Like a lot of people this weekend, I got my first chance to play the amazing ‘Hades’ by Supergiant because the game is now on Xbox Game Pass. I’ve had my game on my Steam wishlist since it was announced – Supergiant is one of those publishers you can always count on to deliver and ‘Hades’ does NOT disappoint.

The gameplay is an action, rogue-like. You play as Zagreus, son of Hades, who is hellbent (pun intended) on escaping the underworld and meeting up with the other side of his family on Olympus (for reasons that have yet to be revealed to me, but it doesn’t sound like it’s just for a family reunion).

Of course, fighting your way out of the underworld is difficult and Zagreus dies…a lot. Each time, he is able to level up certain skills, unlock new weapons and buffs but he also loses any boons he received from the Gods during his last adventure. He has conversations with the many other deities and dead hanging around in Hades’ waiting room, each one giving hints at the whole story behind his mission.

I, of course, have spent most of the time petting Cerberus (I just unlocked the achievement for petting him 10 times).

Everyone I had talked to who had played this game LOVED it so I was worried it wouldn’t live up to the hype or I just wouldn’t like the play style, but it has to be one of the most accessible rogue-likes I have ever played – it is FUN to learn those new moves and even dying isn’t as frustrating as I thought it would be. I do tend to find a groove and play through about 3-4 runs and then I need to take a break…but mostly because my thumbs are sore.

If you have Xbox Game Pass, I HIGHLY recommend downloading it. This is the kind of game that will be referred back to for years, there is a reason it won so many awards. It really feels like Supergiant took something from all of their previous games, all the best things, and created this. I’m not sure how they can top it but let’s not worry about that. Let’s just enjoy dashing and spinning and punching our way out of Hades.

The other game I have been playing a lot is ‘Green Hell’ in multiplayer mode with my partner.

This game is a survival story, also unforgiving in it’s own way, though playing multiplayer takes out the threat of complete loss of game via death – you respawn near the camp, just with items missing (unless you both manage to die…not sure what happens then but I don’t want to know!)

This game has quite the learning curve and I feel like during the first few hours, I struggled to stay alive and not feel frustrated, but once we started to create weapons and tools and FIRE, things got a bit easier. I’ve got about 20 hours in the game now. We are playing through the story – our girlfriend Mia went missing in the jungle and we fell and hit our heads, so we can’t quite remember everything but it is slowly coming back to us (you know the video game drill! – but are at a loss for where to go next so we are focusing on building up our camp.

In the game, you need to manage hunger, fatigue and also not get attacked by pumas, jaguars, scorpions, snakes, ants…pretty much everything in the jungle. Heck, eat the wrong thing and you could have food poisoning for several hours, cancelling out all the nutrients you had so carefully balanced in your diet for that day. And, of course, all of this effects your sanity meter, which you need to keep high to avoid hearing voices – this hasn’t been a problem for us *yet* but I also don’t venture far from the fire at night and avoid eating anything (like human flesh…oops) that hits your sanity hard.

The game can be a little glitchy at times, but it is made my a relatively small studio so I will forgive them and I think some of it is a multiplayer problem where things don’t spawn on my screen but spawn on the hosts screen, which has lead to confusion when I’m asking where the bananas went and I’m standing in front of the tree. But they work themselves out eventually and it doesn’t hurt the interactive portion of the game. I probably would not play thing game if Tim hadn’t asked me to and bought it for me but I am enjoying it as part of the team…even though we are both the exact same guy?

What did you play this weekend? And was it Hades and why? Let me know in the comments!