As a huge fan of the original Hades (with hundreds of hours spread out over my console and PC) I was extremely excited when Supergiant Games announced in 2022 that they were doing a sequel. With bated breath I waited for more news and then in 2024 it launched and I started the install remotely so it would be ready to play.

Setting aside the fact that this is still an EARLY ACCESS and therefore unfinished game, Hades fans going into this game may expect or even want it to be the same as the original. After all, we have spent hundreds of hours running around as Zagreus and getting our timings down for each boss. Hades II takes all that was established in Hades I and evolves it. It forces players to try new styles and pacing of fighting allowing them to take the skills they earned as Zagreus and apply them to Melinoe and vice versa. I have LOVED figuring out each weapon and then when a patch comes out I get to learn them all again as they have been tuned and improved.

The overall gameplay is familiar to fans. Go out, fight enemies, get boons, die a lot, repeat.
The game is filled with both old and new faces for you to interact with (I'm looking at you Bouldy) unique weapons, powers, etc. All in all it is a ton of fun to play and I am deeply enjoying the early access process while at the same time getting further hyped up for the full release (Chronos is too cocky for his own good...I need to destroy him)

But for me what has always stood out to me and set Supergiant above most other game developers is the care and research that they have put into developing their characters. The little details that give little tidbits of each legendary character (Hermes and his turtle, all of Chaos, Narcissus, Hephestus (seriously amazing character design), Aphrodite, etc, etc.) I can go on and on about each one and not just their character art, but their lines, and interactions with each other. My history nerd is extremely happy.

This game is a work of art and is a worthy successor to Hades I. I cannot wait to play the the full release!
Great job Supergiant!

Moros.

First the good: I thought the art direction is again great, as per the usual for Supergiant Games.

The sound direction is mostly excellent too, which is something Supergiant are also known for, though I find the music maybe less catchy than before.

The combat is alright, and maybe it's just the Early Access, but it felt like it could use some polish, both in terms of situations/enemies as the weapon handling. The weapons are a bit odd to begin with, and sometimes less intuitive than in the first game, which gives me the idea they felt like any repeat of moves or weapons from Hades (1) would be undesirable for a 'witchy' character, so what's there feels like it's there for the sake of being something different.

I felt the writing, however, is just bad; like they instead gave access to the lead's writing desk to an emo teenager.
There's writing self-doubt and adversity, and then there's writing a character into a victim complex, validated by some of the most irrational actions and annoying characters that just made me want to play less to avoid their yammering.
This is compounded by a tendency for some of the main camp's characters to drone on in exposition, rather than letting the game show it in other ways.

About 18 hours in and I'm done with no inclination of going back. I'd rather restart the first game from scratch.