hades is basically a game about what to do when the only option is failure
2 Likes
I played Hades repeatedly during early access, and I’m pretty amazed at how much that final layer of polish adds to the game. The core gameplay loop feels almost exactly the same, but actually having an “ending” after the final boss and the sense of a progressing story has moved it from “play once every few months” to “play every few nights”. I feel like a chump that such a tiny amount of story could make such a difference to me, but here I am.
4 Likes
why did you talk me into buying this, it’s not any better than it was in early access
absolutely bog standard top down roguelike, the runs are like slay the spire too long
3 Likes
i gotta say, and i know i’m gonna get flack from the “real gamers”, but i really appreciate the God Mode toggle and how, instead of just making things way easier by changing enemy AI or overpowering weapons, they just make you more resistant to damage, just a tiny bit with each death, that somewhat makes the slog back through from the start less intimidating, in a game that already makes roguelike death feel more welcome than other games of its ilk. and i can just turn it back off when i get to a new area.
1 Like
…slay the spire is considered long now? wha
2 Likes
Yeah the runs aren’t too long I find! Post-game stats tell me that they last 35 minutes on average (25 with the sword)
Most standard roguelites feel like they take 45-50 minutes (Risk of rain, Slay the spire, Isaac) Gungeon and FTL are extremely long unbearable kill me 1+ hour
Nuclear Throne and Spelunky are short but so lethal they’re almost in a different category alltogether
3 Likes
everyone has fallen for how charming the dialogue is in this game to not see that it is basically a bog-standard roguelite about moving home with mom and dad and deciding to stay forever. this sucks. awful shit.
3 Likes
i have soured on it like milk past the expiration date
Wow getting a game on switch really does change things considering I’ve been staring at this on the frontpage of Epic for a year.
Everyone’s praise makes me want to look at it but I really really did not like the chicken broth combat of Bastion and the narrator had me yelling “Yeah I get it NERDS.”
5 Likes
I really don’t think this is a game for you if you didn’t enjoy Bastion combat; for all the talk about the meta story progression, 95% of the game is fighting and decision making
The game has become too easy for me, I haven’t lost once in 15 runs and feel vastly overpowered with my two best weapons (bow and shield) Difficulty modifiers exist but don’t ramp up challenge fast enough at the rate the game wants you to keep. I could not give a care and stack them anyway but that’d hurt the meta-progression!!
I feel that this might be an unfortunate side effect of the meta-progression; losing is more frustrating than in a normal roguelike so the game makes you win a lot more. Too much.
I have seen a proper ending but there are still whole systems I haven’t uncovered (I dont know what’s below keepsakes, I haven’t found a use for ambrosia, I haven’t tried that new thing in Hades’ room, I only now just unlocked one weapon’s fourth form) If I’m being honest now I’m maybe playing 50% for the roguelike elements, cool combat etc and 50% for the skinner box.
I’m still having a lot of fun, probably top 3 roguelike material below w/ Nuclear Throne and Slay the spire IMO
3 Likes
I didn’t like this game in early access, but I’m coming around on it a little thanks to the ranged weapons. Feels like a rich man’s Diablo.
2 Likes
I’ve completed everything important in this game besides finishing some s-links
Here is a summary of all my runs:
- I lost 18 times
- I then won once, barely
- I lost 2 times again
- I won 49 times in a row and got the last epilogue
Yes this is the easiest roguelike. In every run I either got lucky with the RNG and joyfully trounced down everything, or got unlucky, had to pay more attention but still won anyway. The difficulty didn’t ramp up fast enough in the post game to compensate for all the game knowledge I was accumulating.
But maybe it’s not so bad. I had a good time whether I got lucky or unlucky. And I got all that dopamine!
The game had some good ideas for roguelike meta-progression, even ignoring the permanent rewards. Specificallly: 1) having the NPCs in your pre-run hub have a LOT of lines 2) slowly accumulating resources that you can then spend on cosmetic items for your hub 3) rarely getting nectars that you can then offer to your friends in the hub to raise their little s-link.
It makes losing a run a little less annoying; after dying I was always immediately looking forward to whatever was going to happen at the hub
5 Likes
i’m starting to think i’m really bad at this game. i’m at like 37 runs and haven’t beaten Hades
i think distributing gifts evenly because i liked the characters instead of just putting them into one track and trying my best probably wasn’t the most efficent option, huh
Hey I managed to finish a run without getting good. My pro strat, if anyone’s interested:
- Pick the gun (for the special).
- Choose the Hazard Bomb upgrade when you find a hammer to triple the damage of the special and increase its blast radius.
- Get Athena’s dash boon to deflect shots, if you can. Hermes’ additional dashes are also good.
Now just dash around and fire the bomb in a spot where you think enemies will be. No one tries to avoid it – even bosses will run into it, though you have to lead your shots. Sometimes you have to shoot the gun too.
You can also abuse the regular strafing special of the bow by firing it at point blank range, but that’s riskier.
regularly getting to elysium but eating shit due to butterfly spawners because of autoaim making it impossible to directly aim at the butterfly swarm. i turn it off for these fights but then it’s difficult to hit enemies consistently
should mention I’m playing on joycons which are not ideal but i hate the procon
1 Like
favorite moveset so far is the spear.
- stack lv3 doom on autoattack
- 3-way attack
- chain lightning special
- athena dash for deflect
- ???
- die in elysium
The real determiner for whether I made a successful run or not usually came down to “Did I get extra dashes from Hermes?” Constant dashing the moment there’s even a whiff of danger, always pick off the edges of the pack, etc.
I wish they spent half as much time writing and recording endless filler dialogue variety and twice as much time on actual game variety.
The runs aren’t egregiously long, but they feel way longer than similar roguelikes. The chambers tend to blend together even during a single run, each level feels 1.5x too long. It feels like a slog (especially Asphodel, which has no interesting challenges and carries very little danger except maybe the Witches Circle miniboss depending on your loadout).
This may be personal preference, but one major highlight of modern roguelikes is experiencing new things even after hours of play - whether with rare encounters, rare powerups, secret stages, or being forced into a loadout you never tried before. There isn’t much change in Hades runs after you’ve seen all the levels a few times and gained enough skills to get pretty close to the loadout you prefer. There’s a hint of variety with the first level’s boss, which changes up as you get more experience, but that’s not replicated elsewhere unfortunately.
8 Likes
Touched on this in the main games thread a little. I returned this after finding out I couldn’t see certain things well due to the coloring.
I’ve had issues in games before but never turned on a color blind mode or anything like that. It’s weird that not even commentators I know have more serious color issues (Russ Frushtick in particular) even mention this. It’s like they accidentally pinpointed the exact tones I have the most trouble with. Kind of handy to have such a well known example to refer to when it comes up in conversation I guess.
Found out that Radeon software does not have an easy to find hue shift. It might have helped. Also, found a dark grunge band from NJ called Hades that did a song called Colorblind in 1995. Not a good song but an interesting find. That was as far as I was willing to go.
I had fun with Bastion despite finding the story telling a bit grating towards the end. It was super breezy after some initial challenge and that’s kind of what I wanted from an action game. Seemed to me like the dev got really wrapped up in innovation I wasn’t interested in for the subsequent games and thought this might be a return to form. Not sure if this game would grab me though even with a more personally readable palette.
4 Likes