Game news One of the best video games of recent years is coming to Netflix “for free”. I finished it 100% and I don’t understand why it was so acclaimed
One of the best games of 2020 arrived this week in the free catalog, at least for subscribers, of Netflix games. The opportunity for me to tell you about it: I recently finished it 100% and I had difficulty understanding why it was praised at the time… But it still made me really made me want to play the sequel.
A little step back in time, at the start of the 2020 school year. The transition between the eighth and ninth generation of consoles becomes official with Sony’s PlayStation Showcase where the latter reveals the release date as well as the price of the PlayStation 5. Despite the moving to more powerful media, excellent titles are being published. It’s the year of the Cyberpunk 2077 scandal but also the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, The Last of Us Part 2 and even Final Fantasy VII Remake. In short, there is no point in being exhaustive as there were so many games that year.
The most desired games on Steam on March 19, 2024.
But there is one that shakes up the established hierarchy of blockbusters. A game from an independent studio, known by fans, which is nominated in eight categories of the Game Awards including that of best game of the year: he will then leave with two trophies, that of the best action game (ahead of a certain Doom Eternal) and that of the best independent game. A title which comes out of early access in September 2020 on Steam and which appeals to the press and public. This game, today considered one of the best of all time if we are to believe the rating aggregator metacritic, is Hades. I wanted to do it to be ready for Hades II. This is a first for Supergiant Games to make a sequel and it is already the most desired title on Steam ahead of Manor Lords and Hollow Knight: Silksong. So I finished it 100%, devoted around sixty hours of play to it, and I don’t understand why it was so praised.
Hades, a pearl of writing in mythical folklore
It must be admitted that Hades commands respect.
Like Supergiant Games’ previous games, Hades is set in folklore linked to Ancient Greece. The player embodies Zagreus, the son of the God of Death and the Underworld Hades. He seeks to escape his father’s kingdom and learns, quite quickly, that his mother exists.. He therefore seeks at all costs to reach the mortal world to meet her. His father, not appreciating this initiative, tries to stop him. Although we quickly understand that he has his reasons for doing so, he quickly establishes himself as an antagonist to Zagreus.
Shrew, the first boss.
To reach the other shore, the prince of Hell must therefore cross four distinct regions: Tartarus, Asphodel, Elysium and a kind of penance where rats and other venomous creatures reign. To cross the many rooms that make up his journey, Zagreus must eliminate each enemy (with the weapon of his choice, six in total) before moving on to the next one. A challenge that proves difficult during the first hours of play: during the first attempt, it is very likely that the player will die.
It is during his first attempts but especially his first deaths that the player gradually understands the particularity of Hades: apart from the fact that it is based on procedural generation, offering different challenges for each escape attempt. , these are the dialogues of each character which evolve whether he is a god of Olympus, a prisoner or a chthonian. Returning to the Underworld upon death may mean going back to square one, but it’s never going back.. A super clever idea for the genre of roguelite, especially since it is (almost, as you can imagine) controlled. The quality of Hades’ writing even earned him a Hugo Award: an award that recognizes the quality of a work of fiction or fantasy. A first for a video game.
The Olympians offer blessings to Zagreus during his escape. This is the only possible time to chat with them.
Certain actions are also unlocked depending on the situation. Once after defeating the final boss, there is a plot twist. The latter requires the player to go back through all of Hell to see new dialogues. There are many characters to chat with and we therefore quickly become attached to all these little people, especially since the dubbing put in place (special mention to the voice of Liam Cunningham for the narrator) is excellent.
Weakness ? Too strong
If I quickly recall Hades’ qualities, it is to better illustrate his weaknesses. In his quality of roguelite, the title from Supergiant Games helps the player after each attempt, even failed ones. During his journey, Zagreus collects currency allowing him to acquire new bonuses. Additional life, several possibilities to resurrect, more gold coins to collect… The prince of Hell quickly surpasses his competitors and it quickly becomes easy to succeed in all his escape attempts. Something feasible thanks to the ultimately fairly linear structure of Hades : we quickly know the bestiary like the back of our hand and the bosses, who change little despite emergency measures, no longer have any secrets to hide from us.
The contract, which makes running away more difficult.
Hades remains easy despite the temperature system: a system which forces you to activate various and varied parameters (new techniques for bosses, more dangerous traps, fewer bonuses, etc.) if you want to continue to amass resources. End-of-game content that fails to force the player to change their routine. For my part, it’s difficult to part with a set-up with Artemis’ ult, Athena’s dismissal momentum, all with an attack and a technique inflicting a status condition. I was able to successfully complete twelve escape attempts in a row and reached temperature 16 on the first try without difficulty.
Be careful not to make me say what I didn’t say: there are many possible combinations of benefits, weapons and temperatures, each one as enjoyable as the next. But the title does not encourage the player to diversify as can Slay the Spire, Binding of Isaac, Rogue Legacy or Dead Cells.
Time is long in hell
Hades, however, remains an excellent hack’n’slash but lacks for its side roguelite. That’s good, it’s mainly for his exceptional writing that he was rewarded. It is possible to form romances with several characters; and some have a background story inspired by facts told and described. You still have to have the patience to see it through to the end!
As already said previously, there is a twist once Zagreus’s first escape attempt is successful. New dialogues open up as well as new gameplay possibilities, encouraging the player to escape the Underworld again. A first ending then arrives after nine additional successful escapes. Here again, the characters always have new things to tell Zagreus. And if the player is unaware that an epilogue is in store for him, he can go to bed with peace of mind by putting Hades in the closet.
But that’s where the nightmare begins. To start the quest for this conclusion, you must wait until the character concerned (we don’t want to spoil it, as a precaution) tells us about it. Something random that can quickly throw games into the void story that the script triggers. Useless playing time since we just want to see what happens next without necessarily getting stuck in the boring loop of escape attempts. There is nothing that allows you to quickly trigger certain dialogues that are fundamental to the continuation of the story.
Something that is observed several times at the end of the game, and especially in the context of the epilogue which asks Zagreus to be very close to six gods of Olympus. The affinity with each person improves as the conversations progress. The final heart, synonymous with a maximum relationship, is sometimes locked behind a condition to be fulfilled. But satisfying this condition does not guarantee maximizing the relationship in the process. As evidenced by the hundred fish that I caught during my hours of play, while it would only take 18 to trigger the sequence with Poseidon. This is frustrating and this is not an isolated case. To know the fate of Patroclus and Achilles despite having done what was necessary, I had to make five escape attempts to finally see the first in the Champs-Élysées.
Hades 2: I don’t want to play it anymore? Quite the contrary
This kind of randomness adds frustration to the player and undermines Supergiant Games’ excellent idea for roguelite. It adds unnecessary playing time (I feel like I put 20 hours too much into the game, really.) to an experience that could be much more dynamic and which would keep the player/spectator much more engaged. A nervousness which would then stick to its controlled hack’n’slash gameplay.
After reading these lines, one may wonder. Was it worth it? Didn’t I today kill my interest in Hades II, scheduled to arrive in early access on Steam at the end of the year? No, quite the contrary. It must be said that if I really hadn’t liked Hades, I would have put down the controller long before investing sixty hours into it. This should not prevent me from questioning its enormous success and highlighting what did not please me. These are precisely what I consider to be flaws that I will monitor closely. This is the first time that Supergiant Games has decided to make an episode 2 of one of its titles. It is therefore with great curiosity that I am going to take an interest in Hades 2, in the princess of the Underworld Mélinoé and her journey to defeat the Titans.