Since the beginning of video games, developers have tried to make their games into interactive movies. It started with the adventure game genre of the 90s, and really took off in the 3D era as hardware unlocked the camera. However, making movies isn't cheap, and with the big budget comes the big grift. Between DLC, in-app purchase, and season passes, publishers do everything they can to give you opportunities to give them more money if you feel like it. To optimize for this, you can't get stuck too long. You need to see new content at a regular pace to admire the effort of the developer. The endgame for games of this pedigree is gorgeous graphics and lukewarm, predictable gameplay. Is this really what our games should be?
Hades, the latest from Supergiant, is a window into an alternate reality where interactive movies did not consume the industry. You follow Zagreus, the angst-riddled teenage son of the titular god. He's had his fill of the underworld, and wants to break out of his dad's domain. However, he's the son of a god, not the god of anything himself, so he needs to borrow the powers of his extended family to help him escape. If he dies in the attempt, well, he's already in the underworld, isn't he? He merely goes back to where he started to be taunted by his dad and receive words of encouragement from the other members of his household like Achilles. Eventually you do break out, and you discover why Zagreus is so desperate to leave. Not everything is exactly as it seems, and perhaps Hades isn't quite who you think he is. After all, when has a teenage boy ever been successful at taking the measure of their father?
You discover all this through exquisitely paced, witty dialogue between runs to the surface. The story unfolds in a somewhat procedural way, where various dialog and character development can happen in any order and different speeds depending on how quickly you choose to build relationships and what happens on your escape attempts. There is no branching dialogue, but nonetheless the effect is to make character development feel organic and responsive to your actions. Characters react to specific details in your gameplay, such as how far you went, what power ups you chose, and what accessories you equipped. Zagreus has a knack for saying what the player is thinking, a testament both to the writing and the triggers for game dialog. No interaction feels like it was from writers trying to fill space. This sounds like a story that could have been told as an interactive movie. The ingredients are all there: a polished script, compelling characters, and superb voice acting. However, by choosing the format they have, the writers were able to focus their resources on sound and script. Time well spent.
It's difficult to say which is better at driving the game forward: gameplay or story development. Supergiant exquisitely balanced the time spent at each so that nothing feels tedious. Dialog always feels relevant and moves the story at a brisk pace. Each escape attempt has sufficient choice and randomization that you never have the same experience twice. Indeed, once the credits role, you're more surprised than satisfied, knowing that there is so much left to do. Instead of offering you a quest log with multiple story threads to keep track of, the game chooses to invest you in the main story completely before taking you too far down the stories of its supporting cast. If this were an open world game, you'd be asked to do everything simultaneously, leaving Zagreus's story feeling unfocused and leaving us all to wonder if perhaps this teen's issue is undiagnosed ADHD.
Hades is one of the best games of 2020, a year when everyone can empathize with a character trying to escape the depths of hell. Its story of perseverance and healing is the one that we need; not the gruesome despair of The Last of Us 2. It seems people are noticing. According to Supergiant, over 1 million copies were sold within the first few days of leaving early access. Let their success be a lesson to more publishers out there chasing the interactive movie: gamers want to play games.