Hades might just be the best roguelike game ever made. It all comes down to personal taste in the end, sure, with Dead Cells and Enter The Gungeon also on my roguelike rotation, but Hades will always take the cake. So with the Hades 2 release date looming, now’s the time to pounce on this Steam sale and bag the grueling Greek dungeon crawler if you haven’t already, or if you just want to play it on your Steam Deck.
Our Hades review gave Supergiant’s epic tale a 9 out of 10 score back in 2020, and it even ended up as the best user-reviewed game on the platform that year. With double the number of user reviews at 215,000 as of publication, Hades is still standing tall with 98% of players finding it an overall positive experience.
Hades casts you in the role of Zagreus, one of the titular gods of the underworld who plans to escape the ancient Greek version of hell in the hopes of freedom. Aided by many gods from the pantheon of deities, each run-through of the underworld is randomized, as you find different godly boons, buffs, enemies, and mythological characters that all offer you some sort of respite or help on your journey.
I won’t say anything else about the narrative of Hades here, other than it winds up being an incredibly well-told and personal tale that twists Greek myth in a way that doesn’t just befit its own scope and design, but gives a whole new perspective on the figures many of us already know.
Oh, and Darren Korb’s soundtrack is absolutely brimming with what I can only describe, affectionately, as absolute bangers from top to bottom.
Hades isn’t a game that relies on you being a roguelike fan either. Of course, it’s a roguelike through and through still, with a slow power creep accompanied by an increase in your own skills and optional difficulty enhancers, but the characters, narrative, and core gameplay are what make it truly appealing.
It’s also taken three years for someone to manage the ‘impossible’ Hades run, so you’ll be chipping away at the game for a while.
You can nab Hades on Steam at 50% off until Monday, September 18, so you’ll be expecting to pay $12.49 / £10.49. Just prepare to play it everywhere you go, all the time, because Hades is not an experience you’ll want to put down. For good reason.
If Hades isn’t enough we’ve also got the best indie games available right now as well as the absolute cream of the crop in terms of the best PC games ever made too.
