Hades is one of those games that was super well known so I’ve been meaning to get it for a little while. I’m not always the biggest fan of rogue type games but I do love survival titles against endless hordes. Additionally, I feel like I have gotten a lot softer towards the genre as of late because all of the rogue titles end up being really good. The overall quality for a title like this will come down to how quick you can pick up a new run or not. If you’re losing hours and hours of work then I’m not going to be too thrilled, but this game masters the edge of how long it should be.

The game follows the son of Hades as he wants to know more about himself. He is not allowed to leave the underworld and Hades sees to this personally. What secrets lie beyond the borders of death? Our hero is determined to find this out and along the way he may even learn the truth of what happened to his mother. The gods of Olympus pledge their support and offer different powers along the way but what ulterior motives do they have There are a lot of mysteries to uncover here but when you’re immortal without much else to do…time is always on your side.

Immediately one of the most impressive things about Hades is the sheer volume of content. These rogue games can sometimes be annoying because you will question why you are putting in all of this effort. The Justice League mobile game for example was fun and I stuck with it for around 3 months but after a point there was no real content left. For Hades that isn’t a problem. There are easily 50+ hours worth of content here between maxing out all of the god bonds to complete their subplots, getting the true ending, maxing out your database files, unlocking all weapons, etc.

I completed the game 10 times to unlock the base ending and I can tell that I’ve only scratched the surface here. I only managed to max one character by the end of this and beast the game with only 1 weapon. I don’t see myself going for the platinum anytime soon just because of how long it would take to do that but I do like how all of the trophies are reasonable ones. The game isn’t asking you to do anything crazy. Really you’re just asked to play the game a whole lot and try out every mechanic. Even if you don’t plan to go for it all, I do advise trying out each weapon to see which one ends up being your favorite.

Of course, all this content would mean nothing if the gameplay was poor. So fortunately it is excellent. Your movement is very crisp and all of the weapons are good ones to have. The game has an overhead view and then you use your 3 powers to get past the enemies and make it to the end. Each playthrough has 4 areas and around 50-60 rooms total. At first it will probably take around an hour to clear the game, then near the end each run will be more like 20 minutes. I’ve heard people can do it even quicker but even with a maxed out mirror I couldn’t get under 20 minutes so they must be insanely good at it.

The game really values repetition as you learn all of the enemy movements and attack patterns. Focus on learning those since it is crucial that you dodge a lot. You want to deal a lot of damage of course but your health can go down deceptively quick. At the end of each room you get to choose a power up. Some help your attack power directly while others will help speed or other aspects of your character. Choose your ability carefully and then you will be fine. Even if you do lose, the game is so much fun that you won’t mind.

By the time I won 10 runs, I had already lost 27. So I can assure you that it is a process. Now I have enough passive abilities where I can confidently win with the spear on every run but so far I am still having trouble winning with any other weapon. For hat I suppose I just have to keep on grinding and eventually I can win there too.

Also I give the game a thumbs up for all the voice acting. Yeah, you’d expect voice acting for a PS5 game but there are just so many lines here that it still ends up being impressive. Each main character has over 100 lines of dialogue as you go through their normal routines as well as bond dialogue. I am probably even underplaying it for a bunch of them. This is clearly a game where the developers wanted to give you a complete product without worrying about dlc.

Meanwhile the graphics are really good. Even with all of the action on screen the game didn’t lag once. The individual animations are all clear as well so you know what is happening throughout. Now there are times where you might have multiple abilities that can be hard to distinguish in the moment but that is the price of being overpowered. I consider it to be a good balance. The soundtrack is also super good. There were quite a few great tunes in here that really fit the atmosphere of the game.

I don’t have any real issues with the game. I felt like everything was accounted for here and all of the gameplay elements were polished. It deserved all of the game of the year attention it was getting and then some. I’ve heard that the sequel’s gameplay is even better which sounds really impressive. I definitely look forward to seeing how good that one is.

Overall, Hades is an extremely satisfying game. It has enough difficulty to give even the most seasoned of gamers a difficult time, while also having a lot of difficulty options to allow for newer gamers to have a good time as well. That is why it is a very inviting experience since I can easily recommend it to anyone. The game’s very intuitive and there are no shortage of helpful references included within. Everyone will have their own style of how to approach the game. When starting out I recommend finding out your preferred way to play rather than going online to copy a winning strategy. Trust me, it will feel more satisfying that way.

Overall 9/10