Lena reviewed Hades (2016)

I've never cared about roguelikes. I care about this one because it's the only game I've played that solved the problem of death interrupting a story by making death the delivery mechanism for it.

Every run you lose, you come back and someone has something new to say. Not a barked line — actual movement. Relationships that shift by degrees over dozens of hours. The writing is doing something structurally that I haven't seen anywhere else, and it means the fiftieth failed escape attempt carries more than the first successful one would have in another game.

Supergiant have always written well and scored even better. This is the first time the structure itself is the achievement.

If you have bounced off the genre before, this is the one to try. The run-to-run mechanics are almost beside the point, and I say that as praise.