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Developing a sequel to a very successful game is never an easy task because the risks are just too great. On one hand, the expectations are big, and if a sequel fails to be on the same or higher level, even in a single segment, the fans can be merciless.
On the other hand, even if everything goes as expected and the game happens to be better than its predecessor, there's always a risk for it to be criticised for the lack of innovations and more of the same. We've seen the likes of it before with Far Cry, Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty, and many, many successful titles and franchises.
The developers of Hades 2, Supergiant Games, decided to follow the same formula and make a sequel that represents a major improvement on everything that made the original Hades great - the mechanics, the presentation, and almost everything are pretty much the same, only the quality of it is ten times better and higher. Did it pay off? It surely did, and big time. As a result, we have a game that, even in early access, promises to be one of the best in its genre.
Story: Troubles in the Underworld
The God of the Dead, Hades, is dead. What a paradox, but this event will be the main axis around which the entire story will be told in Hades 2. After the events of the first game, chaos rules between the Greek gods, and young Melinoë, the daughter of Hades, is the only one who can bring peace in those troubled times.
Melinoë is tasked with a simple assignment: find Cronos, the god of time, and kill him. Doing so will disrupt the timeline and bring her family back from their deaths. It's a simple task, isn't it? Well, it is not.
She's just one young woman who must go against the armies of Cronos's soldiers and all the monsters of the Underworld. To make matters even worse, she is still in training, and her headmistress won't let her go until she proves to her that she is ready. Time is against her, figuratively and literally, but with the help of other Olympus gods, she just might have a chance. Will she take it? It is entirely up to her, or to you controlling her, anyway.
The story seems like nothing special, really. Fight between good and evil, even though the perception of both in this game is quite twisted, to be honest. But this story is far from average, all thanks to two things. The first one is amazing acting; to be frank, I didn't see such fine voice acting for a long time, and I played my share of great titles, I must say.
All actors did their job perfectly, and it's a pure joy to converse with each of them; whether it's the main or side character. Every conversation is different, and given the nature of the game's rogue-like title, one might expect the lines to be repeated or recycled in some way, but no. Each time you interact with a character, they always have a new line, and you always have the opportunity to learn something new.
The other thing that makes the story of Hades 2 so good is the way it is presented to the players. Hades 2 is a very difficult game, and especially if you are not familiar with the mechanics or with such games in general, you'll die a lot, that's for certain. At the end of the day, you're supposed to; that's just the way of this game.
But no matter how many times you die and start over, every time a new piece of the story is unravelled—not just the piece of the story, but new mechanics and new items as well—the ones that make each run a bit different at least.
I died a lot at the beginning and I thought I'd get bored of it fairly quickly, but surprisingly I never grew tired of repeating. I must confess that such storytelling mechanics are not something I experienced in any game earlier. I would be lying if I said that this is the best story I've experienced, but the way it is told is definitely something unorthodox, and for that, my hat is off.
Also, as you progress and push your runs further, the story evolves, and it becomes more and more interesting and, say, not so black and white, so to speak. New twists and turns start to appear, but to avoid spoilers, I will leave it for you to explore if you decide to play this amazing piece of gaming art.
Gameplay: Die, rinse, and repeat
Rogue-like games tend to become tedious; this is nothing new. And if it is a difficult game, even more so. I don't know how, but Hades 2 doesn't have this problem. Yes, it is a very difficult game, and yes, its runs can be very long and even slightly boring at times, but the game dynamics and fun factor always keep you engaged to the point where you refuse to stop playing; the game really has that "something" that keeps you coming for more over and over again.
You start in a staging area called The Crossroads and begin your run. The runs, or encounters, as they are called in the game, feature visiting several locations where you must defeat groups of enemies. Some locations will give you buffs before you enter the fight, and some after you finish it.
The buffs are given to you mostly by other gods, or their representations because they reside on Olympus and your work lies in the underground world, not in the mountain of gods. Those buffs are temporary and will stick to you only on a given run; after the run is done, everything resets.
The buffs depend heavily on luck. For example, if you're lucky and get the power of Hephaestus, where your attacks explode on impact, you will breeze through any encounter, but if you get some weak buffs, you'll likely be dead before even reaching the first boss. It is a good thing, however, that you usually have a choice between two, sometimes even three, different buffs, so choose wisely.
Speaking of bosses, they are wonderful. Each area has a boss at its end, and after defeating them, you'll move to the next area. Sadly, in this early access, there are only four areas, but given that the game is quite hard, you'll play it for a long time; don't worry.
The boss fights are very diverse and very well-designed; each time you face a boss, you'll be forced to strategize a lot and engage all your knowledge and skills to defeat them. The only problem I noticed when it comes to bosses is that they can get overwhelming at times. To make bosses harder to beat, the developers chose to go for some insanely chaotic attacks where you'll have extremely low chances of getting an opening for attacking; you'll mostly run senselessly to avoid those enemy attacks.
That, of course, gives you a little room for mistakes because the game is extremely punishing. If you get cornered by the enemies, it's almost surely game over, and if you make a mistake fighting the second or third boss, you'll have to start over, which can make you rage, to be honest.
The regular enemies and mini-bosses are usually not so tough, and you'll most likely breeze through pre-boss encounters. Some mini-bosses can be hard, but when you learn their patterns, they're really nothing special.
When it comes to weapons, Melinoë uses four of them, well six to be completely true, but the last two are unlocked quite late and won't be used much. The first one, her personal magic staff, is unlocked by default, but all other weapons must be unlocked by gathering certain materials and combining them together inside a special place in The Crossroads.
Fortunately, the initial four weapons can be unlocked quite early in the game, so you'll be able to give each one of them a try, and I strongly recommend doing exactly that because each weapon changes the gameplay by a high margin.
Apart from the temporary buffs I mentioned earlier, Melinoë can upgrade herself permanently as well by unlocking special skills in the form of cards and by mixing magic inside the cauldron. All those upgrades require special materials that can be found during the encounters.
Those materials cannot be picked without special tools, and those tools can be crafted at the same place as the weapons. However, there's a little trick here that makes exploration and the upgrade system even more engaging, and that's the fact that you can carry only one tool at a time, so you'll be forced to gather different materials over different runs.
The game doesn't feature an armour system like one would have anticipated. However, one of the characters throughout the runs you can stumble upon is Arachne, a little spider that knits special armours for Melinoë. Those armours can have different buffs as well and will last only for one run; once you die, you'll lose them like all other buffs.
The combat system is a star that shines brightest in Hades 2. Its overhead, isometric perspective can seem like something some players may not appreciate, but I must say it is executed just perfectly. The combat is fast-paced and very demanding.
You have normal attack, magic attacks, magic traps, and dodges, and all of those have charged versions that, apart from the usual longer time to execute, require magic points. Magic and health can be buffed temporarily through encounters, but they can also be upgraded on a permanent basis as you progress through the game.
One more thing that makes the gameplay of Hades 2 that good is actually upgrading the most important character of them all—yourself. Yes, Melinoë can be upgraded, but it won't matter a lot if you don't get good on your own. This game simply forces you to learn and the most progress you'll make will depend on how you learn to play. This level of importance of self-improvement can be seen only in Souls-like titles, and here in Hades 2, I dare to say it is even more emphasised.
Generally speaking, Hades 2 has a very demanding and complex gameplay that made a huge improvement upon its predecessor. All that was good in the original is now even better, and if you give this game a chance, you definitely won't regret it. If for nothing, then for very fun and engaging gameplay that will suck you into its world and won't let you go until you lose countless hours of your life without even noticing it.
Graphics, Sounds, and Performance: The beauty of the land of the dead
Hades 2 is a beautiful game with a devilishly attractive art style and characters reminiscent of high-quality cartoons. The characters are showcased in a comic style each time you engage in conversation, and their design is just on another level with perfectly chosen colours, styles, and looks in general.
All four areas and numerous levels within them are designed differently, with enemies and environments characteristic of specific locations. Hence, the underworld features monsters and bosses specific to a theme of death, while, for instance, one of the levels that is set underwater features creatures specific to a water environment.
The effects of wielding weapons, magic strikes, and all other graphical effects are executed perfectly and look really fine and splashy, just as they should look in the game with such a theme.
On the PC version of the game, you won't find any graphical settings to be changed apart from the usual ones like resolution, refresh rate, etc., which means the game is not a performance eater, so to speak. But do not think the game suffers from it, because it looks perfect just the way it is. Some additional modern settings, like reflections and improved lighting, wouldn't hurt if they were present, but the focus of this game is good gameplay anyway. The graphics are good the way they are, to be completely honest.
Performance-wise, Hades 2 is in a state of perfection, even though the game is still in early access. Everything runs perfectly without any stutters, FPS drops, crashes, or any other known issues. If you decide to play Hades 2 on PC, the good news is you won't need some high-end machine to do that because the game runs very well even on older setups.
The sounds are perhaps the second-best part of this game. I cannot decide which part is better—the perfect voice acting, very good sound effects, or the soundtrack that is seriously mind-blowing.
Every song that runs in the background is of enormous quality. They are very well written and are small masterpieces, no doubt. I dare to say that this soundtrack will pick up some serious rewards at the end of the year. Mark my words; it is that good.
Conclusion
I must say that I've never experienced a game with such quality in the early access stage as Hades 2. If you are a fan of games with themes of mythology and appreciate good stories made from them, then Hades 2 is a must-play for you. With very hard and unforgiving, but fair and rewarding gameplay, perfect sounds and music, and some high-quality voice acting, you'll get a package that guarantees numerous hours of pure fun and enjoyment.
With a lot of qualities and very few downsides, I dare to say that Hades 2 is aiming for the game of the year title even now while it is still in early access. For the full-game release, the sky is the limit.
The Good
Pure improvement on the original Hades- Amazing voice acting
- Engaging and unorthodox storytelling mechanics
- Fun and dynamic combat system
- Beautiful art style and character design
- Excellent soundtrack and sound effects
- Great performance even in early access
The Bad
Some boss fights can become overwhelming
