Hades: The Roguelike That Made Dying the Point
Six years after its 2020 release (and with its sequel now out in the world), Supergiant's Hades remains the game we hand to people who "don't like roguelikes." That's because it solved the genre's oldest problem — the feeling that dying wastes your time — so completely that half the industry has been borrowing the solution since.
What it is
You are Zagreus, son of Hades, fighting out of the underworld one room at a time. Runs last about half an hour; death sends you back to the house of Hades, where the story continues. Boons from the Olympian gods remix your moveset every attempt, six weapons change how you fight entirely, and a web of permanent upgrades makes every run — even the failed ones — count for something.
Why it holds up
The stroke of genius is structural: the narrative is delivered through repetition rather than despite it. Every death unlocks new dialogue; characters remember your last run, comment on how you died, and develop across dozens of attempts. Progress and story become the same thing, which means the game's difficulty never feels like a wall — it feels like the plot.
The combat is still immaculate. Dashing, attack-canceling, and boon synergies produce that rare state where your hands are ahead of your thoughts, and the difference between a level-one run and a high-heat run is entirely in you. Supergiant's signature audiovisual polish — the character art, Darren Korb's score, the fully voiced cast — hasn't aged a day, and the 2D style means it runs beautifully on everything from a gaming PC to a Switch to an iPhone.
What still grates
By hour forty, the room-to-room loop shows its seams: environments repeat, and some weapon aspects clearly outclass others, nudging veterans toward the same builds. The true ending asks for ten victorious runs, which is either a satisfying long game or padding depending on your temperament. And if you fundamentally dislike replaying content, no amount of narrative cleverness will fully convert you.
Who it's for
Action fans, story-first players, and anyone gaming in short sessions — a complete, satisfying chunk of Hades fits in thirty minutes. It's also the correct starting point before its sequel: the story connects directly, and the original is regularly discounted to impulse-buy territory.
Verdict — 9.2/10. A masterclass in making every system serve every other system. In 2026 it's cheap, it runs on anything you own, and its central idea — death as narrative fuel — still hasn't been executed better, even by its own sequel's bigger ambitions. An essential.
