It may sound contradictory, but the worst part of the original Hades was its ending. A Roguelite, does it have an ending? Well, sure, you can keep running as much as you want, but narratively speaking, once you’ve managed to do enough runs, everything will connect itself.I do enjoy roguelikes (or lite ones), but I’m not someone who can play them forever – part Hades“The appeal is the way it builds the narrative. When I finished it, there was one thing I hoped Supergiant would do as DLC or an update, but it never happened. But I’m lucky because they just put it in Hades 2 instead.
Spoilers for specific areas you can visit in Hades 2.
You see, once you finally succeeded in defeating dearest old daddy from the original Hades, Zagreus was able to leave and find his mother on the surface, though fate unfortunately bound him to Hell, ultimately leading him to death. It’s brutal, it’s disturbing, but it’s good storytelling. But to me, as greedy as it sounds, it’s not enough. I wanted to go to Olympus, where all of Zagreus’ relatives lived, and they were all bastards, but I still wanted to meet them.
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Mostly, I just think it could make for some interesting gameplay, even outside of the storytelling possibilities. What will enemies on the ground look like? How difficult is it to get there? Could Zagreus live that far? As it turns out, these are things Supergiant seems to want to know too, because not long into the game you’ll discover that you’re actually able to travel to the surface world – and break out for Olympus. Best of all, the method of getting there and staying there meshes very well with Hades 2’s revision of the first game’s mechanics.
Resource gathering was only a minor element in the first Hades, but it’s been expanded upon in the sequel. Merlino is a witch, so she needs various ingredients to complete certain spells, which allows her to introduce things like healing wells and other similar advantages into her run. But these spells are also necessary for the progression of certain parts of the story. Sometimes you’ll need various ores or minerals, and sometimes you’ll need more familiar items like nectar, but they’re not all you can get in one go.
This, in turn, means you can’t rush Olympus. When you first get there, after clearing the first room, you’ll notice that your health steadily decreases until you die. Sure, there are ways to regain some health, but the fight is hard enough that you won’t survive very long. You can learn a spell that will keep you on top, but it requires the resources you need to only get to the top – meaning you have to be ready for the challenge.
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It’s a neat way to tie together Hades 2’s natural gameplay and narrative loops, because it doesn’t just say, “Ah, to hell with the lore, let’s get to the coolest stuff.” It remembers takes what was special about the first game, slowly unraveling the story through constant escape attempts, and weaves its systems more tightly into it. Ultimately, it provides a breath of (literal) fresh air.
I think this supplement is a great example of how, even if Supergiant gets a little repetitive with its sequels – this is the first time it’s done one – it knows exactly how to encourage players to reach new heights, whether they’re actually player. Mount Olympus, or defeat the God of Time. Of course, the climb to the gods isn’t quite over yet, which is the purpose of the Early Access version after all. But I certainly can’t wait to see how it turns out. Even if it requires quite a bit of death.
Hades 2 is now available in Early Access, reminding us all of what made the first game so great. Even better, if you want to jump to the sequel, you don’t actually need to play the first one.
