Hades II

I'm a huge Supergiant Games fan. I've played all of their games as they released, I've loved all of them and I own a bunch of merch I've accumulated over the years. You could probably split eras of my adolescent and adult life using their games, as each era is associated by the impression each game left on me. My personal favorite is Transistor; I should really replay it at some point. When going into a SGG game you know, at the very least, you're getting industry best aesthetic, industry best voice acting, industry best music, and most of the time industry best writing. Hades 1 was probably the first time that SGG also nailed the gameplay. I remember messaging my friend Mario "I'm not sure I'll ever stop playing this game". Of course, I did stop playing it, but after 100 hours. Now, obviously I was swept up in the initial impression the game had left on me but having a repayable roguelite with an emphasis on story executed in such a smooth and effortless way was seriously impressive. Hades 2 is more of the same but better. This time we're playing as Melinoe, Zagreus's sister, who's tasked with liberating her family from the grasp of Chronos the Titan of Time. Being deathless, he's re-assembled himself and has decided to take revenge upon his children and grandchildren for murdering him aeons earlier. He's mounting an offensive on two fronts, in the underworld, having taken over the House of Hades; and a physical siege on Olympus by using the army of the dead. Each night Melinoe chooses which front to help out, collecting boons from the extended cast of Greek Gods and their powers. If you've played Hades 1 you can immediately tell that the sequel's story is MUCH more ambitious. At first, I was so excited to see that the stakes have increased and that some of the sections feel like an actual war is taking place on Mt. Olympus. However, as you play, you might notice the cracks in the story which culminate in an ending which essentially ruined my will to continue playing it, but more on that later. Melinoe plays a bit differently than Zagreus, mostly for the better. Each of her attacks can be held down to use and Omega version of it. It adds some much-needed depth to the combat, Zagreus's move set was fine for Hades 1, but overall, I would say that Melinoe is a character that's more fun to play. Her arsenal is large and well balanced, the only weapon I actively did not like using is Black Coat, but the rest of the weapons and their aspects are distinct and fun to use. I think I've cleared both paths with each weapon at least once, once I started clearing the runs consistently. The other meta progression aspects are great as well; arcana cards are well balanced and just complicated enough to make the system interesting. Near the end I had essentially two loadouts that I would select between, but getting there and figuring out what works and what doesn't was a great experience. Keepsakes are similar, but half of them are essentially used to force a certain boon or build, which is fine, I like that it's optimal to select a new keepsake between each region. Overall, Hades 2 improves on all gameplay aspects of its predecessor and it's worth playing if only for that. It still looks and sounds incredible. Darren Korb is probably the best working composer at the moment who's been incredibly consistent across many genres, but I don't think there's a "killer" song like "We All Become" from Transistor or "Build That Wall" from Bastion. Now, onto everything else. The cast of you "home base" characters is fine but doesn't really compare to the first game's cast. Maybe it's because it's the same archetypes, but I felt more connected to 'Dusa, Magera, Thanatos than I did to Dora, Moros and Nemesis. After finishing the game, I didn't really feel a need to wrap up their individual questlines. The same goes for the "in-run" characters, Narcissus, Arachnea, Echo, didn't really care or find them nearly as charming as I did Sisyphus, Orpheus etc. Maybe it's just the novelty of this awesome meta-and-story progression system that SGG has cooked up wearing off? It's hard to tell, regardless, it affected my enjoyment of it. The ending sucks massive ass, to the point where it completely killed any ambitions of playing through the post-ending content, which I nearly 100%-ed in Hades 1. I will not go into spoilers, I can't say that I hate the ending conceptually, I just think that the execution is so sudden and piss-poor that it really left me baffled; especially from Supergiant Games... The same can be said for the justification for Melinoe continuing her nightly expeditions to Mount Olympus of the underworld. There's always going to be some suspension of disbelief with the story focused roguelites and the continuation of runs, but this is just so stupid and ham-fisted that I went to sleep angry after finishing the game, I couldn't even enjoy the SGG "credits song" which usually make me tear up... However, this cannot take away from the rest of the game being phenomenal, and it still gets a glowing recommendation from me.