
Hades is a pretty popular game, didn't you know? Supergiant Games' beloved indie hit has earned itself yet another Game of the Year award, as well as several others, at this year's Game Developers Choice Awards.
Held on 21st July as an all-digital event, these awards are an annual affair in which the "creativity, artistry and technical genius of the finest developers and games created in the last year" are celebrated. Hades was the big winner of the night, taking home three awards in total, and actually beat Animal Crossing: New Horizons in its GotY quest.
A full list of winners and nominees can be found below.
Game of the Year
Hades (Supergiant Games)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo EPD/ Nintendo)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Honorable Mentions: Spelunky 2 (Blitworks, Mossmouth / Mossmouth), Doom Eternal (id Software / Bethesda Softworks), Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Microsoft Flight Simulator (Asobo Studio / Xbox Game Studios), Final Fantasy VII: Remake (Square Enix), Genshin impact (miHoYo)
Best Audio
Hades (Supergiant Games)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Doom Eternal (id Software / Bethesda Softworks)
Final Fantasy VII: Remake (Square Enix)
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Honorable Mentions: Half-Life: Alyx (Valve), Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo EPD/ Nintendo), Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Moon Studios / Xbox Game Studios / iam8bit), Fuser (Harmonix Music Systems / NCsoft)
Best Debut
Phasmophobia(Kinetic Games)
Umurangi Generation (Origame Digital / Playism, Origame Digital)
Carrion (Phobia Game Studio / Devolver Digital)
Mortal Shell (Cold Symmetry / Playstack)
Raji: An Ancient Epic (Nodding Heads Games / Super!Com)
Honorable Mentions: Call of the Sea (Out of the Blue / Raw Fury), Röki (Polygon Treehouse / CI Games), If Found… (Dreamfeel / Annapurna Interactive)
Best Design
Hades (Supergiant Games)
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo EPD/ Nintendo)
Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
Honorable Mentions: Final Fantasy VII: Remake (Square Enix), Crusader Kings III (Paradox Development Studio / Paradox Interactive), Spelunky 2 (Blitworks, Mossmouth / Mossmouth), Dreams (Media Molecule / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Innovation Award
Dreams (Media Molecule / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Microsoft Flight Simulator (Asobo Studio / Xbox Game Studios)
Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout (Mediatonic / Devolver Digital)
Hades (Supergiant Games)
Honorable Mentions: Astro's Playroom (Sony Japan Studio/Team Asobi / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment), The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Watch Dogs: Legion (Ubisoft Toronto / Ubisoft)
Best Mobile Game
Genshin Impact (miHoYo)
The Pathless (Giant Squid / Annapurna Interactive)
Legends of Runeterra (Riot Games)
Alba: A Wildlife Adventure (ustwo / PID Publishing)
If Found... (Dreamfeel / Annapurna Interactive)
Honorable Mentions: Pokémon Café Mix (Genius Sonority / Nintendo / The Pokémon Company), Reigns: Beyond (Nerial / Devolver Digital)
Best Narrative
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition (Cardboard Computer / Annapurna Interactive)
Final Fantasy VII: Remake (Square Enix)
Hades (Supergiant Games)
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Honorable Mentions: Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games), Half-Life: Alyx (Valve), Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt RED / CD Projekt), If Found... (Dreamfeel / Annapurna Interactive), Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment), 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim (Vanillaware / Atlus)
Best Technology
Microsoft Flight Simulator (Asobo Studio / Xbox Game Studios)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
Dreams (Media Molecule / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Honorable Mentions: Final Fantasy VII: Remake (Square Enix), Astro's Playroom (Sony Japan Studio/Team Asobi / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Best Visual Art
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Hades (Supergiant Games)
The Last of Us Part II (Naughty Dog / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Moon Studios / Xbox Game Studios / iam8bit)
Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt RED / CD Projekt)
Honorable Mentions: Final Fantasy VII: Remake (Square Enix), Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus Games), Umurangi Generation (Origame Digital / Playism, Origame Digital), Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Best VR/AR Game
Half-Life: Alyx (Valve)
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners (Skydance Interactive)
Paper Beast (Pixel Reef)
Dreams (Media Molecule / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Star Wars: Squadrons (Motive Studios / Electronic Arts)
Honorable Mentions: Phasmophobia (Kinetic Games), The Room VR: A Dark Matter (Fireproof Games), Iron Man VR (Camouflaj / Sony Interactive Entertainment), Microsoft Flight Simulator (Asobo Studio / Xbox Game Studios), Until You Fall (Schell Games)
Do you agree with the winners? Wondering what all the fuss is about with Hades? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below, and make sure to read our full Hades review if you're intrigued – the game also made it very far in our own 2020 Game of the Year rankings.
[source gamechoiceawards.com]
Comments 24
it deserves all the awards there are!
I've been looking at this for a while but I'm not a big fan of rouge like games so didn't want to invest into something that will likely never get played (like dead cells).
Luckily it's coming to GamePass next month so I get to give it a go and see what all of the fuss is about without wasting money and also getting the XsX Performance boost.
Never knew I would love a game like this totally.. it deserves all the recognition it gets. Great game.
As usual, game awards always lump the indies with the bigger games
well deserved Hades is that good of a game
Well deserved. I still play it regularly on Switch and pc but I quit ACNH two weeks after release. Sometimes I feel I should play it because I have missed a lot but eh, I can't find the fun anymore.
Brilliant game and well deserved win! I have put over 30 hours in and I'm not even close to being bored, hope they add free updates or full fat DLC. Out of all the nominations for game of the year Animal Crossing easily is the least deserving (in my eyes, just an opinion)
Haven't played Hades yet because I'm waiting for it to release on PS5 with 4K 60fps but I've heard it's more than fantastic so I'm totally gonna try it. Well done, Supergiant!
@Mr-Fuggles777 I'm also not a huge Rogue-like guy, but Hades is very, very good. The narrative through-line makes a big difference compared with others in the genre. I hope you enjoy it.
Unpopular video game warning! (Having played it) I think despite being a great game, that it's being a bit... well, overrated.
Sorry in advance if I offended anyone's sensibility. You know how this goes, it's all subject to subjectivity in the end.
@inenai Nothing wrong with that! Everyone finds some of the games on that list overrated.
It’s one thing to not like a game — overrated means to say everyone else is wrong in their opinion. What about the game didn’t work in your view?
@Mr-Fuggles777. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts after you play it. Hades is really more of an anti-rogue, in that it turns the progression structure upside-down. The loop is how you progress, as opposed to how the player is punished.
@Isle_Delfino_Man I can see that, but there’s also a case to be made that Animal Crossing is the only deserving nominee for a 2020 game of the year. It’s certainly the Game of the Pandemic. No other title maybe ever paired so well with the real-world needs of gamers across the globe in it’s time. It’s a weird accomplishment as it was by circumstance, not the game’s design, but if we’re not talking about games in the context of their time, what’s the point of having yearly awards, right?
@Entrr_username Why shouldn’t they have indies with AAA? They’re not the Biggest Budget Awards.
Very, very well deserved. Hades has become my most played game of all time; it is refined and addictive and ups the rogue-lite game over Dead Cells.
I have soooooo many hours into this game. It's such a great game!
Congrats to Hades! I bought it the other day and I'm looking forward to hopping into it.
That said... It breaks my brain that I feel like I still have to say this. I'm sure Hades is fantastic, but how is it better than The Last of Us: Part 2 or Ghost of Tsushima? How?
Imagine if TLoU:2 hadn't been spoiled by the leaks that came out online prior to its release. The controversy surrounding that game would have been minimized to a pretty small majority. As I said, I'm sure Hades is great, but TLoU:2 is one of the greatest games, if not, the greatest game, I have ever played in my life, bar none. I have thought about TLoU:2 almost every single day since I played it last year. I have never played a game that has done that to me. Narratively, there is NOTHING like it. This game made me hate my enemy beyond anything I have felt while playing a game and then bam they literally make me walk in their shoes. TLoU:2 taught empathy on a scale I have never experience in a work of art before.
Right now, a lot of people still hate this game. It is no wonder that a game that taught how to have empathy for your enemies was so hated during 2020.
Give it a few years. Let the dust settle, and then people will eventually think you're the crazy one for not loving or at least appreciating this game.
@B_Lindz It’s an utterly amazing game. Just replayed it over the summer on PS5, and yeah, just unbelievable gameplay and story. Being able to go prone let me live my best Metal Gear Solid life! And yeah, the story is just incredible. I really hope this HBO show does the series justice…
I’ve downloaded Hades on my Switch, but yet to play it… Lotta hype happenin for this game… can’t be for nothing! I’m excited 🤗
Hades is a great game with so many powerful character moments you almost never get in the rogue types. Mending the broken hearts of Achilles, Patroclus, Eurydice and Orpheus just feels really damn good, and the Lament of Orpheus is one of the best songs ever to appear in a videogame. Arriving back in hell to find that the background music has changed, only to hear a sorrowful wail float across the room, and realize that Orpheus has found his voice again is a stunning experience. A masterpiece, a national treasure, and a bloody wonder.
Hades is certainly a master piece..if only my carpal tunnel allowed me to play for longer than 20 minutes without my hand becoming a claw.
@Deady gee thanks for the spoiler numbnuts.
@Entrr_username "As usual, game awards always lump the indies with the bigger games"
I'm not sure if you mean that it's not fair that great indie games get to beat out the big publishers' games? Or that the indie games should have their own awards? Because they do. They were all announced the same night as these awards. They're called the "Independent Games Festival Awards", and you can see that here: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/07/umurangi_generation_wins_grand_prize_at_the_igf_awards#reply
@B_Lindz
Maybe they just had more fun & found it more unique than those games? That's certainly what did it for me. I played all three and Hades was easily the most fun for me out of the three. To be fair ghosts was more fun than tlou2 (which I found to be a slog trying to get through), but Hades trumped both for me. Definitely felt like they were pretty overrated.
.
In any case, that's great to hear about Hades. It deserves every accolade that it receives, hands down. One of the most addicting and fun games that I have played in quite a while. And I hope that it keeps getting the recognition and love that it deserves.
Maybe it's because I've been spoiled with the Binding of Isaac but this game just didn't feel like there was enough content for a rogue like. At least for me.
I'm glad it's winning awards. I tried to get into but it seems the story is doing most of the work here because I didn't find the gameplay all that engaging.
Show Comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...