How do you improve on what came before? That is a question Supergiant Games never had to answer before Hades II. It is a testament to the studio’s diverse portfolio of work and their emphasis on characterization and narrative. Not to mention the original Hades was a critically acclaimed hit thanks to its strong gameplay, characterization, and powerful themes regarding mental resilience, and familial reconciliation.
This tightrope of ambition and expectation lingered as I checked out an early build of their action RPG sequel. By the time my roughly ten hours of playtime concluded, I immediately wanted to play more. Both to experience the new elements they’ve added to their winning formula and to explore this new layer of the world they have introduced.
Double Double Toil and Trouble
Hades II feels like a natural continuation of Supergiant Games’ vibrant take on Greek mythology. The broad framework is still in place. You are in the underworld trying to fight your way to a location, getting aid from various gods and figures of myth along the way. There is a greater narrative in the margins, bridged by brief bits of dialogue and strong character-focused writing. But the devil is in the details. Instead of Zagreus fighting his way out of the underworld to spite his father, the sequel centers on Melinoë who is descending into the underworld to kill Cronos, the god of time.
Due to Supergiant’s major focus on evolving dialogue and strong characterization, this change in protagonist has a knock-on effect on the tone and theme of Hades II. There is the obvious feminine perspective baked into having a female lead and a dominantly female supporting cast.
It’s a writing challenge that Supergiant appears to have tackled head-on. I can’t speak for how authentic it is, but the character dynamics are clearly from a more empathetic light. In addition, there’s a focus on witchcraft and the covens in the hub area and upgrade systems, which does provide some appeal to the alternative, esoteric crowds.
There is a more bitter angst to Hades II compared to the original. Boiled down to the bones, Zagreus’ beef with his father is essentially family drama blown up to mythic proportions. Whereas Melinoë’s plight seems to be more vicious and vengeful; a desire to destroy someone that took everything from her.
This isn’t speculation on my part. The supporting cast includes Hecate, god of witchcraft and crossroads, and Nemesis, goddess of revenge. It is obvious these are themes Hades II is going to explore. Given Supergiant’s bona fides with making complex characters, this set-up has a ton of potential for genuine pathos.
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic In Hades II
Overall, Hades II makes an amazing technical first impression. It ran well at max settings and maintained a solid framerate on my dinosaur of a PC. Given Supergiant Games’ projects are characterized more by strong art direction over GPU-intensive photorealism, that bodes well for the project going forward.
As for game feel, Melinoë is a distinct departure from Zagreus in every way. There’s a greater focus on zoning and crowd control this time around. Melinoë has fewer defense options, she can’t spam the dodge button like Zagreus but she can sprint away from attacks. In addition, she can cast area-of-effect zones that can slow down or trap hordes of enemies, which can help give you some breathing room.
But the biggest addition by far is the introduction of a mana bar. Every attack in the game can now be charged into a superattack. These range from columns of arcane energy hitting enemies in a line to throwing multiple knives in an arc. They’re powerful, but there are limited options for replenishing mana.
These changes lead to a more mindful playstyle. Trapping foes in glyphs before hitting them from a safe distance. Conservatively using mana against armored foes and midbosses. Sprinting around like a maniac when AoE magic blasts rained down hoping nothing would hit me.
Of course, this is still Hades II, which means you can still get boons from the gods. In addition to returning favorites like Zeus and Poseidon, some new ones make their debut like Hephaestus, Apollo, and Hestia, which add some cooldown-based bonuses to the cadence of combat.
If I do have any complaints with Hades II, they are mostly minor. These things can easily be addressed through the usual route of iterative playtesting like attack damage, hit detection, and odd visual effects. But when you plan on releasing something on Early Access, you need to be sure the core tenets of your experience: your core loop, progression, visual identity, etc., are locked in. In that regard, Hades II has a great foundation.
Hades II Preview | Final Thoughts
Supergiant Games have not rested on their laurels with Hades II. Instead of just making more of the same, they are examining unexplored avenues of the original with new narrative threads and gameplay elements. I can’t wait to see how Supergiant builds on this foundation when the game enters Early Access and see how it evolves in the process. Death to Cronos.
Hades II was previewed on PC with a key provided by the publisher.over the course of 10 hours. All screenshots were taken by the previewer over the course of gameplay.
