Hades II

Another game in my collection that I allowed to properly "marinate." Even though after finishing the first "Hades" I really wanted to jump straight into its sequel in Early Access, I ultimately managed to stop myself. Once again, I am very happy with that decision, because playing a finished and polished product, improved with the help of fan feedback, is simply much more enjoyable. In my opinion, Supergiant Games can be very proud of what they created here. Pros: ✅ Once again, we get incredibly addictive and very well-balanced gameplay that is hard to stop playing. The "just one more run" syndrome is absolutely alive and well. ✅ This time around, the story — while still not perfect — is very interesting, engaging, atmospheric and wonderfully rooted in Greek mythology, which I absolutely love. ✅ The game runs extremely well on Steam Deck, and I still cannot imagine playing it any other way than with a controller. This is genuinely the kind of game that sells handhelds. The only slowdowns I encountered happened in two completely harmless places: starting the game takes strangely long, around a minute, and after roughly the hundredth night, the post-run summary screen started freezing for 3–5 seconds before fully loading. ✅ As a matter of personal preference, I think I still prefer the Infernal Arms from "Hades" over the Nocturnal Arms from "Hades II", but this is not really a criticism. The weapons and their aspects are very well designed and offer a reasonable amount of variety. I simply enjoyed more weapon aspects in "Hades" than I did here. I put this entirely down to personal taste, and someone else could easily feel the exact opposite. ✅ Melinoë beats her brother in basically every category. Her character model looks better, her personality is much more likeable and believable, her motivation is infectious, and her special ability to control the battlefield is about ten times better than Zagreus' funny little blood droplets. My favorite child of Hades for sure! ✅ The game is definitely longer than its predecessor while keeping the same excellent balance of difficulty. At the same time, I somehow feel like there is less grinding. ✅ I like the new supporting cast — with a few small exceptions — much more than the OG crew from the first game, both in terms of character designs and personalities. ✅ My biggest problem with the first game, the post-credits content, FINALLY MAKES SENSE HERE. I can confidently say that unlike in "Hades", I actually want to continue playing "Hades II" after finishing the main story. The game also offers much more gameplay variety to keep things interesting afterward. ✅ Side quests are much clearer and easier to trigger. In "Hades" I had to Google tutorials more than once just to figure out how to progress certain storylines. Here, almost everything happens naturally or is communicated clearly enough that you know what to do. ✅ I absolutely love what the developers did with the Olympian boons. They clearly understood which gods from "Hades" were the most popular and useful, and handled the problem brilliantly. Instead of simply removing them from the game, they significantly limited how often some of them appear while filling that space with a huge number of new and interesting mechanics. This is how sequels should be made. Bravo. ✅ Visually and musically, I have basically nothing to complain about. You can clearly see how much work went into the game. One small example is the Crossroads itself — I enjoyed restoring and expanding the Unseen camp much more than I ever enjoyed renovating the House of Hades. ✅ Even though this is a gameplay-focused roguelite, it contains plenty of very enjoyable references and connections to the first game. Cons: ❌ The questionable character designs of certain figures from Greek mythology have, as expected, returned from the first game. At this point I consider it an artistic choice I simply have to live with. ❌ The dialogue can once again be too long, empty, and sometimes so poorly written that it is genuinely painful to listen to and makes me cringe. ❌ "Hades'" sense of humor is still simply not my kind of humor. ❌ While the overall story is ten floors above the plot of the first game, it is still not perfect. In particular, I found the ending of the main storyline strange and a little childish. ❌ The way Greek mythology is interpreted once again sometimes goes in directions I really do not like. I know what kind of game this is, but a little more seriousness and respect for the source material would not hurt. Once again, an interesting mythological figure who could easily carry an entire future game is instead turned into comic relief, both in appearance and personality. That is a shame. I love when a sequel absolutely dominates its predecessor instead of becoming either the nail in the coffin of a series or a lazy cash grab. "Hades II" does almost everything better than "Hades", and at its absolute worst, it still represents the same fairly high level of quality. I recommend this game to every handheld owner and every dedicated controller player. It is genuinely worth supporting good developers who learn from their previous work and improve upon it. Maybe if we do, we will get "Hades III" in a few years, because in my opinion this world NEEDS another continuation — and it would be a real shame if we never got one.

Hades II Review — 9.8/10 Hades II takes everything that made the first game exceptional and expands it in smart, meaningful ways. The resource-gathering and crafting systems are much deeper this time around, but they never feel completely overwhelming. I especially liked that the game gives you multiple ways to track resources and learn where to find them, so progression feels natural rather than like a grind. The meta-progression is excellent: there is always something worth working toward, whether it is improving your build options, unlocking new content, or pushing further into the world. It keeps every run feeling rewarding, even when you fail. The character designs are gorgeous and full of personality, while the voice acting is superb—as expected from Supergiant. Every interaction feels polished, and the world has so much charm and atmosphere. Visually, it is stunning: detailed, stylish, and incredibly satisfying to play. The music takes a slight diversion from Hades I. It is still very good and suits Hades II perfectly, but personally I preferred the soundtrack of the first game a little more. That is a very small criticism in an otherwise near-perfect experience. Hades II is gorgeous, fun, addictive, and packed with personality. An amazing sequel that confidently builds on the original without simply repeating it. 9.8/10

你能想到第一次打倒最后一个BOSS过后突然给你来一个卡住，重进然后回档到打BOSS之前的轮回吗，真的吐了，恶心死了

越打越爽，成就滿滿

8/2026 Time cannot be stopped

Hades 1 was a virtually flawless game that can't really be improved upon. Hades 2 is like Hades 1 but somehow better in almost every way.

Better than the first game in every way