HomeReviewsHades
Premature Evaluation: HadesHot as hell
Hot as hell
Developer:Supergiant GamesPublisher:Supergiant GamesRelease:Out now (early access)On:WindowsFrom:Steam,EpicFor:£19.49/$25/€22
Among that little mess Hades stood out, an intelligent and well-constructed rogue-lite in which each death makes you a little bit stronger and wiser, set in a richly illustrated world of Greek epics and commanding sharp and well-acted dialogue.Jay nailed the pointthat Hades is particularly suited to early access development, not only because the dynamic, randomised layout of Tartarus and beyond forms the ideal foundation for plugging more content into, but because the oral tradition of Hellenic myth itself has undefined edges. Gods come into and go out of fashion, names and locations change over generations, Cerberus gets more and more heads depending on how excitable the storyteller is. Greek myth never made it to version one. The Pantheon would have had one of those little animated “under construction” gifs nailed to a pillar and a Discord channel to submit bug reports.
The enlarged roster of gods and their associated buffs also brings with it the reams upon reams of contextual, fully-voiced dialogue for which Supergiant is best known. Boss characters will pass idle comment on your particular choice of boons for instance, mouthing off about Achilles or wondering how you’ve made it to the end of the first area without managing to pick up any Daedalus Hammer weapon upgrades. Zagreus, who sounds less like the wayward son of Hades and more like he’s on a gap year to the seventh circle of hell, still says “cheers” and “mate” like a Bullingdon boy attempting to blend in on a pacer train to Buxton, like Eddie Redmayne ordering a Greggs sausage roll, like Colin Firth making small talk with the guy fixing his clogged up toilet.
A more recent addition panders to the feebly skilled player: a god mode that reinforces Zagreus with a 20 percent armour buff, which increments after each death until your shameful lack of ability is sufficiently neutralised. Such brazen hand-holding is nothing short of treachery to that cultish group of purists who’ve built an identity around being Very Good At Games, but Hades implements its easy mode well enough that it could well be the game’s default setting, dynamically lowering the barrier to entry just enough to appeal to those time-strapped players who want to more easily muck about in the richly realised world Supergiant has created. At the other end of the spectrum is a newly introduced, bastard-hard hell mode for the chronically underchallenged player.
Supergiant is being modest in their versioning. Hades is on course to leave early access in the second half of 2020, but feels finished already. The scaffolding is down, the paint is drying and after twenty, thirty and sixty runs you’ll have explored just a fraction of the heaving cauldron of boons, builds, keepsakes and chit-chat the underworld has to offer. Hades is a shining example of early access done right, a fluid and evolving adventure that, rather than treat its most loyal fans as unpaid playtesters, rewards and surprises returning players with great big hot guffs of lovely new stuff on a near monthly basis. Now’s the time to dive into it.
