You can sign up to play Hades 2 early right now

rockpapershotgun.com:

Is waiting for Hades 2 to release starting to feel like a sisyphean endeavor? If so, push that boulder no longer. Supergiant announced yesterday that fans of the action roguelite can sign up now to be considered for an upcoming technical test, via Hades 2’s Steam page.

“We're getting close to launching HADES II in Early Access!” posted Supergiant on Xitter, selfishly disregarding RPS house style by capitalising ‘early access’. I’ll forgive them, though. They made Hades, don’t you know? “If you'd like to be considered for participation, you can sign up right now simply by clicking 'Request Access' on the Hades II page on Steam,” the post continues. There’s also more information about the test both on Steam and Supergiant’s website. Here's the most recent trailer. It's not very recent:

The main thing you’ll want to know, of course, is how likely you are to actually be granted access. Supergiant say that they “expect to start with a small player population, then grow it over time.” They continue:

“Our process boils down to: invite some players, fix any problems they run into, invite more players, and so on. Once we're sufficiently confident that things are stable, we'll wind down the Technical Test, then launch in Early Access on Steam and the Epic Games Store relatively soon after.”

So even if, like me, you actually prefer to skip demos for games you plan on playing anyway, this is good news for everyone. The test portion of the game is slated to include “the first major area of the game,” alongside some early characters, systems, and other content. “If you played the original game, imagine a version where you couldn't get past Tartarus even if you vanquished its guardian.” Supergiant also say that the test will “gently suggest” that you stop playing if you clear the area a number of times. I, for one, would love to see this get less gentle if you repeatedly ignore it.

Did RPS like Hades? Come on, now. “Supergiant's action roguelike was already a game of the year