Board 8 > So Hades is really good, right?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I know virtually nothing about the game other than that everyone adores it. What is something that it could compare to? Is it a game I can pick up and play for an hour at a time, or does it require a little more focus (like a Metroidvania would)?

Now that it's available physically, I am intrigued.

It is literally made to be picked up and played in small increments. Or you can marathon and play for hours because it is fun.

Leafeon13N posted...

It is literally made to be picked up and played in small increments. Or you can marathon and play for hours because it is fun.

Is there a game you can compare it to?

ChainLTTP posted...

Is there a game you can compare it to?

Uhhh, its a procedurally generated semi randomized deep dungeon crawler with temporary and permanent character progression.

If you are familiar with Torghast in WoW. It is that but not the shitty boring parts of that.

GOTY 2020

Descriptions of the game ahead - if you want to go in completely blind like you are now then avoid this post but it sounds like you want some explanations

It's a roguelike where you start new runs over and over and come up with a different ability build every time you attempt to "complete" the game. Like Binding of Isaac or a million others.

Completing a run isn't really *beating the game*, it's just one step in the gameplay loop, albeit a big accomplishment. The expectation is that it will take you a good number of attempts to complete it the first time and then you'll want to complete it a bunch more times.

The way the narrative and dialogue flows into this gameplay loop is flawless - it's why the game is so beloved.

You can play for as little or as much per session as you want, and you can decide you arent enjoying the game anymore after a bunch of attempts without completing a run, or after you complete your first run, or after 10 completed runs, or after 500 completed runs. That's one beautiful thing about the game. It's engaging for as long as you find it fun to play, but unless you quit the game after a couple runs, I doubt you would ever feel like you didn't experience enough of the game.

Personally I think I did something like 75 runs, and genuinely loved every second of 73 of them. Then in the last two I suddenly just didn't want to play it anymore and stopped.... and I feel like I had a mega fulfilling experience.

The gameplay is an isometric hack and slash, kinda like Diablo but instead of point and click you use WASD or a controller. Battlerite is the most similar gameplay feelwise I think, but I don't think many played that. I feel like there should be a hundred examples of other games with similar gameplay but I can't think of any.

Good luck and have a wonderful time!


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So do abilities or whatever carry over through each run? Is there an ultimate goal like getting a "better" ending or is it really just to optimize each playthrough?

ChainLTTP posted...

So do abilities or whatever carry over through each run? Is there an ultimate goal like getting a "better" ending or is it really just to optimize each playthrough?

There's a story in the game. The incentive to complete the run is to unlock more of the story. After completing the story, it becomes more about optimizing, yeah.

The things that carry over in the game are permanent abilities. Stuff like being able to dash twice, being able to revive with 50% health after dying, etc. When you play the game, the only things that carry over from run to run are the resources:

Darkness - Used to buy Mirror Talents, which are permanent abilities
Gemstones - Used to buy cosmetic upgrades
Nectar - Used to further side narratives
Titan Blood - Used to permanently upgrade your weapons
Diamonds - Used to buy music and other cosmetic upgrades
Ambrosia - Used to finish side narratives

The gameplay is just really fun. It's fast-paced. Each weapon really brings its own playstyle, which are furthered even more by the randomized aspect of each run, since most of the random elements changes how you use the weapon. The characters and narrative are pretty strong, which is great because roguelikes tend to have fairly weak aesthetics and narrative.

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There's some aspects of the gameplay that carry over between runs for continuous progress to grow your power for sure, and the story is highly built upon by continuing runs. The idea that you are continuously attempting these runs is built into the story so your progress drives the story forward. Many roguelikes treat each run as "the start of the story" but that's not the case here.

Eventually there will also be ways to escalate difficulty, so if you are no longer feeling challenged you can keep things interesting in various ways

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How long is each run approximately?

25-45 minutes for a full run. I tend to take my time in games so I'm often more in the 30-40 minute range but my buddy gasped when he saw my data showing runs that long as he's always at 25 minutes. Failed runs would end sooner obviously.

If it's longer than 45 minutes you must have been AFK or something

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There are three points you could consider endings. When you clear the game once, when you clear the game a certain number of times that causes the credits to roll, and when you do a whole bunch of extra stuff that triggers an epilogue. Depending on how much you play or how much you enjoy it, you may be satisfied to quit at any of those points.

There's also another form of permanent progression, God Mode. Turn it on in the settings and every time you die, you'll get a little more resistant to damage. It turns out a lot of people never look in a game's options and never realized that was even a thing. You can turn it off and on whenever you like, and there's no penalty for using it.

ChainLTTP posted...

How long is each run approximately?

Like 30-50 minutes usually, depending on how efficient each run's build turns out to be. And that's to clear it, it's obviously shorter if you die, lol.

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is there a lot of hand eye coordination involved?
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SeabassDebeste posted...

is there a lot of hand eye coordination involved?

A little bit.

When you get more comfortable with some of the builds you can sometimes hit a point where things require significantly less paying attention.

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If you like arcadey combat youll love it

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It is good but my god is it overrated by the board.

Axl_Rose_85 posted...

It is good but my god is it overrated by the board.

It doesn't seem any more highly rated here than it is everywhere else.

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Axl_Rose_85 posted...

It is good but my god is it overrated by the board.

Have you been to literally anywhere else on the internet

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Axl_Rose_85 posted...

It is good but my god is it overrated by the board.

The game that won 5 BAFTAs and has a 93 metacritic score?

Yeah, we're overrating it.

*roll eyes*

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It's fine

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it's the giant bomb goty

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GotY 2020 easy
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it's a good game. I think most people have answered your pressing concerns. I think it started a bit slow for me but it kept getting better and better. I want to say I put in 50 hours.

Some of the weapons/boons are bad, some are great. and not everyone has the same playstyle.

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It does have an addictive quality, maybe it's just me but I feel like they nailed the pace of the run turnaround. There are times where I tell myself it's the last run before I get off and then when it's done I'm like oh well I should at least progress all the dialogue options, and then I'm compelled to level my character up and choose the next load-out, and then I think let's see what the first boon is gonna be because it's right there, and then ten minutes later I'm at the Bone Hydra again telling myself its the last run

does that happen to anyone else
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neonreaper posted...

it's a good game. I think most people have answered your pressing concerns. I think it started a bit slow for me but it kept getting better and better. I want to say I put in 50 hours.

Some of the weapons/boons are bad, some are great. and not everyone has the same playstyle.

i daresay all the weapons are great, because even though i didnt like half the weapons, my buddies all loved and mained those weapons, which speaks a lot to your comment about not everyone having the same playstyle

Some boons are definitely not great though....

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I agree that all the weapons are well done even if I don't enjoy them. Like I get why some of them are OP/fun even if I can't use them well or just don't enjoy them.

I missed the word "combos" because some weapon/boon combos are bad.

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Hades is properly rated as a GotY contender/winner. It's truly hard to find flaws with it.

It's a game where the more you play and dig in, the more layers and nuance you find, which makes it immensely satisfying and addictive. There isn't a single "right" way to play in terms of weapons/boons/tactics. You could say the same thing for Supergiant's previous games (Bastion, Transistor, Pyre) but it's just perfected here.

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Hades to me felt like a game that somehow was the best of both worlds in terms of being a horrifically difficult hard core action game and a story based leisure game with it's heat system.

It somehow nailed both ends of the spectrum. The two best parts of hades to me were beating the story and winning the 32 heat statue

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