Recent reviews by CaptainCassi

Campaign is excellently paced and engaging.
Each mission is around 0.75 - 1.5 hr and, the quality of the experience was very high from start to finish.
Individually each mission was very satisfying to play.

As someone who hates horror because of the nightmares, this was a very nice intro game.
Had plenty of creepy vibes throughout the game and built up tenseness I just wanted to do away with.
Also plenty of good interspersed heart-pumping times when you encounter certain anomalies.

But nothing gorey nor blatantly jump scaring nor sound blasting to cause real nightmares is very appreciated.

TLDR: I cannot recommend this game to others, genuinely. This game was not fun for me.
I really struggled to get through to an official ending of this game.

But to call this a bad game? No way.

I came to know of Hades through rave reviews via word of mouth from friends & coworkers alike.
And to my experience, the game's got beautiful art / graphics, excellent sound design, engaging game-play, meaningful lore / relationships, and a wonderful fundamental story arc that ties everything together.
It's even boosts its replay factor with randomized boons, randomized weapons that are bonus drops, optional difficulty increases, weapons with different play styles & variants, etc. It even had features for players with skill-issue like God Mode, etc.

Like objectively on paper, it should sound like I had a blast. I really did try to find different builds or weapons combinations or punishment conditions to make it a more fun game. It was an engaging, but I did not have fun.

I'm guessing that I just might not like games of this sort of genre, since Hades is the 1st of this genre type I've played. I'm sure it's a great game for its genre, just not for me.

Hopefully, this doesn't deter people who know they like games of this genre, but for people who know they don't already, it's okay to not be interested in a game like Hades. Just don't go around bad-mouthing it.

Giving a review after having completed a first play-through at 104%.

In spite of having tried this game for the first time in Dec 2023, there's no signs of it being an older game. It's polished, it was fun to play, good lore, and a satisfying time. I've got max HP/MP (Masks/Vessels), max weapon (Nail) upgrade, max spell upgrades, all charms unlocked, all map unlocked, all common stuff done.

And there's still so much more to do and mysteries left behind, high and low, across the world.

But at the same time, I'm also very satisfied with the ending I've experienced, and don't feel like I need to play the extra content to be satisfied with the immersion into the world presented in Hollow Knight.