Hades II Is a Rich, Strong, Resonant Echo—But an Echo Nonetheless

Speaking of the Underworld, the basic structure of Hades II will be familiar to anybody who played the original. Melinoë fights foes in a series of chambers, primarily using a melee strike, a ranged attack, and a casting spell that creates a circle that impacts any foe within it. Each room will have some kind of item to collect once it’s been cleared; that can be as simple as resources used for various purposes in The Crossroads, or as significant as boons from Olympian gods, which will power up one of Melinoë’s abilities for the duration of that run. There are often multiple exits from any chamber, letting Melinoë choose the upgrade she’ll find in the next one. Some of those exits bear a skull warning, which lets Melinoë know that an especially tough fight is on hand—often a miniboss. The rewards are also greater in those rooms, though. Occasionally Melinoë will meet an ally in a chamber, another mythological figure like Arachne or Echo, who will grant her a notable upgrade. And Charon the Ferryman, grim and silent, returns as the Underworld’s shopkeeper. There are four levels to fight through, with a boss battle at the end of each one, and Chronos himself waiting at the climax. The goal is for Melinoë to grow as powerful as possible throughout a run, and make it through to that battle with the Time God.

Her strength increases not just through the player improving with more experience. As Melinoë gives gifts to her gods and companions, they’ll gift her in return with idols that bestow significant advantages. Melinoë also regularly unlocks cards that offer similar perks, and can keep more and more of them active the deeper she gets into her story. It’s the kind of constantly escalating structure familiar from Hades and other roguelikes; most upgrades last only for a single run, but there are enough permanent upgrades to unlock that players will still feel a constant sense of progress and improvement.

If that all sounds like Hades, well, the new game is definitely an echo of the first. Melinoë’s witchy ways inspire probably the biggest tweak to combat, a magic mechanic that gives Melinoë a second resource pool in addition to health. Holding an attack button down for a few seconds will trigger one of Melinoë’s magic attacks, which generally deal more damage and often to more than a single enemy. The time it takes to load one up can be a killer in a game whose action is as fast-paced as this one’s, though, and magic often doesn’t make the best sense unless boons have made it faster to use. As if realizing that, Supergiant mixed in various optional uses for magic, from boosting Melinoë’s health to unlocking powerful Hex abilities granted by Selene; despite that, and despite being the biggest change to the game’s fundamental action, magic in Hades II never feels as practical as it should.

That also strikes at what might be the most potent criticism of Hades II. What makes it notable and what makes it good also makes it feel simply like more Hades. Now, “more Hades” is absolutely nothing to complain about, and Supergiant remains excellent at all of the narrative elements of video game design. This isn’t the revelation that Hades was, though, and the attempts to make it mechanically different don’t distinguish themselves. Despite that, Melinoë and her travails are narratively rich, and the basic combat (whose debt to Supergiant’s first game Bastion remains unmistakable) is still strong enough, to ensure that Hades II is an excellent game that nails a precarious equity between story and action—and that should be enough to convince anybody to play it. 

Hades II was developed and published by Supergiant Games. Our review is based on the Switch version. It is also available on PC.

Editor-in-chief Garrett Martin writes about videogames, theme parks, pinball, travel, and more. You can also find him on Blue Sky.