Recent reviews by Adam R

Hades is, in my opinion, one of the truly perfect games out there.

Strong roguelike elements, beautiful voice acting, stunning music. There's an alarming depth to the game and I can't count how many times I've thought 'oh, whoah, there's an interaction for that???'. So many secrets, so many little details.

The art style is GORGEOUS, the mechanics are not only fluid but unbelievably satisfying, and the story and progession is such a treat. There always feels like there's something to work towards, without the feeling of pressure or being overwhelmed. It's also very easy to come up with your own set of challenges or alternate playstyles, and the 'Heat' mechanic for difficulty is without a doubt the single best expression of difficulty scaling I've witnessed in any game.

It's fun, it's charming, it's just the right amount of challenging and I always love hopping back in and giving something new a try. Without a doubt one of the games I hold the highest opinion of.

[EDIT] A previous version of this review queried if streamers were sponsored to play this game and Will responded to clarify that streamers were not sponsored but deleted it after I removed the incorrect info in my review; hence the Dev discourse in the comments. No hate to Will please.

This was initially a very detailed negative review. However, I don't think i can truly not recommend this game when I played it for 45 hours in the last week, eagerly kept coming back for more, and 100%'d it. Hell, I even actively said to a friend yesterday "You would probably like Wildfrost."

It's true, this game is unbalanced in certain ways. Random charms on enemies can single-handedly lose you a run. 15/7 4 countdown Aimless is absurd stats for cost when Aimless is a bane for the player but a boon for enemies. There are many elements to the game where it feels as if player agency has been stripped away, and the RNG leader selection can lead to some awful situations, especially if you're forced to run a specific tribe due to the 'final' boss.

And yet, god, what a glorious game. Two dudes, five feet apart in the dev room, making a game with so much visual clarity in polish that you'd be forgiven for thinking this was a big studio release. The gameplay is challenging, the mechanics are clean, and the art is second to none.

It really is charming and addictive. And every time that I've died, be it my own misplay or unavoidable BS, regardless, I've usually hopped back in 5 minutes later. Certain interactions give so much joy and the switch from "how do i beat this fight" to "how do I counter the final boss" to "how do I max combos for gold" to "how do I get Woolly Drek to eat the Gobling and beat him like a pinata for infinite gold" to "wtf is this vase".

It's a game with a nice variety of depth despite it's flaws. I've listed a few below, but with the 14/04 Dev Blog I'm hoping a few of these will be touched on:

• Unlock management; having to fully unlock one thing before even beginning progress on the next feels a little obnoxious.
  
• Leader RNG; sometimes, man, they truly just do suck and your choices get hamstrung. A reroll button that refreshes on death/Victory would be nice.
  
• Modifier Bells; Bell 1 can created some of the most brutally punishing or unfair scenarios imaginable; particularly in relation to teeth, which can't be frozen, inked, or affected in any way other than killing the unit themselves, very problematic on certain enemies. Conversely, Bell 2 is actually Easy Mode, but more on that in a moment. Bell 3 is a fun variant but christ that True Final Boss is a lunatic, haven't been able to cook up an answer yet.\|
  
• Wave Management; if you take too long, more enemies. If you kill everything early, more enemies. The wave counter feels so limp that Bell 2 is essentially "start your run with a free crown, and get combos more easily". It would have been nice to gain +1 gold or +1 HP for each round left if you completed it early.
  
• A handful of enemies are a little too potent. Bigfoot is the infamous one that everyone loves to hate.
  
• Lastly, Dailies; they're great on their own, but as you've probably already noticed, they're flooded with cheaters pushing impossible scores - I might play one or two when the decks look fun, but the competitive edge to measure up isn't there at present.

I don't know what else to say. It's a good game slightly tinged by some flaws, but ultimately this is an unbelievable accomplishment from the team. Buy crowns, get combos, love Wildfrost.

Overall, an exceptionally addicting game.

The movement and combat is exceptionally clean & tidy, and extremely satisfying. The game design & lore collectables add a real nice unexpected bonus, and the skill tree feels exceptional - putting points, even early, in the trees gives you real tangible benefits.

The seperate classes are very interesting and enjoyable. I've played with at least one of each style, and they all change things up enough to really transform how you play the game & consider your relic/elixir choices.

The rarity tier system feels like a real treat across all aspects and the unique modifiers the Legendary ones provide turn some relics from an instant-skip to a won-run - one of my favourite items I located was an Impossible Ordinary sword, which had a 1/10000 chance of instantly killing everything on screen with every attack under the debuff known as 'Programmer's Rage'. Was fun to see.

However, it's not all good. Here's a short list of issues with the game currently.

* Spelling errors & typos in transaltion - many elements of the game aren't even translated at all, and while that could be purposed as flavour in some games, it's missing in several important aspects here where the game is trying to convey vital information to you without you being able to understand
* Lack of a simplistic stat sheet. Although there is a help menu that explains what each of the conditions do, there's no way to see your current movespeed/crit%/Flying Sword DMG etc etc and I feel the game would really benefit from this clarity
* In another vein on transparency & translation, many skills will tell you there's a 'chance' of something happening without in fact telling you what that chance is.
* The harder difficulties are an excellent way to step things up - HOWEVER, unless you're running two very particular builds, certain zones are full of bullet sponges - it took me 20 minutes to kill the Concubine on higher difficulties with Infinity & at several points I considered just letting her kill me after watching her jump up the the ceiling for the 100th time. Admittedly, this is likely a skill issue - if you know you're on a hharder difficulty, force a specific build.
*The runs are LONG. Even with a god-like run you can be playing for hours before you get to the final boss. Now admittedly, I play games like Noita so I'm no stranger to throwing hours into a run for purely prep work, but in a fast-paced hack & slash this can be really noticeable after Chapter 3. If you're looking for a rewarding quick dip-in-dip-out game, this isn't it.

With all that said, that may cast a rather negative light on this game. But no, even despite all it's flaws, it's a solid 8 or 9 out of 10. Rewarding, addictive, satisfying.

God, I cannot put this game down. It's seemingly simple design is the tip of an iceberg that reaches several light years beneath the ocean's surface. It's hard. Really hard. Based on the community group, it takes an average player 60+ attempts to clear the 'Final' boss for the first time.

But every step you take, every action you make, every wand you pick up, and every ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ time you blow yourself up because you're an idiot you learn and become better and no matter how many times you play, how many times you die, you'll jump right back in.

A moment of silence - "Wait, what the hell just killed me?". Oh, that's right, you stood next to a bomb/got stunlocked by a Yukko/torn to pieces by a machine gun/forgot you were on fire/flew into freezing mist/polymorphed into a creature allergic to water while submerged in water/didn't realise THAT exploded/forgot you drank Berserkium and didn't realise explosion radius increased/broke a large egg/dipped a toe in lava/decided to try out that cool bouncing saw spell.

I LOVE this game. I HATE how it makes me realise how trash I am. But each time, I become slightly less trash and learning how to craft your own spells is orgasmic.

Perks? Fantastic. So many to choose from and so few of them don't feel good in some way to take. You FEEL yourself becoming stronger. Oh, you picked up explosion immunity and electric immunity? Well, now seems like a GREAT time to create a wand that turns the entire map into a Faraday Cage. You picked up Plague Rats and More Hate? Sit back and watch the map clear itself in an absurd Ratnado. You picked up Homing, and have a bouncing spell? Laugh in the distance as any room becomes a blender for your enemies.

Enjoy sucking at this game initially. Enjoy panicking because a brand new enemy appears and you have no clue what it does and OH GOD WHY IS EVERYTHING DARK AND WHY AM I TELEPORTING EVERYWHERE. Enjoy realising that there are exceptionally few ways to heal and if you make a beeline to healing spots you're going to miss out on vital exploration.

Lore? Nah, no lore in this game...immediately visible. Except for the INSANELY WELL HIDDEN pieces of puzzles scattered all throughout the map and it's alternate dimensions, that to fully explore would require the absurdest of miracles to randomly stumble upon that require such specific circumstances that you're either a prophet or have your wellies on and are knee-deep in datamining.

Just...just buy it. If you like roguelikes, download it now and get well acquainted with your new best friend, the death recap screen.