Since starting writing about ten years ago, I’ve found myself valuing novel works. Games that do something different appeal to me, even if they don’t quite nail the execution every time. It’s why I rarely rate sequels above the original; the original is the creative genesis of a series. But in the case of Hades II, despite the foundation of the game to be identical to the first, its execution fixes the major problems I had. To read more about my thoughts on the original Hades, read my review here. 

Hades II takes place decades after the original game, the happy family reunion was short lived as Chronos broke free from his eternal confinement to exact revenge on his captors. You play as Melinoë, the daughter of Hades and Persephone who was whisked away as an infant by a handmaiden to protect her from Chronos. Hades, Zagreus, Persephone, and the rest of the house have been frozen in time while Melinoë has been training in secret as a witch with one sole purpose: to destroy Chronos.

Structurally, Hades II is functionally identical to its predecessor. It’s a roguelite in which you traverse randomized zones to acquire power-ups and make your way towards the final boss. Once you die, the run ends and you are sent back to camp to start from the beginning. What both Hades games do extraordinarily well is meta-progression. Acquiring currencies and materials as you play to unlock permanent bonuses to make future attempts easier. Both games do an excellent job at tying these permanent rewards to your skill level. If you are struggling with the game and dying quickly, you won’t get many materials in each run to bring back to camp for upgrades. This prevents players from getting too strong too fast and beating the game through sheer attrition. But if you are skilled, you will be able to progress to new zones and acquire far more materials to bolster yourself faster. 

The gameplay loop is incredibly similar to the original game, but Hades II shines in its combat. I found the combat in the first game to be a bit simplistic and button-mashy. Spamming the attack and dodge button with some knowledge of enemy attacks was remarkably effective. I rarely used the special and cast abilities since they rarely felt worth the effort to try to weave in outside of specialized builds. Hades II does an excellent job at increasing the power of these abilities to make them necessary to succeed. They become a core function of gameplay that you need to learn. Furthermore, a magic system is introduced allowing you to charge up attacks and abilities to their Omega state for additional effects.

The cast ability in particular is interesting as it places a large circle on the floor, ensnaring any foe that enters. This is incredibly important as Hades II floods the arena with many fast-moving enemies. Mastering the crowd control potential of the cast is critical to success. Briefly charging the cast also causes a huge detonation of damage at the end at the cost of some magic. The extra depth to the combat is definitely appreciated, but the diversity that casts and magic bring to builds is what I enjoyed the most. 

One of my primary complaints with the original Hades was how repetitive the bonuses across runs became. Of course, there were multiple weapons and upgrades that provided some variety, but most boons from the gods amounted to slightly different flavors of the same thing: more damage. Poseidon knocked enemies back, Dionysus provided a damage-over-time effect, and Artemis could critically strike, but ultimately most runs played out the same exact way. In Hades II, choosing whether to prioritize basic attacks, casts, specials, or any of their Omega varieties is important. You could choose to dump all of your boons into basic attacks, but using casts and specials to apply additional effects from gods is critical to succeeding in difficult situations. Many of the weapons even revolve around chaining together all of your kit, making each run feel more distinct. 

The magic system in particular makes builds more diverse as you need to balance increasing your pool of mana, having a way to regain mana during combat, and finding powerful bonuses that consume mana. While Omega attacks, casts, and specials consume mana there are other unique mana-consuming boons and bonuses to find that really broadens the pool of useful upgrades. Each run has so many more variables compared to the first Hades, making for a more replayable experience.

Another major boost to the variety of Hades II is that it has two routes that you need to conquer. The first game had a single route with the same 4 areas and bosses, making the game a bit stale once you had figured out how to defeat every enemy. Of course, there was a fantastic difficulty scaling system to make things more interesting, but even then, I found myself ready to move on after beating the game a few times. Hades II has the player first explore the underworld, attempting to defeat Chronos and reclaim their home. But Chronos has recruited a powerful ally to attack Mount Olympus and distract the gods, and you’ll need to free Mount Olympus to achieve your ultimate goal. The Mount Olympus route is significantly more difficult, and each area has its own environmental hazards and gimmicks to watch out for. 

The combination of more in depth combat, varied builds, and having two routes made Hades II a much more replayable game than its predecessor. For a roguelite, this is an incredibly important quality. It didn’t take me long to notch my first win in the original game, and from there I got bored replaying the same areas over and over without much change outside of my weapon choice. While playing Hades II I had no qualms about beating dozens of runs to complete the story and I was happy to continue playing even after the credits rolled just because of the increased variety and because the combat was so fun.

Hades II carries the torch of stellar art direction and character design. The game is stunning to look at with brilliant animations and detailed depictions of the Greek gods. Their designs are unique and modern; they play into their classical traits but have been made more distinct and interesting. The game is full to the brim with dialogue and banter with the gods, further fleshing out their personalities. Personally, I was a bit overwhelmed with the sheer quantity of conversations to be had. Many can be safely skipped as they are just flavor text, but just talking to characters at base camp between runs takes as much time as actually completing a run.

While an overabundance of text is a shared trait with the first game, I think I found it more tolerable because I was more invested in the story. There was something endearing about trying to escape the underworld, only to be thwarted by the head of the household: Hades himself. There was an air of mystery why Zagreus’ father was so insistent on stopping his son from reaching the surface. While I care about the characters that Chronos froze in time, the story was more impersonal and also less interesting. Sure, Chronos is Melinoë’s grandfather, but they’ve never met each other before the events of the game making their relationship stilted. And the primary driver of the plot is revenge, Chronos wants revenge on the gods and Melinoe wants revenge on Chronos. Overall, I found the plot to be weaker than the original.

Despite my grievances with the plot, I enjoyed my time with Hades II more than the original. The increased combat depth makes moment-to-moment gameplay more intense. The magic system and increased emphasis on casts makes builds more diverse. Having a second route to conquer can break up the monotony of replaying the same areas over and over again. The most important aspects of roguelites are fun gameplay and replayability, both of which Hades II nails. It is for these reasons that I give Hades II an 8.5/10. It may follow the same formula of the original Hades, but Hades II expands and improves upon that base, making for an excellent sequel.