When you really get down to it, Greek mythology is utterly messed up.

That may not be the most electrifying take you’ve heard this week, but bear with me.

The gods themselves maintain this terrible reputation throughout the entire mythos. When they’re not messing with mortals for petty reasons such as not sacrificing the very best cow for them, or for being too pretty, they’ll be fathering enough demi-gods to fill both sides of a war being fought in their name.

Though we cannot really expect much from that pantheon considering who their chief deity is. To say that Zeus is problematic is to say the ocean is full of plastic. It’s an unpleasant reality that we try not to think about too much, but we absolutely cannot escape. He must receive a library’s worth of Father’s Day cards every year, and is probably responsible for a good chunk of the demi-gods in that war I just mentioned. One could argue that the rest of the deities are just following his horrible example, but then one would be ignoring some notable exceptions. Such as Hades.

Hades (the videogame not the god) is a wonderful roguelike adventure from Supergiant Games, and it is my absolute favourite adaptation of Greek mythology. A lofty claim, considering just how many adaptations there are to choose from, but Hades wins the top spot for a number of reasons, the best being that it focuses on one of the better characters in the divine roster. Hades (the god not the videogame).

In Hades, you play as Zagreus. A lesser-known figure from Greek mythology and the son of Hades. What exactly Zagreus’ deific designation is depends on who you ask, as sources for him are very inconsistent even by the standards of ancient mythology, but he is most commonly associated with rebirth. In this game, having utterly failed at being the underworld equivalent of a civil servant, he makes the bold decision to attempt to escape the underworld and make it to the surface. The problem is that between him and his goal lies every single dead person, some other cthonic figures, mythic heroes and a surprising number of spike traps, all of which are under the express order of Hades to stop him by any means necessary. Especially the spike traps.

Supergiant really nailed the best story for the very saturated roguelike genre. For those not in the know, a roguelike is a type of videogame usually characterised by randomly generated environments, hack-and-slash gameplay and (most crucially) permadeath. As in, each time you die in the game you have to start from the beginning again. No checkpoints, no saving, nothing, straight back to the beginning with you. Other elements vary from game to game, but these are the core mechanics that Hades also possesses which help build up its story.

You see, the player and Zagreus share the same goal: escape the underworld. Everytime the player dies they want to keep moving to see the next area and progress the story, and Zagreus initially wants to get out just as a middle finger to his dad. His reason changes slightly as the story progresses, but it always aligns with what the player wants. This is a wonderful example of how gameplay and story support each other, as retrying the game fits in with Zagreus’ story of rebirth and retrying over and over again. Reaching the goal is satisfying for the player on two fronts, as they gain a sense of accomplishment from overcoming a challenge and they get to see a fascinating story unfold as they do it.

In general, games are pretty good at nailing the first half of this formula, that being the core gameplay challenge. However, the story aspect is where most fall flat, or at best just don’t deliver on as well. Reasons for this can vary, but Hades is a marked exception. Sure, Greek mythology is doing a good chunk of the creative heavy lifting, but that never helped the original God of War games so clearly setting is not enough. No, Hades’ strength lies in how it handles character interactions. Fitting in with the roguelike genre, the dialogue you hear between characters is randomly chosen from a list of possibilities. Each interaction, from greeting Hypnos when you die, your beaurocrat father scolding you, to your extended family the other Olympic gods giving you power-ups, has a variety of optional dialogues to present the player with whenever they reach those steps. How many? Hades has 305,443 words of dialogue. To put that in context, James Joyce’s Ulysses, a landmark title in the English language and a real big book, contains 265,222 words.

That is a frankly insane amount of work, doubly so when you consider that they also had to build a game around this too.

So not only does the player get a rewarding gameplay experience with every attempt, but they will also want to keep playing to see all the variety of dialogue options. There are so many factors that can determine which one a player will be shown when interacting with a character. Some include: what weapon they recently unlocked, how they died in their last attempt, what colour carpet they purchased for the lounge, which Olympians they met in their last run, and far too many others to mention. It is very possible for someone to play for 50 hours and never hear a repeating piece of dialogue. All of these are tied to what the player has done, so the world feels very reactive to your actions and what you have done.

At the same time, I love the small steps the game takes to make sure the world doesn’t solely revolve around Zagreus and the player. In the main hub you respawn at whenever you die, the layout of characters will change every so often. While all characters have a set spot they can usually be found in for the convenience of the player wanting to seek them out, they will sometimes be in a new place talking to another character or will simply be absent from the main hub entirely. This adds an organic nature to the world you’re inhabiting, showing that you are a part in everyone else’s story as much as they are a part of yours.

Of course all of this variance wouldn’t be worth anything if the characters themselves were not enjoyable to listen to. Every single one of them is voiced beatifully and gives a stellar performance. Made more impressive by some actors voicing multiple characters.

(WARNING: now begins a ramble from a mythology nerd)

The Greek Gods are especially well voiced and written. Leaning into my inital point of Greek mythology being full of horrible deities, every single one of them is happy enough to grant you their aid in escaping the underworld, but within all their dialogue are a ton of hints to their true (and less benevolent) nature. Each one comes across as prideful, self-centred and vengeful at various points in the game (sometimes all three at once). Even best girl and asexual icon Artemis has her less pleasant moments. Key points where this is shown include when you are forced to choose between two gods’ power ups and the one you don’t pick responds in the most level-headed way by trying to kill you, and another instance when a god will grant their blessing to one of your opponents. The Olympians may want to help you, but if you hurt their pride or they simply feel like helping someone else, they will turn on you without so much as a semblance of hesitation. The fact that the person they choose to help instead of you is Theseus is just salt in the wound, honestly.

The best part about these depictions? They are 100% accurate to Greek mythology. In ancient Greece, the gods weren’t ideals to stride towards, but instead very human in their personalities and ambitions, as they were meant to reflect real human wills and shortcomings. Just as the ancient Greeks depicted their gods as violent and chaotic to reflect the people of their time (and people of all times, really), Hades shows us a pantheon that sounds constantly ready to tear itself apart because of a slight between two parties. One character puts it best in this quote, which I am roughly paraphrasing, “Zagreus, these people killed their parents, cut them to pieces and scattered them into the abyss”. This is obviously referencing the rebellion led by Zeus against the Titans, the Olympians’ forebears.

Contrasting this dysfunctional dynamic brings me back to my other original point, that being that Hades is the best deity in Greek mythology.

Now that statement does need some qualifying as Hades did indeed kidnap his wife, but come on. Compare that to Zeus, Poseidon or Apollo’s long list of lovers (and you will find many people on there that definitely didn’t want to be) and Hades comes across as an upstanding guy. The wife kidnapping is really the only bad action to his name, and by all accounts the rest of their marriage actually worked. This translates into Hades the game as well. Although the character Hades is initially presented as an antagonist (he serves as the final boss), we find out that his reasons for not wanting Zagreus to escape are actually quite reasonable and based entirely on the safety of those he cares about. He is obviously misguided, and the player gets to show him an alternative solution, but he is nontheless acting selflessly. Compare that to literally anything that comes out of Zeus’ mouth, and tell me who you would prefer to rule the cosmos.

(Ramble over)

There are so many other things I want to praise Hades for. From just how much of the Greek mythos it incorporates, how fun and satisfying its gameplay loop is, how it pulls a light Neil Gaiman and incorporates other mythologies into the game (in doing so also confirming that Hades knows about Satan, which I DESPERATELY want to talk more about), but I will spare you this. Instead, I will simply implore that you go and play this game.

In conclusion: Hades is good and Hades is good.