Hades II

Hades II is a roguelite action game from Supergiant Games where you play as Melinoe, a witch trained in the shadows to take down Kronos, the Titan of Time, who has apparently had a very bad influence on the Underworld's management. If you bounced off the first Hades because roguelites felt too punishing, this one won't fix that for you. But if you loved the loop of dying, unlocking, and gradually cracking open a story told in fragments across dozens of runs, Melinoe's campaign deepens everything that made Zagreus' story compelling and adds a layer of arcane weirdness on top. The combat is faster and more flexible than the original. Melinoe leans into sorcery, with a dedicated Omega meter that charges up heavy cast attacks alongside your normal attack, special, and dash. The weapon roster, even in Early Access, covers staffs, torches, axes, and a skull on a chain, each with genuinely different rhythms. Boon selection from Olympian gods returns and feels meatier, with duo boons, hexes, and arcana card upgrades adding real build complexity. By run fifteen you will be making choices that matter, not just picking the shiniest stat. The build variety holds up well past hour forty, which is the bar I personally care about. The writing is where Supergiant earns its reputation. Melinoe is a different kind of protagonist than Zagreus, more guarded, more shaped by grief, and the supporting cast around her rewards patience. Characters reveal themselves slowly across repeated conversations, and the world around the Crossroads base camp feels genuinely alive. Supergiant has always understood that in a roguelite, the story lives in the repetition, not in a cutscene. Every failed run is canon. Every god who pops up with a blessing has something to say about it. The dialogue avoids the filler-quest problem almost entirely because the game never pretends a side conversation is mandatory lore delivery. That said, the game is still in Early Access, and that shows in places. Some regions feel less populated than others, and the mid-game pacing has rough patches where the difficulty curve bumps awkwardly before smoothing out. Certain weapon-boon combinations are clearly overtuned relative to others, which Supergiant will almost certainly patch, but right now some runs feel like they have a correct answer. The final boss encounter as currently implemented does not yet represent the full narrative conclusion Supergiant is building toward, so players expecting a complete arc should know they are buying into a work in progress. For fans of the first game, the question is not whether to play this but when. For newcomers, be honest with yourself about whether you enjoy learning through failure, because that is the entire premise. Melinoe's story has the bones of something that will be talked about the same way the original is, once it crosses the finish line.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

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