Hade Demo

Sometimes even the simplest concepts can gather huge crowds if they come at the right time and they are packaged in the right type of wrapping paper. Thus, presentation is very important as well, depending on the target audience. Video games can take advantage of this as well, although slightly more experienced gamers can usually detect when there’s no substance.

Hade is a puzzle game with extremely simple gameplay mechanics, yet the actual puzzles can keep you up at night because of the intricate combinations you must come up with. In short, the goal is to collect a couple of orbs using a blue gear, but you have to collect all of them in one smooth motion. To achieve this, you have to rearrange the level in order to achieve perfection.

Each level features a couple of tiles, and most of them are either empty or with some kind of item on them. These items range from arrows to a variety of other useful contraptions, and all of them must be used to achieve the correct route from one tile to the other. As you might expect, the arrows dictate the direction of the blue gear once it leaves the tile in question, and you can rotate them in any of the four possible directions.

The annoying thing about Hade is that there’s usually a single solution you can reach, which makes creative thinking kind of useless. Naturally, this had to be the case, given the gameplay mechanics and the nature of the game, but it’s still a bit of a bummer. Other than that, it’s actually incredibly easy to understand how to play, even if there’s no text to guide you along.

As for the graphics, they are barely noticeable, given the simple nature of the action that takes place on the screen. Efficiency and elegance are key concepts, so even though there are only a couple of lines and dots visible at any given time, they still look pretty slick. The sound effects are great as well, but nothing out of the ordinary.

All things considered, Hade is actually a pretty ingenious game, especially since it’s so simple at first glance. Hence, it should have a bright future ahead, and you can help with that by voting for the game on Steam Greenlight.