Sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder.Other times it can distort your memories of the thing you love. Like many, I was obsessed with Hades back in 2020. I spent well over 100 hours with it, marveling at its fast-paced gameplay and its rich storytelling. It quickly became an all-time favorite that I couldn’t get enough of. I’d get more, sort of, as a wave of roguelikes emerged having taken very clear notes from Hades in the wake of its success.
Teenage Mutant Ninja turtles: Splintered Fate, Callisto Protocol spinoff [Redacted], Lost in Random: The Eternal Die – all of these games gave me the same top-down roguelike action with narrative twists that gave each a sense of progression. Yet none of these games,fun as they could be,fully satiated my appetite. I began to convince myself that the problem was Hades itself. Maybe I was so excited about it as it felt so new at the time, but that its formula was more shallow then I thoght in 2020.
after playing Hades 2 it turns out my first instincts were correct after all. It’s just that no Hades riff I’ve played fully understands what makes the series special.
# hades 2 feels less like a game and more like a world
Supergiant Games’ Hades 2 isn’t just a sequel; it’s a testament to how much a game can *feel* like a place.The original Hades was lauded for its characters, story, and addictive gameplay loop, but Hades 2 builds on that foundation with a level of environmental detail and systemic interactivity that makes the Underworld feel truly alive. It doesn’t feel like a world pieced together by assets; the mechanical nature of game progress gives way to the organic.
That philosophy isn’t just present in the artistry,but in the core gameplay too. The best example of that lies in Hades 2‘s excellent combat. The countless boons – temporary powerups that last the span of a run – you can grab don’t just increase your attack power or give you more defense. They fundamentally reshape how you fight,making one attack button feel like it’s capable of doing 7,000 things.
2025/09/26 15:50:07