Better on Hard: Hades

Videogame difficulty is a weird thing, as the level of challenge is such a personal and subjective topic. How does one account for a new player vs a veteran? Usually, it comes down to upping damage taken and lowering damage done, but sometimes you come across a game that somehow comes alive when the difficulty is turned up to 11. Be it with new mechanics, emergent qualities, or simply a need to be more tactical, these games manage to change a plain experience into something… more. This time, we’re looking at possibly my favourite use of mechanics difference to add difficulty, Hades. Beware of spoilers.

So far in this little series discussing difficulty in our favourite electronic pastime, we’ve mostly looked at instances where a game has gone against “good difficulty” and opted for the easier approach of more damage or more enemies, but still emerged as a better experience. As such, I thought it’s about time we explore a title that actually does follow what I’d call good difficulty guidelines.

In the isometric roguelite Hades, once you have completed your inaugural trip to the surface, you will unlock the Heat system. As you set off to brave your father’s realm yet again, you are given the option to activate modifiers, which will increase your Heat level and make the journey more challenging. For example, you could give all of the enemies an extra layer of protection, give yourself a time limit, or give the bosses a few extra tricks to even the odds (more on this later).

In addition to bestowing more of a challenge for the sake of difficulty, each Heat level also unlocks treasures to be won by beating the many floors of the underworld with the pieces of Zagreus’ impressive armoury! This, in itself, is an amazing addition to a roguelike, as running through the same stages can get old fast if the amount of resources you get per run starts to decrease bit by bit. It’s also a good way to gently push the player into slowly increasing the challenge instead of being a binary toggle.

An additional reward for keeping Heat high is access to Infernal Gates, red portals that appear randomly on some floors. Each gate requires your Heat to be at a set number, and if the requirements are met, the player is taken to a new area, the realm of Erebus, which also happens to be the primordial manifestation of darkness and Nyx’s husband. Once dropped in, our hero must clear the spawning Super-Elites without nary a scratch, lest daddy dearest gives us an earful.

Now, about those few extra tricks the bosses can gain. Called Extreme Measures, this Condition will change how the bosses act within the game by altering their arena, giving them different moves, or even adding completely new enemies to fight! This is a pretty nifty addition in itself and a great way to make a boss more threatening without falling back on percentile changes to defence or attack. What makes it even better, however, is that the changes are addressed within the world of the game!

For example, the first rank of Extreme Measures will change Megaera’s battle to feature her siblings, Alecto and Tisiphone, as support. In addition to dealing with one Erinyes, which is hard enough as is, you will have to deal with one or both of the remaining siblings popping in and making your headache into a migraine.

The genius of Extreme Measures is, however, not quite done, as there is one more facet that makes it so good: this multiplier cannot be increased before clearing a run at the current level. Sure, needing to prove your worth to unlock the next level of difficulty is nothing new to games, but here, each new rank adds new mechanics to the next boss down the line; first, you’ll add more Erinyes, then the Bone Hydra will redecorate, and so on. Adding something new, but placing it even further into a run is less carrot-on-stick, more golden-egg-shining-on-mountain-top, but the escalating challenge and distance only adds to the incentive.

If a simple challenge increase in itself is not enough, some of the additions Extreme measures bring are just too amazing to miss. For example, Theseus, my hands-down favourite, eschews his usual spear for an honest-to-Olympus mecha-chariot, complete with gattling guns, whereas Asterius will be decked out in golden armour. I wish I had that type of creativity! You can hopefully imagine the chaos said battle becomes.

Even the final opponent Zagreus faces, Hades, is affected, with the final level of Extreme Measures making the fight a fascinating one. Mirroring his unruly son, the god summons aid from the loyal Cerberus mid battle, calls upon a burst of temporary power, and uses both his weapon and floaty orbs (or Casts, perhaps) to their utmost in an epic duel that really reminds you of the two and their similarities in both stubbornness and ability. To quote a tired meme, the true Hades starts here.

Naturally, it’s not perfect. As we like to remind ourselves, difficulty is mercurial at best. However, being able to craft a system where you yourself can define what areas are more or less difficult is closer to balanced and well-paced difficulty than any other studio I’ve seen so far. With Hades II stewing in Early Access, it is difficult to know how they will further refine their method or if they will present us with something completely new, but I am beyond excited to see the next step, be it fumble or leap.