Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark. And there were cocoons everywhere. Sadly, I had a swing at a few, and this turned out to be a mistake. Mothy, woven foes emerged and I was overwhelmed. I woke up, cursing, in a glade surrounded by standing stones. Ahead lay a sort of tented bedroom, and the whole thing promised to start over.
Repetition is at the heart of Hades, and it’s at the heart of Hades 2. It’s bound up in quite a tangled, complex way, I suspect. It was weird to hear that Supergiant was cranking on a sequel, given the studio’s fondness for daisy-chaining delicate, unique games that all seemed to be in conversation with one another. But then, it was weird to hear that the first Hades was headed to Early Access back in the day, given the studio’s fondness for shipping things that seemed, if not perfect, then deeply considered, thoroughly complete.
Well, Hades 2 is a lot like Hades so far, and it turns out that that’s exactly what I wanted, even if I didn’t know it. Movement is still a decisive sock-clad glide over polished parquet. The world is still delivered in Euro comic book panels, with those delicate black lines and flashes of light to suggest smoothest stone. Combat still sees awkward players like myself clutching dash and attack in a kind of crow-footed death grip. The gods are still TikTok influencers deigning, now and then, to dip into their comments. Here’s Aphrodite with an attack boon – it would not be an enormous surprise if she then launched into everything she ate at Coachella.
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