Hades 2 Early Access Preview

is developer Supergiant Games' follow-up to 2020's influential and adored roguelike, and to say that expectations are high would be something of an understatement. It's hard to look at a successful roguelike in the wake of and not find some of its fingerprints somewhere in the game's approach, whether it's careful attention paid to world design or an upgrade system that's adjacent to Boons from the the gods of Olympus. Character design, soundtrack, deep mechanics, customizable runs — the original had it all and then some, and still features as a genre touchstone for innovation.

It's encouraging, then, that after dozens of hours with , the game doesn't seem like its bogged down in its predecessor's identity. Zagreus is missing, replaced by Melinoë, a Goddess born to Hades and Persephone and the little sister of the previous game's protagonist. She immediately establishes her own identity both in her attitude — a bit less cheeky and a bit more nonchalant than Zagreus, to begin with — and her gameplay, which features magic, witchcraft, incantations, and more. While the core systems and designs remain the same, everything else is fresh and exciting, and has the potential to exceed when all is said and done.

Hades 2 has a new protagonist, Melinoë, the Goddess of Nightmares and Ghosts, but who is she in the game and why does she want to kill Cronos?

The immediate takeaway from playing any amount of is that it's incredibly familiar for anyone who has played . The UI remains the same, for the most part, save some nice new touches and a bit more polish, and the art style, environmental design, movement, and basic mechanics are all almost one-for-one ports over from. That might be an issue for some, but given the overall quality of the build of, starting from that baseline as a foundation for makes perfect sense. Why change something that works when Supergiant Games can just pile on new, exciting things to keep it fresh?

The basics of is the same roguelike progression