Hades, Supergiant Games’ highly-anticipated action title, has finally left its Early Access stage. Thereby, giving players more hands-on experience to the game’s more polished and complete state.
While its core gameplay is what makes the title shine the most, there’s also to be said in the game’s rather adaptive script.
Polygon’s Mike Mahardy emphasizes the topic best when he posted a tweet displaying how the game’s NPC responds differently to certain player actions—in this one instance, involving one of the game’s Fury boss, Megaera. This NPC sends out a unique script according to the player’s choice of strengthening the protagonist via the mirror in Zagreus’ room.
https://twitter.com/mmahardy/status/1309179746429931522
Mahardy, in his tweet, cites how Meg takes on a reprimanding stance over the protagonist for overpowering himself. Only for the player to encounter a slightly different sentiment after resetting the upgrades, yet still have a link to the original chastisement, if done after the initial conversation.
“Hades” writer joins the discussion
Supergiant Games’ writer, Greg Kasavin, popped into the conversation to shed light on what makes Hades’ writing so adaptive.
But first, Greg has to corroborate on Mahardy’s statement, citing the fact that there’s a follow-up scene to the event. One which would appear differently corresponsive to the player’s relationship with Meg—pointing to specifically “three variations” around the “House of Hades” portion of the game.
There are also three different variations of the follow-up event back at the House of Hades depending on where your relationship with her is at at the time.
— Greg Kasavin (@kasavin) September 24, 2020
As is obvious from the outset, Kasavin claims that the game’s script is indeed designed to change in a logical manner, based on the effect of actions the player takes. Which, in the aforementioned, is a case of the protagonist becoming too powerful due to heavy reliance on upgrades.
As the game’s writer, Greg Kasavin’s work appears is involved in making such a level of scripting possible through the addition of certain conditions. However, he admits of not having comprehension over the entirety of his undertaking, claiming that it has become quite hard to track around the game’s release.
Another fantastic element
The level of versatility in the game’s script is indeed amazing. But that, alone, is not what makes the game interesting as a game title. For this reason, Kasavin also opened a discussion over the game’s critical aspect of death to progress through the story.
Dying is how you advance much of the story in Hades, so we didn't want a traditional 'easy mode'. But we did want a way for players to be able to progress through the story even if they were struggling against some of the game's tougher challenges (or just didn't want to deal). https://t.co/CKZtfe2cKa
— Greg Kasavin (@kasavin) September 25, 2020
In light of that subject, Kasavin goes on to tackle the issue of the game’s rendition of the “God Mode.” Which, while maybe a familiar term to some, actually works differently in Hades. In a tweet that announces the game’s official release, a video shows the mechanics of the God Mode, which involves lots and lots of dying, with a significant perk.
Image used courtesy of IGN/YouTube Screenshot