Hades

Hades is an action role-playing-game that was published for Xbox Series X in 2021 after being released also already for Switch and Windows back in 2020. It isn’t currently one of the latest games but since it was priced very nicely (I paid only 19 euros for the physical copy) and there were news in this Finnish gaming magazine, Pelaaja, about the next Hades game, Hades II, to be released soon, I decided to pick this game and start to go through it.

Hades borrows elements from different role-playing-games. You don’t actually gather experience points. You buy upgrades that will help you to finally complete the game. You can have different strategies along your way. I have played Hades for almost thirty hours now and I have reached the final boss of the whole game only once. There is a certain need for luck in your guest. Also you play the game you get to understand how the different enemies take action and you learn how you can defeat them more easily. One of the key matters is your level of health. You have to try to dodge your enemies when they are trying to get you.

While the story is not so deep Hades does offer a lot to play. You do die often but when the game progresses you get longer runs eventually. Hades takes some time to learn to play. so you understand how the enemies take their action and when is the proper moment to try to hit them with your weapon. There are many different weapons to choose from. You first have to unlock them and then you will get to choose which one do you prefer. I ended up using the type that reminds me of a rail gun. It can shoot twelve times, quickly, and then you have to reload. You can also shoot a grenade that makes lots of damage. My main way to try to complete this game has been to try to get a weapon upgrade that triples the damage and also makes you vulnerable to the grenade. There are many other upgrades for weapons available and you can also unlock features that make you get a nice upgrade more likely.

Hades has very nice controls in overall. It is a very nice and fun game to play when you get the hang of it. The graphics are made to remind of some cartoons. Of course I have to say that all of the characters take deep influences from Greek mythology. Many characters that help the main character as the story progresses are actually sort of gods. I just had a conversation about this game with my friend and we talked about if this game is actually a three dimensional one or not. I don’t have a clear answer to this. The graphics look nice and they work very well.

You will also get a code with your physical copy of Hades so you can download the soundtrack of the game. The music in Hades feels nice while not having any deeper relation. I am saying that the music has an effect but it isn’t actually in the center where everything happens in this game. There are just so many other elements in this game that hold your attention. Music is nice but not so appealing. I have to say that for example in games like Burnout 3 Takedown or the first Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater the music had a very important role and this is just not the case with Hades.

You get to move a lot while you try to dodge the attacks of the enemies. You have to time your attacks well so you can be victorious. You progress through the levels. There is an enemy boss that you have to defeat after every level until you finally get to battle with the main boss of the whole game. It is of course the Hades. So the whole game is about trying to escape from your father’s home. After you finally loose your life you will have to start from the first level, again. The game consists of these runs. I have now had almost one hundred runs that are also attempts to escape.

This is a very good game. If I would have to say something negative I would say that it seems in a way a bit repetitive as a game and it has only a few levels. It does give you a lot to play. After all I do have spent almost thirty hours playing it. The game mechanics and the way that you handle the main character are very good. This all makes Hades a very pleasant game to try to beat and also to play.

Diablo III – The Battle With Diablo

Last time I posted I was telling you that I am currently playing Diablo III once again. I have now managed to complete Act IV. I just defeated Diablo. The battle took some time but as I had a strong character it wasn’t a hard one. I made it with the first try. This can be explained through my dedication to develop intensively my character. Well, I had to concentrate for a while. Let me proceed and tell you how the battle went.

I have now, after this battle, a character that is on level 59. There is this kind of a logic of how your character develops in Diablo III. Basically you will unlock skills which are bringing your characters actions, like attacks, and so on, stronger. Of course you will also pick up some items that give you armor and more power to your attack, for example.

Some say that Diablo III is a wack video game. For me it hasn’t lost its appeal. You don’t have to drag health potions from town as was the case with Diablo II. This was actually my case when I played it with a Paladin character. I have always enjoyed playing with a character that has a strong attack and low skill level on magic. Someone might say that Diablo III is too easy or light on the player. I have to say that when you compare these games you are definitely in a tough company. I think all Diablo games that have been released to this day are worth getting into.

Let’s talk about my character a bit. It is a Crusader. There are seven character classes in Diablo III Eternal Collection. These character classes are Barbarian, Crusader, Demon Hunter, Monk, Necromancer, Witch Doctor and Wizard. I must once again confess to you that I have only played as a Barbarian and a Crusader. I like to use strong melee attacks and have a good sense when it comes to having a powerful armor. So, I am not going to explain so deeply about how these characters differ from each other. By the way, you can get your hands on some strategy guides either on the internet or in a form of a traditional published book. Since this is not a commercial I won’t provide a direct link this time.

There is point in adjusting your difficulty level. Bringing your difficulty higher you can achieve more experience points and level up more fluently. This was somewhat a strategy for me as I started playing Diablo III all over again with a new character. The difficulty level can be adjusted to very high values. I started as normal and then proceeded to Hard and then to Expert. I even played with Master difficulty for a while but changed soon to Expert. There are many other ways of how changing difficulty level will affect on how you are experiencing the game. For example monsters will have more durability and so on. Blizzard has utilized their software engineers and other professionals very fluently in this matter. I am talking about this game’s programmatic algorithms.

The battle with Diablo took me some tens of minutes. It was an easy battle since my character was so powerful. I have read that the character can be developed in this game to the level of 70. Then the development stops. We could discuss more deeply how algorithms of this game work. I am however not going to that. As I have earlier stated you should find information about that matter quite easily by using your favorite search engine.

There isn’t much more for me to tell you about this now a bit over ten years old action role playing game. I had my first touches with Diablo III as I played it with a PC back in the days. I soon also got a version for my PS4. This is actually my third console (Switch) with this game. I have played it a lot. This can probably exlpain why I am considering if it is a good idea to play this some more. Today, it feels easy to play Diablo III. There is however lots of deeper knowledge for a video game player like me still to be explored. This can be in form of different strategies and explaining to myself how these algorithms actually work.

How has this game actually been developed? This was released, as you must already know, by Blizzard. They have hundreds or maybe even thousands of people working with a game like this. So, its not only programming and developing algorithms. There are graphical designers, designers of discussion, dialogue and story, level designers, 3D artists and some people probably working also with the audio side of things.

This is basically everything I have to say about the fight with Diablo in Diablo III at the end of the Act IV. I am continuing to Act V soon. I will attach some more screenshots to my Instagram page of this blog. You can find them there. Please follow if you like the content. Peace!

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