As we get older and those pesky real-life responsibilities start to pile up, we often find that our gaming time becomes more and more stretched. That’s certainly been the case for me, and it’s a significant reason why I’ve become more and more attached to roguelites.
If I have a spare thirty minutes to game before bed, I could load up a dense RPG, and perhaps make it through a boss battle or to the next town. Piecemeal progress like that really doesn’t satisfy me, though, which is why I’ll tend to have a quick run in a roguelite instead.
Succeed or fail, it feels as though some significant progress has been made. I love a lot of these games, going to the extent of making a folder using the Nintendo Switch’s often-ignored Folder feature for them.
Like a lot of genre fans, I think Hades really is one of the very best examples of a roguelite ever made (and one of the highest-rated games of its console generation to boot). Combat is fast-paced and accessible, there’s an enormous and highly satisfying selection of abilities and weapon variants to use, and the Pact of Punishment system allows you to tweak the difficulty curve as you improve, earning rewards with new runs as you do so.
The story-telling is the true masterstroke, however, spinning a tale of the machinations of the House of Hades residents and the Olympian gods. Through some inspired dialogue, I found myself actually enjoying every conversation with an NPC, rather than skipping past every one that wasn’t mandatory.
Even if you’re not a roguelite fan, it may well ensnare you.
You’ve heard all this before, of course. With all the praise that’s been lavished on Hades since it hit Early Access back in late 2018, it’s a wonder that Supergiant Games’ collective egos haven’t inflated like a series of Macy’s parade balloons.
They do have a history of making fantastic games, after all. The important thing, though, is that Hades 2’s 1.0 launch is on the way.
Meeting Melinoë (Eventually)
Fans of the original have probably devoured hundreds of hours’ worth of the sequel’s Early Access release, as it steadily took shape through updates and patches. I’ve avoided this version as I typically will, though, because I like to start a game with an official 1.0 launch.
A full-blown sequel, this time starring Melinoë, Princess of the Dead and daughter of crotchety old beard enthusiast Hades, is an exciting prospect for certain. I can’t wait to get to grips with the game’s new magic system and other tweaked and refined mechanics, as well as engaging with a new cast of characters as Melinoë battles to save her family from Chronos’ shenanigans.
When a game I love has a sequel on the way, I’d generally have my pre-order registered for that sequel before you could even post the Futurama “just take my money” meme. Unusually, though, I’m not furiously brandishing a fistful of cash like Philip J. Fry for Hades 2.
Granted, this is partially because pre-orders aren’t available yet for the full release and Supergiant hasn’t locked in a date for it. Logic aside, though, even if this wasn’t the case, I’m not ready to move on to the sequel yet.
Zagreus and I have all sorts of unfinished business left to attend to in the original game, and I’ve challenged myself not to start what will surely be an even more content-rich sequel until I’ve taken care of it.
Some, of course, will have long since had their fill of Hades. Perhaps the gameplay loop wasn’t for you after several runs, or you persisted long enough to reach the true ending then considered the game over.
If you really engage with the game’s world and the narrative strings that extend just about everywhere, or simply enjoy slowly increasing the Heat of runs and challenging your skills, you could be here for a long, long time.
Now, I don’t think I’ll be achieving runs of a high enough Heat to unlock every Skelly statue. At around Heat 15, all those difficult conditions start to combine into something that might well be beyond my abilities to tackle.
I won’t achieve a 100% save file, then, and I’ve resigned myself to that. What I do want to do, though, is max out every bond and fully upgrade my Keepsakes, Companions, and weapon aspects.
If doing so consisted only of grinding for the necessary materials, I would’ve probably given up the attempt. The fact is, though, I’d been away from Hades for some time before getting back into it recently, and it’s constantly reminding me how much I enjoy this universe and the way it constantly surprises me.
In the last few days with the game, I’ve obtained an autograph from Asterius and brought it back to a certain character, to their great delight. I then fought Asterius and the monstrous ego of Theseus again after doing so, to which Theseus offered to autograph something for me too.
A Heaping Helping Of Hades
I’ve also maxed out my bonds with Cerberus and Artemis since I returned to the game, which leaves me just two more characters to go on that score. This has been my favorite part of the ‘completion grind,’ because every different character has their own conditions to meet and all sorts of backstory has resulted along the way.
One of my favorite things about the game is that the world feels so dynamic. Characters you encounter will comment on an item you have or which Keepsake you have equipped, for instance, where it ties in with them.
All of these good qualities, the well-tuned mechanics, the sense of humor, and the deft underpinning of elements of Greek mythology, are also sure to be true of version 1.0 of Hades 2. As excited as I am to dive into it, though, I’m having such a fantastic time with the original.
