There is no escape – but you’d never want to.

Premise:

An isometric action Rogue-lite where you play as Zagreus, Son of Hades. Zagreus decides he’s had enough of being trapped in his father’s Underworld kingdom, and makes a break for the surface world – slaying every monster in his path throughout 4 procedurally generated layers of Hell. The great Gods of Olympus are sympathetic to his situation, and lend their powers to aid his escape, increasing his combat abilities. Should he be slain in the attempt, he’ll be sent back to the House of Hades to spend resources he collects and to chat with his family and co-workers.

Gameplay:

Enter a new room, smash the enemies, collect rewards, proceed, repeat. The formula is simple and easy to grasp, yet the sheer variety in combat and options available to the player is one of the most praiseworthy features of the game. Each ‘layer’ of the Underworld has different room layouts, and new enemies to fight against, each culminating in a boss battle. Six different weapons on offer, and each plays in a unique way, leaving it up to the player to find their own favorite style – from quick combo-based melee attacks of the Stygian Blade to the safe, long ranged style of the Heart-Seeking Bow, with how separate and distinct each weapon is, anyone can find a favorite, something they are most comfortable with but it doesn’t end there. Every weapon also has three more ‘aspects’ to be unlocked and each changes how the weapon functions, sometimes drastically. Combine this with the hundreds of Boons, offered by 10 separate Deities, with each God of Olympus offering different modifiers to a weapon’s moves, passive benefits or changes to generic abilities that can be used with any weapon, no two runs through the Underworld will be the same. Like any Roguelike/lite experience, the variety is well enforced by the random nature of the rewards, you’re never given full control over which Boons and benefits you’re offered, so the player is encouraged to experiment with many different options.
Controls are smooth and polished, every weapon feels satisfying to use, and the combat is fast-paced and just fun. It all lends to a smooth rhythm of one hard-fought battle right after another which makes the game VERY hard to put down once you’re on a roll.
With each victory Zagreus will grow stronger, weather from gaining new Boons for use in the current attempt, or resources to spent in-between runs – a note of praise to be said for that the most common and plentiful of resources are also the ones that are most useful for unlocking passive benefits that will make the game easier – without ever removing the challenge or being an overly simplistic ‘your numbers are bigger now’
Speaking of challenge, the ‘Pact of Punishment’, the game’s way of providing steadily increasing difficulty, is downright brilliant. The player is free to adjust more than 10 different parameters to make each run more challenging, ranging from simple such as enemies dealing more damage or having more health, to more devious such as the player having a time limit to clear each region, or being presented with fewer choices when selecting a boon, leaving the player to ignore things they may hate and crank up those they’re comfortable dealing with. This is a perfect way to present increasing the difficulty as one step at a time, rather than overwhelming a player with too many changes at once.

Story:

Normally this could be a one-paragraph section, or skipped entirely for most similar Roguelikes or Rogue-lites, but for Hades that couldn’t be farther from the case. The character writing and script for this game is nothing short of excellent – especially our lead character, Zagreus – an embodiment of a well realized wish-fulfillment character. He always has the perfect thing to say – snarky about most things, sensitive and sympathetic in the right situations, confident, well-spoken, and altogether awesome – he leaves the impression that either you want to be more like him, or you’d want him to be your best friend.
The supporting cast is great too, especially the Olympian Gods aiding Zagreus, an ensemble that resembles a sit-com cast (but it’s way better than that sounds!) with Athena acting as the calm, logical older sister who just wishes everyone could get along, Poseidon the goofy dad/uncle who tries way too hard to be impressive and ‘cool’, Zeus the blowhard patriarch who can’t the respect he believes he’s due, Dionysus the ultimate party animal frat bro, or Aphrodite seeming sweet and attentive – if you’re the one she has her eyes on. Cross her or get in her way and her true, petty and manipulative nature is laid bare (just like everything else!).
Each and every one of is unique and distinct, and each is full of excellent and memorable dialogue. I especially like the characterization of Ares, who’s extremely calm and polite but without question a violent killer as he’ll often remind you. It would be been so easy to just write him as a buffoon, as many Greek Myth takes do.
This isn’t even getting into Zagreus’ co-workers and family who reside in the house of Hades, who are all just as well-written as the rest, though their stories tend to be much more personal and emotional to contrast the zaniness of the Olympians. Without veering in to spoiler territory, there is much to be done with Zagreus helping them confront their inner turmoils and setting right what had gone wrong in the past, long before the in-game narrative begins.
Noteworthy is that nearly every ‘in-game’ aspect is given an ‘in-universe’ explanation, which is very rare for this type of game - by far the most common cliche for any roguelike story to employ is a time-travel or alternate dimensions explanation for the endless different re-runs. This game tries a lot harder than that. Once again for fear of spoilers, I’ll leave it at that.

Presentation:

Dripping with style. The game’s graphics, though 2D and far from a technical marvel, are downright artistically gorgeous. Each setting of the ‘layers’ of the Underworld are all very different and distinct, the character designs are unique and well-made, the effects of all the different weapons and powers in combat are really cool, nothing is lacking and the game is top to bottom colorful, flashy, and lovingly crafted. What’s more is that the sound design is just as excellent – the music is rather good (though I’ll admit Elysium’s battle music did start to grate on me after a time) and sounds of combat with all the different enemies against all your different powers are impactful and satisfying.
Special praise has to be given to the voice-acting, which is absolutely superb – with so many different characters it’s a huge plus that not one of them is weak in this department especially seeing as there is so much dialogue in this game.
I could go on but it would be a stream of hyperbolic superlative. I’ll append it to: this game’s graphics and sound design are very very good.

TL:DR

The real deal.
A remarkable, once-in-a-generation game and at such a laudable price-point, unless you absolutely cannot stand Roguelike mechanics, you have no excuse not to play it.