Hades 2 Early Access Review

ign.com:

It is shocking to see that Hades 2 is only in early access, and that Supergiant Games plans to let it spend at least the rest of 2024 there before it’s ready to call it version 1.0. Shocking, because it already has just about everything I want from a sequel to one of the best roguelite action games of all time. Hades 2 manages to keep everything that made the original such a masterclass of design, but it does so in a way that changes up how each of the pieces fits together and gives it its own unique identity rather than feeling like a glorified expansion. The result is a familiar, but fresh follow up that challenged, surprised, and delighted me with every triumph and failure in equal measure. There are a few things missing, with an actual ending to its story being the most substantial among them, but once it’s complete it’s hard to imagine Hades 2 not living up to the mythological legacy of the first.

I’m not going to spend too long explaining why what’s carried over from the original Hades works so well. IGN gave it our Game of the Year Award in 2020 for a reason, and if you haven’t played the Greek gods’ gift to gamers yet and think you might enjoy some of the smoothest, most stylish isometric action ever made, tied up with a story that just keeps getting deeper with each run, you absolutely should before jumping into round two. I’ll wait.

Alright, now that you’re up to speed you can appreciate that what Hades 2 does exceptionally well is swap out all of the old weapons, boons, boosts, and other pieces from the previous game with brand new ones that do a lot of the same things, but in fresh and exciting ways. To begin with, this time around you play as Melinoe, Zagreus’s sister and the daughter of Hades, who very much shares her brother’s smooth vocal tones and cool demeanor. She’s a bit more proper and less playful than Zag, with a personality befitting of the Princess of the Underworld, but she’s no less likable and equally well written.

She controls largely