Part 1 (Sep 2023) · #2 of 9 in that tierWatch the moment (1:09:30)
Hades
- Developed by
- Supergiant Games
- Published by
- Supergiant Games
$6.24
Defy the god of the dead as you hack and slash out of the Underworld in this rogue-like dungeon crawler from the creators of Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre.
Consensus
S88/100
Steam players98% positiveOverwhelmingly Positive309,032 reviews
Metacritic ↗93/100Users: 8.5/10
VG Insights estimate ↗≈8.5M copies · ≈$142.2M gross
What creators say
Ranked Apr 2022 · #2 of 2 in that tierWatch the moment (0:21:37)
Ranked Aug 2024 · #5 of 10 in that tierWatch the moment (0:53:42)
Ranked Jan 2025 · #2 of 9 in that tierListen to the episode
Scored 8.92/10 · tier derived from the score
Ranked Jun 2023 · #1 of 11 in that tierWatch the moment (0:47:25)
Ranked Sep 2024 · #1 of 5 in that tierWatch the moment (0:15:01)
Ranked Dec 2019 · #2 of 4 in that tierWatch the moment (0:28:18)
Ranked Apr 2023 · #2 of 16 in that tierWatch the moment (2:03:54)
Ranked May 2026 · #3 of 8 in that tierWatch the moment (0:13:45)
Ranked Nov 2025 · #5 of 14 in that tierListen to the episode
Ranked Apr 2025 · #7 of 8 in that tierWatch the moment (1:12:09)
What players say
Supergiant Games' isometric action roguelite in which Zagreus, son of Hades, fights out of the Greek Underworld, with story and dialogue woven into the run-and-die loop.
Hades is treated as a landmark of the genre by both critics and players: Metacritic 93 from 58 critic reviews with no mixed or negative ones, Steam 'Overwhelmingly Positive' at about 98% of roughly 309k reviews, and Wikipedia reports 99% of critics recommending it on OpenCritic. It swept Game of the Year at BAFTA, DICE, GDC and other ceremonies and became the first video game to win a Hugo. It spent almost two years in early access (from Dec 2018) and then launched in full in Sept 2020 to very strong sales. The main dissent comes from players who bounce off the roguelite structure itself (repetition, fixed biomes and bosses, RNG, meta-grind), not from the craft. Metacritic user score is lower than critics at 8.5, with Metacritic's summary citing RNG frustration and repetitive restarts.
Players love
- Story is delivered through the run loop: each death brings new hub dialogue, so failure advances the narrative and feels rewarding rather than punishing
- Fast, fluid, responsive combat with six distinct weapons and several aspects each, praised as weighty and satisfying
- Boon system from the Olympian gods gives build variety and synergies (duo boons) while staying compact enough to understand
- Writing, voice acting and characterisation are repeatedly singled out, including Zagreus's politeness and the gods' interplay and relationships
- Art direction by Jen Zee and the soundtrack are near-universal praise
- Accessible for roguelike newcomers: God Mode quietly boosts you after each death, and the hub and mirror upgrades soften early losses
- Heat / Pact of Punishment gives scalable endgame difficulty and long replay value
- Many reviewers who dislike the genre say this was the one that hooked them
Common complaints
- Only four biomes and a fixed set of bosses, so runs feel samey after a few dozen hours
- Final boss fight against Hades is a big difficulty spike, frustrating to some players on the True Ending route
- RNG in boon and reward offers can make runs feel unfair or throttle progress
- Reviewers who want Binding of Isaac style emergent builds find boons mostly stat bonuses and percentages with few memorable or wild builds
- Reaching full narrative closure (epilogue) takes very many clears; only a small share of players get there
- Some players find the combat button-mashy, with heavy area damage, projectile spam and particle clutter (the lava biome and its bombers are a named pain point)
Can feel tedious
- Running the same four regions and bosses many times to reach the story's ending
- Grinding for meta resources such as Titan Blood and diamonds late in the game, described as a chore
- Dodging heavy AoE and projectile spam in the later rooms, called monotonous by some
- Heat-stacking runs where the added difficulty feels like restricted options rather than fresh play
- Story interruptions and hub trips feel like hurdles to players who just want to start the next run; some later realise they are the point
- Some users compare the loop to habit-forming or gambling-style design
What's unique
- Narrative-first roguelite: dialogue, relationships and plot progress are the meta-progression alongside stat unlocks
- Greek mythology cast reinterpreted with personality-driven, sympathetic gods
- Protagonist who is meant to die: death returns you to a living hub home with characters who react to how you died
- God Mode accessibility that scales up with each failure, so the story is reachable for anyone
- Pact of Punishment and heat let you tailor difficulty with many modifiers and unlock cosmetic rewards
- Release-quality polish from a two-year early access that shipped with full voice acting and music
Players want
- More biomes, bosses and enemy variety to reduce repetition (partly answered by Hades II)
- Stronger, more game-changing boons or build-defining items for wilder synergies
- A less grindy route to the epilogue and to late resources such as Titan Blood
- Heat system that adds new mechanics rather than mostly limiting options or raising numbers
- Clearer tracking of upgrade shop contents and rewards; several negative reviewers complain that remembering every god's offerings is hard
- Finer-grained difficulty and assist options than God Mode's fixed ramp; one reviewer wanted an initial armour setting like Hades II
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Action RoguelikeRogue-liteHack and SlashIndieMythologyActionRogue-likeSingleplayerGreat SoundtrackStory Rich
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Tier list Part 1 (2023)
Hades is Supergiant's 2018 early-access-era roguelite that surprised everyone and, in his view, deserves all its hype. He has speedrun it and once placed in the top 100 of a run category. He calls it a masterpiece and probably the best roguelike on the board so far, and he places it in S tier without hesitation.
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