I just streamed a couple hours of the game on
Insomnia's Twitch channel (the game crashed near the end, which is understandable as it's still in Early Access):
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/375979270YouTube link for when the Twitch broadcast gets deleted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMxurQ9I6TcHades is a diablolike that has an emphasized action element, as opposed to most other diablolike games where aiming your weapons and dodging attacks comes into consideration to a lesser extent. Upgrades come every so often throughout the randomized dungeon in the form of temporary stat and mechanic boosts to your different attacks, which are wiped upon death. It's a difficult game due to the enemies being ubiquitous and barraging you with attacks from every corner. There are no invincibility frames or easy dodges, especially since you stagger after every dash.
The moves are few and simple but effective. Different weapons seem to be better or worse against certain enemies. The weapon upgrades will usually add a bonus to damage for one attack, or add a secondary effect to an attack.
It seems that a good strategy is to take things slow. Because of the dodge mechanics and the number of enemies on screen you will not progress far if you jump into the fray like you would in most pure action games. It's pretty tempting to jump in to make things go a little faster though, of course. You need to strike a balance so that things move at the right pace I suppose. It does make it slow compared to other action games that resemble
Hades as far as moveset goes, but the upside is that planning attacks is satisfying. Not that it isn't in other action games, but
Hades at least retains some of that satisfaction.
I actually find it quite similar to
Bastion in many respects.
Bastion had upgrades and ability choices as well. The difference is that
Bastion didn't slow down the action at all, it let you use two different weapons at once and had stages and a couple cool tunes that I remember.
Hades on the other hand has random enemy arrangements and a random dungeon layout. This means that the game maintains the same style of rooms and the same types of enemies for a long time, which might get monotonous depending on your temperament.
The upshot to the randomness is that the game lasts longer than
Bastion. That is one difference where
Hades outshines it. Progressing in this game is difficult (you don't rely on power creep as much as other diablolikes), so while you are learning how to best deal with enemies and moving through the dungeon, you are carefully picking minor upgrades that however add up over time. This difficulty and length probably makes it more satisfying when you reach a milestone or checkpoint or beat a mini-boss fight or whatever than it was in
Bastion.
The dungeon is not my favorite part of the game. I mean it is colorful and all but I would have preferred something a little more eyecatching. The enemies aren't bad. They each have a different moveset (many of them spam the same attack) and the different compositions do get interesting.
All in all I like the game, and will continue playing for a while at least.