Hades is a progressive rougelike in the sense that every run you get more and more powerful. You’re able to buy upgrades in between runs that permanently increase your health, money, attack, and abilities. It took me about 25 runs to get my first victory and after that I felt accomplished enough to call that a wrap.
I enjoyed the combat and how intentional you have to be with your moves. You go up floors fighting a boss at the end of each dungeon and unlocking boons from the different gods along the way. You might get a Zeus power up that chains lightening after every strike or dash you do. You might get Hermes to give you quicker movement or attack speed. There’s some really cool synergies and I went from blindly picking what sounded coolest to really putting thought into which upgrades worked best that run.
Another cool feature was how the story progresses with each character through dialogue between or on runs. You slowly get more and more info on the underworld and why you’re trying to escape. I appreciated the voice dialogues and while I wouldn’t say I was engrossed with the story, I enjoyed the banter.
My main complaint is how similarly the runs were starting to feel against the same enemies over and over. There is a good variety to be fair, but after going through the same areas over and over it gets old even when using different playstyles. I had a great time making it to and then finally defeating Hades, but that repetition made me happy to take the win and move on. After you beat him there is still a shit ton more to do and unlock, but I’ve got other games on my list that excite me more at this point.
My game winning setup used the Twin Fists with the dodge upgrade purchased to the max of 15% and the Lambent Plume keepsake. This increases your movement speed and dodge chances by 1.2% after each quick chamber clear. This startup encouraged me to be aggressive enough to speed run chambers for the dodge upgrades and I also got Zeus boons enough to earn his legendary boon (makes lightening chains extremely powerful). The Twin Fists use a rapid attack and with each strike having that included… phew we.
Rating: 821/1000
Alex Reviews All 