around all the rooms (their number grows as you go) and say hello to everyone.
The same thing happens during the exploration of the underworld: here the bosses like to exchange a couple of phrases, and the gods often say something before offering gifts, and third-rate characters are ready to talk – sometimes you get into rooms with them, receiving nice bonuses from them. Plus, Hades has a gift system – the nectar discovered during the journey (like many other resources, it does not disappear after death) can be handed to anyone, and in return the player will be presented with one of the many amulets. This is another opportunity to get a useful passive skill, like increasing health, reducing damage from certain attacks, or an additional resurrection after death. The more you use the amulet, the better its characteristics become.
Charisma literally oozes from the characters, luxuriously drawn portraits perfectly convey their characters, everything is voiced wonderfully – it’s just a pleasure to spend time with them. Each element here is made with such painstaking and such talent that any independent developer would envy. Therefore, when you don’t play Hades, you want to return to it as soon as possible, and when you pass it, you don’t want to break away.
In the game, you disappear for dozens of hours, and thanks to a well-thought-out progress system, you constantly find something new in it. The easiest way to explain this is to use the armory as an example, where at first they show only four types of weapons instead of six, and after getting them all, you learn about another feature that allows you to customize equipment. And the “endgame” with new rewards and even more difficult conditions only confirms that even after dozens of hours spent on the first complete passage, the game has something to surprise.
Conclusion
Before the advent of streaming services, collections of the best songs with titles like Greatest Hits were popular among musicians. Hades is reminiscent of those albums, and not only is it a collection of the best that Supergiant Games has to offer, but also a combination of many other people’s ideas. Here they were wrapped in a more original shell, provided with their own finds. This is all “bagels” “bagel”, the culmination of the genre, the main source of inspiration for future followers. And, of course, one of the best games of the year.
Pros: a huge amount of dialogue makes the world alive, arousing interest in getting to know all the characters; the combat system is very exciting due to the different types of weapons and the mass of God’s gifts, which greatly influence the approach to battles; the progress system is designed so that after each race you can unlock something useful; a large amount of content that surprises at every turn; great visual style; excellent voice acting for all the characters without exception; it is not necessary to get involved in ancient Greek mythology in order to have fun.
Cons: not found.