Hades


I've been playing Supergiant Games ever since Bastion came out. I didn't have a very high opinion about Bastion, largely because the combat didn't feel terribly satisfying. But then they kept making more games, and each and every one of them was in a different genre. Transistor had a brilliant turn based system, and Pyre was so original and so critically acclaimed that no one discussed it much. And how we have Hades, and I think they've finally perfected their style with this one. Not since Spelunky have I felt this satisfied in a roguelike.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Celeste

Image
Celeste is such an obvious labor of love. It does so much with so little, yet every aspect of its gameplay is fine tuned to perfection in a way that only the most sophisticated of games can be. Celeste lets you jump, slash forward and stick to walls. But there are many possibilities latent in these three mechanics, and each stage brings them out delightfully while telling a gripping story.
Read more

The Last of Us

Image
This scene from The Last of Us shall stay with me for a very long time to come. I think, more so than any trite message concerning how "the Earth abides" even without us (I really need to read that book), the sight of giraffes roaming a city brings home the fact that they very well could, if we had everything organized a little differently. Imagine a world where we respect boundaries enough to allow animals to cohabit with us in urban spaces. We do that with stray dogs back in India, but it's not very difficult to imagine how the same could not be extended to more "exotic" species as well. Obviously it's impractical right now: we just haven't attained the kind of species maturity to think of human animal relationships in that respectful sense yet. But perhaps some day; one can only hope. What stood out for me about this scene aside from its quiet spectacle, was how the giraffes weren't affronted in the slightest. 
Read more

Hyper Light Drifter

Image
To me, Hyper Light Drifter is what Zelda should always have been. I know this is a provocative thing to say, but Zelda, while having laid the template for so much, and so well, fails spectacularly on two things: currency, and combat. Combat in Zelda is more a matter of what equipment you have and less of skill. As for currency, the less said about those green emeralds the better. Platformers have you collect things for the sake of collecting things, it's true. But it's different for an action adventure game: there's so much you can do with the mechanics of money in a video game. Hyper Light Drifter has Zelda's exploration, puzzle solving (albeit very slight) but where it truly excels is the feeling it gives you after landing a rightly timed slash of the sword followed by two quick shots with your laser pistol. There's nothing quite like it in video gaming history. The pixel art is also beautiful.
Read more