The only thing holding me back from giving this game a higher rating is due to this being in early access, so some features are obviously missing. But with that being said though, this is a fantastic follow up to Hades and the framework is definitely there.

As per usual, Supergiant has crushed both the character and world design. The soundtrack is stellar and even more incorporated into the game with the second boss and the combat is as buttery smooth as ever. Having not only one but two paths was also a welcome surprise and I absolutely love the environments they incorporated.

I am curious to see how the story will play out though because as is, It feels like it’s about 75% of the way there but sort of ends abruptly once clearing for the first time. So besides that and a few balancing issues, I know we’re in good hands. Overall, I’m excited to see how this game fully evolves as we get closer to a final build!

for early access this game is just as fucking good as the first one, i cannot wait until it is complete

the number of times i made it all the way to the end just to die had me contemplating sewerside

there truly is no escape

I truly can’t recall the last time I purchased a game so quickly. Hades 2 is already the perfect sequel, even in early access.
The mechanics are familiar and similar to the original but 2 brings in countless new fun aspects. I personally feel that the addition of spell-casting brings a brand new challenge to the way you play, making you think more about the way you move and attack compared to the previous game. And the story is shaping up to be absolutely beautiful, the characters both new and old are captivating in every single way (especially our protagonist Melinoë).
It’s everything you love about the original game but with new, fun additions. Supergiant Games is the epitome of what all studios/developers should aspire to be, it’s evident that they have put every fiber of their beings into giving us fans what we want and that they are passionate about their craft. I will endlessly sing praise for the Hades games, they are truly flawless roguelikes, nothing can compare. Death to Chronos.

[first impressions, 4.5h playtime~]

Hades 2 welcomes you back into its familiar world, now all a little brighter with a beautiful mix of yellow, blue & green hues. Melinoë's presence is immediately charming, both softspoken, and determined. The world you walk through is one where the past events haunt the walls and weighs heavy on the hearts of its inhabitants characters. It’s a compelling intro - the hub’s witchy aesthetics with its big cauldron and Headmistress Hecate - and all the new prominent female presences - really make it stand apart from its predecessor. Aesthetically and sonically, this was even more my jam than the first.

The biggest combat change was going from multidash to dash + sprinting as the movement tools. Ideally this moves the game away from the dash bonanza the former game was, but the arenas are as tight before, filled with obstacles. This makes sprinting awkward and not a reliable tool outside of more spacious boss arenas. On top of that, they removed the ability to destroy projectiles with attacks (save for when you use the staff), making the projectile-breaking boon for the sprint feel mandatory to avoid chip damage during trash mob rooms. Additionally, they tried to make resource management a bigger question by adding the magick/mana system. These are all good changes on paper, as it makes controlling Melinoë feel distinct from Zagreus, and ideally would allow for more combat approaches to be viable if balanced properly. However, the issues with the combat don't stop there and are compounded by the boon system, which is still largely the same as it was before. This suggests it doesn’t make for very memorable, outlier runs due to how unimpactful and homogenized the choices are, even when stacked. (The addition of magick consumption/regeneration boons does not change that either) The combat encounters outside of miniboss and boss rooms are still groups of trash mobs that spawn in waves - fighting them feels like going through the motions. And when you do reach a boss fight, the damage you can dish out can feel rather laughable - until you’ve got a decent amount of upgrades, and a decent boon set - making for drawn out fights where you’ve already dodging, hitting and waiting to deal with the damage sponge. In the IGN review, it is said that “many roguelites suffer from this feeling of having “doomed runs” where you just don’t get the kind of scaling or key upgrades that you need to survive in later levels, but that was never my experience with Hades 2”. My experience with not only Hades II, but the first one, stands against this. In both games, you will run into encounters that while they might not feel out of your skill level given their attack patterns, will be damage sponges. To alleviate this, you will spend a lot of currency to get you powered up to a level where monsters in the new area will not feel like a chore to kill. Hades II is not the kind of roguelite game where the tools to beat the game are given to you from the get go and the meta-progression mostly unlocks new gameplay elements. A significant part of your power budget is in the meta progression, which a quick glance at the possible unlocks will make clear. Therefore corpse, or rather currency runs, where you’re gonna be aiming to get as much currency as possible to unlock the next thing become more or less naturalized in the gameplay loop. It’s not a game where you can solely focus on engaging with the combat itself to make it deeper into the run. Doomed runs do in fact exist, and I’d argue the game necessitates those as part of its gameplay loop. Currency will always be on your mind, and in Hades II even moreso, as they’ve added extra non-combat interactions which will yield currency: most notably, mining ore and gathering herbs. These are not optional as they are part of meta-progression and do disrupt the combat loop further as now you’re not only killing trash mobs, you’re ever so often doing a menial game of clicks to earn 3 ores. In Hades I, the weapons were merely locked behind boss currency, but here they’ve added more currency bloat and requirements. The herbs and the gardening fill the same niche, though part of it happens in the hub area. I don’t see these as meaningful additions to the game and find they distract from the core aspects of the game. Something the first Hades got right whilst adding fishing, as it did not present a necessary aspect for progression, but a little side activity. If we’re adding minigames to a death run game, why make them take the wind out of your sails?

Now we’ll come to the biggest gripe I had with the predecessor, and that seems to be replicated here from what I can tell: the balance between gameplay and narrative. The first Hades suffered from a combat experience that didn’t measure up in depth to the magnitude of story interactions & plot development - the ones you have to grind to unlock and will be provided to you in fragments. It functions through a sort of dripfeed system where, once you feel you’ve exhausted the options of making a run through the same old dungeon more interesting, you’re still left with a lot of relationships and story you wanna pursue. In my limited time with Hades 2, I’ve already felt an inkling of this as the 4.5h yielded not much in the way of story engagement despite having done a decent number of runs. It becomes the game’s own carrot on a stick, throwing yourself into the pits to gain some currency, a gift or two and hopefully a new story tidbit that feels interesting and meaningful - and not just characters doing a variation on talking about the tropes they’re assigned. In the original Hades I’ve had my fill and put the game down after racking up 50h, which isn’t a shabby number to put on a game, but the main reason I put it down was because I didn’t feel the game rewarded my combat investment through story in a worthwhile manner anymore. It almost becomes the game’s own skinnerbox, where dripfed interactions are the reward for engaging with the combat, as the combat’s fun and merit dissipates due to the low variance of the runs, even if you do try to spice it up and make it more interesting. There’s a fine line between frustrating and doing something for the sake of something else, and the game has crossed those lines too often at that point where the deaths become a means to an end. It makes me beg the question why it was conceived as a roguelite in the first place, as SG’s previous games and the experience with both of these games, make me feel like they could’ve created a very compelling experience that isn’t padded out by currency grind and dripfeeding story as you rack up deaths.

The game doesn’t need me to shower it with praise. I wrote this mainly to formulate my gripes and to share them in an effort to illuminate what I identified as the series’ previous pitfalls and missed potential with this iteration during the few hours I spent with it. I’ll do more runs here and there throughout the year, and reassess it once it’s fully released. I'm not holding my breath for significant changes. As it stands, the road they’re taking for Hades 2 seems to be: more of what was already widely beloved with slight additions/variations.

[*Update after 10h+ playtime*]

- The 3rd area addresses the tight space concerns. its a bigger area and the upgrades are spread throughout it, making the game feel much better as you can really make use of the movement options here.
- However, despite unlocking more things, damage numbers feel low across the board vs. the shield and bullet sponge enemies. It seems to stem from both base damage being rather low and boons not feeling impactful. As it stands, the game's combat and damage don't seem properly balanced, making the game feel like a slog more often than not.
- Sadly, getting further into the game only made the slog that is the currency grind that much more apparent. They've really expanded on the amount of currencies compared to Hades 1.Ssome are area dependent e.g. you can only get this currency in x area with y tool (and you can only pick one tool per run?!). Another big one called F. Fate that is needed for plenty unlocks but you can only get from the exchange broker or certain NPCs when they give you the option during your run. This all exacerbates the issue of currency runs, because you wanna get all this specific currency, but at the same time, you wanna have a good run. It creates this tension between currency and boons that I feel is contradictory to making the game feel rewarding to play, because you're either gonna make yourself stronger during your run, or you'll get currency you need - and this choice shouldn't need to exist in a game that is this grindy in the first place. Having good runs should translate into getting plenty resources you need. This deviation screams bloat through currencies and doesn't make the game feel rewarding to play.

TL;DR game has currency/grind bloat and the damage numbers seem off. Lots of bullet sponge/shield enemies - combat (and boons) don't feel satisfying, rewarding nor interestingly challenging
My recommendation: play Hades 1, wait for this game to get balanced

Supergiant don't miss, the game is stellar and while I slightly prefer Hades 1 combat (two dashes are more fun than a sprint) the game is almost entirely upgraded from Hades 1. The game loses points just for general unoriginality. Hades is the studios most clean game but it is also the least interesting and that trend continues here. Supergiant are amazing world builders and I was really looking forward to exploring a new world with unique gameplay but this isn't that. A great game lacking any major flaws besides the fact that its all been done before. Where other Supergiant games feel like they innovate and permutate on what games have done and what they have done, Hades 2 is disappointingly trite despite its undeniable quality. Brilliant, but conceptually disappointing.

Obviously still early, but I'm really loving this so far. Combat feels great and the expansions to your base abilities help to break up the flow from the first title and give you more varied tools to control groups and armored enemies. The snare in particular feels like an incredibly powerful piece of your arsenal to manage higher-threat mobs.

And of course, the music, art, and voice acting is all exactly as great as you'd expect from a Supergiant game. No surprises there.

It's still Early Access but this feels like a super easy recommendation to jump right in and get back into Hades

I know this game is in early access, but it’s nearly complete, and I don’t think its most significant issues will be resolved via player feedback and updates.

It feels like a massive step back from the first game in every metric.

The combat feels sluggish and less responsive, and none of the weapons are enjoyable. Hades I had this rapid ebb and flow to its combat that II lacks. You’re mostly just stunlocking enemies with larger health pools instead of zipping around frantically.

The biomes are less attractive, and some are straight up not enjoyable.

The new progression systems feel poorly thought out and are mainly added to differentiate itself from the first game.

None of the characters are endearing, and many come off like Battleborne versions of the Hades I cast. This was especially jarring because everyone in Hades I—as well as its world and narrative—was immediately captivating.

I think much of this stems from this template getting everything squeezed out of it in the first game. I know why they made a sequel, but I wish Supergiant hadn’t.

(Early access review)

Hades II é uma sequência que não tenta ser melhor que seu antecessor nem reiventar sua identidade, é uma sequência que sabe que não existe muito o que melhorar em relação ao primeiro então ele tenta expandir e se difenciar o suficiente para ser algo próprio. É uma sequência honesta e que atinge o mesmo nível do primeiro, tem pontos inferiores e outros superiores, o combate do primeiro sendo mais rapido e dinâmico me agrada mais, a OST também, mas o segundo é um jogo bem maior e mais variado, com mais mecânicas e sistemas, além da história ser mais interessante. As armas aqui são o ponto mais baixo, não acho tão divertidas quanto as do primeiro, mas isso pode mudar até o lançamento oficial. Tudo pode ser expandindo e com isso conseguir superar o primeiro. Ate o momento é uma sequência incrível de um jogo incrível e com certeza um dos melhores jogos dos últimos anos.

I will make a better review after I play more but HOLY SHIT THIS GAME IS AMAZING SO FAR

So, after logging 44 hours, and finishing a few runs, I can say that Hades II stands tall alongside the first game in just about every way. This may be a warm take, but I prefer the sprint mechanic, over the game being a dash spam. I found this game harder than the first, which is a pleasant surprise. I love the lore built up with Melinoe through the game, and love how much she contrasts Zagreus. Seeing familiar faces get a glow up was nice, and it was just such a great experience. I will be doing AT LEAST a few more runs before the full launch.

Amazing game, and easily in the running for my GOTY 2024.

I give Hades II a STROOOOONG 9 out of 10!

Fantastic but still in early access in the simplest definition. If you can accept that there are placeholder models and portraits or unfinished portraits, and one route isn’t fully finished and the story isn’t done yet, hop on. This is excellent. It changes systems and feels fresh, yet so loving to the original. I’m not going to give a rating until 1.0, as that’s not really fair of me if I give something which is explicitly in early access a 4.5, yet openly diss games which release unfinished. It’d be disingenuous to the process too. I look forward to seeing what Supergiant creates here. I’ll re-review it and score it once we truly have an ending. For now, I think it’s best I put it down until its next major update to reduce any chance of burnout.