We defy the god of the dead as we hack and slash our way out of the Underworld of Greek myth.
I’m going to start off by saying a massive thank you to Private Division for providing me with a key for Hades for Xbox One.
Now if you are a Nintendo Switch player like me, you probably saw this game hitting up the charts, promotions, reviews etc. In all honesty I would always scroll by this game and never really took a second look. But then I see that it is a smashing hit and is also coming to PlayStation and Xbox, so I thought there has to be something more to this game so let’s check it out. I am seriously glad I reached out because this has to be one of my favourite games of the year.
Tartarus
This will be the first level you’ll play straight from the start. You’ll notice the style of this level is dark, tomb kind of feeling to it. This will probably be the level you will be most familiar with when it comes to your progression since most of your early failed attempts of escape will normally end here whether its one of the rooms to a mini-boss to the main boss. Speaking of boss, when you get all the way you’ll be greeted by a blue lady called Megaera whose sole purpose of being there is to stop you as ordered by your father Hades. The conversations that you have between each other have a really healthy balance of serious and quippy that it knows how to make me giggle, especially with Zagreus just having the same kind of attitude as I have sometimes, plus the voice acting works to perfection. Once the battle commences you’ve got the kickass music in the background keeping you motivated to stay alive, which is really hard during your first attempts since you’ve got very little health or maybe less from damage you’ve taken by the time you get to her. She has 4 main attacks, she does her dash attack, her hovering slice attack where she slices in a radius, her mortar attack where she spins in one place dropping projectiles onto you shown by a pink circle, so if you are in one of 3 circles you then take damage or her other attack where she swings her wing and fires a massive amount of small projectiles at you, which are quite a challenge to avoid unless you’ve got the right tools.
Asphodel
The moment you enter Asphodel you’ll notice the difference in climate and environment as it is now all lava and rivers of death represented by all the arms coming out of the flames. Along with the new surroundings you then have new enemies, minibosses and a final boss. The final boss for this area is not one you can have a back-to-back conversation with since it’s a Bone Hydra. Basically, a snake with a massive head and either fires sliced waves at you or fire ball projectiles from its mouth. When you take a third of its health off it becomes invulnerable and 3 smaller Hydras come from the lava around you to attack you, each with a layer of armour, once they are defeated you go back to hitting the main Hydra again, another third of health gone, invulnerable he goes and then about 6 smaller Hydras come back, each with a layer of armour again just attacking you from all sides, its insane and then you can go back to attacking the main Hydra once all the smaller ones are defeated. Then the final third of health is just to the death, no more mini-Hydras or invulnerable moments so you literally just go insane on what remains.
In all honesty I think this level is my least favourite because of how difficult it is (as pathetic as that sounds) but I promise you out of the 4 levels, this one takes the cake for the greatest number of times I’ve failed my escape attempts. It is mainly the normal enemies, any enemy with 2 legs you defeat then turns into this little floating eggplant thingy that if you don’t kill straight away will regenerate back into the normal foe and when there are lots of them, it can be really overwhelming. But what is the hardest part of this level? It’s the boss, or should I say bosses? Yes. There are 2 bosses this time. At the same time so be prepared to fight Theseus and Asterius where you’ve got Theseus with his blocking techniques as he throws his spear at you all at the same time you are dodging Asterius’s charge attacks and swinging axe.
Temple of Styx
This is where the tides turn a bit, rather than it be a linear range of encounters like before you are greeted with your pet Cerberus ahead of you who blocks your path. You prepare to have your heart broken by thinking you are going to fight but then its all ok, you’d never hurt the good boy. Instead you bribe your way past by acquiring what’s known as a satyr sack, no idea what that is but I’m sure it is a tasty dog treat. Its not as simple as just grabbing it though. There are a range of doors you can choose to go through, there is no clue as to which is the right way so you really have to wing it. You can either be really lucky and have the first one be the one or really unlucky and the very last door you choose have the sack. However by taking the others as well you still get the bonus at the end whether it be coin, gems, a boon, health expansion or an upgrade to a current boon. Once you complete these you bribe your way past the good boy Cerberus as you go outside, to the surface. Its cold and snowing outside to be greeted by your father Hades waiting there for you to bring your escape attempt to an abrupt halt. I’ll leave it there and leave the rest to your imagination.
Gods Aid
Going through these escape attempts alone will always prove difficult, which is why one of the main mechanics is to grab boons from the numerous gods willing to aid you in your escape. You’ve got 9 gods, you’ve got Zeus (God of Thunder), Poseidon (God of the Sea), Athena (God of Wisdom), Aphrodite (God of Love), Artemis (God of Hunting), Ares (God of War), Dionysus (God of Wine), Hermes (God of Swiftness) and Demeter (God of Seasons). I’m not going to go into all of their boons and abilities as we’d be here forever but each of these gods spawn differently, each run is never the same so you need to make sure you take the best of what you are offered, my preferred style is with Zeus for my attack, Athena for my special and Demeter for my cast and Artemis for my call ability.
Verdict
I am honestly in love with this game, the fact I’ve put hours and hours into this game and I am STILL yet to complete the main quest, it seems like something new happens every run and its incredible, so many runs that the Hydra is now known as Lernie. Even its official title above his health changes from Hydra to Lernie and it honestly made my day. There are so many aspects of this game that evolve as you progress and I’m not going to spoil everything but there will be different moves to the boss’s and sometimes it could be someone other than Meg waiting to attempt to stop you.
In fact there is lots in this review that I haven’t covered such as all the characters, the different weapons you have access to, the keepsakes to give you a little edge for each run and so much more, I don’t like to spoil everything but I was given this game for free and I have actually bought it on PC and on my Switch as well, especially with it running at 60fps on Switch, which is a really big deal on that console. Please go out and buy this amazing game, give all the support you can, please just appreciate that this is a game that was released complete and the support it receives. Definitely a contender for game of the year in my view.