Technically released last year on Epic Game Store, I avoided it because no part of me trusts the Epic Game Store. That is another rant for another day entirely, but this year saw the full release of Hades on Steam. Playing as the son of Hades, you are attempting to escape the realm of the dead to find your mother. Accepting the aid of the gods above (Who think you're wanting to make it to Olympus), you fight through and die over and over again. Death means little, as you simply appear back at home. You are after all in the realm of Hades.
The story itself is just uncovering the truth about why Hades doesn't want you escaping the underworld, why your mother is on the surface, and all the elements involved in that story. That said pretty much every point that is uncovered is some kind of a spoiler, so it's hard to talk about in detail. What I will say is the final reveal is fairly underwhelming. It does a good job of building interest, but overall the main plot isn't a big reason to dive into this game. There are some nice things about it, and it's a bit touching, but overall a bit flat.
On the other hand, there are some fairly interesting side stories and characters. Orpheus is a lot of fun, the court musician who refuses to sing, and all the interactions you have with the gods of Olympus are very entertaining. If you don't look at the partially serious aspects of the story and focus on the comedy, I think you get a lot more out of it. I love that your main character eventually gives the Bone Hydra a name after slaying it so many times (We'll get to that). It's just a really fun game, and it keeps the laughs going pretty constantly. And there is a huge amount of unique dialogue, even though I fought Meg well over twenty times I swear there was never a repeated dialogue sequence between the two of them.
Where the game won me over is the gameplay. As a general rule, I am not as big of a fan of games with procedurally generated dungeons as I am of games with more tightly crafted level design. While I do think that still holds true to an extent, the fifth or so time you clear the underworld (You have to do this multiple times) things start to feel repetitive. Even with the ability to adjust how hard the game is with the contract (It's a lot more than just making enemies stronger) to gain more rewards, you start feeling like you're just going through the same motions again and again. You're going through the same game multiple times with different builds and challenges.
It does this fantastically, mind you. This isn't a criticism of the game, it's a feature that has never really appealed to me. It's what kept me from ever really loving games of this genre, and for a lot of people out there it's not going to be a problem.
The actual gameplay though is a lot of fun, and I do love how many different ways your character can end up playing based on the boons you come across. You may just end up with a bad draw, but based on the early parts of the dungeon you'll pick and choose what buffs you get (Each time you get a boon, it gives you one of three options) and you'll start making decisions based off those early gains. Die and you start at the beginning, losing most of what you found along the way.
What you keep are things like Darkness, which allows you to gain permanent bonuses that don't reset, or Titans Blood to upgrade your weapons, as well as trinkets with their effects. There are a few more things, but I think you get the idea with this. There may only be four bosses (And a varied number of mini-bosses based on how the rooms end up being created each run), but there are variations of them each time you play, so it does keep it from being to repetitive, and it keeps you on your toes to pay attention to how you build each run.
It's a lot of twitch-based gameplay regardless of how you build. Dodge around to avoid many on-screen projectiles, make use of three base attacks (Basic, Strong, and Cast, all of which are modified based on weapon and boons), dash effects, and a call ability to handle everything. There is a big enough variety in enemies to keep the gameplay loop from feeling too repetitive for several runs, but as I mentioned I do think there comes a point it gets boring for me, but that comes down to my issues with the genre, and not something the game itself is doing badly.
The visuals are also pretty great, with all the animations looking fantastic and a lot of unique character designs. Everything feels on point and very thematic, each section of the underworld having a distinct look to them. While I got tired of seeing the same designs over and over again, another thing that has always taken me out of the genre, I can't deny that everything does look fantastic. It's backed up by some pretty great music as well, I enjoy the songs with actual lyrics you hear too, but for reasons, I'll avoid going into those details.
If you just hate games with procedurally generated dungeons, I don't think this is the game that is going to win you over. That said, if you're like me and just generally don't like them, you still may get a lot out of this game as I did. And if you are a fan of the genre or even just sort of enjoying them, it's a definite recommendation from me.