Hadeswas and is a new hallmark for roguelikes, combining incredible and captivating gameplay with the art and story Supergiant Games are known for to make for a powerful experience. Fans fell in love with the wonderful characters that continue to grow over the course of runs alongside the gameplay that just continues to throw on ways to get more out of it with heat, new weapons, and so many challenges.
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Despite the game seeming endless, the well runs dry at some point, and Hades fans by now are hungry for a new title. While fans await the much-anticipated sequel, fans are left to find other titles to fill the hole it left behind. Thankfully, there are plenty of games that Hades followed in the footsteps of and that will scratch the same itch Hades did — here’s 10 of the best.
10The Binding Of Isaac
Dungeon crawling is perhaps the most popular genre for roguelikes due to being the origin of the genre, and when it comes to dungeon-crawling roguelikes, none are more legendary thanThe Binding of Isaac. The Binding of Isaac is a Zelda-like dungeon-crawler roguelike that sees you escaping your homicidal mother as you descend through the hellish realm of your basement, collecting items and beating bosses to descend further.
The thing that makes Isaac so enjoyable is the sheer amount of content you can unlock with new floors, new bosses, entirely new routes and endings, new characters, and new items, all of which are randomized on runs and open to incredible synergies — andones that’ll ruin any run. It makes it so the game is left a bit too much up to RNG, but that’s part of the fun, so if you’re willing to deal with that, Isaac is a very fun time.
While certainly not as hard as some other roguelikes can be, Hades is still a game that can punish the player quite a bit, and that’s part of the appeal. So, for players who want more of that challenge,Celesteis the perfect test. Celeste is a 2D platformer that sees you controlling Madeline, a young woman whostruggles with depression and anxiety, as she attempts to scale Celeste Mountain.
Celeste is a game known for its brutal challenge, offering not only tough levels on their own all with new mechanics to learn, but additional levels of challenge to take on with tougher variants or collectibles to find. But, this ends up feeling great due to not only quick respawn times but the incredibly tight controls that make everything feel perfectly fair, offering a ton of extra depth. Combine this with a heart touching story about mental health, and you have a fantastic game.
8Disco Elysium
Part of what made people fall in love with Hades was the character writing, with each character being given plenty of depth to dive into and explore them thoroughly. For those looking for another story with such depth,Disco Elysiumoffers that and more. Disco Elysium is anincredible isometric RPGthat sees you as a cop with amnesia waking up in a strange world full of turmoil, both political and personal, as you have to try to solve a case and figure out who you are.
Disco Elysium is a game that goes far beyond the level of Hades in how deeply it explores the characters and its world. Every single thing you can find offers such a rich narrative experience that it can be a little overwhelming, but getting so deeply immersed in all of it is utterly perfect. Every character is more than their surface and every scene is used perfectly. The only warning to be aware of is that Disco is far more heavy than the more comical tone of Hades, but if you’re able to handle that, Disco Elysium offers a once in a lifetime experience.
7Nuclear Throne
Roguelikes are usually known for being incredibly brutal, difficulty-wise, but in terms of the genre, Hades is quite forgiving with success eventually turning into an inevitability even on high heat. So for players who may want a more difficult experience,Nuclear Throneis the perfect option. Nuclear Throne is a top-down shooter that sees you navigating a strange post-apocalyptic world, collecting mutations and weapons in search of the Nuclear Throne.
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To call Nuclear Throne a fast-paced game would be an understatement, as runs can go lightning fast, and you can die just as quickly. Nuclear Throne doesn’t pull a single punch as it will drown you in enemies and explosions, but you can do the same to everything around you. It’s a chaotic game that is both completely based on skill, yet you barely feel in control, and it’s great. It may be a game you’ll never actually beat, but it’s a fun ride.
6Signs Of The Sojourner
The characters of Hades are so easy to fall in love with; talking with them and finding out more about them ends up being just as engaging as the high octane hack and slash gameplay, and Signs of the Sojourner is a game that achieves something similar. Signs of the Sojourner is adeck-building card gamebased around conversations that sees you traveling a post-apocalyptic world to trade for items and save your small town.
Signs of the Sojourner is an interesting twist on deck-building games as the card game is collaborative, seeing you taking turns to match up enough cards with your opponent to successfully talk, and the system has a lot of depth to it. But, the main draw is the world and characters, which are filled with so much charm and life, each one having unique personalities and stories to tell if you sink time into them. Just like in Hades, you can pick and choose and find your own stories among them.
5Enter The Gungeon
When it comes to roguelikes, there’s a spectrum between them relying on RNG and them relying on pure skill. Hades lands squarely into the skill category with a hint of RNG alongside another game:Enter the Gungeon. Enter the Gungeon is a top-down shooter that sees you descending into an ancient ‘gungeon’ full of bullet- and gun-themed monsters, shooting your way through it to obtain the ultimate gun: The Gun That Can Kill The Past.
Past its funny theming, Gungeon is an incredible top-down shooter. It won’t be giving the instant dopamine rush that others do, though. Instead, Gungeon’s items only act as options, and the game demands that you learn itsbullet-hell mechanicsof dodging, using blanks, and surviving the insane boss fights it throws at you. Gungeon is a game that can take a bit to really get going, but improving and earning your eventual victories is so sweet.
But to get more of Supergiant’s unique energy and way of telling their stories and games, it’s easiest to go right to the source; that is, their very first success:Bastion. Bastion sees you as a strange kid having to explore a world torn apart, fighting against the calamity, and trying to figure out what happened.
Bastion was the start of Supergiant and has a lot of the hallmarks you expect from the studio — lots of additional content, gorgeous art and music, and of course a unique way to tell its beautiful story, this one having a narrator who will constantly react and keep up with your every action. The only thing holding Bastion back is that, due to its age, the gameplay can feel a little janky at times, but it still does the job and is plenty fun.
3Transistor
While Bastion may be a little flawed, Supergiant always carries their learning forward, leaning all the way into such creative gameplay withTransistor. Transistor is a strange take on an RPG, seeing you control Red, a singer with their voice stolen, as she attempts to take down a group converting the city into something artificial.
The gameplay of Transistor is genius, a combination of real-time top-down combat that is frantic and exciting — until you activate your ability to pause the game and perfectly plan out your actions before unleashing calculated pain on your enemies. It makes for an excellent gameplay loop, especially as using these various abilities and upgrading them offers you additional story and information on the world around you.
2Children Of Morta
Hades isn’t the only game that had the idea for storytelling through a roguelike; it just happened to be a bit more popular than the others, and one of those games is the lovelyChildren of Morta. Children of Morta is a dungeon crawler that sees you take control of various members of a family trying to protect against a corruption of evil.
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Children of Morta handles things a bit differently to Hades in allowing for far more varied playstyles for each of the family members, from healers, to long ranged attackers, close ranged tanks, and more. It allows for a lot of customization in upgrades and even allows for you to make a team with friends in co-op. Combine that with a story that opens up between runs and a beautiful pixel art style, and you have a great game.
While the other games Supergiant has made have all been moderately to incredibly successful, there is one that wasn’t, and it is something Hades fans will likely love:Pyre. Pyre is a strange mix of visual novel and sports game, seeing you exiled into the strange Downside, forced to team up with fellow exiles to earn your freedom in a competition known as The Rites. You’ll travel the Downside and use your team to defeat others and earn your place back home.
Pyre combines two distinct styles of gameplay: Traveling with your exiles and the Rites. Travel is where all the story happens, where you get to know these incredibly well written exiles and fall in love with them, potentially choosing to spend more time with them to upgrade them or using your time elsewhere. Getting to know them matters, and you’ll have to use their unique abilities in the Rites. The Rites are a strange game sort of like basketball that becomes utterly electric, full of action and strategy coming together. These matches are such a blast and allow for so much player freedom and strategy with your team and how you’re able to win. Pyre is a strange game, but it’s easily one of the best made — and the closest to scratching that narrative itch that Hades left you with.
