Parents' Guide to Hades

Between the engaging action and story, the character progression, and randomly generated dungeons, this is not one to miss -- especially for fans of fantasy action and role-playing games. The first thing you'll notice about Hades is the attention to story detail, because you're not a generic protagonist looking to just hack and slash without rhyme or reason. The tight writing keeps you interested in who you are and how you fit into this story, and with your goal to escape the underworld, you've got something meaningful to work toward. After you familiarize yourself with the controls, combat is fast and frenetic, and you must constantly move to avoid attacks, such as projectiles, as well as steer clear of some elements in the environment, such as chasms, explosives, and spikes.

The game is tough, and because you must start back at a home base, you might think it's discouraging. But, because you can apply some upgrades in your room and get back at it -- with randomly generated content -- it doesn't deter you from continuing. If anything, you're even more motivated to try different tactics while fighting to see if you can advance to another major milestone, all the while uncovering more of the story and characters you meet along the way. Add the attractive graphics and stellar musical score, and it's easy to see why Hades is both a critical and a commercial success. Along with the high production, it's one of those rare games that's a complete package, between the tight controls, strong narrative and characters, deep action, and replayability. Sure, adding multiplayer would be so much fun, but shy of that, there isn't anything to complain about with this extraordinarily fun game -- which is only $30, compared to most games out today at at least twice the price. Kudos to Supergiant Games for the clear craftsmanship that went into building Hades. It's a hell of a good time.