Hades 2 Is Absolute Perfection (Review)

Supergiant Games received rave reviews for Hades when it released back in 2020, and for good reason. The game is a masterclass in worldbuilding and roguelike gameplay design. Naturally, that means fans were thrilled when a sequel, Hades 2, was announced. Crafting a follow-up to a game as phenomenal as Hades is always a challenge, and Hades 2 is the first-ever sequel from Supergiant. So, Hades 2 launches into full release with some pretty big shoes to fill.

Though it is a sequel to Hades, this second game has its own driving force and works perfectly well as a standalone. Those who did play and love the first game will appreciate callbacks to the original, but its protagonist, Zagreus, is notably absent. Instead, fans are introduced to Melinoe and her world of witchcraft tucked away in the Crossroads. And she more than manages to shoulder the responsibility of taking over the next steps for the series.

When I played Hades 2 in Early Access back in 2024, I was impressed with how polished the game already felt. But diving into 1.0 for this review, Supergiant Games managed to blow me away with a game that’s so close to perfect, I struggled to find a single con to weigh against the pros.

Rating: 5/5

Pros	Cons
Stunning visuals and top-tier voice acting & sound mixing	The difficulty curve can feel a little punishing for final bosses compared to prior battles
Compelling story with impressive attention to detail
Satisfying and enjoyable gameplay loop
Boons, weapons, and Arcana let you create a massive variety of builds
Plenty of great side missions and activities built in between runs

Hades 2 Is A Roguelike That Ensures You Won’t Get Bored with Repetition 

I’ll admit that, conceptually, I’m always a little skeptical of roguelikes. The inherent repetition can be tricky to pull off, lending itself to boredom if it’s not handled well. But Hades 2 offers a masterclass in ensuring that players won’t tire of the repetition, despite pursuing the same basic objective night after night. Supergiant Games has crafted an absolute top-tier roguelike experience with Hades 2.

For most of the game, you’ll be traveling through the same locations time and time again. But Hades 2 offers variety in a multitude of ways, ensuring that no two nights feel exactly the same. For starters, there are several different weapons Melinoe can choose each night. As you progress, you unlock both new weapons and new powers for those weapons, ensuring that your nightly runs feel rewarding as more and more options open up to you. Each of the Nocturnal Arms offers its own unique strategy, but that’s all made even more nuanced by the Boon system.

Like in Hades, the Greek Gods and Goddesses come to offer you aid in the form of a random list of power-ups to choose from. While you’re going to wind up with your favorite options, getting them every night is up to chance. That means players are forced to experiment with builds, learning different strategies based on which Gods and Goddesses offer them power-ups, and when. Along with these random Boons, Melinoe can study the Arcana to learn other skills and abilities to improve your fighting prowess. This again offers the player flexibility with their build. As you unlock more cards, you can choose which to equip and, eventually, power up. Your Arcana setup can become a static build you always default to, as I did, or you can rotate between a few different options to suit specific weapons. The same goes for Keepsakes, gifts that you receive from characters in exchange for your gifts of Nectar. These power-ups can be swapped a few times throughout the evening in specific locations, offering even more build flexibility.

On top of these ways to ensure your nightly combat runs are engaging, Supergiant also packs in side activities and missions to keep you going. The Crossroads is Melinoe’s home and a hub for things like building up relationships with various characters, light farming, and completing side quests. Thanks to a list of Prophecies from the Fates themselves, you’re tasked with several objectives that give you something else to focus on besides just plain getting stronger. These Prophecies are essentially in-game achievements, tasking you with defeating a certain enemy a certain number of times, using specific boons, or unlocking new features. They add another layer of drive beyond simply killing Time. And as if all of this wasn’t enough, Supergiant packs in another surefire way to prevent boredom – the story.

Hades 2 Packs in An Impressive Amount of Story & Greek Mythology 

The story of Hades 2 unfolds largely through your interactions with various characters at the Crossroads and throughout your nightly excursions. Talking to your mentor, to the Greek Gods and Goddesses, and various other figures you meet, helps build out the world of Hades 2. It’s not the straightforward linear story you might expect, but it’s one that is deep, nuanced, and rewarding to uncover as you progress.

If you’re a fan of Greek Mythology, you will find plenty of clever little nods to appreciate. I know I did. From the remarks Odysseus makes about various new enemies you encounter to nods to Homer himself, Hades 2 is a treasure trove of lore that makes the story all the more satisfying. The game truly makes you want to talk to everyone who has that little exclamation mark over their head night after night so you can learn something new about the story or lore of the world. The story opens up through this dialogue, but even those lines that don’t make big revelations about the fight against Time feel well worth uncovering.

One of the things that truly impressed me about Hades 2 is the sheer amount of unique dialogue packed into the story. Inherent in the roguelike design is the fact that you’ll face off against bosses, particularly early-game ones, multiple times. To get further, you’ll have to make it past where you were before. And yet, even after hours and hours of gameplay, I’ve yet to have a single boss repeat a dialogue line. They have a new remark based on my chosen weapon, familiar, or recently uncovered events ready every time. Given that those lines are fully voice-acted, it’s even more impressive.

The gameplay loop itself is incredibly satisfying, but it’s beautifully augmented by a rich and detailed story and characters. Never did I feel like I wanted to skip quickly through the dialogue or narrated scenes. Instead, they felt like another reward I earned for another night of harsh combat. Running around the Crossroads to unlock every new bit of dialogue is part of the nightly ritual, helping build out the world and story in a way that kept me coming back for more.

And for those who enjoy a good romance, let’s not forget that Hades 2 comes with a fairly robust relationship system. As you gift certain characters with items like Nectar and more, you will be able to build up hearts to unlock special events and, yes, even romance that special someone. Even if you’re not interested in seeing which of the Greek Gods and Goddesses you can hook up with, the relationship system offers another layer of depth to the character building, adding new dialogue and information to uncover about each.

The Final Boss Battles in Hades 2 Will Crush You (In a Good Way)

For all my raving about how much I adore Hades 2, I’m not going to pretend the game is easy. Early in my 1.0 playthrough, my time in Early Access definitely served me well. I came in with a basic memory of strategies to employ with early-game bosses, so I was able to progress more quickly than I did the first time around. Even so, those Guardians at the end of each area still pose a steep challenge, by design. Often, you’re simply not prepared the first time you encounter a new boss, and you have to level up and learn before you conquer them. That can be frustrating at times, but it also makes the game’s progression incredibly rewarding. By gaining new powers and learning new strategies, you’ll slowly get better at defeating that difficult boss, making it so satisfying when you find yourself breezing past a boss you’ve struggled with before.

If I do have one drawback or complaint about Hades 2, it’s that the difficulty curve feels a bit steep once you hit the final bosses in each of the main regions. While I felt relatively prepared when I encountered new Guardians along the way, once I hit the final Guardians for the Underworld and Surface, it was a different story. The strategy is much more difficult, and it’s easy to get to these areas while still feeling pretty underleveled to actually face your foe. It’s not a big complaint, as the game is designed to challenge you and give you something to strive for, but it did sometimes feel like the areas might’ve done with one more intermediate boss fight before that final challenge.

That said, this is a game well geared for those who like a challenge. Each boss battle, even those extra-tough ones, is a puzzle to be solved. Guardians have specific strategies that you can learn, patterns to recognize and build ways around. That, combined with the natural progression that unlocks stronger weapons and more powerful Arcana along the way, makes it overall a fair and balanced path to killing Time.

In all, Hades 2 is truly an impressive feat in gaming. It delivers on nearly every level, from gameplay to voice acting to visuals and beyond. I was already impressed in Early Access, but the final polish that Supergiant put on the game for its full launch really adds a whole other level to Hades 2. In the 1.0 release, new features like the Journal, polished artwork for character portraits and the Arcana, and more, make an already great game feel as close to perfect as I’ve experienced in recent memory.

A Nintendo Switch copy of Hades 2 was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.