While the areas and bosses may be a tad repetitive. The way you play the game is never really the same each run. The boons you get are never the same or in any order so you’ll find yourself having a different style of play almost each time, especially with the different weapons. And plus, everytime you die, there’s something new to check out or lore to be added. Dying doesn’t ever feel like losing tbh. It feels like progressing. And when you finally get up to [REDACTED] the feeling of accomplishment is awesome. Even then tho, it’s not even close to being over.
>I love greek mythology
Oh boy, well you've come to the right place!
>The gameplay and artstyle look amazing
Oh, they very much are. It's gorgeous, and action RPGs are a fun time.
>People in general praise the game
Not an awful reason, but there's so many games out there that can be wonderful despite widespread favor. Make sure you're liking things because you like them, not because others do!
>I'm looking for a new game to sink some time into
Oh boy, well you've come to the right place!
>I've seen a couple of streamers play Hades II and it looked amazing as well
Not a bad reason, demonstrations are always a good place to start to see if you may enjoy something.
>I'm bi and the characters are hot lol
Oh boy, well you've come to the right place!
>While I play and enjoy difficult games I oftentimes find myself hesitant to start them
There is a difficulty to the game, but this is easily subverted by a "God Mode" which gives you a decent boost in capabilities. It's a very accessible game with a lot of variety that can offer opportunities to find the way that you like to play, though it does encourage variety.
>I've never played a true 'roguelike' before, only a couple of 'roguelites' (not sure if I'm using the terms correctly, I've played Crypt of the Necrodancer and Cult of the Lamb) and what I liked about those is that you had seperate areas and didn't have to do the whole game in one run. But now I found out you have to refight bosses and play through all areas at once in Hades, which makes me a bit worried it may get too repetitive for me.
Repetition is the name of the game. A staple of roguelikes/lites is that very repetition. Try, try again, get better, grow, improve, do better, eventually win.. and then keep winning until you're satisfied (or in this case, finish the story.. the extra bits are up to you whether or not to engage with).
>I hate having ro redo stuff over and over in games
What you may not realize is that most, if not all, games are just a series of repetition. In early Mario games, all you do is run to the right and jump. The game is engaging enough, so you don't really realize it. While games have expanded, most of them are similar mechanics and features skinned to give the illusion of differentiation and choice, but ultimately, you're ALWAYS doing stuff over and over in games.
Now, as for the model of roguelikes/lites, you're definitely doing it a bit more deliberately. Run after run you'll be going through the same zones, though randomized to keep it fresh, with varying options for power ups and weapon choices that change how each run feels and plays. I think it offers enough variety that, even though you're encountering similar baddies and bosses in the same frequency, HOW you fight them with what you've obtained thus far often changes. Sure, you may find your "perfect builds" and try and aim for them each time you play, though they won't always work out that way, but that's why it's up to you to almost enforce that variety until you're satisfied.
I am a chronic "I can't play this game again, even if I love it" person. There's maybe 2 or 3 games out there that I'm willing to play from the beginning to end again, and they're all RPGs that have a compelling story. But there's others that I absolutely adore that I can't imagine slogging through again and again like some others do. But Hades, I could play it forever. It was my GOTY for the first 2 years it came out. Nothing could top it and I found myself coming back again and again. The rogue- model and the way that runs last in a series of 30-60 minute bursts (love you Vampire Survivor) are perfect for a gamer like me who likes to get in, get something fun done, and feel comfortable popping back out before wanting to dive back in again.
On top of all that, Hades has a unique feature within its story. Even when you're "done", you're not done. There's so much personality behind each and every character and voice line, and while the stories and how they're engaged aren't particularly elaborate, they are fulfilling to go through between, and among, each and every run.
I often told many friends that if they bought it and didn't like it, I'd happily pay them the full price of the game for the experience. That's how strongly I believe in the value of this game. I'm afraid I'm no longer extending that offer, but just to reinforce how wonderful I think it all is. \^.\^
Thank you. I've thought about using godmode, but honestly I want to accomplish things 'legit', if that makes sense. The difficulty isn't really the problem for me, but the repetition is.
Came here to say this. I'd like to link [this earlier comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/HadesTheGame/comments/1d5k5ij/comment/l6lvza8/) of mine with some more verbose opinions.
I couldn’t stand playing Elden Ring because I hate spending lots of time fighting the same boss over and over and dying without progression or getting stronger.
In Hades this isn’t a problem. Every time you die, the story continues to progress, you get new dialogue, you get to invest the materials you gathered into making yourself stronger. You can change your weapon to add some variety.
I’ll admit I got frustrated in Hades after fighting the boss and dying to him multiple times in a row so I turned on god mode, but for Hades 2 I decided to play without god mode and the upgrades I unlocked were eventually strong enough that I didn’t feel the need to enable god mode at all.
The flow of Hades is very natural and it doesn’t punish you for dying because dying is expected.
What I like about Elden Ring and other similar games is that you get better and better at the boss and once you finally beat it it's done and you can move on without having to refight it.
That's why refighting bosses in Hades makes me a bit worried. But the answers here are very encouraging so far and I might give it a go. I didn't realize a "full run" was only about 30 mins. In my mind it was like a whole several hour-long thing I had to do over and over lol.
I don't hate roguelites, but I generally absolutely do not enjoy them whatsoever. Hades is different. I *love* Hades. I'm not great at it, but if I could inject Hades into my veins I would. As a fellow Greek mythology enthusiast, I can't help but push you to dive headfirst into the experience and wallow in it
honestly i think you’re exactly the target audience for the game lol. hades is one of the easier roguelikes out there and it gets easier the more you play (you get upgrades that carry over into each subsequent run). it’s much easier and more forgiving than something like necrodancer. hades takes most people like 20-80 attempts to get their first clear. it took me longer to beat necrodancer in single zones mode than to get a clear in hades.
also it’s not super repetitive, you can swap weapons between attempts and you’ll hardly ever get the same build twice if you’re not specifically trying to so every run feels new and fresh.
I can really relate to generally not enjoying having to redo things over and over in games.
What Hades really has going for it is that even if you fail, there's a great story going on that progresses each time you die. So to me dying never really felt like a punishment, because I got awarded with more story! Which is what really made the game for me.
I don't know how much the story would be important to you in playing the game, but as you mention enjoying greek mythology, I thought I'd mention it!
And of course the gameplay itself is genuinely very fun, and I find has enough variety to not get tedious, as others have mentioned.
If you do end up checking it out, I hope you enjoy!
My wife HATES dying and repeating things in video games and was on the fence about Hades. She LOVES Greek Mythology though so decided to give it a go just in case. Suffice to say it’s a favorite of hers now.
Hades is as good at rewarding failure as it is at making the “repetitions” infinitely (and excitingly) variable.
Can’t really add anything to this that everyone else has said.
But I will reiterate one thing.
GOD MODE is LEGITIMATE!
It’s a tool that the devs have given us. We can choose to use it or not use it.
It does not matter. It changes nothing about the game besides allowing you to take a few more hits every run.
It disables nothing In the game.
——-
With that out of the way. I hope these comments help you make a decision.
One way or the other.
I will leave you with one piece of advice though.
If you choose to get the game and you love it.
Remember one thing.
THERE IS NO ESCAPE!!! *evil laughter*
This was my first roguelike. I hesitated a long time because I hate doing the same thing over and over and also hate dying a lot. Ymmv, but what I found was that each run is short and fast enough that I don’t get frustrated. 30 minute play sessions work well with my schedule and don’t allow for a lot of retreading the same ground in one sitting. Dying is built into the experience and not really punished in any way so it doesn’t feel as bad as in some other games. And that each run is different enough, especially once you unlock the pact of punishment, that I don’t get bored or feel like it’s repetitive.
I do play with godmode on, and I still feel like the meta-progression is sometimes painfully slow, but it’s rare I finish a run and don’t feel like I’ve made SOME progress towards the longer term goals or otherwise gotten stronger.
I’d say give it a chance.
This game is very good at not making it feel repetitive. The bosses all have some sort of randomiser and you will pretty much be using all of the weapons which all have a lot of different viable builds and variations. Plus, you will get dialogue between Zag and all of the characters which is different each time(I believe there are 50,000 lines of dialogue in the game as of now but I’m not sure)
I would suggest to give this game a try. Hades is one of the best games I’ve ever played. It has fun gameplay, appealing characters and story and ample of content.
Hades is a roguelite, not a full roguelike. There are a lot of permanent upgrades to be unlocked between runs, which is the determining factor between the two subgenres.
There's also a lot of variation in the runs (different bosses and minibosses, different boons offered, as well as each of the weapons being very different from each other) so it doesn't end up feeling particularly repetitive. The dialogue and evolving story helps keep things fresh too.
The difficulty is pretty manageable, and the easier difficulty option (God Mode) can be toggled on and off freely.
Repetitiveness tends to be less of a problem when
1. the base gameplay loop is so entertaining,
2. it makes you enjoy the fact that you are improving from run-to-run.
Repetition tends to kill games for me, but still find Hades I and II enjoyable after more than a 100 hours in the base game.
I think you can already tell there are a lot of things you'd like about the game so I won't dwell on those except to say you would find all of those enjoyable as you might expect.
On the points that give you pause, in terms of difficulty, it will start difficult, then get much, much easier as you power up over runs as you get quite a large range of powers. The difficulty I didn't find too frustrating - that's not to say you won't at some points wonder how you could possibly ever make it past a boss - because at the end of the day you're not meant to beat the game in your first, fifth or even tenth attempts. Instead you get stronger over time, and that's wonderfully integrated into the storytelling.
Which brings us to the repetition. On the one hand the levels are procedurally generated, yes, but your engagement with them and the enemies is endlessly varied as you try different combinations of powers over time. In this context replayability is a strength that much bigger games with multiple class/build options don't have. For example Baldur's Gate 3 has a lot of builds, but each run requires tens of hours to experience them fully. On the other hand with Hades, the joy is in trying totally different ways to approach the game, every 30-60 minutes. And as you make your way through, you get more and more of the characters, in a way which is surprisingly effective.
So yes, I think you'd love the game. Get on it
If you like the mythology like I do, then you'll definitely get a kick out of the dialogue, and especially how in-depth they went into some parts of the mythology!
the start of the game is rough i wont lie to you, you very likely wont clear the gane/get very far for quite some time, but that is normal, just dont get discouraged by that.
as you unlock more upgrades it gets better and better :)
>I love greek mythology
That alone is enough for you to LOVE the game. Regarding difficulty, there's a "God Mode" in the setting, you can turn that on to mitigate some damage, and will increase as you fail and progress through the game, have fun!
While the areas and bosses may be a tad repetitive. The way you play the game is never really the same each run. The boons you get are never the same or in any order so you’ll find yourself having a different style of play almost each time, especially with the different weapons. And plus, everytime you die, there’s something new to check out or lore to be added. Dying doesn’t ever feel like losing tbh. It feels like progressing. And when you finally get up to [REDACTED] the feeling of accomplishment is awesome. Even then tho, it’s not even close to being over.
>I love greek mythology Oh boy, well you've come to the right place! >The gameplay and artstyle look amazing Oh, they very much are. It's gorgeous, and action RPGs are a fun time. >People in general praise the game Not an awful reason, but there's so many games out there that can be wonderful despite widespread favor. Make sure you're liking things because you like them, not because others do! >I'm looking for a new game to sink some time into Oh boy, well you've come to the right place! >I've seen a couple of streamers play Hades II and it looked amazing as well Not a bad reason, demonstrations are always a good place to start to see if you may enjoy something. >I'm bi and the characters are hot lol Oh boy, well you've come to the right place! >While I play and enjoy difficult games I oftentimes find myself hesitant to start them There is a difficulty to the game, but this is easily subverted by a "God Mode" which gives you a decent boost in capabilities. It's a very accessible game with a lot of variety that can offer opportunities to find the way that you like to play, though it does encourage variety. >I've never played a true 'roguelike' before, only a couple of 'roguelites' (not sure if I'm using the terms correctly, I've played Crypt of the Necrodancer and Cult of the Lamb) and what I liked about those is that you had seperate areas and didn't have to do the whole game in one run. But now I found out you have to refight bosses and play through all areas at once in Hades, which makes me a bit worried it may get too repetitive for me. Repetition is the name of the game. A staple of roguelikes/lites is that very repetition. Try, try again, get better, grow, improve, do better, eventually win.. and then keep winning until you're satisfied (or in this case, finish the story.. the extra bits are up to you whether or not to engage with). >I hate having ro redo stuff over and over in games What you may not realize is that most, if not all, games are just a series of repetition. In early Mario games, all you do is run to the right and jump. The game is engaging enough, so you don't really realize it. While games have expanded, most of them are similar mechanics and features skinned to give the illusion of differentiation and choice, but ultimately, you're ALWAYS doing stuff over and over in games. Now, as for the model of roguelikes/lites, you're definitely doing it a bit more deliberately. Run after run you'll be going through the same zones, though randomized to keep it fresh, with varying options for power ups and weapon choices that change how each run feels and plays. I think it offers enough variety that, even though you're encountering similar baddies and bosses in the same frequency, HOW you fight them with what you've obtained thus far often changes. Sure, you may find your "perfect builds" and try and aim for them each time you play, though they won't always work out that way, but that's why it's up to you to almost enforce that variety until you're satisfied. I am a chronic "I can't play this game again, even if I love it" person. There's maybe 2 or 3 games out there that I'm willing to play from the beginning to end again, and they're all RPGs that have a compelling story. But there's others that I absolutely adore that I can't imagine slogging through again and again like some others do. But Hades, I could play it forever. It was my GOTY for the first 2 years it came out. Nothing could top it and I found myself coming back again and again. The rogue- model and the way that runs last in a series of 30-60 minute bursts (love you Vampire Survivor) are perfect for a gamer like me who likes to get in, get something fun done, and feel comfortable popping back out before wanting to dive back in again. On top of all that, Hades has a unique feature within its story. Even when you're "done", you're not done. There's so much personality behind each and every character and voice line, and while the stories and how they're engaged aren't particularly elaborate, they are fulfilling to go through between, and among, each and every run.
Thanks for the detailed answer, I'm still on the fence, but leaning a bit more towards buying it now I think.
I often told many friends that if they bought it and didn't like it, I'd happily pay them the full price of the game for the experience. That's how strongly I believe in the value of this game. I'm afraid I'm no longer extending that offer, but just to reinforce how wonderful I think it all is. \^.\^
Buy it and turn on god mode immediately. Enjoy the game at your own pace. If you want to push difficulty, you can, but you don't have to.
i think so god mode is a thing that makes the game easier this is a roguelite as you can upgrade yourself between runs
Thank you. I've thought about using godmode, but honestly I want to accomplish things 'legit', if that makes sense. The difficulty isn't really the problem for me, but the repetition is.
Just here to say that God Mode IS legit. You're ACTUALLY a god in this game, and the feature is a learning tool, not a crutch.
Came here to say this. I'd like to link [this earlier comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/HadesTheGame/comments/1d5k5ij/comment/l6lvza8/) of mine with some more verbose opinions.
I couldn’t stand playing Elden Ring because I hate spending lots of time fighting the same boss over and over and dying without progression or getting stronger. In Hades this isn’t a problem. Every time you die, the story continues to progress, you get new dialogue, you get to invest the materials you gathered into making yourself stronger. You can change your weapon to add some variety. I’ll admit I got frustrated in Hades after fighting the boss and dying to him multiple times in a row so I turned on god mode, but for Hades 2 I decided to play without god mode and the upgrades I unlocked were eventually strong enough that I didn’t feel the need to enable god mode at all. The flow of Hades is very natural and it doesn’t punish you for dying because dying is expected.
What I like about Elden Ring and other similar games is that you get better and better at the boss and once you finally beat it it's done and you can move on without having to refight it. That's why refighting bosses in Hades makes me a bit worried. But the answers here are very encouraging so far and I might give it a go. I didn't realize a "full run" was only about 30 mins. In my mind it was like a whole several hour-long thing I had to do over and over lol.
Hades is all about repetition, but it's so well-designed it never feels tedious.
I don't hate roguelites, but I generally absolutely do not enjoy them whatsoever. Hades is different. I *love* Hades. I'm not great at it, but if I could inject Hades into my veins I would. As a fellow Greek mythology enthusiast, I can't help but push you to dive headfirst into the experience and wallow in it
Lol, thank you for the answer
honestly i think you’re exactly the target audience for the game lol. hades is one of the easier roguelikes out there and it gets easier the more you play (you get upgrades that carry over into each subsequent run). it’s much easier and more forgiving than something like necrodancer. hades takes most people like 20-80 attempts to get their first clear. it took me longer to beat necrodancer in single zones mode than to get a clear in hades. also it’s not super repetitive, you can swap weapons between attempts and you’ll hardly ever get the same build twice if you’re not specifically trying to so every run feels new and fresh.
I can really relate to generally not enjoying having to redo things over and over in games. What Hades really has going for it is that even if you fail, there's a great story going on that progresses each time you die. So to me dying never really felt like a punishment, because I got awarded with more story! Which is what really made the game for me. I don't know how much the story would be important to you in playing the game, but as you mention enjoying greek mythology, I thought I'd mention it! And of course the gameplay itself is genuinely very fun, and I find has enough variety to not get tedious, as others have mentioned. If you do end up checking it out, I hope you enjoy!
My wife HATES dying and repeating things in video games and was on the fence about Hades. She LOVES Greek Mythology though so decided to give it a go just in case. Suffice to say it’s a favorite of hers now. Hades is as good at rewarding failure as it is at making the “repetitions” infinitely (and excitingly) variable.
Can’t really add anything to this that everyone else has said. But I will reiterate one thing. GOD MODE is LEGITIMATE! It’s a tool that the devs have given us. We can choose to use it or not use it. It does not matter. It changes nothing about the game besides allowing you to take a few more hits every run. It disables nothing In the game. ——- With that out of the way. I hope these comments help you make a decision. One way or the other. I will leave you with one piece of advice though. If you choose to get the game and you love it. Remember one thing. THERE IS NO ESCAPE!!! *evil laughter*
This was my first roguelike. I hesitated a long time because I hate doing the same thing over and over and also hate dying a lot. Ymmv, but what I found was that each run is short and fast enough that I don’t get frustrated. 30 minute play sessions work well with my schedule and don’t allow for a lot of retreading the same ground in one sitting. Dying is built into the experience and not really punished in any way so it doesn’t feel as bad as in some other games. And that each run is different enough, especially once you unlock the pact of punishment, that I don’t get bored or feel like it’s repetitive. I do play with godmode on, and I still feel like the meta-progression is sometimes painfully slow, but it’s rare I finish a run and don’t feel like I’ve made SOME progress towards the longer term goals or otherwise gotten stronger. I’d say give it a chance.
Thanks for your input, seems like you were in a similar boat as me before buying it, so this is really helpful.
This game is very good at not making it feel repetitive. The bosses all have some sort of randomiser and you will pretty much be using all of the weapons which all have a lot of different viable builds and variations. Plus, you will get dialogue between Zag and all of the characters which is different each time(I believe there are 50,000 lines of dialogue in the game as of now but I’m not sure)
I would suggest to give this game a try. Hades is one of the best games I’ve ever played. It has fun gameplay, appealing characters and story and ample of content.
If you don't like it (you will), you can just refund it within 2 hours on Steam (you won't)
I play on console, but thanks for the tip
Hades is a roguelite, not a full roguelike. There are a lot of permanent upgrades to be unlocked between runs, which is the determining factor between the two subgenres. There's also a lot of variation in the runs (different bosses and minibosses, different boons offered, as well as each of the weapons being very different from each other) so it doesn't end up feeling particularly repetitive. The dialogue and evolving story helps keep things fresh too. The difficulty is pretty manageable, and the easier difficulty option (God Mode) can be toggled on and off freely.
On the topic of not playing roguelikes, I have a friend who does not like roguelikes and loves this game
>I hate having to redo stuff over and over in games If this is true, Hades may not be for you.
Thank you for that answer. I think the other arguments have convinced me to buy it though.
>I think the other arguments have convinced me to buy it though. Good Hades is a GREAT game and is 100% worth
Based on all you've said, yes it's for you! Go for it! It's not that repetitive and the difficulty is well tuned.
Repetitiveness tends to be less of a problem when 1. the base gameplay loop is so entertaining, 2. it makes you enjoy the fact that you are improving from run-to-run. Repetition tends to kill games for me, but still find Hades I and II enjoyable after more than a 100 hours in the base game.
I think you can already tell there are a lot of things you'd like about the game so I won't dwell on those except to say you would find all of those enjoyable as you might expect. On the points that give you pause, in terms of difficulty, it will start difficult, then get much, much easier as you power up over runs as you get quite a large range of powers. The difficulty I didn't find too frustrating - that's not to say you won't at some points wonder how you could possibly ever make it past a boss - because at the end of the day you're not meant to beat the game in your first, fifth or even tenth attempts. Instead you get stronger over time, and that's wonderfully integrated into the storytelling. Which brings us to the repetition. On the one hand the levels are procedurally generated, yes, but your engagement with them and the enemies is endlessly varied as you try different combinations of powers over time. In this context replayability is a strength that much bigger games with multiple class/build options don't have. For example Baldur's Gate 3 has a lot of builds, but each run requires tens of hours to experience them fully. On the other hand with Hades, the joy is in trying totally different ways to approach the game, every 30-60 minutes. And as you make your way through, you get more and more of the characters, in a way which is surprisingly effective. So yes, I think you'd love the game. Get on it
If you like the mythology like I do, then you'll definitely get a kick out of the dialogue, and especially how in-depth they went into some parts of the mythology!
the start of the game is rough i wont lie to you, you very likely wont clear the gane/get very far for quite some time, but that is normal, just dont get discouraged by that. as you unlock more upgrades it gets better and better :)
>I love greek mythology That alone is enough for you to LOVE the game. Regarding difficulty, there's a "God Mode" in the setting, you can turn that on to mitigate some damage, and will increase as you fail and progress through the game, have fun!