Hades

Most action roguelikes treat story as garnish — a few lore scraps between runs. Hades, developed by Supergiant Games and released September 17, 2020, treats every failed escape attempt as a story beat, weaving character relationships and plot revelation directly into the repetition that defines the genre. Dying is not a reset; it is a return, and the world reacts accordingly.

You play Zagreus, immortal prince of the Underworld, fighting through procedurally arranged chambers of Tartarus, Asphodel, Elysium, and the Temple of Styx toward the surface. Each run is built around a primary weapon — six are available, ranging from a sword to a bow to a rail — and augmented by Boons, power-granting gifts from Olympian gods including Zeus, Athena, and Poseidon. Boons modify attacks, specials, dashes, and calls in ways that stack and interact, producing meaningfully different builds across runs. Choosing between offered Boons at each room reward is the primary moment-to-moment decision layer, and because the pool is wide, no two runs assemble identically.

Combat is real-time and read-and-react: Zagreus has a fast attack, a slower special, a dash with its own invincibility frames, and a rechargeable cast. Each weapon changes the rhythm entirely, and Boons can redirect almost any ability, so the mechanical feel shifts substantially depending on which gods appear and which weapon you started with. Guardian bosses punctuate the biomes and adapt slightly to prior encounters, rewarding pattern recognition across multiple attempts.

Permanent advancement comes through the Mirror of Night, which is purchased with darkness gathered during runs, and through Contractor upgrades to the House of Hades hub. Relationships with the large, fully voiced cast — gods, shades, and monsters — deepen through repeated conversations and gifted Nectar, unlocking unique dialogue arcs that collectively constitute the game’s central narrative. The story has a designed conclusion that requires multiple successful escapes to fully resolve.

Hades launched into Steam Early Access well before its v1.0 release and arrived at full release on September 17, 2020. Supergiant issued a steady stream of patches through late 2020 and into 2021, refining balance and content post-launch. The game received a Game of the Year nomination in late 2020 and in December 2021 won the first Hugo Award ever given for Best Video Game. In December 2022 Supergiant announced Hades II for Steam Early Access, which reached its own v1.0 in September 2025, marking the five-year anniversary of the original’s release.

Where Dead Cells offers a similarly fluid action roguelite but keeps its world largely silent and its protagonist voiceless, Hades makes narrative accumulation across runs its most distinctive feature.