Hades 2

Somehow lives up to its tagline

Why

Why not

Impressions

Similar to Silksong, this is a godlike sequel. If you liked or were interested in the first Hades at all go buy Hades 2 now, lest the tiniest part of this amazing game be spoiled by continuing to read.

As a refresher, in the original Hades Zagreus was trying to escape Hades (the father and the location) in order to meet his mum on the surface and convince her to come home. He did this by fighting his way up through Tartatus, Asphodel, Elysium and finally the Temple of Styx. Melinoe starts off doing this more or less in reverse, albeit via a different route, but at a certain point you unlock the surface. Which gives you the option of instead going through Ephyra, Thessalay, Mount Olympus and the peak, for literally double the biomes of Hades 1. That's not even mentioning the changes in how those biomes are laid out.

Hades 1 may have had 4 different biomes, but 3 of them followed the same structure of clearing a room of enemies then choosing the next room based on its reward until you reach the biome boss and progress. Only the Satyr temple was different, offering all the paths you can take from a central hub and requiring some number of them to be cleared before progressing, with the option to clear more and get stronger at the risk of dying/losing a bunch of health before the final boss. Hades 2 keeps much the same structure for the first two underworld zones, but after your encounter with Scylla you're dumped into the Fields of Mourning. There are still 'rooms' to clear and paths with different rewards to choose from at the end, but the 'rooms' are huge open plains with both free-roaming enemies and waves that spawn whenever you attempt to claim the rewards just sitting in plain sight.

At the end of the day it's essentially the same thing, just different enough to provide some variety and a sense of exploration. Tartarus again provides a slight variation on this, allowing you to blast through the express route of 5 rooms straight to kicking grandpa's ass or risk detours for more rewards; allowing you to kick his ass better or giving you an early return to shadow. The surface biomes offer similarly interesting gimmicks; Ephyra gives you many rooms to choose from but only lets you tackle six, Thessalay has you jumping between ships as 'rooms' but then lets you steer them to choose further rewards, Mount Olympus occasionally gives you a choice between entering rooms via the door or superhero landing on enemies heads and the peak is a gauntlet rush to the final boss, offering no rewards other than for fighting minibosses on the way. These changes may seem small but they make a signifcant difference to the feel of the game, and that's a recurring theme when comparing the two Supergiant masterpieces.

Everything you enjoyed from the first Hades is still here, but better and expanded. Infernal Arms are now Nocturnal Arms, with (mostly) witchier playstyles, the Mirror of Night is the Arcana, with more interesting effects and tactical decisions about which to use, the overwhelming number of reactive interactions with gods and allies are all still present but accompanied by even more beautiful artwork and you still have your attack, special, call and cast. Probably the biggest difference between the two games comes from the cast; something I usually just spammed at bosses for the damage bonus in Hades 1 then forgot about until they puked them out. In Hades 2 your cast is by far your most useful ability; rather than a boring projectile to be flung at enemies it creates a magic circle on the ground, slowing enemies and damaging them upon expiry if you hold the button for an Omega cast. Oh yeah, your attack & special also have these Omega versions, for every weapon, unlike the occasional weapon specific charge attacks of Hades 1.

But back to the Omega cast; its versatility is incredible. The base cast gives you space for Melinoe to get her often slower attacks off, concentrates enemies for a damage nuke, and can be modified with boons to deal plenty of its own damage. It makes Hades 2 a much more tactical game than Hades 1's frantic dashing and attacking action, giving more space for truly different weapon designs. To take full advantage of this, weapon aspects are back and much more distinct than the original approach of mostly stat bonuses or minor differences. Almost every aspect in Hades 2 provides a way to use the weapon completely differently while keeping its core identity intact. You even get a handy way to try new aspects out through Chaos Trials after unlocking them, short runs through a single region with preset weapon aspects, boons and modifiers that give meaningful rewards and offer even more variety in gameplay.

And if Hades 2 has any weaknesses it might come from that variety. I've written a whole bunch so far, and I haven't covered even half the stuff you can do. Farming? Resource gathering? Incantations which change your home base/the options available on runs? Familiars, available much earlier and more often than Hades 1's companions? The classic Hades approach of friendship by love bombing characters with gifts? Long running side stories requiring you to talk to characters both in your home base and mid-run to piece together their stories? All of that and plenty more I'm forgetting is here. There is an ending to Hades 2, and it's a pretty satisfying one after the patch, but even after reaching that final credit roll there are still at least two threads I want to chase down (Dora's identity reveal and the location of the Fates), plus others I could pursue if I wanted (waking Hypnos up so Melinoe can realise what he's really like, finding a way for Skelly to reunite with Zagreus and reaching max relationship with every character).

I'll probably do some of those things in the months (years?) to come, but rolling credits after ~50 hours gives me the closure I need to mostly put this down and get to the many other great games on my wishlist. Rest assured there's content here forever if you want to pursue it, and unlike Silksong the difficulty of that content is very much up to you through the Arcana, familiars and Vow of Night. I wouldn't be surprised if there's another 100 hours of content here (beyond just going on runs to enjoy the gameplay) for those who want it, but after sinking thousands upon hours into League and missing out on all the great games I reviewed this year, I'm not about to make that mistake again. Hades 2 is a brilliant game I'll make occasional returns to far into the future, and one you should definitely play. Supergiant seemingly can't miss, and I can't wait to see what they come up with now the Hades series has (presumably) finished with their magnum opus.