Previews
[Early Access Preview] ‘Hades’ is Supergiant Games’ Darkest Title Yet
“Few tales are told of Hades, whose very name inspires fear and penitence, reminding us of the inevitable fate which we all share. I, however, meant to tell you such a tale. Listen carefully.”
Starting out in the wilds of Caelondia with Bastion, running through an erasing city in Transistor and sacrificing everything to escape from an eerie purgatory in Pyre made for unique scenarios and memories. But Hades is yet something else entirely, diving into hell itself in what it feels like the darkest game of the studio to date.
Supergiant Games always enjoy to innovate, boasting isometric hack & slash titles with a mix of turn-based and even sports elements throughout the years. While the stories, characters, and themes had nothing in common, they all share a strong focus on narrative and sticking to their own lore, as weird and esoteric as they might be sometimes.
But now, the studio’s latest is based on Greek mythology, and from the perspective of probably the most feared Gods of all tales: Hades and his underworld. Commanding his son, Zagreus, we are introduced to Supergiant’s take on the roguelike genre, with another particularity that is an Early Access, meaning that unlike previous experiences, we are deprived of the full story just yet.
Though as it stands, we can already grasp some of the mechanics, weapons, and iterations to the genre, all wrapped around a singular element that sets it apart from the studio’s legacy: blood, darkness, curses, and attempting to defy Hades himself to escape from the underworld.
From the moment I first saw Zagreus dying in the reveal trailer of the game, I could feel we were upon a dark and ruthless setting, uncommon for the known legacy of the studio. Once the main character perishes in battle, his lifted to the air, only to fall inside a pool of blood where he drowns, all of this happening while a message reminds us that “there is no escape”.
Again and again, does Hades tell his son that leaving his realm is impossible, but yet the character mocks his words and continues to go and get killed endlessly. Both here and in Greek mythology, it is known that the so-called House of Hades was meant to remain shut for eternity, portrayed as a home for new “guests”. Whoever tried to leave was met by Cerberus, a giant three-headed dog guarding the main gate, who is portrayed as a very good boy in Hades.
There’s a depiction of horror pretty much everywhere we see: the river Styx is presented in darkest red, with waves of hands coming out from its interior, and you can see souls in green robes, floating and sometimes interacting with each other. Hades is always omnipotent, mocking and challenging his son in every opportunity that arises, sometimes delivering striking voice lines: “Family? Death is your only family. Death and I. Better get accustomed to the both of us.”
If I were to think about an evolving state in Hades, that would be violence. Both from the words of his father to his surroundings, Zagreus is always in the line of mental and physical damage, but he’s empowered by this thanks to his personality. Instead of giving up, he’s always encouraging both himself and the player to push forward, to try again and get as far as you can through Tartarus and beyond.
In Hades, there aren’t different weapons to use simultaneously, but rather leans on using only one at the time, which offers a group of primary and secondary attacks. The sword leads a huge amount of damage within a decent range, while the bow can be fierce if timed correctly, but can also shoot in a fast manner covering a short range.
By far, the ones I’ve been using the most are the spear, perfect for quick consecutive attacks, and a shield that can knockback and be used as defense while you charge for a devastating blow. And while they may sound a bit discouraging to be entitled to just one weapon at the time, the Gods from the Olympus are more than willing to lend a hand and add variety in Zagreus’ trips.
Ares can modify your attacks or even your behavior with a revenge skill, securing an attack whenever you suffer damage. Zeus can grant lighting bolts for whenever you dodge or use your primary attack, while Aphrodite offers a unique skill to weaken enemies for a few seconds. These are all offered randomly, and as we’re used from the roguelike, everything else is also procedurally generated.
But the game does something interesting, which is displaying an icon at the door with the reward you’ll be getting in the next room, either help from the Gods or Darkness, the game’s currency (aside from gold) used for unlocking and upgrading passive skills back in Zagreus’ room.
Everything sums up to deliver a fast-paced experience, with a new score from Darren Korb that meshes songs that sound like a Mastodon album with electric guitars and melodies that sound ancient. Boss fights are particularly vibrant and energetic, although it’s a shame to have only a handful available at the moment. Still, coming up with the best combination of skills and your mastery with a weapon takes more than a few hours of preparation, and enemies will do everything on their disposal to keep you in practice mode and train your reflexes.
But the dark tone is always there, in every encounter with Hades after resurrecting from a pool of blood, to all the damage you deal to enemies, also portrayed as splatters of said substance with each hit. While Supergiant is busy forging the mechanics and their own vision of Greek mythology, in particular with chthonic Gods (those who are born from the underworld), they are shaping a very obscure experience that isn’t afraid to shock you with its malevolent attention to detail.
Hades is available now in PC Early Access via the Epic Games Store.
The gaming world owes so much to David Lynch. “Twin Peaks” alone has inspired the premise and setting of so many games, from Deadly Premonition to Alan Wake, and its dreamlike tone is one that’s perfect for an interactive medium.
Silver Pines, the upcoming title from Swedish-based indie developer Wych Elm, is the latest in the lineage of Lynchian games, this time presenting survival-horror-style gameplay from a 2D perspective. While I’m not traditionally as hot on 2D games, after spending time with the demo, available now on Steam, I can’t wait to see more of this intriguing new world.
It starts out simple. After a brief, narrated dream sequence, you wake up in an empty diner in the small American town of Silver Pines. There’s a quick tutorial sequence that teaches you the game’s mechanics as you escape from the diner, followed by a phone call that sets up the premise of the game. You play Red Walker, a private investigator on the hunt for a missing musician named Eddie Velvet. It’s an elegant bit of exposition that’s delivered with a slightly dreamlike vibe, setting the tone for what’s to come.
As you begin to explore the titular town, you find it eerily abandoned, thanks to an evacuation order that’s caused the majority of the residents to take the ferry out of here. Empty streets and vacant buildings bring to mind Silent Hill, which is a great start in my book. There’s something really unique and special about small town horror like this, and Silver Pines is able to capture it immediately without feeling too much like a tribute act.
Navigating the Unique 2D World of Silver Pines
One of the things that impressed me immediately was how easy I found it to navigate the 2D space. Much like the indie classic Lone Survivor, you have a map that represents the space, and you turn down streets and hallways by pressing up or down at certain openings in the background to “turn” on the map. It seems like it should be incredibly difficult to follow directional shifts like this, but it becomes immediately intuitive, especially with the addition of diegetic signage that guides you without feeling out of place and handholdy.
I usually associate 2D games with more dynamic jumping and movement mechanics, but Silver Pines keeps things grounded, managing to find ways of creating navigation challenges without resorting to platforming tests that would feel out of place in a narrative like this. The map is particularly excellent in this game, as you can use a camera to add photos to it to help remind you what’s there. I love it when main characters mark up maps with locations of puzzles or items, and putting that power in the player’s hands was an interesting mechanical wrinkle that felt helpful and unique.
The other thing that gripped me from the start was the art style, which uses a slight cel-shading technique for the character models that makes them look hand-drawn. They really pop when compared to the backgrounds, which have a slightly different, but complementary, style to them. Wych Elm also shows off a masterful understanding of lighting, creating a shadowy look that’s never too dark to understand what’s going on.
The way the various layers of background and foreground give a parallax effect as you walk adds so much depth to every moment, making the imagery feel more dynamic. This game is treading familiar ground, with abandoned hotels and empty small town streets, but the unique look sets it apart enough to justify it among its peers.
Puzzles Balance Logic and Surrealism
Aside from just navigating the spaces, you’ll need to solve a variety of puzzles in order to progress. Many of them are just finding keys to open doors or figuring out which item is helpful in which situation, like an adventure game, but there were a few in the hour-long demo that gave me a level of satisfaction in actually figuring something out. Like the best survival horror games, the puzzles are an equal bit grounded in reality and slightly surreal, adding to the tone of the game. One of them gave me a Silent Hill vibe with its logic, asking me to win a BB gun shooting range mini game to get a pool key (which also teaches you how to use weapons).
While the game isn’t crawling with enemies, there are more threats scattered throughout the levels than I expected. Early on, you get a blade to defend yourself, which also acts as a key to cut through doorways blocked by cloth, and it’s just the right balance of effective and clumsy. There’s a surprisingly useful dodge that lets you slip past enemies. With the right timing, it’s not too difficult to survive one-on-one encounters, but it’s also not so easy that you can go on autopilot. Once multiple enemies get into the mix, it starts feeling more desperate, forcing you to make smart use of your stamina and weapon durability to survive.
A pistol gets introduced late in the demo, and that also felt surprisingly punchy, but its power was balanced smartly by limited ammo. One of my favorite gameplay elements of survival horror is ammo management, and it seems like Silver Pines is going to make that a core part of its combat experience, asking you to think carefully about which enemies are worth your precious bullets. This is further complicated by the fact that your gun can also be used to shoot padlocks to access previously locked areas, making it an even more valuable resource.
Enemy Design is the Demo’s Biggest Question Mark
Ammo and tape will be crucial to the continued use of your gun and knife, respectively, and there’s a quick little minigame for reloading and repairing that adds some tension to encounters. In addition to scavenging for resources, there was a vending machine I ran across where I could spend money to buy ammo or health kits. Be careful, though, the money is what you use to save at the payphone save points, so you don’t want to spend it all. It’s a clever variant on the classic Resident Evil-style ink ribbon system that makes your resource for saving a more abundant currency, but one that is used for more than just saving.
There were a couple of mementos that I ran across while exploring, and these can be equipped to provide specific character modifiers. I’m not entirely sold on the system yet, as there weren’t enough in the demo to really be able to craft a meaningful build, but with the surprisingly fun combat I’ve seen so far, I’m hoping that they will allow you to shape your playstyle in a way that’s tuned to how you like it. Any new wrinkles on combat are welcome, as it will need to find ways to keep fresh if it wants to stay compelling throughout.
As much as I think the combat is responsive and interesting, I think the enemies might be the weakest part of the game’s identity. This could also be a symptom of just seeing the early game, but so far, they are a bit more indistinct than I’d like, consisting mostly of shadowy people and bugs that didn’t have much going on. There was a boss fight that had a bit more of a menacing design, but I don’t know enough about the full shape of the narrative yet to see if the enemy design is in sync with the tone it’s trying to achieve. Right now, they just feel a bit generic, but I’m hoping things improve as it goes on, because they are pretty fun to fight for a survival horror game.
A Strong First Impression
Back to the opening thoughts about Lynch, the part that has me most interested in this game is the narrative. It’s simple so far, but there have been some surprisingly effective surrealist sequences that make me think this story is going to be something that will sink its hooks into me. One of the coolest moments of the demo involved turning off a light switch and being transported into an entirely different space, one dripping with dreamlike vibes. Even the choice to have the person you’re searching for be a musician adds a nice bit of texture to the narrative, putting a thematic focus on the game’s music in an important sequence involving a performance.
The cutscenes shift to a distinct painterly style, making them stand out without having to animate them, and it’s all brought to life with great voice acting. There’s even a little show you can watch in bits on TVs you pass, feeling a bit like a nod to Alan Wake II’s “Night Springs”.
I’m going to be honest, watching the initial trailer for Silver Pines had me feeling a bit sceptical. Not everyone can nail that Lynchian vibe, and when you try for that tone and miss, it can leave you with a narrative that’s either confusing or pretentious. Based on my hour with Silver Pines, I’d say they are on the right track, ready to deliver a surrealist narrative that draws from its inspirations while still carving out its own identity.
No word on the release date yet, outside of a vague 2026 timeframe, but I’ll be there day one to check it out.
Silver Pines is scheduled to release on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
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