Hades II is the long-awaited sequel to Hades, and manages to deliver a unique experience while also expanding on basically every aspect of the framework of its predecessor.


The game falls into the rogue-lite genre once again, allowing players to progress the story and character relationships bit by bit with every single run while also giving them the oppertunity to upgrade their arsenal and build a little bit each time, therefore allowing players to reach further and further with each run.

The most notable aspect that got extended is the sheer size of the game. While Hades 1 was already a fairly vast game, Hades II one-ups it in basically all categories. This time there are two routes to conquer instead of a single one - each with its own set of unique enemies, characters, bosses and so on. There are more gods, more boons, more npcs, more keepsakes and so many more other things to be discovered.

This allows for runs to feel much more unique and varied this time around. Between the weapon aspects, boon combinations and build variations you end up getting runs that feels completely different from each other instead of just falling into the same patterns over and over.

A big chunk of the combat system got revamped with the second game. Instead of using Zagreus' Mirror of Night, Melinoë has access to Arcana Cards, with unique effects that come with various activation costs and trigger conditions, which makes for some inventive builds.

Every attack now also comes with a stronger Omega version that requires Magick to be charged. Using enough Magick also allows you to cast powerful hexes, which are basically this game's version of the god calls from the first game. These new features make the fights feel more fluent and allow players to get much more creative in their approaches.

Of course the game also retains - and improves - basically all the features that made the first game such an outstanding one, from the great soundtrack, to the witty character dialogues, to the customization and decoration options.

Furthermore you can now recruit and customize animal companions, further extend the hub to relax in between runs, tackle various unique trials provided by Chaos, test your skills at the Oath of the Unseen (this game's version of the Pact of Punishment) and so much more.

Overall, if you enjoyed the first Hades game, are a fan of roguelikes/lites - or simply enjoy games with great atmosphere, storytelling and fluent fast-paced mechanics in general, then I wholeheartedly recommend Hades II to you.

Strong Side:

• Controls - I never missed going down from a double-dash to a single-dash relative to the original....casting feels intuitive and is a welcome third-button option...omega variants of Attack/Special/Cast add depth to combat options and help focus the weapon aspect specializations...the four main buttons involve combat, with the four top buttons involving room/boon triggers - quite intuitive with no overlap...menus are snappy, and quitting to the title screen has zero downtime...everything old felt new again, and at no point were there any perceptible regressions in this category.
  
• Difficulty - Hades II feels a bit easier than the original. Maximum fear is still a nightmare (I tried it once and wiped before Hecate) but adding incremental amounts of difficulty - the studio's traditional approach to difficulty scaling - felt a lot more manageable this time around. Furthermore, adjusting the testament unlocks to activate upon defeating a specific Guardian within the run instead of defeating the end-boss outright gives you some space to fail while pushing for higher fear levels. Independent of difficulty, at full unlocks, individual runs truly let you scale exponentially within the four biomes and truly reach godhood for that night. As I started defeating the end bosses more regularly, I started noticing the last biome would often go faster than the second-to-last.
  
• Writing/Characters - Voice acting/direction and dialogue are impeccable. I'm especially fond of the artistic liberty to portray Scylla and the Sirens as an all-female rock band, as their songs are the height of this game's robust OST. Erin Yvette (as Scylla) does a fantastic job of shifting between self-righteousness and self-loathing with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments throughout ("It's called a fictionalized work?'"). Staying in Oceanus, casting Narcissus as a surfer bro was also 100% the right call; props to Darren Korb for that characterization as well.

Wrong Side:

• Story - Due to the less-than-linear nature of the Rogue-adjacent genre, I can forgive some general wobbliness to pacing and structure, but several prophecies end so abruptly that they feel disjointed from the rest of the gameplay experience. Without getting too spoiler-y, the original Hades had a smaller scope, so it could afford to have a tighter overall narrative, but the sequel is definitely playing it fast and loose in a few spots.
  
• Ending Music - Not taking anything away from Darren Korb or the OST here, but I have to be honest and say this is the first title from Supergiant Games where I rolled credits and then failed to recall the title of the ending song afterwards. On the other hand, I can easily recall all four songs from Scylla and the Sirens, so there's that.

Final Thoughts:
When Hades II won Best Action Game at The Game Awards, I was a little surprised at it being nominated for this category, but after 75+ hours and ~100 runs, I think I understand it now. Both the build flexibility a group of gods can provide as well as the power spikes that Legendary and Duo boons grant allow you to reliably outscale the biomes you enter, and the snappy controls along with the fast-paced combat make it so that Melinoë is a dashing dervish of destruction as you enter the final parts of a given run. Furthermore, I'm still picking up nuances to the boon system that I'd not yet seen. While certain god combinations (especially Zeus/Hestia) are favored for their raw damage output, crowd control is quite viable and defensive boons have a subtle value as well. For example, Demeter's Legendary boon will instantly kill Guardians for the last 10% of their health pool while the rest of her boons insure they're slowed down for the entire fight.

Anyway, I go for full achievements more often than not, so my personal yardstick for "Is this game truly great?" is if I play it for a significant period of time beyond the traditional 100%. I can say with confidence there were only a single-digit number of titles over the last few years that commanded my attention in this way: one of them was the original Hades, where I took every weapon to 20 Heat and then secured one victory at 32 Heat before hanging it up. For its sequel, I think I'll take all the aspects to 32 Fear in both the Surface and Underworld and see if I think any differently afterwards. Not just out of some self-imposed challenge for pride's sake, but because I still have a genuine curiosity about what is possible power-wise within a given run.

TL;DR: If you enjoyed the original Hades and trust this studio, Go Kill Time.

slopless