 Hello and welcome ladies and gentlemen, my name is Philip Magnus and I am back with some more content for you to bear. Today's topic, Hades by Supergiant Games. Hades is a wellness way to becoming a masterpiece. There, I said it, and Supergiant Games better not make me eat my words come what may. I'm a relative newcomer to the genre of road light and any in-depth experience I can talk about comes from the dozen hours I've spent with Dead Cells since August of last year. As you can tell, that's far from an impressive number, no sir. The schedule won't permit me much more than that unfortunately so I would argue that I've become ten times the Dead Cells player than I was at the start of those dozen hours or so. In that particular game is certainly an experience that allows for vast improvements over an arguably small stretch of time. Some of the skills that Dead Cells taught me seem to be transferable as well, though it's entirely possible that Hades is also an easier game in one aspect or another or in all of them, who knows. Besides, the obvious difference in perspective hinders any attempt at comparison between the two games and at the end of the day this is not the idea of this video. What I intend with this is to share my optimism for a game that I think deserves a lot of attention. First off, Hades is in the Epic Games Store's Early Access programme. Good for it! I'm always happy to see someone take on the big V. Interesting choice popping up on that platform on the platform's launch day. It's the game that got me to check that whole store out in fact. And I bet I'm not the only one. It's a fact of life that Supergiant Games have built quite the following over the last eight years. Hades has to be the most gorgeous rogue light I've ever seen and I'm not going to count Hollow Knight because that's a metroidvania. And if anyone can think of another game in that genre that looks better, please let me know because I need that in my life. The art style is typically for Supergiant Games filled with vibrant, stunning colours and beautiful character design. Not only in models but also in the portraits of each character during conversation. A feature that's been lifted off straight from Supergiant's last game, Pyre. I made a video for it and you can watch it but at the end of the credits, let's say. Not all art in the game is currently final. In fact a lot that's in the game will be changed, balanced out, reworked, possibly even removed by the time Hades launches it later as a yet unspecified date this year. There's a certain number of characters, models, which use this particular artwork, which will be updated with proper models. Karen, Artemis, Sisyphus are but a few of those. But the sheer quality of the art as it currently is. Well, that's something you have rarely seen in a procedurally generated game. Something else rarely seen in this genre is the excellent storytelling and voice acting. We are Zagreus, son of Hades and of a certain absent goddess you'd be familiar with, if ever you have picked up a copy of the Greek mythology in your local library or bookstore and your soul Michelin Despale and Gloomy Life is to, you guessed it, escape from the underworld. To do so you will have to get out from the ridiculous maze kingdom of your dads, cutting through the souls of the desperate, the greedy, the gluttonous and the cursed. Facing down furies, hydras and Olympus knows what else by the time the game comes out. The good news is Zagreus has a lot of friends in Hades' court and even better, Nick's his mother figure for lack of another, has sent word to Olympus and all the gods, your uncles, cousins, aunts and so on and so forth, send their blessings in regards. Picking up a blessing fulfills a dual function of communicating with the god who does the blessing, that being Zeus, Ares, Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite, so far I think, more will be added later if I'm not mistaken and the blessings also give you a very real in-game upgrade to one of your skills. The skills in question depend entirely on the weapon you have got equipped and the current build of the game has four weapons to pick from. A sword, a bow, a spear and arguably my favorite, a shield with which you can dash forwards after charging, with which you can bash enemies into walls and with which you can throw in a Captain America fashion style, having it bounce between several opponents and then return to Zagreus' hand. I also loved using the spear, I have to admit, but survival with the shield might be a slightly bit easier than it was with the spear. Wanting the weapon equipped does not change is the cast, i.e. your right mouse button ability, a projectile attack, that can be upgraded by a particular Zeus blessing to become a deadly Thunderbolt. If you have that upgrade, life is a beautiful thing, my friends. Wanting Hades so far, Lux, is a way to make the game considerably harder. There is currently no equivalent to the altars from Bastion or Star Signs from Pyre. Maybe the game doesn't need them, it is a road light after all, but I'm sure that for those of us who really enjoy that extra challenge, this might be an inclusion that supergiant games might want to look into. And did I mention the music? The music is, there's no way around it and no question about it, magnificent. Darren Corb continues to outdo himself, yes he's back, of course, it's a supergiant game. He's going to be back for it and he's going to do all the amazing things he does with all the amazing instruments he uses to create his music. I'm just exceptionally excited about it, unfortunately so far, Ashley Barris has not made an appearance in her usual vocal capacity, but I really truly hope that the two of them will release something later on with one of the coming major updates. The current build of the game has two distinct sections, Hades proper and Acheron, the river of fire, pain and what have you. Obviously I've spent a good deal more time in Hades proper, but Acheron has its own enemy types, all of whom, hit harder, are quite nasty and will send the prince of the underworld back to daddy at the very first opportunity and they will do it with gusto. Skeletons, blue pulsing crystals, snake lads who will spit loads of deadly orbs at you and I do mean loads and several others. The final boss in the current build of the game is one I have not yet managed to vanquish, so I've come quite close, a very horrible, no good, bad hydra. Watch it murder me for a second there. See, nothing quite like it to stroke the ego and then slap it around until it stops moving. The enemy variety isn't too great yet, but with the next major patch hitting the game just 2-3 days from the date of writing and recording this, I imagine there'll be quite a few new additions. Oh, and the folk suit super-junk games seem pretty intense and adding a lot of content on the regular, their eyes even say it's monthly basis. Hey, this has got a lot going for it and if you're into really, really good early access games which don't feel like early access at all in many aspects, you might want to check it out. It's on the Epic Store for about €15 if memory serves. But anyway, thank you guys for watching, this was a lot of fun. I have not had the time to make many videos, university is tough and so is writing and so is reading and so is reviewing books, bookness.eu, check it out. I review for those guys, lovely guys, but anyway, again, thank you for watching. I will see you next time. Bye!