‘Hades II’ is here, and has a ways to go

I’ve managed to take a break from Faerûn and leapt back into the underworld of Hades. Supergiant Games‘ rogue-like talents shine with the release of Hades II into it’s Early Access release. Even this early on, it is a stunning sequel that ventures off with Melinoë needing to rescue her family from Chronos’ clutches. There’s no telling what Hades did to the Fates that rewarded him with needing to be bailed out by his children, but here we are…

Did you hear that ‘Hades II’ is out??

Returning composer Darren Krob’s soundtrack remains a divine favorite for myself. These pieces of music stick with me even if I’m not playing. I find myself replaying my failures in my head as the music stays stuck worse than a tadpole. For something in Early Access, it’s an impressive amount of assets that are already there. I look forward to the updates for the number of ‘placeholder’ art in their places, like magnificent teases. I enjoyed Hades‘ art, but I am obsessed with Hades II’s direction with the designing gods, goddesses and other powers being armored out. The events of Hades II set up a battle for the ages, and the stakes are much higher than the personal one found in Zagreus’ journey before it.

Players of Hades will wash over with nostalgic as they encounter reminders of the game that had its full 1.0 release in spring of 2021. Even in the new environments, many of the gameplay mechanics, though smoother, remain consistent with the first title. A nice feature of note is that switching between controller and mouse/keyboard is fairly easy and there isn’t any noticeable dip to quality for playing. I do have my preference with the controller method, and being able to change the key binding helps.

If you did not play the first Hades, the good news is this game is not a sequel where you would need to go back and play it to understand it, even though you totally should because it’s a blast. Any person can pick up Hades II as their first time in the series, and be just as equipped to enjoy it as if you had played Hades.

Brooding over boons

Even though this is possibly the most polished Early Access game ever released to Steam, Hades II will still need that time to refine the gameplay. Namely, the boons themselves do require a bit of tweaking just like when they were with Hades. As Supergiant figures out a better balance with them, I do find myself already leaning towards the similar builds each run to get further in the game because most boons are just not as powerful from my observations (Like Aphrodite’s, for example).

This is not just resulting from my bias because I adore her….. (maybe a little) but her and Selene’s boons really make or break my runs compared to the others. I do feel a little disheartened, because in Hades, I would be testing the variety of boons, while having fun experimenting. It didn’t matter the run, whatever Boon came up, I would try something new. I was excited to see what I could do with those runs; the little bit of unknown chaos. That is not the same experience with Hades II.

Little quirks

Though there is plenty to pick from, if your preference is to min-maxing every run, you may have a harder time doing so in the current state of things. Additionally, the menu selection to switch off between your different boons that you’ve collected throughout your run is a little oddly placed. It’s place in the game’s UI was obtuse enough that I honestly forgot that it was even there most of the time. There should also be more clarity with the use of tools, as I encountered and issue with the “Gathering” function in the game. The result was far less fruitful runs than I anticipated where I intended to collect silver and the game either through a bug or lack of design, did not end up with much silver.

I need to admit to having mixed emotions with Hades II. The first impression has left off on such a good note that it makes me curious maybe kind of weary about it’s path forward. Yet, I’m still very excited to see what else could they possibly add to this already incredibly polished game by the time of it’s own official release. Even if you prefer to wait for a 1.0 release, it will be hard for most to try and sleep on something as big as Hades II, as the name brand supersedes it’s pre-release development status in a unique way.

Featured Image Credit: Supergiant Games