Almost 20,000 reviews and 98% of them are positive. There's a reason for that. The game is technically in Early Access, but it has more content than most full price releases and the developers have a detailed and accurate roadmap for every single update. This is how Early Access is supposed to be, it seems that AAA studios have a lot to learn from Supergiant (and Klei, by the way. They did it right too with Griftlands).

Now, onto the game. Where to begin? Gorgeous hand-drawn art and animations, it strikes a perfect balance between visual flair and precise clarity needed to execute complex combos. The game runs perfectly even at a demanding 1440p 144+ FPS, with slight dips in extremely chaotic scenes, which are rare. If you play in 1080p at 60FPS, you should have absolutely no problem even with an ancient computer.

I can't talk about the art without mentioning how well-integrated the anime-ish Greek mythology theme is. Supergiant's version of the Greek pantheon and underworld is exquisitely fleshed out and the world brims with lots of surprisingly accurate references that will make mythology lovers smile.

As for the sound, I often gloss over it but in this case it really needs to be mentioned. This game has the best and most complete voice acting of any indie game I've ever played and is only rivaled by huge AAA open world games (which often have very bland and repetitive lines). Just to make an example, the latest update alone added 3500 new lines. You can play for tens of hours and not come across a single repeated line while also enjoying a constant feed of dialogue with every single character you come across.

Speaking of characters, the cast of this game is absolutely spot-on. Every single being you talk to has their interests, motivations and passions and they convey them perfectly with razor-sharp wit and fast delivery. Even the protagonist, who is usually kind of bland in these kind of games, is not afraid to have an opinion about everything and goes on a journey along with the player as an equal, not a simple puppet controlled by a keyboard.

The story does progress rather slowly, but trust me when I tell you that you will enjoy every small conversation you unlock, every interaction and every new collectible. Most of these also tie well with the gameplay, which is the next and final section...

This game would be an 8/10 if it had "good combat" like other Supergiant games. But this time, the gameplay manages to be on par with the audiovisual perfection. At its heart, it's an action dungeon crawler with a focus on unlockables, persistent progress and character development, both story-wise and combat-wise. You can play it as a chill story mode title or as a competitive time attack game where you try to always improve your runs, dodging perfectly, choosing the right upgrades and loadout and manipulating the game's randomness to your advantage. Or, of course, you can do both, if you have the time and skill for it.

The combat is initially simple, you move around, you dodge, you attack. But as you progress through each run, enemies get harder, you can delve further up (let's not forget that you're escaping Tartarus to go to the surface) and you have a huge variety of weapons, upgrades, buffs, punishments and passives to help or hinder you throughout each run. I really didn't expect to keep unlocking both gameplay-related items and story events 80+ hours into the game, and yet that's exactly what happened.

The only criticism I have of the game is that the balance of some items is a bit lopsided and the super late game can be a bit grindy/spammy, but the developers have been really active in implementing community feedback.

While perfection doesn't exist, I feel like a 10/10 rating is deserved because Hades goes above and beyond in every single aspect of its design.

It is a complete, lovingly crafted experience at a very reasonable price.