If fighting through the same dungeons over-and-over, inching through the stygian halls of Tartarus, magma-singed islands of Ashphodel and raging battlegrounds of Elysium in a quest for freedom sounds like something of a Sisyphean task: it is.
Hades tells the story of Prince Zagreus, son of the titular God of the Underworld, as he tries to escape Hell in a bid to reunite with the Greek pantheon on Mount Olympus. It’s a “roguelike” RPG, where you replay variations of the same levels and start again when you die, gathering resources to purchase permanent upgrades which help you to take each run further and further, and now, via Netflix Games, it’s also available on iOS and included with your Netflix subscription.
But Hades isn’t your typical roguelike. It stymies over-repetition by drizzling a new layer of story over everything you do. As Zagreus makes a break towards the surface, the Olympic Gods don’t just offer him boons in the form of power-ups, but encouragement and insight into their characters, revealing new story threads and lore via their voice lines. Then, when things almost inevitably come crashing down, you also get to wander the House of Hades and rub shoulders with the Chthonic Gods and fallen heroes of the Underworld.
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