REVIEW : Hades (PS5)
It is one of the fashionable genres today, there is no doubt about that. Roguelike-style games (which started as a sub-genre of role-playing games) have become a favourite among users and development teams alike. And due to a large number of titles of this same nature that have been appearing over the last few months, we have been able to taste authentic masterpieces such as Dead Cells, the recent Returnal or the one at hand. Hades got tired of receiving all kinds of awards when it came out last year on PC and Switch. An exemplary production that, after more time than the users of Sony and Microsoft consoles would have wanted, appears on said devices preserving all its quality and improving its technical finish, and also does so both in digital version and in physical format, and available from day one on Xbox Game Pass.
The protagonist of this adventure is Zagreus, the son of Hades and prince of the Underworld, which is ruled by his father. And what is your goal? Then challenge your father and escape from it to try to reach Mount Olympus. A task is as arduous and painful as it is incredibly rewarding, engaging, and enjoyable. A story that has more packaging than is usual in the genre and for which we see a multitude of characters from classical Greek mythology such as Athena, Zeus and others appear. An interesting script that can be followed without problems thanks to the translation of these conversations into our language.
Death awaits you
As is inherent to the genre, death is part of the experience that this adventure proposes. We will lose our lives dozens of times and, in doing so, the temporary aids and abilities that we have been able to forge in our game will be wasted forever. But to alleviate this situation, we will also receive certain permanent rewards. In a mirror that is part of the main hub of the game, we can invest the resources we have obtained during the game to enable certain improvements (health recovery, offensive power, etc.) as well as to obtain new weapons. In the beginning, we start with a sword, but later we can get some additional ones like a spear, a bow or even a throwing shield.
Every time we start a new attempt to leave the Underworld, we have to go through a good number of different rooms that are procedurally generated. Rooms that are grouped into different levels and that we have to clean of adversaries to be able to access the next one. And every time we do this, we will be rewarded with a new temporary ability, a key, a kind of crystal that act as a currency, etc. The number of monsters that await us in each room is highly variable, almost as much as their different forms. The bestiary of this title is quite striking in general and to try to receive the least amount of damage possible before leaving each room, it is very necessary to learn the movement and attack patterns of each enemy. And far from being an arduous and boring task, the truth is that it is the opposite.
And that’s because the battles become one of the main claims of the entire game. Some clashes are the best that this style of titles has given us. In the purest style of what is recreated in a hack slash, we can chain striking combos and attacks with total ease. And that is possible thanks to a fairly traditional but effective control system that is based on the use of four main buttons: normal and special attack, dodge and magic. Some duels that put the icing on very balanced gameplay are quite varied taking into account the genre we are talking about and very addictive. And that, being honest, the truth is that it is a work that does not introduce any new element. He simply executes everything he proposes plausibly. Could anything have been integrated into these versions? Well, man, it never hurts to enjoy new levels, characters or weapons, aspects that have not been covered in these editions … but those who discover this game for the first time will not miss them either.
In terms of graphics, that is where things have been slightly improved, at least about the Switch version. Deliveries designed for PS4 and Xbox One are shown at 1080p and 60 animation frames, while those intended for PS5 and Xbox Series maintain that same frame rate but the resolution goes up to 4K. Everything else remains unchanged, including the isometric perspective, the sensational artistic direction that puts the whole adventure at stake, and the great recreation of monsters and characters. A very good visual section to which is added a good dubbing (in English with subtitles in our language), excellent melodies and very elaborate effects.
