The struggle between the gods in the labyrinth – fm4.ORF.at

With Hades 2, the indie bestseller returns at its best: bigger, prettier, innovative, and standalone. By the way, this is probably the best Early Access launch in a long time.

Written by Rainer Siegel

“Hades” from 2020 is about the defeat of the true god of the underworld: he is my father and wants to prevent me, as the demigod Zagreus, from meeting my mother in the human world. The successor to the hit game presents me with an even more difficult task: as a young witch and daughter of Zagreus of Melinos, I want nothing less than to defeat time incarnated in the form of the titan Kronos.

It was also surprisingly released in Early Access “Abyss 2” There are hundreds of monsters and demons on my way, but I have a decisive advantage: if I fail, I always go back to the beginning, but with each new attempt I become stronger – as in the rogue genre.

Awakened antiquity is calling

Let's keep it short: “Hades 2” is the perfect sequel to a great game. It's as well designed and balanced in terms of game mechanics as its predecessor, but at the same time it's larger and brings with it a lot of fun changes in detail. This starts with the completely innovative special powers of my beloved heroine and continues through extensive resource gathering and pets to the new upgrade system.

Between its two outings, “Hades 2” also tells a sumptuous tale about a very human family of gods. They are drawn in a friendly and diverse manner, eliciting exasperated groans from the usual suspects in anti-woke echo chambers.

Quite ironic given the mythological source material: for their sakes, let's hope that the brave, thin-skinned culture warriors of the oath will be spared further contact with Greek antiquity, which is already quite alien in historical reality and its mythology.

Early access is luxurious

Despite all the story and dialogues with gods sparsely distributed throughout the game, the core of the game remains, as usual, fast-paced combat with always new combinations of random upgrades and tactical decisions. Melinoe is no Zagreus, but the immortal sorceress soon knows how to impress with her unique combat and magical maneuvers.

California developer Supergiant Games has delivered nothing but great games since its founding in 2009, and “Hades 2” is the studio’s first sequel and impressively continues that run of success. Although it's only in early access, Hades 2 already feels more complete than many full-priced fully developed games.

So not only is it an absolute recommendation for fans of the first part, but newcomers can also quickly find their way through it. “Hades 2”, like the first part, is initially available only in Early Access for Windows, but this time it is not exclusive to Epic, but also on Steam. Console versions will follow when they are released sometime at the end of the year.