Hades

Pyre (2017) is almost like the black sheep of Supergiant Games, I feel. At least I personally lost all interest after seeing how it did combat encounters as some sort of sportsball matches. I think the game was received positively overall but at least my perception is that Pyre was a low point for Supergiant after Bastion (2011) and Transistor (2014). The studio pretty much fell off my radar after that.

But in 2020, Supergiant's next game emerged from early access into a shower of praise and accolades, recently even getting the first Hugo Award given for the Best Video Game (which is somewhat amusing because about every video game is fantasy or scifi unlike in literature; no lack of candidates in this medium). After having beaten Hades myself, I can confirm that it is indeed a great game -- the best one I played this year.

Isometric action roguelike

In Hades you're trying to escape the Underworld as Zagreus, son of Hades. Unfortunately, ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ɪs ɴᴏ ᴇsᴄᴀᴘᴇ and every death sends you back to the beginning. Luckily it is merely a setback for a god: You rise again and again from the river Styx to get scolded by your father and to begin your escape anew. As your skill and knowledge as a player grows and as Zagreus accrues through death persisting upgrades, you run by run get closer to leaving the realms of the dead behind.

As is popular these days, Hades incorporates roguelike elements (with gameplay and narrative metaprogression), this time into an isometric action roleplaying game that is otherwise quite similar to Bastion. The levels are procedurally generated and so are the godly boons Olympian gods grant you along the way. The boons combined with the weapon you chose for the run make up your build. Knowing which ones work together is the key to success.

Hades is quite packed with dialogue. Many seem to like it but I personally found it not all that interesting. I did appreciate the key points, like how the game's other gods' and other characters' personalities are defined and why ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ɪs ɴᴏ ᴇsᴄᴀᴘᴇ, but there is simply too many lines of nothing really getting anywhere. Too often I felt a relationship progress with someone was stuck; multiple runs not resulting in new dialogue. There's probably a limit in how much stuff can progress in tandem so that you don't spend an eternity at the start just talking.

Strong presentation

Visually Hades is pretty; its colors vibrant and varying. I'm not the biggest fan of the character avatars in dialogue though. I found them too busy and flat somehow. The game's voice acting is another thing having been praised but I didn't think of it that special.

Sound design is great however. There are clever cues and effects. And the soundtrack is superb; no complaints there. Darren Korb once again composed an excellent video game score. The cherry on the cake is the final boss fight's theme, God of the Dead.

It's in the gameplay

My favorite thing in the game, hands down, is the actual gameplay: combat and setting up your build from the randomized set of boons. Things were not clicking for me for the longest time though. Still, I always made progress mainly thanks to the upgrade system that keeps making things easier.

There is a God Mode option which (disables achievements and) grants you a stacking damage reduction buff with every death, a gradual easy mode essentially. I didn't use it, instead claiming my first victory at attempt #59 the hard way. I had found that the fast weapons (fists, shield, and spear) suited a playstyle of fierce button smashing. The sword for some reason didn't work that well for me and the bow was the worst one. I did my fastest clear with the latter, though -- it's amazing when you get the right boons. The rail, despite being slow, also did well with my playstyle.

After few more successful runs after my first one, I finally understood -- utterly and completely -- how Hades worked. I had learned how to make winning builds with things given. Victories were no longer difficult to reach. (I guess that's why there's again a built-in challenge system to make things harder.) I unlocked every achievement in Hades after 120 hours of playtime and can heartily recommend this masterclass in video games.