Cover artwork I generate from the game data. I do not use publisher artwork.
Game profile
Hades
As the son of Hades, you break out of the underworld again and again, with every run offering new weapon combinations and story fragments. Combat and narrative merge with unusual elegance.
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What kind of game this is
At its core this is Roguelike / Action, set in a fantasy world. Visually it is deliberately stylised rather than photorealistic, and the overall tone stays light and upbeat. The structure is guided rather than open, so you are moved along instead of dropped into a map. Sessions of an hour or two sit at the sweet spot here.
The difficulty is moderate and fair, demanding attention without punishing you for it. The narrative carries the whole thing, and the mechanics serve it. It is a single player experience from start to finish. It is available broadly, on 5 platforms. It sits in the mid price bracket.
What stands out
- Story unfolds with every run
- Deeply satisfying combat
- High replay value
This fits you if
- you are after a proper adrenaline rush
- you want to live through a story, not just play a system
- the writing matters more to you than the mechanics
- you play alone and want a complete experience without other people
- you want something light that leaves you in a good mood
Look elsewhere if
- you skip cutscenes and want to get to the gameplay
- repetition wears you down instead of drawing you in
- you specifically want an open world to roam
- you want to play it side by side with someone
What it costs you in time
About 40 hours in total. At three evenings a week and two hours each, you will be busy for roughly 7 weeks, or 20 sessions.
How the rating ranks
Critics settled on 94 out of 100, which puts it above 97 percent of the 1206 games here and at rank 25 overall. That is a strong score, comfortably above what most releases manage.
For comparison, Roguelike averages 84 points across the database, so this one sits 10 points above its own genre. The figure rests on 1726 collected ratings.
Released in 2020, so it has 6 years behind it. Usually cheap by now and the rough edges are long fixed.
The facts
- Release year
- 2020
- Genres
- Roguelike, Action, RPG
- Playtime
- approx. 40 hrs.
- Difficulty
- Moderate, fair
- Story weight
- Carries the whole game
- Play with
- Solo
- Setting
- Fantasy
- Visual style
- Stylised
- Price bracket
- Mid price
- Platforms
- PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, Mobile
- Critic rating
- 94 / 100
Direct comparison
| Genres | Release year | Playtime | Critic rating | Price bracket |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hades | 2020 | approx. 40 hrs. | 94 | Mid price |
| Hades II | 2025 | approx. 45 hrs. | 93 | Mid price |
| Realm of Ink | 2026 | approx. 40 hrs. | 84 | Mid price |
| Children of Morta | 2019 | approx. 15 hrs. | 83 | Budget |
If you liked this, try these
- Hades II Shared: Roguelike, Action, Fantasy
- Realm of Ink Shared: Roguelike, Action, Fantasy
- Children of Morta Shared: Roguelike, Action, Fantasy, shorter
- Granblue Fantasy: Relink Shared: Action, RPG, Fantasy
- Sworn Shared: Roguelike, Action, Fantasy
- Ravenswatch Shared: Roguelike, Action, Fantasy, shorter