I bought Hades about 10 days ago after seeing a 35% sale on Steam, and suffice to say I've been enjoying it thoroughly. I have a tendency of buying games and playing them for just a few hours before never touching them again. Amongst the longest-played games in my Steam library are roguelikes - like Slay the Spire at 150 hours logged, and Monster Train at 70 hours, both fantastic roguelikes with lots of replay value. Hades seems to be becoming one of my favorite games to play with its thrilling gameplay and progression.

Unlike roguelikes, Hades (a roguelite) allows you to upgrade your abilities and powers in between runs to get stronger so that you feel a sense of progression. After 30 runs spent dying and upgrading, I finally did it - I escaped from the wrath of Hades, Zagreus's father.

As an action game, Hades (the game) rewards you if you play skillfully; dodging and finessing enemy attacks are part and parcel of the core gameplay and don't become easier even after you upgrade your abilities. If you're really good, you could potentially finish the game in one try, although that is quite unlikely. One run usually takes less than 30 minutes, and after each run, you get to upgrade your abilities and weapons to make subsequent runs easier.

After many frustrating battles against Hades, the final boss of the game, I finally beat him. Hades was frustratingly annoying, with attacks that dealt nearly a quarter of my health bar. Mistakes were punished heavily, and even though I had already upgraded my abilities a great deal and had great luck with my boons (in-run upgrades that don't carry over between runs), I still almost died due to some careless playing. The game is unforgiving in that aspect, but I think it makes the game that much more fun.

On this screen lies all the boons that I took along with some other interesting stats. I got extremely lucky by getting a bunch of boons from Zeus, the Olympian God of the sky, which all synergized extremely well with each other and boosted my damage output to absolutely insane levels.

All that just to see Persephone, Zagreus's (the main character) mother. But guess what? Hades doesn't even remember that I defeated him and I'll have to do it a few more times to really show him who's the boss.

After 30 Runs...

I still feel like there's still a lot in the game that I can enjoy. I haven't maxed out all my abilities and keepsakes just yet, and I've only got to the end with one weapon. There are 5 weapons in total, with each weapon having a unique playstyle. I'm looking forward to playing more with the other weapons, especially those that I think don't fit my playstyle to see if I'll be surprised.

It's great that the game tries to introduce an interesting yet light-hearted story of Zagreus and his relationship with the Olympians and the Underworld beings. But honestly, I was much more engrossed with the gameplay and sped through most of the story text while skipping the voice lines. Sometimes, the snark and witty comments made by the Olympians did crack me up a little though.

Do I see myself playing 100 hours of Hades? Maybe, but I think it's quite unlikely. Even though Hades is really good, the fact that it's a roguelite rather than a roguelike is likely to make it less engaging for me after a while. Runs get easier over time due to the upgrade system, and that probably will make Hades less challenging than it initially was. Is it still a good buy though? Absolutely.

I absolutely had a blast playing Hades, and I think anyone who hasn't tried it should at least give it a try. It hooked me from the very beginning and I enjoyed every second of it. After all, if you decide that it's not the game for you after the first hour, you can always do a quick Steam refund. 😆

Thanks for reading, and until next time!

Steam Store Link: Hades