Info about Hades II: Official game description: The first-ever sequel from Supergiant Games builds on the best aspects of the original _god-like_ rogue-like dungeon crawler in an all-new, action-packed, endlessly replayable experience rooted in the Underworld of Greek myth and its deep connections to the dawn of witchcraft. BATTLE BEYOND THE UNDERWORLD ---------------------------- As the immortal Princess of the Underworld, you'll explore a bigger, deeper mythic world, vanquishing the forces of the Titan of Time with the full might of Olympus behind you, in a sweeping story that continually unfolds through your every setback and accomplishment. MASTER WITCHCRAFT AND DARK SORCERY ---------------------------------- Infuse your legendary weapons of Night with ancient magick, so that none may stand in your way. Become stronger still with powerful Boons from more than a dozen Olympian gods, from Apollo to Zeus. There are nearly limitless ways to build your abilities. MINGLE WITH (MORE) GODS, GHOSTS, AND MONSTERS --------------------------------------------- Meet a cast of dozens of fully-voiced, larger-than-life characters, including plenty of new faces and some old friends. Grow closer to them through a variety of new interactions, and experience countless unique story events based on how your journey unfolds. EVERY RUN IS ITS OWN ADVENTURE ------------------------------ New locations, challenges, upgrade systems, and surprises await as you delve into the ever-shifting Underworld again and again. Reveal the mysteries of the Arcana Altar, tame witchy familiars, and gather reagents using Tools of the Unseen to get closer to your goal. THE PERKS OF IMMORTALITY ------------------------ Thanks to a variety of permanent upgrades and the return of God Mode, you don't have to be a god yourself to experience what **Hades II** has to offer. But if you happen to be one, you can brave escalating challenges for greater rewards, and prove just how divine you really are. SIGNATURE SUPERGIANT STYLE -------------------------- Rich, atmospheric presentation and storytelling fused with responsive action is the hallmark of Supergiant's titles. Vivid new hand-painted environments, even smoother real-time 3D characters, and an electrifying original score make this mythic world burst with life. BUILT FOR EARLY ACCESS ---------------------- The original **Hades** was designed for Early Access from the ground up, and the same is true of **Hades II**. Player feedback will help shape a number of Major Updates that introduce new features, characters, environments, and more as the game gets closer to completion. Release date: 6 May, 2024 Categories: Roguelike, Dungeon Crawler, Action RPG, Character Progression, Resource Management, Single-player Story, Real-time Combat, Exploration - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: No data - Playtime Metrics: No data - Time-to-fun: No data - Player Archetypes: No data Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category. Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews. What players like: - Superior Sequel & Content Expansion (weight 1): The game is widely lauded as an exceptional sequel, surpassing its predecessor in almost every aspect. Reviewers highlight a significant increase in content, including more areas, bosses, weapons, characters, and narrative depth, making it feel like a much larger and more refined experience. - Engaging & Addictive Gameplay Loop (weight 0.64): Players consistently praise the game's core gameplay loop as fun, fluid, and highly addictive, leading to extended play sessions and a strong 'just one more run' appeal. The combat is described as tight, fast, and rewarding, with enough variety to prevent tedium even after many hours. - Masterful Roguelike Experience (weight 0.53): The game is considered a benchmark for the roguelike genre, with players praising its challenging yet fair progression, diverse mechanics, and seamless integration of story into the 'restart upon death' loop. It's frequently called the 'best roguelike ever made' by fans of the genre. - High Production Quality & Polish (weight 0.4): Reviewers consistently commend the game's high level of polish, even in Early Access. This includes stunning visuals, smooth animations, excellent sound design, and well-balanced combat mechanics, indicating significant care and dedication from the developers. - Outstanding Voice Acting & Characters (weight 0.27): The game features impeccable voice acting, with a charismatic and well-developed cast of characters, both new and returning. The extensive, fully voiced dialogue is praised for its quality, wit, and ability to make NPCs feel alive and engaging. - Stunning Art & Visuals (weight 0.22): The game's art direction is frequently described as gorgeous, breathtaking, and visually stunning. Players appreciate the detailed hand-drawn style, vibrant colors, improved lighting, and meticulous crafting of environments and character designs. - Captivating Story & Narrative (weight 0.15): The storyline is consistently described as intriguing, compelling, and well-written, drawing players in from the start. The narrative unfolds organically with each run, balancing despair, humor, and intensity, and rewarding persistence with emotional payoffs. - Excellent & Varied Soundtrack (weight 0.15): The game's music is consistently praised as amazing, incredible, and top-notch, with many tracks being memorable and enjoyable even outside the game. The soundtrack perfectly matches the game's energy and atmosphere, enhancing both combat and exploration. - Balanced Difficulty & Progression (weight 0.12): The game strikes a good balance between challenge and accessibility, with adjustable difficulty and a sensible difficulty curve. The progression system is more diverse and less tedious than its predecessor, making the grind feel rewarding. - Memorable & Diverse Boss Fights (weight 0.12): Boss battles are highlighted as memorable, challenging, and well-designed, with unique mechanics and character flavor. The increased number and variety of bosses, along with their evolving mechanics, contribute significantly to the game's replayability and sense of accomplishment. - Diverse & Fun Weapons (weight 0.11): The new weapons are highly praised for being distinct, fun, and powerful, each offering unique playstyles. Players enjoy experimenting with different weapon and boon combinations, which adds significant variety to combat and build crafting. - Fresh Take on Greek Mythology (weight 0.11): Players appreciate the game's deep dive into Greek mythology, offering a fresh, creative, and respectful re-imagining of ancient myths. The detailed character designs and story elements are well-studied and enhance the immersive mythological world. - Melinoë: A Strong Protagonist (weight 0.09): Melinoë is well-received as an excellent new protagonist, offering a unique combat style focused on magic and strong attacks. Her character is described as likable, determined, and charismatic, providing a fresh dynamic compared to the previous game's hero. - Extensive Build Variety (weight 0.08): The game offers a vast array of build options, combining weapons, boons, cards, and companions, ensuring that no two runs feel the same. This extensive customization allows for significant creativity and experimentation, making many builds viable and enjoyable. Common complaints: - Inferior to Hades 1 (weight 0.52): Many players feel the game is a significant downgrade from Hades 1 across various aspects, including combat, story, characters, art style, music, and overall enjoyment. This sentiment is a recurring theme, suggesting a strong preference for the predecessor's design and execution. - Unengaging Story & Characters (weight 0.33): The narrative is widely criticized for being uninteresting, repetitive, and lacking depth, especially compared to Hades 1. Characters, including the protagonist Melinoë, are often described as bland, uncharismatic, and underdeveloped, leading to a lack of emotional connection and motivation for players. - Frustrating Combat & Difficulty (weight 0.2): Combat is frequently criticized for feeling sluggish, clunky, and visually cluttered, making it hard to read enemy attacks and dodge effectively. The difficulty is often perceived as tedious or unfair, with enemies having high HP, dealing excessive damage, and bosses employing frustrating mechanics. - Weak Weapon Design (weight 0.19): A significant portion of players finds the weapon arsenal uninteresting, unbalanced, and less fun to use than in Hades 1. Many weapons are described as weak, clunky, or having uninspired aspects, forcing players into specific playstyles or making runs feel like a chore. - Limited Build Variety & Useless Boons (weight 0.12): Players report a lack of diverse and powerful build options, often feeling pigeonholed into a few repetitive strategies. Many boons are considered useless, boring, or merely incremental, failing to offer the exciting synergies and game-changing effects found in Hades 1. - Grindy Roguelike Loop (weight 0.11): The roguelike progression is criticized for being overly grindy, with too many resources to farm and a slow unlock system. This makes the gameplay loop feel like a chore rather than a rewarding challenge, especially for players accustomed to other roguelikes. - Unsatisfying Boss Fights (weight 0.09): While some bosses are interesting, many, particularly Chronos, are criticized for having excessive HP, frustrating one-shot mechanics, and repetitive attack patterns. The overall boss design is seen as less engaging and memorable than in Hades 1, with a lack of variety in mini-bosses. - Melinoë Lacks Zagreus's Charm (weight 0.07): Melinoë, the new protagonist, is frequently compared unfavorably to Zagreus from Hades 1. Players find her less charismatic, witty, and engaging, and her combat mechanics and mobility are often seen as inferior, leading to a less enjoyable player experience. - Inconsistent Art & Character Design (weight 0.07): The art style and character designs are a point of contention, with many players feeling they have regressed in quality compared to Hades 1. Specific criticisms include overly flashy portraits, rough sketches, and designs that are perceived as 'cringe' or less dynamic. - Disappointing Ending (weight 0.06): The game's ending is a major point of contention, with many players finding it unsatisfying, rushed, and poorly written. It often feels unearned, undermines character arcs, and leaves players feeling disappointed or even insulted, impacting their motivation to continue playing. - Early Access Limitations (weight 0.05): As an Early Access title, the game is noted for its incompleteness, including unfinished story, unpolished combat, and persistent performance issues. This status can be frustrating for players expecting a more polished and complete experience, leading to a negative first impression. Gameplay feedback: - Distinct Combat and Difficulty (weight 0.35): Hades II offers a combat experience that is notably different from Hades I, emphasizing timing, mana management, and charged attacks over continuous dashing. Players generally find it more challenging, with longer runs and tougher bosses, requiring a period of adjustment for veterans of the first game. - New Protagonist and Playstyle (weight 0.16): Melinoë, the new protagonist, is a mage/witch with a unique playstyle centered around mana expenditure, charged attacks, and tactical positioning. This contrasts significantly with Zagreus's more direct, fast-paced melee combat, leading to a slower, more deliberate gameplay rhythm. - Expanded Content and Routes (weight 0.16): The game features significantly more content, including new areas, bosses, enemies, and two distinct main routes (Underworld and Surface). This expansion provides greater variety in runs and challenges, making the game feel larger and more complex than its predecessor. - Arcana Card Progression System (weight 0.12): The Arcana system replaces Hades I's Mirror of Night, offering a new meta-progression through unlockable and upgradable tarot cards. These cards provide persistent buffs and often require specific patterns or resource management, influencing build strategies. - Refined Roguelite Core Loop (weight 0.12): The core roguelite loop of fighting, dying, and getting stronger remains addictive, with rewarding character progression and procedurally generated levels. New mechanics like mana, sprinting, and loaded attacks keep each run fresh and encourage strategic build choices. - Diverse Weapons and Aspects (weight 0.11): Hades II introduces six new weapon types, each with four unique aspects, offering 24 distinct playstyle variants. These weapons are designed to integrate normal and magic attacks, providing deep customization and encouraging experimentation with different builds. - Familiar Gods and Reworked Boons (weight 0.09): Many gods from Hades I reappear with changed appearances and reworked abilities, alongside new deities. The boon system remains central, offering diverse and impactful choices that significantly alter gameplay with each run, maintaining high replayability. - Changed Dash and Sprint Mechanics (weight 0.06): The continuous dashing from Hades I is replaced by a single dash followed by a sprint mechanic. This fundamental change impacts combat pacing and evasion, with boons from gods like Hermes now influencing dash frequency and movement speed. Performance notes: - Excellent Performance & Optimization (weight 0.08): Players consistently praise the game's exceptional performance across various hardware, including Steam Deck and older laptops. It runs smoothly with high frame rates and minimal to no loading screens, indicating strong optimization and a small file size. - Persistent Performance Issues (weight 0.01): Despite widespread positive feedback, some players report frequent crashes and persistent performance issues that have not been resolved since early access. This suggests a subset of users are experiencing significant technical difficulties. - Minor Technical Glitches (weight 0.01): A few players noted minor issues such as character portraits failing to load and enemies occasionally getting stuck. There was also a report of achievements not being granted correctly upon the 1.0 release. Recommendations: - Highly Recommended Sequel (weight 0.58): The game is overwhelmingly recommended, especially for fans of the first Hades. Many consider it a worthy successor, with some even calling it better. It's seen as a must-play for those who enjoyed the original or the roguelike genre. - Excellent Roguelike Experience (weight 0.53): Hades II is lauded as one of the best roguelikes ever made, offering deep mechanics and high replayability. It's recommended for both genre veterans and newcomers, with some suggesting it could convert those who typically dislike roguelikes. - Mixed Story Reception (weight 0.34): While gameplay is highly praised, some players express disappointment with the story in its current Early Access state, advising others to manage expectations. However, many are still excited for the story's conclusion in the full release. - Supergiant Games' Quality (weight 0.29): Players consistently praise Supergiant Games for another high-quality title, reinforcing their reputation for excellent game design, art, and music. There's strong support for the developer and anticipation for future projects. - Patience and Time Investment (weight 0.04): The game may require patience to fully appreciate, with some suggesting it's a slow burn to victory. Players should be prepared for a significant time investment, and some frustrations from visual clutter or difficulty spikes are noted. - Balance and Progression Concerns (weight 0.02): Some feedback points to potential issues with game balance, particularly regarding weapon aspects and the difficulty curve. Players hope for adjustments and optimizations in future updates to enhance the overall experience. - Art and Mythology Appeal (weight 0.02): The game is recommended for its strong artistic direction, engaging character design, and immersive Greek mythology theme. These elements contribute significantly to the overall high-quality experience. Other player notes: - Positive Early Access Experience (weight 0.18): Players have invested significant hours into the Early Access version, praising its mechanical excellence, high quality, and substantial content. Many feel it's more complete than many full releases, expressing gratitude and respect for the developers' commitment to feedback. - Story and Narrative Potential (weight 0.18): While some find the story interesting and appreciate the expanded world, others note that it's still incomplete in Early Access, with some dialogues feeling rambly or the plot being predictable. There's strong anticipation for how the narrative will unfold and conclude in the full release. - Strong Foundation from Hades I (weight 0.17): Many players have extensive experience with Hades I, considering it a masterpiece and one of their favorite games. This familiarity sets high expectations for Hades II, with some finding it difficult to return to the first game after experiencing the sequel's controls, while others appreciate its similar yet unique feel. Emotions: - Satisfaction (weight 0.34): Players are highly satisfied with the game's overall quality, including its engaging story, well-developed characters, stunning art, and exceptional music. Many find it to be a significant improvement over its predecessor, offering expanded content, refined gameplay mechanics, and high replayability. The game's polish, accessibility features, and continuous evolution through updates also contribute to a deeply rewarding experience. - Excitement (weight 0.19): Excitement stems from the game's scale, depth, and the introduction of new deities, mechanics, and content. Players are thrilled by the addictive gameplay loop, improved combat, and the anticipation of future story developments and the full release. The game's high quality and potential to be a 'Game of the Year' contender also generate considerable enthusiasm. - Disappointment (weight 0.08): Disappointment arises from specific mechanics, narrative choices, and comparisons to Hades 1. Players express dissatisfaction with the story's ending, perceived lack of innovation, and certain weapon or boon designs. Some feel the game doesn't live up to the high expectations set by its predecessor, citing issues with character engagement, progression, or overall combat feel. - Frustration (weight 0.07): Frustration is primarily caused by repetitive dialogue, unbalanced combat design, and excessive grind for resources. Players are annoyed by visual clutter, unresponsive controls, and specific boss mechanics that feel unfair or tedious. The perceived weakness of Melinoe and certain weapon types, along with slow progression, also contribute to a less enjoyable experience for some. - Admiration (weight 0.06): Players admire Supergiant Games for their exceptional development, design, and consistent quality, often calling the game a 'masterpiece' and a worthy sequel. The stunning art, compelling story, incredible characters, and excellent music are frequently praised. The developers' responsiveness to player feedback and ability to improve upon an already beloved formula also garner significant admiration. - Joy (weight 0.05): Joy is experienced through the game's fun and engaging gameplay, well-developed family relationships, and the overall high quality of the experience. Players enjoy the sense of discovery, replayability, and specific charming interactions, such as petting the frog. The game's ability to evoke a childlike feeling and provide 'pure fun' contributes to this positive emotion. - Appreciation (weight 0.03): Players appreciate the developers' effort, dedication, and responsiveness to community feedback, particularly during early access. The game's refined systems, art, music, and story are highly valued, along with its successful evolution as a sequel. The inclusion of features like Ukrainian localization and customizable difficulty also garners appreciation. - Enjoyment (weight 0.03): Enjoyment stems from the game's fun and addictive gameplay, engaging story, and artistic elements like the art style and music. Players find pleasure in the smooth combat, interesting bosses, and the overall immersive experience. The game's depth, replayability, and improvements over its predecessor contribute to a consistently enjoyable time. - Love (weight 0.02): Players express deep love for the game, its protagonists (especially Melinoe), and the overall experience. This emotion is driven by the game's high quality, compelling narrative, engaging combat, and stunning presentation. Many consider it a triumph and a worthy successor to a beloved series, appreciating every aspect from characters to lore and music. - Anger (weight 0.01): Anger is provoked by perceived poor game design choices, such as Daedalus Hammer designs, weapon balancing, and narrative decisions that feel mean-spirited or wasteful of player time. Players are frustrated by persistent issues, lack of developer response, and mechanics that actively hinder progress or feel unfair, leading to a sense of betrayal of the game's legacy. - Anticipation (weight 0.01): Anticipation is driven by the desire to explore the game's story, learn new mechanics, and experience the full release. Players eagerly await the conclusion of the narrative, future updates, and potential DLCs. The game's perceived value and the promise of a complete, polished experience fuel this forward-looking emotion. - Hope (weight 0.01): Hope is expressed for future improvements, additions, and the game's potential to win awards or surpass its predecessor. Players hope for balance adjustments, more accessibility options, and the resolution of story elements. The game's message of redemption and the developers' responsiveness to feedback also inspire hope for its continued success and positive impact. - Annoyance (weight 0.01): Annoyance arises from repetitive dialogue, specific combat scenarios (especially for melee builds), and certain characters or mechanics (e.g., Nemesis, Eris). Players are irritated by the base area's design, perceived high price for content, and unnecessary additions or grindy elements. Visual clutter and clunky weapon mechanics also contribute to this feeling. - Addiction (weight 0.01): Players feel addicted to the game's compelling roguelike loop, finding themselves unable to stop playing for many hours. The engaging gameplay and the constant desire to continue playing, even after multiple deaths, are key drivers of this strong compulsion. - Confusion (weight 0.01): Confusion stems from the game's identity, story choices, and initial experience with the roguelike loop. Players are unclear about weapon mechanics, boon synergies, and certain design decisions that differ from Hades 1. The absence of familiar characters or inconsistent narrative elements can also leave players feeling lost or puzzled. - Amazement (weight 0.01): Amazement is caused by the game's exceptional quality, often surpassing expectations and even the near-perfect Hades 1. Players are astonished by the art style, improvements, and the successful implementation of new features like DualSense capabilities. The game's ability to improve upon an already beloved title generates significant wonder. - Awe (weight 0.01): Awe is inspired by the game's overall quality, artistic core, and stunning visuals, often described as a 'masterpiece.' Players are deeply impressed by the beautiful design, epic music, and the amount of content, love, and effort put into the game. The game's perfection and innovation evoke a profound sense of wonder and reverence. - Engagement (weight 0.01): Players feel engaged by brief character moments, meaningful choices, and the game's crafting system, leading to unintentional long play sessions. The narrative details, replayability, and constant dopamine release from progression keep players deeply invested in the world and its mechanics. - Surprise (weight 0.01): Surprise occurs when the game exceeds expectations, often proving to be even better than the first Hades. Players are surprised by unexpected positive elements, the absence of 'to be continued' messages after boss fights, and the game's quality despite the challenges of creating a sequel. Defeating a difficult boss on the first try or becoming addicted to a roguelike can also be surprising. - Enthusiasm (weight 0.01): Enthusiasm is characterized by strong recommendations and a general positive outlook on the game. Players are excited by the 'smashy-dashy, fun fun' gameplay, replayability, and depth. The game's overall quality and potential contribute to a high level of eagerness and positive sentiment.}