Hades, which left early entry again in 2020, is without doubt one of the greatest and most influential roguelikes of all time, so there’s maybe no better signal of the expertise at Supergiant Video games that their very own follow-up, Hades II, blows it out of the water. The method is refined into its final type; the fight is extra complicated (however simply as intuitive), and the story is grander and extra thrilling. Hades II is the top of the roguelike style, a place I beforehand granted its predecessor, however one which its sequel has handily earned.
For the unfamiliar, the Hades video games are motion roguelikes, the place every run has gamers gathering an arsenal of upgrades (generally known as boons) to show their character right into a god-slaying weapon. After every run, most of which can finish in a demise, the participant instantly returns to their house base, the place they’ll discuss to their companions to entry new story content material and use the rewards from the final try and make themselves even stronger. Like a lot of the design within the Hades video games, it is a easy but genius gameplay loop, turning losses into rapid gratification and fueling you to do one other run as quickly as potential.
Hades II takes place an undisclosed variety of years after the primary recreation, and now facilities on Melinoë, the youthful sister of Zagreus and a daughter of the titular god of the underworld. That god, together with a lot of the underworld’s inhabitants we got here to know and love in Hades, has been imprisoned by Chronos, his time-wielding father. Fairly than escape of Hell, Melinoë begins every run by breaking into Hell, working her means all the way down to Tartarus to thwart her grandfather. The best way Hades II recontextualizes acquainted areas and characters jogs my memory of the connection between The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom (a comparability I don’t invoke frivolously), the place I am equally excited to strive new issues as I’m to revisit previous favorites.
Melinoë is armed with six new weapons, every utterly completely different from the final, starting from a pair of magic wands to a heavy-hitting battleaxe. To make fight much more complicated, every assault additionally has an omega type, unleashed by holding down the assault button, which creates extra highly effective, generally utterly completely different strikes. A standard assault with the dual blades, for instance, unleashes a combo of slashes and stabs, however the omega model teleports you behind the closest enemy for one explosion of harm. It is such a easy and intuitive mechanic that I generally neglect it isn’t current within the unique.
The quantity of recent content material in Hades II may very well be overwhelming, however it’s launched at such a gradual charge that it by no means feels that means. On my fortieth run, in a save file the place I had already fought each boss the sport needed to provide, I unlocked the sixth weapon and encountered a god whose boons I had by no means seen earlier than. Even 40 runs in, I found components that make the sport really feel fully new. There’s a finite quantity of enhancements – it is solely a recreation, in any case – however it incentivizes discovery a lot that you simply really feel like there’s one thing new to unlock round each nook, and for a lot of, many hours, that is true.
The rationale Hades II has its hooks in me, above all else, is the way in which it rewards the participant. This constant introduction of unlockables, together with weapons, boons, arcana playing cards, familiars, companions, fish, seeds, minerals, and extra, implies that even whenever you fail a run, that one failure is promptly interrupted by a stream of rewards. It is exhausting to go away a session of Hades II feeling pissed off as a result of it is explicitly designed to make you are feeling the alternative, and I gladly welcome the relentless flood of dopamine.
The plot is equally structured round defeat, with every loss unlocking new dialogue with these round you. This was additionally the case within the first recreation, however Hades II is bigger in methods I will not spoil, and the truth that the narrative feels utterly seamless and linear no matter your actions is further spectacular right here. And regardless of Hades II increasing the dimensions of this world of Greek gods considerably, dialogue and story keep their character-first method. You usually study who an individual is and what they care about earlier than even studying their title or relationship to the primary characters, and I vastly desire that. The narrative, whereas pretty simple, ends in a spot I didn’t anticipate, however beloved, particularly its mythological tackle generational trauma.
These characters additionally proceed the collection custom of being superbly designed, with every new god or titan launched blowing me away with their placing, trendy designs. General, the sport seems to be and runs gorgeously, and that features my Swap 2 copy, the place I seen no efficiency points. I additionally want to say the music; Darren Korb has carried out it once more, and I particularly loved listening to themes from the primary recreation being reimagined in new methods. There’s additionally one dynamic, musical boss struggle that is notably spectacular, with the backing observe altering when the respective musicians are faraway from the battlefield.
Sixteen months of early entry have sculpted Hades II into a really unforgettable expertise. After roughly 50 hours and 53 runs between its first iteration and ultimate launch, I am in some way nonetheless itching to return for extra. Melinoë’s journey showcases Supergiant’s professional world-building, fight design, and sharp dialogue to a level that in some way surpasses one in all my all-time favourite video games. Godlike, certainly.
