Even in Early Access, Hades 2 Has Proven Itself as a Worthy Successor
Hero image courtesy of Supergiant Games.
Hades took the gaming world by storm in 2020, garnering critical acclaim and love from audiences everywhere. It combined fast-paced combat, engaging characters, an inspired art direction, and an amazing soundtrack to create one of the best action roguelike experiences in gaming.
But before full release in 2020, Hades was already making waves during its two-year early access period starting in 2018. Hades 2 continues this tradition of being an impressive game even in an unfinished state. In fact, it takes it even further, providing an early access experience with more content than the full release of Hades 1.
Today, we’ll be taking a look at Hades 2 in its early access state. By the end you'll know our thoughts on all the new and changed content from Hades 1, from the story, characters, combat, visuals, and more. But to sum up our experience: we had a blast in our over 100 hours of gameplay. Hades 2 is more than worth your time and money despite being in early access.
Note: This review will feature light spoilers for the story so far in Hades 2.
It’s fair to say that the stakes in Hades 2 are quite a bit higher than in its predecessor. Where Zagrues was spurred onwards to the surface by a desire to meet his Olympian family and defy his father, Melinoë is on a quest for vengeance against her uncle, the newly reassembled Titan of Time Chronos. Millennia after the Olympians defeated him, Chronos has returned to reshape the world in his image, and he started by overthrowing Melinoë’s kin at the House of Hades.
With her family gone, Melinoë was whisked away by the Witch of the Crossroads Hecate and raised as a sorceress. Now, after years of training, she’s ready to plunge into the depths of the underworld to end Chronos’ campaign against the gods and take back her birthright. She won’t do it alone though, as the Unseen, a resistance movement made up of Chthonic gods and shades, the Olympians, and a host of other characters will be there to offer aid at every step of the way.
Right off the bat, we quite enjoyed the contrast between Melinoë and Zagreus’ stories. Where Zagreus’ quest took him up out of the underworld, Melinoë ventures down into Tartarus. Where Zagreus had a rather cocksure and reckless attitude during runs, Melinoë is much more measured and serious, matching the grimmer setting of Hades 2.
However, at the heart of both protagonists' journeys is an enthralling narrative about family, both the good and the bad. Watching this dysfunctional family of gods, titans, and primordial beings is one of the biggest draws of the series. And speaking of the game’s characters…
Depending on who you ask, Hades’ characters are just as much of a draw as the gameplay is, if not more. One need only look at the bevy of fanart and other content that has been made from Hades characters over the years. Besides their unique personalities, Hades characters have a bit of a reputation for being, well, extremely attractive.
I’m glad to report that Hades 2 does not falter in the character department. You’ll see a lot of familiar faces among the Olympians who grant you boons during your runs, but the characters at the Crossroads hub area are almost entirely new. New or old, each character is a beautifully rendered interpretation of a figure from Greek mythology, complete with full voice acting. And you’re free to speak with and grow closer to them through the giving of gifts you can find during your runs.
Hades 2’s gameplay loop remains largely unchanged from the first game. Each night you venture out across multiple biomes of the underworld with the goal of breaching Tartarus and defeating Chronos in his lair. After each attempt, you’ll wind up back at the Crossroads, the home base where you can chat with your allies, purchase upgrades, and train.
Compared to Hades 1, Hades 2’s combat is a tad slower, but that still makes it a blazing fast roguelike. You still have access to many of the tools from the first game including a basic attack, a special attack, a dash, and a cast. However, each of these tools have seen changes that can alter the flow of combat.
Attacks and specials can now be charged to unleash Omega attacks and specials (represented as Ω attacks and Ω specials in game). These omega abilities augment your standard abilities into new, more powerful versions with different properties. The Witch’s Staff’s Ω Attack, for example, turns your short range melee into a long range attack that can hit enemies in front of and behind you. In exchange, these Ω moves cost magick, a new resource that sits just above your health bar.
The dash changes are likely to be one of the most jarring for Hades 1 veterans. Melinoë’s dash is noticeably slower than Zagreus’, both in startup and recovery. There is an upgrade that speeds it up, although double dashing is nowhere to be found. In exchange, holding down the dash button will now let the player sprint around the map.
The cast feature has also been changed significantly. Using your cast now drops a magic circle on the ground that ensnares enemies, allowing you to get hits in as they’re stunned. This is a great tool for getting some breathing room when a ton of enemies are on your tail. You can also Ω Cast by holding down the cast button, which will create a larger circle that explodes upon expiration.
Room rewards are awarded at the end of each combat encounter. These range from piles of gold, max health upgrades, meta progression resources, and more.
But perhaps the most important room rewards are boons. Boons are offered by various Olympians and can power up your aforementioned combat abilities with a variety of new effects. These can be anything from adding a status effect to your attacks, increasing your sprint speed, or turning your cast into a ranged attack.
As with many roguelikes, a good chunk of power will be gained between runs rather than during. At the Crossroads, you can perform incantations at the witch’s pot that can alter the game world in your favor and move the story along. At the training yard, you can unlock arcana cards that offer different passive buffs to Melinoë’s abilities, though the arcana cards you can activate are limited by your Grasp. It’s also at the training yard that you can pick your weapon and aspect, which will drastically affect your playstyle in the ensuing run. Incantations, arcana, Grasp, and weapons can all be unlocked using resources you acquire during runs.
For some, Hades 2 will be difficult enough as is. But if you want to ratchet up the challenge and get some extra rewards to go with it, then the Oath of the Unseen may be for you. After a certain point in the story, the Oath of the Unseen will become available, allowing you to choose from a list of 16 Vows that make your runs harder. This includes, increasing enemy spawn rate, increasing enemy damage, nerfing healing effects, and more. Each vow you take increases your Fear level and you get new resource rewards at increasing fear thresholds.
Hades 2 is a testament to the fact that you don’t need AAA photorealistic graphics to look amazing. Its stellar art direction does the heavy lifting, creating environments that feel lived in and character designs that get you excited to see your favorites every run.
There is an intentionality with every design that really shows that the artists knew what they were doing. Little details like the moon motif among members of the Unseen, the slight sparkling sheen that gods in Olympus possess, and all the mythological references in each character’s design make all the difference.
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the game's amazing soundtrack. From the battle music, to the mellow tunes in Charon’s shop, to the rock anthems of a certain boss, you’ll probably want to play with headphones so as to not miss a single note.
After hearing me drone on, you may be wondering why this game is still considered to be in early access. Well, despite my praise, there are still parts of this game that are glaringly unfinished.
Narrative progression is the big one. At this point, you can’t really finish the game. You'll be unceremoniously killed at the spot where you’d think a major story beat was about to take place. The same happens in another portion of the game where you would expect to enter a new biome.
Character art is another one. There are a number of characters with artwork that’s essentially a spruced up sketch, lacking the full rendering that characters are supposed to have. And there are others (namely Charon) that have no artwork, with only a placeholder image of a hooded figure in their stead. There are some other smaller bits of art like sprites that are missing, though more are being added steadily with updates.
Other than that, there’s at least one more weapon missing in the training yard and you’re not able to complete relationship arcs with your allies.
Still, these missing bits don’t take away much from the overall experience. And the game even acknowledges the story progression omissions in a way that makes sense. It’s setting up for a smooth transition into the full game, where you’ll hopefully be able to import your early access saves.
Up until now, Supergiant Games made it a point to never do sequels. It’s an admirable principle that’s allowed them to keep things fresh amidst a sea of franchises and games based on existing IPs. But I think I speak for the majority of gamers when I say that Supergiant was right to make an exception for Hades.
Between the new characters, combat possibilities, and its excellent presentation, Hades 2 has given us more of the game we love and expanded on the original charm of the series in a meaningful way, and its early access status only makes this feat more impressive. If not for a few narrative and visual omissions, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was fully released. We’re so excited to see what Supergiant has in store for Hades 2 in the coming months.
