Intro: It’s special when a game can pull me in, drag me beneath the surface, have me thinking about it nonstop, and crave its gameplay and luscious story. Hades 2 created an immersive environment and has more story than the first game, Hades. Normally with a second game, it’s a tossup if the story stays consistent and improved upon, but the second installment this time around is better than the first, and it’s only in early access. The first game was an incredible journey and a magnificent story of Zagreus going through hell to get to the surface. Now in Hades 2 Melinoe is tasked with saving her family from the clutches of the god of time himself, Chronos. The Gods have a story to tell: The story of the gods is complex, creating a divide amongst an already not-close family. Hades 2 creates a new story that stars Zagreu’s Little sister, Melinoe who has to now save her family from time itself, Chronos, which is a smart idea to take that angle for the next game. The utilization of gods and goddesses in both games is fun, witty, and to a degree, accurately representative of the context of the history/mythology. There is a story the developers are telling that is vibrant and incredibly well-written. It’s not normal to come across a second game being better than the first; the only other instance I can think of where the second game overshadowed the first is Silent Hill 2. Hades 2 does something I seldom see in a game, every time you start a run you are given an upgrade to your weapons and magic through one of your Olympian family members that is unique each run. Every interaction with them is also different in terms of the narrative design, it's wonderful and to be honest quite amazing how much story, and how many other pieces of dialogue there are to experience. I love it when a company goes all out for a story and its characters, it shows the love and care behind the craft and when I play both Hades 1&2 I can tell that these games are truly loved.
Swift on my feet:
For an early access game, Hades 2 is in surprisingly incredible shape. Except for two crashes, Hades 2 is in an impressive state of release. So many things have been improved upon in this installment, including but not limited more of the utilization of the environment to defeat enemies, the ease and usage of weapons and their strength upgrades, and the amount of crafting options there are to make the journey unique to your play style. There’s also a new upgrading system, in the form of Tarot cards that give you death defiance, recovery speed boosts, and more to aid you in your journey. The Tarot cards are much to the likes of what The Mirror of Night was in Hades.
This game also runs a lot smoother than the first Hades with a better response time for the weapons and faster loading screens in between places. It’s amazing to see how much improvement was made from the first games released in 2018, to now with Hades 2. It's more immersive than the first with each attempt made in the game getting further and further. It's a fun dungeon crawler that’s difficult and meaty in what it offers to the player.
A little history lesson: While the developers make it look easy, and effortless to create a game like Hades1&2, there is a lot of work, research, and planning that goes into making a game like this. Let’s deviate away from the mechanics, art, and narrative design, (as far as the story goes) let’s focus on the characters and why this time around things were kicked up a notch. In the first game, the use of the gods of Olympus was in-depth yet, simpler. In Hades 2 not only are there the gods of Olympus, but you have WAY more variance in the characters you share a home with at your base. When Melinoe is out and about in her attempts to get to Chronos, you run across Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Artemis, and more of your family members. The history and lore of the Greek gods and goddesses are some of the most heavily researched and discussed, but in a game, these are some of the most accurate representations, especially of their characteristics. Metamorphosis in Greek mythology is also something that is brought into this game in two aspects, in one way it’s as simple as Melinoe being transformed into a lamb during the fight with Hecate, and the other is more philosophical. The Greek gods and goddesses could metamorphize into anything, but always returned to human form. The Greek gods and goddesses in the stories were beings; they were here to exist and experience life in its most pleasurable and fun way to them. When I see conversations online complaining about how certain characters look in this game, I must remind you that the Greek gods and goddesses much like any part of a religion, are a metaphor, an educational tool if you will. So it shouldn’t matter what they looked like, if they had three eyes, blue skin, and a bushy tail, it’s how the personality traits and story are carried that matters, not the looks of the character. Hades 2 is wonderful so far, and a game I would highly recommend checking out. There will be updates coming out from Supergiant for Hades 2, I’m excited to finish the game and see how Chronos is more so utilized in the game.
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