Hades is being praised by players for being a game that only truly starts when it ends.

I’m sure we’ve all sat down to play a video game, gotten a few hours in, only to release that everything we’d played up to that point was only the beginning.

As games get longer and longer, so do the opening chapters, with some taking as long as an hour to even show the player the game’s title.

For those unaware, the game has you playing as Hades’ son, Zagreus, who’s hellbent on escaping the underworld in search of his mother Persephone. Following each escape attempt you’re cast back to the beginning, but can upgrade yourself before attempting the next run, gradually culminating in a successful attempt and emerging in the normal world. Unfortunately, Zagreus cannot survive for long on the surface, meaning you need to continue your escape attempts to see the credits, and even then there’s more to do.

One user, markedbythebetty, said “Hades! Hands down,” and was joined by other fans of the rogue-like.

One player said: “Damn hades is so good. I got through it once on like my twentieth run and fifteen runs later I haven’t done it again lol. Very good game though. I will have fond memories of this game forever.”

Another showed just how much they’d played the game, saying: “Went through two controllers on this game, and I'm pretty sure I now how thumb arthritis.”

Finally one summed it up best by saying: “Awesome game. In the beginning, I didn't even care about the dialogue. Thought they would be just random phrases or something. But then I realised there's like a storyline for every NPC in the game. And then I really got invested in some of those storylines. It's such a great game.”

Hades is available on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox and PlayStation, with a sequel, Hades II, set for release next year.