2019-03-01_PC_Gamer

Every time you die (which happens a
lot) you march out of a pool of blood
and have a catty exchange with Lord
Hades himself, who happens to be
your dad. He’s angry at you, in part
because you’ve left
your bedroom in a
mess, but mainly
because you want to
leave his kingdom
forever. New rooms
open up here as you
fight deeper and
deeper into the
dungeon, and there are
NPCs to befriend, including the
enormous red hellhound Cerberus
and the spirit of Achilles.
You can use the hub to improve
yourself between runs. A magic
mirror in your bedroom lets you
spend upgrade points to increase
backstab damage, and there’s a
training room where you can unlock
new weapons. These two rooms are

H

ell is a roguelike, it turns out. Repeatedly clearing rooms,
dying, and trying again ought to be a suitable form of
punishment in the afterlife, but Lord Hades accidentally
made it too much fun. Every arena in Hades’ randomly
generated dungeon is full of enemies to smash. Forget the
meditative pace of Supergiant’s previous games like Bastion and
Transistor, this is a beautifully drawn third-person action game about
dodging attacks and battering ghosts.

the source of most of your

progression, but you can also give

dungeon gifts to your pals in return

for character buffs. I have a collar

from Cerberus that gives me bonus

health because he’s a

very good boy, yes he is.

The gods of

Olympus even lend a

hand, sometimes. They

appear as glowing balls

of energy in the

dungeon. After a brief

chat you take on t

powers, which

modifies your moveset. Zeus ch

your attacks with lightning, wh

Athena gives your attacks the ch

to deflect incoming damage. Th

pair with Hades’ weapons in

interesting ways. A Zeus buff on

the bow helps you deal a lot of

extra single-target damage. A

Zeus buff on the shield throw,

however, causes it to spew out

electric orbs, making it good against

hordes of enemies.

HELL’S BELLS

I hope that Early Access

development will eventually deliver

more weapons, but the opening four

are already varied. Fighting with the

bow means you have to play evasively

and wait for the right moment to

draw. If you release the shot at just

the right moment you get a satisfying

damage spike. It almost feels like a

rhythm action game. The sword is

the most basic of the set, but it’s a

good starting point until you unlock

my favourite: Zeus’ shield. You can

lob it and watch it pinball between

enemies, or you can hold down

left-mouse to queue up a charge that

smashes through enemies. Once

you’re on the other side of them you

rn around and get some hits in

at sweet backstab damage.

desis already a thrilling arena

at game with beautiful art, and

y to see how Supergiant can

the game out during Early

ess with new weapons,

mies, rooms, and bosses. Not

ny developers can claim that

e using Early Access to literally

xtra layers to hell. I can’t wait to

w it turns out.

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT?

A hellish roguelike.

FIRST RELEASED

December 6, 2018

VERSION TESTED

Patch 006

EXPECT TO PAY

£15.49

DEVELOPER

Supergiant Games

PUBLISHER

In-house

LINK

http://www.supergiant

games.com

Yo u c a n g i ve

dungeon gifts

to your pals in

return for

character buffs

“He’s angry at you, in part because

you’ve left your bedroom in a mess”

HavingahellofatimeinHADES. By Tom Senior

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Hell looks pretty nice,

all things considered.

Combat already

feels good.