Hades is out now, holy heck

[Mogri]

Were you waiting for Hades to come out of early access before you played it? You now have no excuse.

 

[Falselogic]

Is it finally complete? Can I finally escape the Underworld? Maybe I'll go back to it again!

 

[Destil]

Were you waiting for Hades to come out of early access before you played it? You now have no excuse.

It's me.

 

[Octopus Prime]

I was waiting for both that and it to get a Switch port.

CHECK AND MATE

 

[MCBanjoMike]

But...it does have a Switch port? Anyway, Hades is fun and I'm looking forward to getting back to it now that it has hit 1.0.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Yes, that was the checkmate, from me to the universe.

Now nobody can stand in my way!

 

[Kalir]

Hades good go play it thanks

 

[SilentSnake]

I'm on my fourth run now, and wow is this game fun. The mechanics for all the weapons feel incredibly, with each maneuver feeling usable. I beat Meg on my last run and made it to Asphodel before dying on the barge. I can see why people keep playing this game.

 

[Paul le Fou]

Oh heck, I can't not play a Supergiant game. ALL RIGHT ALL RIGHT

 

[karzac]

I think I'm going to start a fresh save now that it's at 1.0, even though I already have 100+ hours in this game.

 

[SilentSnake]

On my fifth or sixth run I think? And it started introducing stuff like Chaos and Calls. Like, how much more is in this game?! This thing is dense.

 

[Mogri]

Like onions, Hades has layers. But then Hades also has onions.

I escaped the underworld. The ending, it seems, is much like the rest of the game: revealed over the course of many runs.

 

[Lance Noble Aster]

But...it does have a Switch port? Anyway, Hades is fun and I'm looking forward to getting back to it now that it has hit 1.0.

It does! Released at the same time!

 

[karzac]

On my fifth or sixth run I think? And it started introducing stuff like Chaos and Calls. Like, how much more is in this game?! This thing is dense.

You've not even scratched the surface.

 

[SilentSnake]

Made it to the Minotaur boss in Hades, and holy heck does this game rule. It's amazing how different combinations of boons completely warps your play style from run to run. I can see now how people are viewing this as a forever game.

 

[karzac]

Just started a fresh run. It's really fun to start all over again, it makes parts of the game that ended up being mundane (like Darkness) feel really important again. And I'm really interested to see how certain characters and game concepts get drip fed. I was surprised to see the House Contractor, for instance, show up after my second run, given that he was a pretty late addition in Early Access.

 

[Sprite]

Is this the type of roguelike that you could theoretically win on your first run, or that you have to lose a bunch before you unlock enough to beat it?

 

[Kalir]

Somewhere between the two but closer to the second. That said, dying is something that helps to advance the story, because everyone in the house of Hades is doing their own things and will have new things to say and story hooks whenever you return from a splatted run, so it never feels like a grind.

 

[karzac]

Yeah, you could theoretically win on your first run, but it would be extremely unlikely and you're really not supposed to. But as Kalir says, the Run > Die> Talk to Everybody > Upgrade > Repeat loop is really satsifying. And there's a ton of variety in builds between runs and the game has many, many mechanics and subsystems to reveal as you progress, so it always feels like there's something new happening.

But it's not like a Spelunky, where the joy is simply mastering the mechanics and learning about interactions that were there all along. You're unlocking abilities and upgrading them.

 

[Mogri]

I've seen skilled players speedrun the game. They get enough darkness to unlock the dash and I think one other thing, then they die and restart because it's faster to win with those abilities. You can, I'm sure, win without them, but it's beyond my skill level.

 

[Sprite]

Hrm, I like when roguelikes have plot continuity between runs but hate it when you’re not expected to win until you unlock enough stuff. Losing because the game doesn’t think I’ve played enough to make winning possible just feels awful to me.

Thanks for the info.

 

[karzac]

That's totally fair. I will say that escaping early would feel extremely unsatisfying - the whole premise of the game is that the thing you're attempting is impossible and Hades keeps making fun of you for even trying. Escaping on an early attempt would kinda through the whole plot out of whack. But I get that it frustrates some players.

 

[ASandoval]

Hrm, I like when roguelikes have plot continuity between runs but hate it when you’re not expected to win until you unlock enough stuff. Losing because the game doesn’t think I’ve played enough to make winning possible just feels awful to me.

Thanks for the info.

I want to clarify things a bit,

Though you do unlock permanent upgrades that make your time a bit easier, they're small and incremental. Success is much more about the random upgrades you find along the way and how you customize your character loadout with those random drops. And many of the unlocks aren't actually permanent upgrades but add new, random drops you can find a long the way to give you more options on any particular run. Finally, some upgrades you receive you have the choice to use or not, such as weapon upgrades or charms, and those usually have some sort of negative trade off to counteract the positive.

All in all, Hades attempts to be the midway point between a Spelunky and a Rogue Legacy and I think it mostly succeeds in that. Overall I would say its not particularly grindy and while unlocking stuff is important, it's not the deciding factor in whether you succeed or fail, it's a combination of your skill and load out.

 

[karzac]

Those are good points - and I will say, the effectiveness of the permanent upgrades was actually reduced a bit over the course of Early Access. The Mirror of Night used to be much more powerful, especially in the number of Death Defiances you could get.

 

[Destil]

How’s the switch version hold up? Any possibility of cross play saves?

 

[ASandoval]

How’s the switch version hold up? Any possibility of cross play saves?

Haven't gotten the switch version yet to speak to its playability. Cross play is definitely happening. It was supposed to be at launch but they delayed the feature for the next update so they could get 1.0 launched on everything.

 

[Little Sampson]

Switch version has been perfectly playable for me so far, but I have nothing to compare it to.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Likewise; hasn't had as much as a hiccup even when the screen is loaded with Stuff

 

[karzac]

My name is in the credits of this game! As one of the beta testers!

 

[Zef]

I've never played Bastion or Transistor, but I'm a sucker for well-crafted mythological narratives and the trailer seemed to hit the right spots. What can I expect if I've never played those isometric... RPGs? Action RPGs? Dungeon crawlers?