Hades

Supergiant Games released Hades in September 2020 after a two-year early access period, and it quickly became one of the most acclaimed games of the year. You play as Zagreus, son of the god of the dead, attempting to fight your way out of the Greek underworld one room at a time. Die, and you’re sent right back to the House of Hades to try again. That loop, death and retry, is the foundation of every roguelike. What Hades does differently is make every death feel like it matters to the story, not just to your mechanical progress.

Player reception sits at a level that very few indie games reach. Community sentiment consistently places it alongside the greatest roguelikes ever made, and the conversation isn’t just about combat. Players talk about the characters, the voice acting, and the way the narrative keeps revealing new layers dozens of hours in. For a genre that typically lives and dies on its gameplay loop, that kind of story-driven discussion is unusual and telling.

Hades’ Greatest Strength: Combat

Combat is fast, responsive, and endlessly varied. Six distinct weapon types play completely differently from each other, and the boon system means no two runs feel the same even with the same weapon. Gods of Olympus offer upgrades during each escape attempt, and the way different boons interact with each other creates build possibilities that reward experimentation. A run focused on Artemis’s critical hit boons plays nothing like one built around Dionysus’s hangover effects, and discovering those synergies is addictive.

Narrative integration is where Hades broke new ground for the genre. Returning to the House of Hades after dying triggers new conversations with a cast of characters who react to your progress, your failures, and your relationships with other NPCs. Dialogue almost never repeats, which is remarkable given how many times you cycle through the loop. Characters develop over dozens of runs, and the main story only advances through these post-death conversations. The result is a game where dying feels like unlocking content rather than losing progress.

Voice acting and writing carry the character work with consistent quality. Every god, every NPC in the house, and every shade you encounter has a distinct personality that comes through in both the script and the performances. Zagreus himself strikes a tone that’s confident without being annoying, and his relationships with other characters evolve in ways that feel natural rather than mechanical. The romance options are handled with particular care, offering emotional depth without feeling bolted on.

Progression systems outside of individual runs give long-term goals that keep the game compelling well past the first successful escape. Permanent upgrades, new weapon aspects, and a prophecy system that tracks achievements all provide reasons to keep playing. The game reveals new story content for dozens of hours after you think you’ve seen everything, and that drip-feed of narrative rewards pairs perfectly with the mechanical depth.

Art direction and music deserve their own mention. The hand-drawn character portraits are striking, the environments are vibrant, and the soundtrack by Darren Korb shifts from atmospheric to adrenaline-pumping with the kind of precision that elevates combat encounters from good to memorable.

Where Hades Falters

Repetition is inherent to the genre, and some players feel it more than others. Despite the variety the boon system provides, the same rooms, the same enemy types, and the same boss encounters do cycle through repeatedly. Players who are motivated primarily by narrative rather than mechanical mastery may find the gap between story beats too wide, with too many similar runs required to trigger the next conversation.

Difficulty scaling can feel uneven for less experienced action game players. The game offers accessibility options through its God Mode, which gradually makes you tougher with each death, but the base difficulty assumes a comfort level with fast-paced combat that not everyone brings. Some encounters, particularly certain boss fights, demand a precision that the otherwise inviting tone of the game doesn’t prepare you for.

Build variety, while impressive, does settle into patterns once you’ve played enough. Experienced players tend to gravitate toward optimal boon combinations, and some weapon aspects are clearly stronger than others. The randomness of boon offerings means some runs start promisingly and then fall apart because the right upgrades never appear. That’s a roguelike feature rather than a bug, but it can sting when you’re chasing a specific combination.

Late-game story progression slows considerably. After the initial rush of new content and character development, the rate of new dialogue and story revelations drops, and the final stretch requires significant repetition to reach the true ending. Players who fall in love with the narrative pace of the first 20 hours may find the back half requires more patience than they expected.

Why Dying Has Never Felt Better

Hades proved that a roguelike’s repetitive structure doesn’t have to work against its story. By tying narrative progression to the death-and-retry loop instead of fighting against it, Supergiant turned the genre’s biggest weakness into its greatest strength. Every failed run teaches you something about the combat, and every return to the House of Hades teaches you something about the characters. That dual progression, mechanical and narrative, is what makes the loop feel rewarding long after the initial novelty fades.

Should You Play Hades?

Action game fans looking for tight combat and deep build variety will find dozens of hours of content here. Players who care about story and character development in a genre that usually ignores both will find something special. If you’ve never tried a roguelike, this is the best possible starting point because of how well it motivates repeated play through narrative rather than just difficulty.

Skip it if repetitive structure wears you down regardless of how the game frames it, or if fast-paced action combat isn’t your thing. Players who need clear, linear story progression rather than narrative delivered in fragments across many runs may find the structure more frustrating than rewarding.

The Verdict on Hades

Hades solved the roguelike genre’s biggest problem by making failure feel like progress, and it did it with some of the tightest combat and most charming writing in any game of its era. Supergiant Games built a game where dying sends you back to the start but moves the story forward, turning repetition into something you actually look forward to. The weapon variety, the boon system, and the sheer personality packed into every interaction keep runs feeling fresh for far longer than they should. If you’ve ever bounced off roguelikes because they felt like a grind, this is the one that might change your mind.