HADES
Deep in the bowels of The Underworld sits Hades upon his throne. He is lord and master of all who reside there. However there is one who yearns for his freedom, Zagreus, the son of Hades. He has just discovered that most of what he thought he knew about himself was a lie, and now he wants even more to leave The Underworld, thankfully he’ll be receiving help from his aunts and uncles, the gods and goddesses that reside upon Mount Olympus. This is how the game HADES, by SuperGiant Games begins.
I have been a huge fan of SuperGiant Games since Bastion, and so when I saw HADES, I knew I had to play it. It's a hack-and-slash game in a rogue-like environment. You will have to traverse four different realms to try to make your escape from The Underworld. Each attempt will be different, with the exception of the bosses that you will face. In each run you will have the opportunity to interact with different gods/goddesses and they will lend you some of their many skills to help increase your stats for that run. You also have the opportunity to unlock new weapons and accessories to assist you as well.
On the surface this is an excellent, good looking, solid, hack and slash game with enough randomness to it that you’ll come back to it again and again to at least see if you can encounter the correct combination to free yourself from The Underworld. If you were to dig a little deeper you’ll find that there’s much more to the game. Sure there has to be some depth to make this a good game, but there’s also much more than just the action. For those who are willing there is a deep story full of twists and turns. There are many different individuals to interact with, and develop relationships with. If you are willing to really dig in there’s a lot to do in this story to actually, fully, complete it.
If you couldn’t guess I have definitely burrowed deep into the game and the story. There’s still so much to unravel, and sure I’ve actually gotten through all the bosses, and of course there’s a twist that will bring you “back home”, but there’s also the need to know the full story of what is going on. I’m sure there are some out there who will ask, “How do you keep playing the same thing?” Well my response is that there’s no such thing as two identical runs, and there is a component that reveals itself once you’ve successfully escaped the first time that will allow for things to get a little more challenging. There’s also the fact that the weapons and accessories that you gain through the game can become stronger.
I started playing this game on the PC in the “Early Release”/Beta version, and when I started to play I knew this game would be amazing on the Nintendo Switch, but of course the game had to completely come out before there was any talk of other platforms, so I had to wait, and pray a little that it came out on the Switch. Thankfully it did, and that’s the version that I’m reviewing. I’m sure there isn’t really any difference in mechanics/story/etc between the PC and the Switch version, so if the Switch isn’t really your platform of choice, have no fear, if you pick the game up on a different platform I’m more than sure that you’ll have an amazing experience. There is just something about SuperGiant Games and the games that they release.
