‘Hades’ Follows The Rising Son

[This article is based on an Early Access Build of the game and may not reflect the final product.] Myth Takes You don’t need an article to tell you that where public domain properties are concerned, Greco-Roman lore stays in pop culture’s rotation (Norse mythology probably has more saturation at the moment, but that’s another story). The popularity of these myths rarely decline because of the archetypes that populate them. Such legendary pantheons are a primary color wheel of personalities, with names like Zeus or Aries carrying brand-name recognition. Which is why it’s a surprise to see Supergiant Games developing a title called Hades when the Greek god who bears that name holds a very specific, Mouse-owned association in pop culture consciousness. The company behind Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre has never repeated the iconoclastic settings for their stories; so why go to something that has loads of representation in pop culture already? SuperGiant has used their now-standard isometric framework to create a fast-paced roguelike dungeon crawler that’s equal parts Gauntlet and Diablo. The gameplay loop is simple: live, die, repeat. Through this, the answer for ‘why something as overplayed as Greek history’ is actually tied to the gameplay itself: the point is the cycle (and the variations thereof). Where the variations emerge is the how and why of each go-round. For instance, this version of Hades is less Disney’s ego-tripping hustler and more in-line with a certain God of……