Hades is an action roguelike role-playing game. Let me just start this review off by saying that I usually get bored of roguelikes very quickly but Hades stands out from the crowd thanks to its interesting and well-implemented mechanics, thus being much more captivating than any other roguelike I have played. The devs put a lot of love and effort into this game and it really shows.

Story - Hades' story is captivating and interesting. You play as Zagreus, the son of Hades who is the ruler of Tartarus, which is basically the hell of greek mythology. Zagreus decides that he no longer wishes to live in the gloomy depths of the underworld and desires to start living upon mount Olympys where the other olympian gods reside, thus you start an arduous journey through the underworld to reach the summit. All of this has been truly brought to life with the beautiful art-style, incredible voice acting, amazing soundtrack, interesting and multi-dimensional characters and thrilling gameplay, speaking of which;

Gameplay - As I said earlier, Hades is a roguelike so you will most likely die a bit but dying doesn't even feel too punishing because you will just be sent back down to the house of Hades where you can interact with multiple interesting characters, buy stuff from a merchant, upgrade Zagreus' skills with darkness points, check out new unlocked items or weapons and even renovate the house with gemstones. The standard dying mechanic of rogue likes has been cleverly implemented into the story but I won't go into any detail about it to avoid spoiling anything important.

There are 6 different weapons in the game which you unlock over time and they are all unique and fun to use. The game itself has a lot of replayability due to how fun they all are and how many awesome builds you can use with them. All of the weapons have "weapon aspects" which greatly change the way a weapon works. During your runs, the olympian gods gift you boons in order to aid you on your journey to mount Olympys. These boons greatly increase your power and they wary depending on the specific god. For example, Hermes' boons are mostly about speed and dashing, Poseidon's boons are great for decimating big groups of enemies, Athena is great for defense and Artemis is for crit damage who is my personal favorite. There are 9 gods in total and all of their boons offer great options so you can create many, many effective and interesting builds and get this, on top of this all, there is also Daedalus Hammers, keepsakes and companions which also massively contribute to the game's replayability and fun factor. Enemies have distinct attack patterns and so do the bosses and they are overall really fun to fight against. Combat feels fluid and responsive thanks to good controls. Everything just feels snappy and attacks have been made super satisfying with great animations and sound design.

Music and art - I mean, come on, this game looks ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ great. The attention to detail is incredible and it's honestly just a joy to even run around the house of Hades and stare at... well, anything really because it just looks really good. The music in the game was composed by Darren Korb and he truly managed to create a superb soundtrack. He made the music match the greek setting of the game but he wasn't afraid to put in some Doom OST - like sounds to really make your blood pumping during fights which I just love.

These are just some of my opinions on the game and admittedly, there are lots and lots of things that I did not talk about in this review since I haven't even finished the game completely yet but also just because the game is so full of things that I can't even remember all of it but this just goes to show you how great this game is.

All in all, this game is more than worth it and I fully recommend it. It should have won game of the year honestly. I recently watched Noclip's series on the development of Hades and it just made me appreciate the game even more. You should watch it if you already own the game or if you're interested in buying it. Here is the link to the full playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-THgg8QnvU4JEVov1tMlFThNYS92F8uC

Hades is an action roguelike role-playing game. Let me just start this review off by saying that I usually get bored of roguelikes very quickly but Hades stands out from the crowd thanks to its interesting and well-implemented mechanics, thus being much more captivating than any other roguelike I have played. The devs put a lot of love and effort into this game and it really shows. Story - Hades' story is captivating and interesting. You play as Zagreus, the son of Hades who is the ruler of Tartarus, which is basically the hell of greek mythology. Zagreus decides that he no longer wishes to live in the gloomy depths of the underworld and desires to start living upon mount Olympys where the other olympian gods reside, thus you start an arduous journey through the underworld to reach the summit. All of this has been truly brought to life with the beautiful art-style, incredible voice acting, amazing soundtrack, interesting and multi-dimensional characters and thrilling gameplay, speaking of which; Gameplay - As I said earlier, Hades is a roguelike so you will most likely die a bit but dying doesn't even feel too punishing because you will just be sent back down to the house of Hades where you can interact with multiple interesting characters, buy stuff from a merchant, upgrade Zagreus' skills with darkness points, check out new unlocked items or weapons and even renovate the house with gemstones. The standard dying mechanic of rogue likes has been cleverly implemented into the story but I won't go into any detail about it to avoid spoiling anything important. There are 6 different weapons in the game which you unlock over time and they are all unique and fun to use. The game itself has a lot of replayability due to how fun they all are and how many awesome builds you can use with them. All of the weapons have "weapon aspects" which greatly change the way a weapon works. During your runs, the olympian gods gift you boons in order to aid you on your journey to mount Olympys. These boons greatly increase your power and they wary depending on the specific god. For example, Hermes' boons are mostly about speed and dashing, Poseidon's boons are great for decimating big groups of enemies, Athena is great for defense and Artemis is for crit damage who is my personal favorite. There are 9 gods in total and all of their boons offer great options so you can create many, many effective and interesting builds and get this, on top of this all, there is also Daedalus Hammers, keepsakes and companions which also massively contribute to the game's replayability and fun factor. Enemies have distinct attack patterns and so do the bosses and they are overall really fun to fight against. Combat feels fluid and responsive thanks to good controls. Everything just feels snappy and attacks have been made super satisfying with great animations and sound design. Music and art - I mean, come on, this game looks goddamn great. The attention to detail is incredible and it's honestly just a joy to even run around the house of Hades and stare at... well, anything really because it just looks really good. The music in the game was composed by Darren Korb and he truly managed to create a superb soundtrack. He made the music match the greek setting of the game but he wasn't afraid to put in some Doom OST - like sounds to really make your blood pumping during fights which I just love. These are just some of my opinions on the game and admittedly, there are lots and lots of things that I did not talk about in this review since I haven't even finished the game completely yet but also just because the game is so full of things that I can't even remember all of it but this just goes to show you how great this game is. All in all, this game is more than worth it and I fully recommend it. It should have won game of the year honestly. I recently watched Noclip's series on the development of Hades and it just made me appreciate the game even more. You should watch it if you already own the game or if you're interested in buying it. Here is the link to the full playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-THgg8QnvU4JEVov1tMlFThNYS92F8uC