Hades and its weird menu

Developed by Supergiant Games in SF, Hades is one of the best games of 2020, selling more than 1 million copies. It has amazing gameplay, mesmerizing graphics, an outstanding soundtrack that I listen to while driving, and jaw-dropping character development that has not been seen before in the rogue-lite genre it still has a critical problem. One that does not overshadow the amazing work that the developers at Supergiant have done yet, it can be frustrating.

In this game, you’re in the skin of Zagreus, son of Hades. Trying to escape the underworld because you’ve had enough of your dad. With each try, you have the chance to improve your character in various ways using the “Mirror of Night.” And it is in this mirror where we find the UX problem with this game.

This menu is supposed to appear after the first time you die, and on it, you can improve your character in various ways, you can get more base health, make sure you start the game with money or be able to dash 2 times in quick succession. This requires you to press the little plus button on the right side. So far so good, it makes sense that the plus buttons are used to add points to a specific character skill and thus become stronger.

However, when it gets to the button on the right side of the menu, things get trickier. This button is meant to take the player to the “other side” of the mirror, thus revealing even more options on how to improve the player’s skills. The problem is that, at first glance, it is hard to know what this button means, the icon is not very readable due to its size and at the same time, the user doesn’t even know that it is a button and the function that it has. In fact, I didn’t realize this was a button until I was about 20 hours into the game. Granted, after collecting 300 purple gems a dialogue that explains what this button does can be read. Nevertheless, dialogues are easy to skip and it should be the menu itself that tells you, “Hey look, I have a button here that can make your character stronger in other areas.” The way that they are doing it at the moment is using animation to get the viewer’s attention the first time these icons appear and it is a beautiful animation, though too subtle.

In order to solve this Supergiant Games could have opted for different strategies, one of which is using a different icon that is easier to read and also indicated that once pressed there will be a change in the mirror.

These two icons are better because they are more representative of what will happen if they are pressed, not to mention that they are also more interesting to look at which works as a better CTA.

Something else that could have been done is making sure that the first time you see this button it is highlighted, using the color of the new skills, green, and animating it, that way you get the user’s attention and make them curious about this new magical button that just appeared.

In the end, I don’t believe that people will stop playing this amazing game due to this UX mistake, neither they should. But I will say that it was very frustrating that there were many more customization options that could have helped me and every other player to make the gameplay experience of Hades more enjoyable and one can not even see them until hours have already been spent in the game as it happened to me.