I played from 1 Apr 2026 and did my first clear on 12 Apr 2026 after about 15 hours playtime
Hard for me to write a lot about the game. It's not like some mind blowing game where I need to write a lot to clear my thoughts and understand how I liked it. Rather, the game is just plain good - crisp controls, nice progression system, charming characters and setting. There's a lot of variation in how you can play, feels like I barely scratched the surface by the time I got to my first full clear, which I did with the railgun with the upgrade that lets you absorb your special, and a build focused on Zeus effects that launch chain lightning damage on base attack.
Story-wise, character wise, all was good. The voice acting was nice, I was fairly invested in the plot (it helps that Greek mythology is somehow a core part of Western culture). It's definitely a game where the story is just a wrapper around the solid gameplay, so there's not much I want to say other than that. Shout out to my top 3 characters; Meg, Hypnos and Thanatos - all very fun characters in different ways, with great voice lines. The art was also fantastic, I loved the art style. The character portraits were really cool, but the gameplay graphics were also really neat; I like the way that they have a fixed camera to ensure that the models and lighting look super consistent, giving the feel of a game with hand-painted 2D art despite being all(?) 3D.
One thing I'll say gameplay wise is, I was surprised that I liked the meta progression. Growing up, the original Rogue was one of my favorite computer games, as well as it's spiritual successor Nethack. Neither game has meta progression beyond your expanding knowledge as a player. But the meta progression in Hades was surprisingly nice, definitely some of the mirror bonuses are quite strong (like death defiance), but that just helps ensure that even if you get unlucky on a run and have a bad build, the run wasn't a total waste of time, as the resources gained from that run will help you out on the next one. Not every roguelike needs a meta progression system, of course, but I think Hades made it work well. The post-game progression with the "heat" system also seems intriguing, though I haven't really touched it yet.
I'll definitely come back to this game over time, it feels well-suited for being a palate cleanser between other games. Also looking forward to Hades 2.