Hades is finally coming to Xbox and PlayStation systems, with both last-gen and current-gen supported. While Xbox One and PS4 players will enjoy a 1080p 60 FPS experience, those on Xbox Series X|S and PS5 will see this beautiful game rendered at full-fat 4K. After pouring hundreds of hours into this addictive roguelite on PC and Nintendo Switch throughout 2020, does it remain a must-play?
Before getting stuck into performance and feature differences across the various consoles, I will first point to my full Hades review from back in October 2020. That’s the piece to read if you want to see me gushing about Zagreus’ brutal, yet beautiful, journey.
To briefly sum up the full review: Hades is Supergiant Games’ best title yet, taking the hated cycle of retrying the same checkpoint over and over again, flipping it on its head with rewarding progression, and making the player genuinely look forward to starting anew.
Hades Xbox Series X|S Review
Hades on Xbox Series X|S is one of the best games currently on Game Pass. Get this downloaded! (If, at the time of reading, Hades has left Game Pass, the full price is still very reasonable for the content offered.)
Hades on both Xbox Series X and S outputs at 4K with a target frame-rate of 60 FPS. In our testing, the frame-rate remained consistently smooth, with no perceptible drops in performance. Series S users might have been expecting 1440p, but it’s true 4K.
The reason for the similarities between S and X? Well, Hades is easy to run. Its stylized visuals may be very appealing and it’s certainly one of the best-looking games out there, but it doesn’t require much graphics grunt to output smoothly.
Hades PS5 Review
Hades on PS5 has a launch price of $24.99. For that, users get 15+ hours of story content with countless more hours spent in the endgame loop to further develop Zagreus’ skills and relationships.
I couldn’t perceive any differences between the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of Hades. Aside from the obvious buttons changing, everything else appears identical. 4K 60 FPS all day long with the same level of details. It looks fantastic!
Hades Xbox One and PS4 Review
Hades on Xbox One and PS4 might technically be a “last-gen experience,” but the only limitation is the resolution. 60 FPS remains the target and details seem to be a match for current-gen.
The crispness of Hades in 4K vs. 1080p is very clear on my 65″ TV, but smaller screens can still get away with the lower resolution output. If you’re still rocking last-gen on an average-sized display, Hades won’t be compromised in any meaningful way.
Hades Review: What’s the best version?
The best version of Hades is PC, with its ability to run at 4K 60 FPS and synchronize saves with the Nintendo Switch.
Though it’s disappointing to learn that cross-save isn’t feasible for the PlayStation and Xbox versions, everything else about the game remains intact. 4K 60 on the latest generation of consoles is a joy to witness, with even the Series S pushing out the vast number of pixels. It’s an experience that’s indistinguishable from the PC version, which is the highest praise when it comes to performance and quality.
With another 20 hours invested into the console versions, I’m happy to confirm that, yes, Hades remains an absolute must-play that PlayStation and Xbox users can finally get their hands on. Even for those who aren’t diehard roguelite fans, the addictiveness of the gameplay and characters is something that all gamers will love.
Hades is a huge win for developer Supergiant Games and I can’t wait to see what’s next. Hopefully the team gives the roguelite formula another go, perhaps with a different mythology. Ancient Egypt, anyone?
Game Revolution reviewed Hades on PS5 and Xbox Series X. Code provided by the publisher.
