Mythology is Perfect for Video Games
How ‘Hades’ shows the strengths of relying on ancient stories for inspiration
Supergiant games are known for making fascinating video games that usually marry beautiful storytelling with intriguing gameplay. Their latest title, Hades, raises this (deserved) reputation even further. For proof, look no further than The Game Awards list of game of the year nominees. Sitting alongside heavy hitters like The Last of Us Part II and Ghost of Tsushima you’ll find the comparatively small budget Hades vying for the year’s highest honor.
That Hades is an amazing video game is hardly news, especially to anyone who has read press coverage around the title. I want to take a few words to reflect on something that Hades made obvious though, something that in hindsight maybe should have been obvious for a while. It’s this: ancient mythology is a perfect setting for video games.
Hades is easily one of the best games I’ve played all year. It’s a rogue-like game set in Greek mythology, where players take control of Zagreus, the son of Hades (the god of the underworld). The goal of the game is to escape Hades’ realm, a goal that means constant battles with a variety of monsters and creatures standing in Zagreus’s way. As you might expect, the end of each unsuccessful run will put players right back at the start.
The game’s action is perfectly tuned and engaging. There’s a wide selection of weapons to choose from and each one feels meaningfully different in the heat of battle. Supergiant has always been great at making games that are fun to play, but in Hades they’ve truly outdone themselves. Each battle is fast and chaotic, and mastering the different skills and weapons is deeply satisfying.
However, what I like most about the game is how well the world it takes place in has been developed. All of the heavy-hitters from Greek mythology are present: Zeus, Athena, Artemis, Poseidon, and others. Each one also has a unique Supergiant twist to his or her personality. Their voices and dialog feel true to the old legends, but each god is also different in subtle ways as well. Given the pedigree of the developer, this narrative depth isn’t surprising at all and it’s one of the best reasons to play this game.
Hades may be the best video game adaptation of ancient mythology, but it isn’t the only one. Sony’s God of War (2018) loosely riffed on Norse mythology, though its characterization of major figures in this lore is much more vague than in Hades. There’s also an upcoming game this year titled Immortals Fenyx Rising that is promising a Breath of the Wild-like experience set in ancient Greece. It’s a lofty goal, but I’ll probably play the game if it delivers.
Hades and God of War are both triumphant successes and prove that mythology is a perfect setting for a video game. Games often ask players to act like heroes and pit protagonists against equally powerful foes. This is often a major power trip, one that makes so much sense if players are literally filling the shoes of mythical gods. This idea seems stunningly obvious the more I think about it, and maybe its one that more developers are paying more attention to as time passes.
Take, for example, the story of Hades. Zagreus wants to escape hell, but every time he tries he’s murdered brutally by one of his father’s creatures. In a normal video game, players would be asked to suspend their disbelief that Zagreus could survive all this physical abuse (a pretty normal video-game trope) and come back for more. But if Zagreus is a Greek god, then of course he can keep getting up again and again. He’s immortal, and death means nothing to him.
Or in God of War, Kratos’s many battles would be impossible for a man to withstand, but mean little to a god. Fighting ogres, trolls, and other (even larger) monsters may not be strictly easy, but it’s something the character can do again and again and again. I’m not saying that every game should star a divinity as the protagonist, but it often makes much more sense in the game’s universe if there’s a believable reason that the player can go through so much.
I hope that Immortals Fenyx Rising comes close to what Hades and God of War delivered. Ironically enough, the game was originally titled Gods and Monsters, a name I find infinitely superior. Even if it doesn’t though, the follow up to God of War is scheduled for a 2021 release date so there’s more god-inspired gaming coming up. If I somehow have my hands on a PlayStation 5 by that point, I know I’ll be playing that one as soon as I can.
Of course, what I might be truly drawn to is how well Hades and God of War executed on their premises. How many times have the stories of the Greek and Norse gods been told? Hundreds? Thousands? That Supergiant and Sony Santa Monica were able to make these tales compelling again by putting their own twists on the characters may say more about their storytelling skills than the subject matter itself.
But in closing, I can’t escape how captivating it was for me to play through both of these games, each time in the shoes of a mythical god. Feeling powerful in video games is nothing new, but the setting and story in each title felt perfectly matched to the actions my character performed on screen. And at the end of the day, I think the setting is what’s mostly responsible. There’s more on the horizon in this genre — I just hope it can come even close to what I’ve already seen.
The views expressed are mine alone and do not represent the views of my employer or any other person or organization.
