Never having really taken an interest in roguelikes and dungeon crawlers, Hades was a game that upon first sight peaked my interest thanks to it's beautiful and unique visualisation of greek mythology which paired with its fluid and crisp combat makes for an absolute treasure of a game. From The depths of Tartarus to the towering heights of Mount Olympus, Hades is sketched to the most pristine detail a game could have with every room polished to the max. The levels are incredibly well designed with every run feeling different to the other thanks to the insane amount of dialogue that puts this game on a pedestal above the rest, I found myself hearing new lines and new details with every attempt of escape I made and the phenomenal cast of Greek Gods make for such an enjoyable story! If you like roguelikes and dungeon crawlers or just want to play an extremely well made game, pick up Hades!

Hades is a fantastic rogue-lite that's made for all types of players, even if you don't like these types of games. SuperGiant has made dying, an integral aspect of the genre, part of the narrative itself, giving you something to look forward to even if you fail. You play as Prince Zagreus, son of Hades, trying to make his way out of the underworld to get away from his autocratic father. In between each run you're able to mingle with characters like Hypnos, Achilles, and even Hades himself, who all have various input depending on how well you're progressing. There's also permanent upgrades you can spend resources on like being able to heal bits of your health before every encounter, or a death defiance that revives you when you're defeated. The little bits of narrative that you get between each run is a really neat way to give a failed run something more meaningful other than simply going back at it. Although the story is super good, the combat is the real star of the show. It's an isometric brawler that can vary depending on what weapon you're using and what upgrades you obtain on each run. Throughout your many escapes you are randomly aided by other Olympic Gods like Poseidon, Athena, or Ares, who give you boons that give you various abilities. There's an enormous pool of powers that had me discovering new, exciting combos hours after I had already finished a run for the first time. Some of my favourites include a blade rift that damages enemies whenever you dash, or a crystal that shoots homing lasers at enemies when you drop it on the ground. I originally thought that I would probably end up sticking with a few abilities that I liked the best, but I ended up really liking most of them. Some of the weapons take some time getting used to, but I ended up liking them all—it's a combat system with insane diversity. The story and combat are the main draws here but there are other parts of Hades are should be commended too. I really love the super sharp hand-drawn art style, and the rocking soundtrack had me humming some of the best tunes hours after putting the game down. And while some of the voice work is a little inconsistent and the frame rate can buckle a bit on the Switch, you really have to dig deep to find faults with Hades because it's a tremendously well-made video game. Play it.

Minor Spoilers Ahead (gameplay systems and story structure) Hades' beginning leaves the impression that it will be Super Giant's best game yet, having integrated so many features from its previous masterful titles. In the end, Hades is easily its worst. Begin the game learning about new enemies and 'boons' every run, a number of diverse movesets steadily open up to the player, fall in love with so many characters, and eventually reach the credits with tears in your eyes. The credits fade and the game falls apart as the player is left to slog towards the epilogue. Random chance will stall the player's quest progress at every corner. Whether requisite characters will appear at home base or during a run, if their requisite quest flag dialogue will appear or be stalled out for a dizzying array of reasons (some controllable, many not) for flavour text instead. There is enough variety for maybe 50 or so runs, but with all the fluff that is touted as a feature (but is in reality a nuisance), Hades may require more than double that in order to unlock its final ending. Super Giant is a master at making modular difficulty options that are both thorough and interesting, yet they have missed the ball here yet again. In Hades they have a few absolutely fantastic difficulty options, but most are simply 'number bigger' that serves very little to increase the game's actual difficulty, and moreso tests the player's ability to stay awake, made all the worse with how these stat and number increases interact with the 'rogue' gameplay elements. Will you be a 350hp behemoth doing >700dps that can mindlessly melt everything or a 200hp 180dps wimp who gets overwhelmed during each elite encounter? Game knowledge will skew the player towards the former, but many runs will still be done where the player will be pretty powerless with no fault of their own -- a staple of many rogue titles, but not something every fan of Super Giant will be prepared for (including myself).