Recent reviews by Aidoneus

Fantastic game. I love the vibrant art style and the way a disregarded history has a light shone through in a way that a book or a movie/show doesn't. There are graphical glitches on the second act and some QoL things that don't detract from me recommending it.

Looking forward to the update and what's next in store from the devs!

A tightly paced story with strong writing that respects the player's time and intelligence, avoiding the easy beats / hand-waiving to dripfeed you along. Looking forward to replaying to see the different decisions as well as what's next in store for AdHoc!

A top of the line "Chews" Your Own Adventure game.

In all seriousness, it's a fun nostalgic game for the time before college. It's quirky and unique with bright colors and fun minigames that treats a serious topic with brevity and compassion.

Looking forward to finishing this after Hades 2, Hollow Knight 2, and The Finals 2 came out.

Superb soundtrack, a twisty narrative, and engrossing character development, all on top of refreshing gameplay.

Posting what I have said in Arc Raiders as a sole issue exists in both games.

I recommend it, what can I say that others haven't?

My issue is that with Embark's games when not fighting, in Speranza | tweaking my loadout in the Finals | toggling settings anytime, every time I move my mouse that my framerate drops from 100 down to the 20s-60s. The workaround is that I restart Windows Explorer from the task manager, but any time I alt+tab it brings upon this bug, in both games. It's a problem that's exclusive to the Finals and Arc Raiders.

I have to change my review. First, on the most positive note is how a game as tense as this where anyone can be an enemy, I've run into more friends than foe. And it's heartwarming(look up rescue raiders). Like, these are people who could be selfish and could just walk away and get the loot for their quests/recipes, but people don't! It's like living out the Dark Knight's boat scene. There's nothing more magical than a bunch of random people choosing to be nice when they could be otherwise.


Which is so damn gutwrenching as to why I have to walk away, because the loop lost a lot of fun when I realized how much of a slog it is to play this game. Trying to remember if every item I come across is necessary for a bench upgrade later or an expedition phase in the long run, and now for events, too. And, hiding the info even after having prestiged, it just isn't fun to juggle so much inventory balancing especially after resetting when the inventory space is lowered.

Like, I get wanting to hide certain info to prevent min/max-ing with the skill tree, but requiring precise memorization for everything is disorienting and more than a little frustrating. And not having loadouts is time consuming, the UI inconsistency, resetting of winter quests during a prestige that was unlocked for because of an event and not knowing if they're time-locked to the snowy map conditions, and if you don't have free time during a timed event, and, and, and. It's a bunch of little things that just undoes any of the fun I have when running into folks that just wanna help topside.


Sure, you could play with Overwolf on to mitigate some of the memorization of item importance, but if your rig is like mine the game will stutter to hell every few minutes with any overlay or alt+tab until I restart Windows Explorer in Task Manager.


I'll keep up with updates to see what gets addressed and possibly load the game back up in a couple seasons to see if things have improved while I comb through my backlog, but for now I unfortunately am going to have to pass and sadly not recommend the game. I hope things improve, and cheaters do get dealt with as quickly as a game with millions of players can, because the instances where the vast majority of randoms which aren't toxic are what I am itching to return to a multiplayer experience as peerless in its ability to bring hope in times like these.

As a first generation American, this hit really hard. I know I am neither Canadian or Indian but the themes parallel my life pretty closely of what it means to be in a strange land. It's a fun artsy way to depict family life and meaning and figuring out who the big "you" are for people that don't have deep roots in their new world. This game means a lot with what's personally going on with me, and i found it very affective. Food is a also a big part in my family's love language so this struck many a chord.

I highly recommend this, it's short, bittersweet, and incredibly nuanced, with a recipe book of the foods you made in the game that I aspire to recreate in person.

Extremely fun, smooth online gameplay. The puzzles aren't too hard, and it's fun when we mess up or get each other killed. The graphics I have on are at the highest for my 4 years ago mid-range pc. I love switching up the mechanics before they get too stale and the environments are great.


Also, this game is accidentally(maybe purposely) hilarious because my sister and I just stop to quickly crouch and uncrouch to twerk and crack up.

EDIT: I have completed the game, and recommend it. I'm still digesting my experience, and down the road I will create a new save to play the 1.0 from scratch. Hopefully, reposting my review is above board, I wanted to apply my 1.0 review but still include my experience from the early access in its own section, and getting the review out of the Early Access title/badge(?) as I have an opinion after completing the game after its release.

The gist is that the 222 hours Hades 2 was witchy, fun, gorgeous, and the story conclusion was not what I expected but was fulfilling and satisfying, and made sense for the characters and from a writing perspective. The gameplay is immersive and complex without being obtuse and ultimately gratifying with all weapons + combinations. The voice acting was fun with levity injected at the right moments that actually led to many out loud chuckles | laughs | tears | heartfelt concern | anger. And, the music while not having as many phenomenal lyrically tracks for lore reasons as its predecessor('Good Riddance' is an unrivaled 3 act structure story, within the main story |side quest?|), this soundtrack does not slack off and actually has just as fantastic overall music with great changes on the foundation Hades made.

Oh, also, the base building is a lot less of a grind than the previous. I did have some currency | ingredients banked from Early Access, and some things were bought before cost balancing occurred.

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Review from Early Access

I played and beat the first Hades twice. With the first game I was dying constantly that I had to play with God Mode on just to get past the second boss. In Hades II, I hesitantly played without God Mode this time and had a blast with the challenge, consistently going to the Early Access "end game." The fighting mechanics are top notch and feel extremely fluid and dynamic allowing for all the weapons to feel not just strong or overpowered, but balanced so that the player feels capable with any weapon at their disposal.

The game promotes the exploration of different boon combinations. Players aren't just praying to get the perfect boons that are the only functionally "good" run-to-run upgrades, with a lot of permutations finding harmony in their different, and "weird" combinations. They don't feel just like "number go barely up" but are thoughtful and impactful upgrades. These make the player think just enough about how each gods' offerings possibilities, but don't feel stymied by decision paralysis to choose the "right" and "perfect" boon alloys.

The music is fantastic as usual, the art style transports the player in a world lived in and in the middle of drawn out, bloody, war torn towns turned impromptu battlefields. Your runs begin in a hidden base of operations that oozes with the ambiance of being shoulder to shoulder of a rag-tag band of tired and frustrated rebel fighters, which is in stark relief to the first game's at initially sterile and strict turned opulent environment with purchased upgrades.

The devs claimed that this sequel would have more content than the first and I'm 100 hours in and I feel like I'm just at the middle of the story's progression. I highly encourage people to pick this game up as there are a bunch of QoL adaptations from the first, the fighting is fantastic, the world building is enriching, with an enthralling mystery, equipped with compelling and fun voice acting.

I've played for 8 hours and I am not connecting with the story and I feel quite defeated. I spent 8 "strength" that I've gained to open an area that I was woefully underleveled, and backpeddling and following the "correct" questline required an additional 15. I think this is where I give up. Most of the time I spent was wandering around the Hinterlands and it's all a bunch of fetchquests and gather-em-all baubles.