Hades 2 is underwhelming

[Sly]

Does anybode else feel like first Hades was way more fun? The combos, the boons, the weapons,... I am almost never excited of picking something up like I did in first Hades. All the stuff that worked in the original one has been somehow conditioned in Hades 2.For example Zeus lightning side effects now only procs after certain amount of damage has been dealt, Aphrodite skills are conditioned to being in melee range to take effect etc.. Why change something that worked perfectly and make it kind of useless now. The biggest joke however is the cooldown on weapon skills, you would think it might be a couple of seconds but no, some take up to 20seconds cooldown making them viable only once per combat room. The upgrades on weapon skills are only cooldown reductions which take off like 2secs per first upgrade and 1 second per further upgrades. Thats the laziest (and most useless) design you could have done. All in all I feel it is designed this way to artificially prolong the gameplay and I only hope that is just my feeling and not the intent of devs.

[jbrd_]

Suggestions & Feedback:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1145350/discussions/2/

[Hagrid]

The vast majority of weapon cooldowns are under 1 second. You're whining about one god, Hephaestus, whose gimmick is big hit then you have to recharge. This is like being annoyed that Dionysus didn't just immediately do all of his damage in one tick in the first game.

[Sly]

Im not whining about Hephaestus only, Im whining about vast majority of boons being complete dogcrap without any creativity behind them. Have you seen how many boons are there which just reduce mana usage? First Hades was arcady, rewarding and genuinely fun whereas Hades 2 is already being playing with a couple of Iwin comboes as the rest is just underewhelming and frankly boring.

[Hagrid]

Originally posted by Sly:

Have you seen how many boons are there which just reduce mana usage?

Just went in and counted, unless I missed one, it seems like the crazy high number you're looking for is "2," one of which is chaos which barely counts. Unless you're including the hammers, which usually have one per omega attack? We'll maybe let that count as 2 more, making it 4. Tough number to get to, I guess.

[rat]

God no, honestly I don't really like either of them but 2 so far has felt better. Loved Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon, Ghostrunner, etc but these 2 are just so boring and uninspired

[Sly]

I ve counted at least 9 (including Chaos) but isnt that the issue as well? First Hades had spells that worked exactly like they work in Hades 2 but now require mana. The dash/bolt combo in first one Hades worked marvelously, now it consumes mana. The blitz was in the first game as well (not the name but the mechanic rather) but now is condition by damage done first to proc it. I am merely asking why something that worked great in first game is now conditioned like this. Why ido Aphrodite boons force you to go melee? This is not a pvp game, I have expected same arcady playstyle as the first game. Dont get me wrong, I do still like Hades 2 but as for now its the first games crippled brother.

[Decoy]

loser cant beat chronos

[Sly]

Originally posted by Decoy:

loser cant beat chronos

Bro just go ask your parents why the raised a disrespectful sob and stay out unless you have something relevant to stay. I dont have time for teenagers.

[santaclaws01]

Originally posted by Sly:

Im not whining about Hephaestus only, Im whining about vast majority of boons being complete dogcrap without any creativity behind them. Have you seen how many boons are there which just reduce mana usage? First Hades was arcady, rewarding and genuinely fun whereas Hades 2 is already being playing with a couple of Iwin comboes as the rest is just underewhelming and frankly boring.

You can get good builds going with each god. You complain about the Zeus change for example? Well his attack and special boon do more damage than they did in Hades 1. The difference is just if they combo with fast low damage attacks or slower high damage attacks now. And chain lightning is still a thing he can give that will work on both attack and special now.

Hades 2 is a different game from Hades 1 that has its own combos and builds. Don't just be looking to redo stuff from Hades 1.

[KeathalKrisom]

I agree.
I am not a big fan of most of these boons and I remember enjoying their effects more in the first game. I'll be downloading the first Hades game again just in case I am wearing some rose-tinted glasses
I think the big thing was that I enjoyed the weapons more in the first game, especially the spear. The default weapon here does help with that same feeling but it isn't scratching that itch.

Another thing to consider is that it's in early access, I only played the first game when it was finished development so it's hard to compare them, I do know some synergy abilities (elementals/duos) are really good.

Originally posted by Decoy:

loser cant beat chronos

Chronos is not even remotely difficult, I am not sure why you'd think OP can't beat him like it's a filter for opinions.

[Draconis]

I don't exaclty think the new boons were bring, but I'm still trying to figure out what works and what doesn't, where some poms are really needed etc.

That lightning-thingy for example. Yes, it takes damage to trigger it. But that does not really matter because:
- if a foe falls before you dealt enougth damage you would not have needed the effect
- if a foe has enough health, it will be triggered and does its use.
- there is another boon to amplify it, so it does damage after some time, even if you didn't deal damage to the target (greetings from Ares?)

As for Aphrodites boons:
Well, there are two melee-weapons (and maybe one aspect of the skulls) that really benefit from the "close-and-personal"-boost (well... isn't close and personal what we would expect from her anyways?) and it's nothing new that we have boons that work well with certain weapons and don't with others (e.g.: Chain Lighning on slow weapons like the Artus aspect just doesn't work, or the attack boons of Ares on fast weapons)

And regarding the Hephaistos attak boons:
Yes, that was my first thought, too. A rather long cooldown. To use this effectively means to think when to do which attack. Or maybe taking some time focusing on avoiding getting hit and when it's time to strike, you do it with a bomb (which you can make even stronger with an additional damage component).

In conclusion I'd say:
Part 2 is a bit less fast-paced as part 1 was. But that is not worse or better, it just is as it is. It seems more tactical to me, which is totally okay. More getting to know your foes, less dodge-spamming to avoid everything.
New gods, new boons - and it is still early access, so they will surely balance things out and find ways to make some boons more interesting. (I still don't understand the use of most of Hestias boons for example, but that might be because I just can't see the fire damage ticking) and yes, I think in Hades 1 the boons felt like they had more synergies.

[Hagrid]

Originally posted by Sly:

I ve counted at least 9 (including Chaos)

This is just false. Maybe you mean mana regeneration instead of using less mana? You know, one of the core boons for this character, like how each of the gods has an attack boon? Should they stop that too?

[Sly]

Might not just be my cup of tea. I m not far in the game to deny existence of good synergies. Maybe those are not obvious to me but I had 200hours in the first game and I was only stoping when my thumbs started to hurt I could not play anymore. The synergies were fun and made me excited every time I hit the jackpot combos. This time its not the case, I feel forced into gameplay I dont like, aka the slow charge abilities which every god forces me to go combined with the mana usage for skills that were free of charge the first game. The boons here just feel not very effective. As per the conditionals, I absolutely despise it and would say that those do not belong to arcade games. I would suggest having maybe 5 options for picks instead of 3 just so we can direct the way of our build ourselves instead of the game throwing at us rather useless boons that have no synergy potential to the build after which I rather give up and rerun. Something that I would very rarely do in the first game.

[Sly]

Originally posted by Hagrid:

Originally posted by Sly:

I ve counted at least 9 (including Chaos)

This is just false. Maybe you mean mana regeneration instead of using less mana? You know, one of the core boons for this character, like how each of the gods has an attack boon? Should they stop that too?

You are right with that, I must have not made myself clear.

[Sly]

Originally posted by Draconis:

In conclusion I'd say:
Part 2 is a bit less fast-paced as part 1 was. But that is not worse or better, it just is as it is. It seems more tactical to me, which is totally okay. More getting to know your foes, less dodge-spamming to avoid everything.
New gods, new boons - and it is still early access, so they will surely balance things out and find ways to make some boons more interesting. (I still don't understand the use of most of Hestias boons for example, but that might be because I just can't see the fire damage ticking) and yes, I think in Hades 1 the boons felt like they had more synergies.

Have to agree with this. The tactical aspect exists and frankly is not to my expectations nor liking. All Zagreus had to do was smash buttons and get those sweet mana free combos.