To be honest, the roguelike genre is a genre of gaming that I’ve ignored for most of my life. After all, I know what I like, and I don’t think a Silent Hill rogue-like game is coming anytime soon. Although I had tried The Binding of Isaac, Enter the Dungeon, and Downwell, I felt a little uncomfortable when it came to roguelike games. Then I tried Hades, which appealed to me for its vibrant visual style and hot-shot cast, but found I didn’t really like it either.
After Hades 2 launched into early access and seeing the female protagonist Melinoe at the helm, I was even more eager to try it again. I wanted to know what was going on with this amazing game that my friends kept telling me I loved; I really wanted to get itenjoy it as much as they do, and learn what it’s all about.
Manage cookie settings
But I can’t start playing Hades 2. If I wanted to know what Zagreus, Melinoe, and co. were about, I’d first have to play through 2018’s Hades. This was the beginning of my brief obsession with this game and my complete transformation into a roguelike enthusiast. It wouldn’t even get started without an underused mechanic: God Mode.
Now, before you start yelling at me for playing in “reporter mode” or whatever, hear me out. Given my lack of experience with roguelike games, I found Hades to be particularly difficult. I hated Blade of Stygia, I quickly became overwhelmed, and as a result, I quickly became frustrated and wanted to put it down for good after a few hours. However, my determination to persevere and understand why people love Hades so much was much stronger than my frustration – a true testament to how great this game is – so I decided to take advantage of everything available before giving up H. This is where God Mode comes in.
God Mode in Hades is not what you normally imagine God Mode to be. In Hades, it’s not a permanent difficulty modifier used throughout the game. You can think of it like putting on training wheels on your bike and taking them off when you’re finally ready to charge down the hill without worrying about what’s going to happen.
When God Mode is active, you gain 20% damage resistance. Each time you fail, this value increases by 2%, and can reach up to 80% damage resistance. This value cannot be reset without starting a new save file, so even if you turn the mode off and on again later, your damage resistance will remain the same as last time. Soon, things came to a point also It’s easy, it’s time to brave it alone.
God Mode gave me the opportunity to make meaningful progress with Hades without feeling as frustrated as I did initially. I finally defeated Megara and started meeting her sisters, which was a pivotal moment in the game for me; the moment I could say, “Ah, I get it now.”
Once I stopped being frustrated with the game, I had more room to really understand what I was doing and what my goals were as Zagreus. Soon, as my damage resistance approached 40%, my running started to feel insignificant. I finally got the hang of leaning and weaving between enemy attacks, got hooked on the Spear of Eternity, and learned enough about the gods that I knew which gifts would make any run a breeze. Don’t get me wrong, Theseus and the Minotaur can still screw me over, but with God Mode as my trainer, I don’t have anything to be frustrated with anymore. After all, every failure is progress.
I know that dying on the run is just an opportunity for Zagreus to grow as a character, whether through tangible upgrades or dialogue between him and other characters. The conversation in dozens of hours had not been repeated once.
Hades’ God Mode is something that everyone and every developer can learn. It made a genre that I wasn’t a big fan of approachable and then felt like it was second nature to me. I can take the time to learn everything I need at a steady pace before God Mode makes things too easy for me to continue. Finally, I was able to take off the training wheels and stab and smash all the way to hell without any trouble.
As you progress, God Mode gradually makes things easier and feels like an extensive training exercise. Supergiant Games knows it any Players can pick up its games and be armed with the right knowledge to get good at it, but it also knows that some people — like roguelike-convert me — might just need a little help getting started.
Thanks to Hades’ God Mode, I now at least have a roguelike to relax in while on the road; no training wheels required! I haven’t revisited yet The Binding of Isaac or Enter the dungeonbut I spend most of my time now on fan-made Pokemon roguelikes pocket thief and the mind-bending card roguelike game Dark cardand I am also waiting for the full release of “Hades 2”.
Hades 2 is now available in Early Access, reminding us all of what made the first game so great. Even better, if you want to jump to the sequel, you don’t actually need to play the first one.
