One game I deeply enjoy is Hades. At its core, Hades is built around tightly designed, repeating interaction loops. The moment-to-moment combat loop is fast and frequent, providing players with immediate feedback that helps them refine their strategies. Nested within this are mid-level loops like building synergies with boons from different gods during a single escape attempt, which demand short-term planning and adjustment. Then, it also includes the meta-progression loop where you return to the House of Hades after death and spend resources to unlock abilities or deepen character relationships. This offers long-term goals and systemic mastery.
Parallel to these loops are Hades’s richly crafted interaction arcs, which deliver narrative and emotional progression. Each escape attempt slowly reveals more about Zagreus’s search for his mother, Persephone, and his strained relationships with the Olympians. These arcs are one-time emotional events that unfold gradually as players succeed or fail through repeated loops. Character arcs, such as deepening friendships, add further narrative texture and meaning, giving emotional payoff to what would otherwise be purely mechanical repetition.
In this way, Hades constructs a layered game architecture, forming a gameplay–cutscene–gameplay sandwich that blends mastery with meaning.
