Here at Ars, we were obviously excited by the late 2022 announcement of Hades II as a follow-up to our favorite game of 2020. But when early coverage of that sequel suggested major changes to the game's core combat, we were a bit worried that the developers at Supergiant risked messing up the core gameplay loop that made the original game so satisfying.
So far, it seems like those worries were unfounded. After spending a few hours playing through the game's recent technical test—which covers content up through the game's first major "boss" character—we found a confident sequel that keeps the original games familiar flow while adding just enough changes to avoid feeling like a rehash. If anything, the new systems in Hades II make the original game's positional combat more satisfying than ever.
Spoiler warning: The rest of this piece offers minor spoilers for the early parts of Hades II.
Magical mystery tour
After the grueling ordeal of the original Hades, Zagreus gets a break as protagonist in Hades II in favor of his little sister Melinoe. In the new game, the young goddess in training is facing down the Titan Chronos—Hades' father and Melinoe's grandfather—who has escaped his imprisonment and usurped Hades' throne.
Melinoe was raised by Hecate, the Goddess of Witchcraft, and was trained in a variety of magical abilities that her brother lacked. In gameplay terms, this change in upbringing manifests itself in a magic meter as a new exhaustible resource to keep track of during the game's hectic positional battles.
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Much like Hades, the two main attack buttons in Hades 2 still offer two different combat options—generally one that's quick and weak alongside another that's slower and more powerful while offering a longer range. But after holding down either attack button for about a second, releasing that button will produce an alternate magical attack that drains your magic meter. These attacks do additional damage, but they're more useful for controlling screen real estate; one might send a spread of powerful throwing knives in an arc in front of you, and another might hurl a powerful beam of energy along a line that can take out multiple enemies at once.
Magic power restores itself at least partially between rooms in the technical test, meaning there's little reason to hoard your magical power for upcoming fights. And many of the godly boons and between-run upgrades you find along the way further encourage magic use, offering attack bonuses when your magic is low or refilling the magic meter within a single battle under certain conditions, for instance (this is especially useful for the longer boss battles, where the fight can last a lot longer than a single full magic meter).
And in the darkness bind them
Magic aside, Hades II also replaces the long-range "cast" projectile from the first game with a new binding ring, which draws a wide circle around your current position and freezes any enemies within it in place for a few seconds. It took me a while to really start integrating this new ability into the constant string of quick dashes I used to dart through hordes of enemies in Hades.
Once I got the hang of it, though, I found the binding circle to be absolutely crucial to managing crowded spaces and maintaining some breathing room amid hordes of enemies trying to quickly converge on my position. The circle can also be magically enhanced to provide some useful area-of-effect damage when it dissipates or upgraded with a godly boon that sends an extremely satisfying stream of lightning bolts down on every trapped enemy.
Speaking of upgrades, the usual array of blessings from the gods is enhanced this time around by the introduction of Arachne, a divine spider who can weave new outfits for Melinoe. The armor Arachne sews for you acts as an addition to your health bar but also offers powerful new abilities for as long as you maintain that armor, giving added incentive to avoid damage for as long as possible (or to enhance your armor in any way possible).
There's also the usual array of permanent upgrades to your power, health, speed, etc., which can be purchased between runs using a variety of annoying currencies collected from throughout the underworld. We're sure the community will quickly determine the most broken, min-maxxed upgrade builds once the full game hits, but it's hard to see much from the extremely generic options on offer in this early slice.
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Beyond the changes to the protagonist and the battle system, Hades II also brings a new rogues' gallery of immortals who offer conversation and between-run upgrades from Melinoe's underworld hideaway. I've already been completely charmed by Dora, a talking shade and partner to Melinoe who can change from a sweet best bud to a horrifying ghoul at the drop of a hat. And I'm also intrigued by the introduction of Nemesis, the Goddess of Retribution who offers Melinoe an endearing mix of pessimistic negging and grudging support in the fight against Chronos.
But it's the relationship between Melinoe and Hecate that really stands out through these early parts of the story. The goddess of witchcraft vacillates between being a stern taskmaster urging more focus in an all-important quest and a doting parental figure offering much-needed encouragement. That complex relationship takes on a new tone when Hecate acts as the game's first major boss, offering both a friendly sparring partner and a relentless, almost mocking test of Melinoe's readiness for the task ahead of her.
The mixture of grudging respect and parental admonishment in Hecate's voice in these scenes underlies a complex relationship that is sure to develop in interesting ways throughout the full game. I can't wait to see where the story and the combat goes when the game hits Early Access later this spring.
