Hades II | First Impressions from an Early Access Player

It's time to kill Time

Play time: 70 hours (I know it looks like a lot, but I’m actually a Day 1 Early Access player. I swear this isn’t a recent play time)
Played on: Steam Deck
Difficulty: Normal

Battle beyond the Underworld using dark sorcery to take on the Titan of Time in this bewitching sequel to the award-winning rogue-like dungeon crawler.

As you may already know, I’ve played all the games from Supergiant. Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre are some of the most unique games out there, despite being pretty old games by today’s standards. While all of them are great games, none of them have the replayability and customisability of Hades, and consequently, Hades II. Hades games are great to just pick up and play a few runs, which is why I end up playing them more often than other games.

“I’ll just do a few runs“ is something I say often while I wait for food delivery or something. But they are addictive, so I often end up saying “just one more“ and that’s how you end up with these games at the top of your Steam playtime list.

Best siblings of the Underworld, everyone

Which is why I was so excited when they announced Hades II for the first time. I immediately signed up for the free technical test. Even for a technical test, it felt so good to play on the Steam Deck. A lot was lacking: the art, the levels, the weapons etc. But it was still fun.

Then they announced Early Access, and I did something I never do: I bought it.

The ups and downs of Early Access

Early Access is a tricky thing. You essentially buy an incomplete product, put your time and money into it, and even provide feedback and bug reports to make the product better. In the normal world, you would have to be paid for such work.

Games are different, however. First of all, games are notoriously difficult to automate tests for. So the tests generally must be done manually. And there are so many cases that must be tested that it is basically inevitable for a small team to miss some.

Which is why Early Access can be a gem if used right. Supergiant did EA for Hades, and improved the game to almost perfection, thanks to this process. I hadn’t joined the EA for Hades, but I had heard really good things about it. I usually don’t like joining EA for games, as I already test games for a living, so I didn’t want to do more of the same during my leisure time. However, the EA for Hades was famous for how good it was, which made me reconsider.

So I decided, why not? I was going to buy Hades II eventually anyway, so I might as well just go for EA. It should be interesting to see the early stages of this game and how it changes with updates.

I bought Hades II in May 2024, and was surprised by the game’s polish. I was expecting something closer to an unfinished project. Instead, I got a game that had dozens of hours of content. It was almost as big as the original Hades! That was mindblowing to me.

I played it from time to time until December 2024, according to Steam. Every update added new and exciting things: new areas, new characters, new bosses and new sprites for existing characters. The anticipation was so much fun, and the community’s responses to new updates were fantastic.

Then I decided to stop playing to prevent burnout. I know it’s a roguelike game and you can play it for hours upon hours, but I wanted to save it for the actual launch. So I stopped following the new updates.

Then the biggest update dropped: the 1.0 launch, finally! And it was dropping in just 2 weeks from the announcement? I was stoked and decided to play through their early titles to celebrate it. I didn’t have time to go back to Hades, but I remembered it well enough, having spent almost 100 hours on it.

So when the game was finally released, I opened the game, started a new save file, and descended into the Underworld with a fresh mind.

After the 1.0 Launch

So what changed? Did I notice anything different from the last time I played?

Yes, no doubt about it! The first Hades is a very smooth and fast-paced game. It fills you with adrenaline. Hades II in EA felt a lot clunkier and slow-paced compared to Hades. Melinoë had less mobility (no consecutive dashing) and a more magic-oriented fight style than Zagreus. As fun as it was, it felt frustrating.

I’m happy to say that this is no longer an issue in 1.0. The combat feels smooth and fun. It’s still more difficult than Hades. You still have to be more calculative and mindful of your positioning - something that was not as important in the first game.

Dashing has also improved. You still can’t dodge consecutively, but it feels much better. Sprinting is also a lot better, and the boons you get for it are really an improvement from the last time I played - though I saw that they replaced Hestia’s dodge boon, to my chagrin. I loved the old boon where it would burn incoming projectiles while you were sprinting. It helped a lot with some of the projectile-heavy bosses, but I understand why they changed it.

The game also feels incredibly polished on 1.0. The animations, the environments, the UI… All of them look amazing and I never get bored of how gorgeous they look, no matter how much time I spend in the game. It feels satisfying, especially since I know how they looked in EA. They never looked bad or anything, but it definitely looks much more polished.

The placeholder sprite for Charon

The characters sprites were also improved a lot. The last time I played, some characters still had their placeholder sprites, so seeing their final iterations was really nice. They are also very shiny, I love the glow-ups they got (literally!).

Hestia sprite in Early Access

Hestia sprite in 1.0. The glow-up is much more noticeable in GIF form but I was unable to get one. Note the goddess title, flame and shine differences. Some of the late-game characters went through MUCH more drastic changes, but I don’t want to spoil.

The weapons also feel much better. I remember the Umbral Flames being one of the worst weapons in the game in EA. Hard to use, not synergizing with many boons and it restricted your already limited mobility. Now, they are probably one of my favorites. I don’t know what exactly changed, but they feel much more excitig to play. I got some really overpowered builds with it, and it was fun to demolish mobs and bosses with it.

There is also a new weapon that I unlocked but didn’t get to use yet. The way the game motivates you to experiment and go out of your comfort zone is also really great, because if it didn’t, I wouldn’t have found some of my favorite combinations. This was the same case with the first Hades too. I chose a build that I absolutely did not want to, then it ended up helping me with so many bosses.

Overall Thoughts

Hades II shows us a great use of Early Access, and how to make the best of it. I believe that the 1.0 launch would not feel this good if they didn’t take feedback from players.

Is Frinos the best amphibian in all of gaming history?

Discovering new things that were not present in Early Access is also very fun. I recently defeated a boss that used to lead nowhere in EA. There used to be a bit of narration at the end, but no further scenes. I was delighted to discover that, of course, they added the scenes to the 1.0 version and now I can experience the story in the way it was intended.

I hear that the true ending of the game, which was released with 1.0, caused quite the division among the fanbase. I am still far from reaching it, I think, but I have my theories about where it will go. I might be completely blindsided though, I have no idea. I was doing my best not to check out any spoilers. I am going into it with a very positive mindset though. The game feels and plays amazing, so the time I spend on it is definitely worth it.

Hades II has delivered exactly what I was hoping for so far, and I hope it continues to deliver as I continue to progress. Recommended for those who enjoys a good roguelike game with a strong narrative.

Death to Chronos!