It's that Time Again--My GOTY 2020 Pick

Since the new year has officially rolled around, it's time for everyone on the interwebs to start declaring their GOTY picks.  Not to be one who isn't completely on trend (hahaha--I generally am not super up to date on my gaming selections), I decided I should join in on this pointless weighing of opinions.  I played a few "new" titles and there is one definite standout.

I've mentioned many times before my personal dislike of roguelikes, roguelites, and basically anything that uses the word "rogue" to indicate that most of the gameplay revolves around repeatedly bashing your head up against a metaphorical game wall.  I've tried the celebrated titles and generally get bored or frustrated with them within a very short timespan.  With this full knowledge of how much I don't do well with roguelikes, I decided to pick up Hades because I had read lots of very positive praise for it.  Hades managed to break my streak of absolutely hating roguelikes, which, I think says something about the quality of the game.  Hades is my pick for GOTY 2020.

Zagreus and his underworld foes.

What is it about Hades that has managed to break the streak of roguelike hatred?  One of my major difficulties with roguelikes is the repetitive nature with the only real goal being to simply get farther each time.  Simply getting farther is just not motivating enough for my peanut brain.  Instead, I need a reason to WANT to get farther.  Hades does this by using several different methods--the first one is by using a story.  Zagreus, the son of Hades, wants to escape from his virtual imprisonment in the underworld.  Each attempt to escape introduces Zag to a cast of Greek gods and other mythological characters who give you just a little sliver of information about the world or Zag's complicated family situation (no spoilers, but it gets messy and complicated).  You want to keep playing for the sake of unraveling the story and finding out what is truly going on in in this fictional world of Greek gods.

The characters themselves also give you a reason to keep playing.  As you speak to them (and the gameplay mechanics make it so you might not encounter the same character every run) you learn more about them and your relationship with them is strengthened.  You can also find nectars, which you can gift to them, which will also help build up the relationship meter.  As the meter gets stronger, these characters reveal more about their own stories and also about Zag's.  It's fun to hear the heartbreaking story of Achilles and Patroclus or to get to know the silly, shy gorgon Dusa.

One of the more gameplay related features of Hades that I enjoy is the shadow mirror/talent system.  As you progress and gather a special resource, you can use it to unlock strengthened abilities.  In a way this does make progressing easier than in a traditional roguelike--you get stronger the more you play, which means you have a better chance of clearing.  I'm sure the hardcore folks out there would scoff at this feature, but for someone who has traditionally felt stymied and bored with roguelikes, this feature helped make me want to keep playing because I know that I can make it farther.  It's also nice that you can swap out your talents at the beginning of each run.

There are also lots of other motivating reasons to keep Zag rocking and rolling through the underworld.  There are gemstones to gather so that you can make the underworld a slightly less depressing place to live by unlocking cosmetic features.  The boss at the end of each level drops a specific type of special resource that can be used to upgrade Zag's weapons or unlock special features (like using diamonds to unlock new songs for Orpheus to play while you take care of business between runs).  And simply trying to befriend the entire pantheon of Greek gods and goddesses is enough to keep you playing for a very long time.

So, for me, Hades is the rare roguelike that has managed to build in plenty of ways to motivate me to want to keep playing (even though, at its core, you really are doing the repetition).  I think figuring out how to crack that formula deserves some special praise.  If you haven't already grabbed Hades, do it!