A Enjoyable Sequel That Takes Some Missteps

I don’t envy any designer tasked with increasing upon Hades, a sport so hermetic that it might solely have crystallized by means of a means of rigorous elimination. Whenever I am going again for one more run–which isn’t too typically lately, although I did spend at the least three stable months of my 2020 malaise deep in a Hades foxhole–I’m all the time impressed by the sport’s capability to wring near-infinite permutations of itself out of a comparatively restrained framework. 

I say “restrained” with an asterisk right here as a result of, as any Hades vets properly know, the sport is packed full with sufficient concepts to maintain issues shocking and difficult for a lot of tens of hours. But key to its replayability is its instantly graspable risk house: there are six weapons, 4 zones with (principally) one boss every, and a seize bag of themed powerups that each one provide distinctive variations on playstyle. One profitable run often clocks in at round half-hour. Hades onboards you painlessly, and it’s not lengthy earlier than you’ve internalized the sport’s core mechanics and development techniques, free thereafter to relinquish your self to their combos. (Contrast with a roguelike like The Binding of Isaac, which makes use of the style’s randomized, cyclical construction as a vector for dizzying mechanical maximalism, tipping the size extra towards chaos and unpredictability (to nice impact) than cautious strategizing.)

Developer Supergiant Games might have made Hades larger, certainly, however they didn’t. Bigger would have been pointless, and Hades wasn’t constructed to maintain the pointless. It was constructed to be performed, rapidly and repeatedly. It minimize proper to the bone. Why add extra?

After about 30 hours with Hades II, I’m nonetheless not fairly positive.

Hades II is Supergiant’s first sequel. This tracks for a pair causes: one, Hades bought a gazillion copies, and two, it was the studio’s first genuinely wonderful online game. I’m heat on Transistor and Pyre, however Hades felt like a blistering synthesis of all of the motion sport chops they’d been honing for almost a decade, and it made a deservedly huge splash. It’s solely pure that they’d return to this properly, having come across a template that represents an ideal alignment of all their abilities.

If we coldly outline “well designed” as “the numbers in this game make sense,” Hades II could be very, very properly designed. All of its weapons are sensibly balanced, all of its development techniques are finely tuned, and it doles out new mechanics and data at simply the precise tempo to maintain you grinding out recent runs. It’s a sport made by good, proficient individuals who know precisely what they’re doing.

And if we coldly outline a “video game review” as “I tell you whether or not a game is fun,” then sure, Hades II is enjoyable. In some methods it’s extra enjoyable than the primary. Their buildings are almost equivalent: you management a determine from the Greek pantheon, combating your approach by means of the underworld in an try to achieve and get rid of a boss on the finish. Here, your participant character is chthonic goddess Melinoë, tasked with defeating the titan Chronos. You’re aided remotely by different members of the pantheon by way of upgrades to your moveset, and the sport’s story unfolds regularly throughout dozens of runs.

Hades II’s biggest feat of narrative design, shared with its predecessor, is its reactivity. It responds to your selections (and errors) in granular, entertaining methods: Melinoë could specific frustration that she (you) didn’t get as far in a run as she’s used to, or gods could comment upon the truth that you’ve already obtained boons from different gods, providing complementary boons in flip. Certain characters grow to be extra instantly concerned along with your journey as you progress–a standout right here is the goddess Nemesis, who, after a sure level, begins making clandestine runs of her personal, and can problem you to petty contests or snipe gadgets from outlets must you cross her path. The sport efficiently sells the phantasm that you simply’re not simply going by means of the identical motions advert nauseum; each run, no matter end result, is a story or numerical step ahead.

Complicating this reactivity significantly is one other, totally separate route by means of the floor, starting within the mythic metropolis of Ephyra and culminating in a battle atop Mount Olympus. The floor route is, successfully, a whole Hades sport unto itself, with its personal bespoke zones, enemies, gadgets, characters, and encounter design. There’s an astonishing quantity of element and mechanical inventiveness on show right here, although simply as spectacular is the interaction between the 2 routes. Surface runs will periodically change or realign sure facets of underworld runs and vice-versa, regularly engendering a pure inclination to alternate between each with out pushing gamers too forcefully towards both. This is, by a large margin, essentially the most strong addition Hades 2 makes to the components, a assured and significant doubling down on the primary sport’s most distinctive virtues. On its personal, it’s almost sufficient to persuade me that the existence of a sequel was not solely fascinating, however mandatory. Then they added a bunch of different stuff.

“Stuff” is an ever-shifting variable in sport design. One sport’s stuff is one other sport’s basis. I wouldn’t dream of complaining about bizarre, fiddly currencies in a sport like Crusader Kings III, as a result of Crusader Kings III is, I say affectionately, designed for individuals who derive real pleasure from poring over minute variations between medical insurance plans. I would, nonetheless, complain about bizarre, fiddly currencies in a sport like Hades, which is about urgent a shitload of buttons as quick as you possibly can till an evil skeleton dies.

Hades II has quite a lot of bizarre, fiddly currencies. Fundamentally, I get why they’re there: the sport is exponentially bigger than Hades, and Supergiant is making an attempt to fill within the margins to keep away from any potential long-term redundancy. Hades’ main currencies had been “darkness,” used principally for unlocking everlasting perks and stat upgrades, and “gemstones,” which unlocked useful modifications to routes. The sport was concise sufficient to coast by with little else. Hades II’s darkness equal is “ashes,” however there’s additionally “psyche,” which might broaden Melinoë’s obtainable attunement slots; “moon dust,” which improves Melinoë’s skills (represented right here by an “arcana card” system); “bones,” that are a kind of catch-all forex with which all aforementioned currencies will be purchased; and a slew of collectible sources, together with numerous kinds of ore and flora, which, when mixed, modify routes in a lot the identical approach gem stones did. 

In idea, all of those interlocking techniques ought to seamlessly coalesce into one thing that feels holistic and self-sustaining. In apply, they place extra obstacles between you and having enjoyable. Just cleared a room? Time to run round hitting rocks along with your pickaxe and digging up flowers along with your shovel (assuming you crafted the pickaxe and shovel to start with). Want to reap psyche from a wandering spirit? Grind your momentum to a halt to play essentially the most braindead tackle Simon Says in gaming historical past. Want so as to add one thing to a route that the primary sport was approach much less stingy about? Plant a seed in your backyard, wait a pair runs for it to develop, decide it, understand you don’t have the opposite required sources but and haven’t any clue the place to get them, surrender and simply begin one other run so you possibly can play a online game once more.

I spent the primary few hours of Hades II being genuinely interested in these techniques, the following couple of hours making an attempt to tune them out, and the rest of my time actively wishing they’d go away. They by no means impeded my progress to the purpose that I used to be compelled to drop the sport totally, although runs ultimately started feeling extra like compulsory farming missions than intrinsically satisfying arcade motion gauntlets. That motion is there, however it’s obfuscated by a veil of fussy numbers and half-baked cozy sim mechanics, simply intrusive sufficient that they’re inconceivable to disregard. The math checks out; the expertise doesn’t.

It’s particularly disappointing, then, that the core gameplay can’t fairly compensate. Certainly not for lack of making an attempt–Hades II’s weapons are all admirably cerebral, inserting a better emphasis on positioning and multitasking than something within the authentic (with the doable exception of the railgun Exagryph, which additionally occurs to be the one one I infrequently touched). The twin wands, as an example, are designed round fixed, cautious projectile administration, whereas the axe hits slowly sufficient {that a} single improperly-spaced assault, particularly within the extra unforgiving later zones, can put you at an unlimited drawback.  

I perceive and admire the trouble to mechanically differentiate Melinoë from Hades protagonist Zagreus, to make her really feel much less like an in-your-face rushdown beast and extra like a prudent tactician. But–and I understand how imprecise and unquantifiable this sounds–the sport isn’t as satisfying to play. Supergiant’s fight design has all the time been pretty easy, and that’s fantastic, as a result of no matter it lacks in uncooked complexity it greater than makes up for with intuitive, thrilling buttons; these buttons are only a bit extra limp right here, the sport’s ambition once more chafing towards its uncertainty over what to do with it.

Carried over extra instantly from the primary sport is an emphasis–even better, this time round–on character dynamics and interactions. Melinoë, like Zagreus, is booted again to a central hub after failing a run, whereby she will be able to chat up plenty of pals, relations, and frenemies earlier than making her subsequent transfer. Relationships with these characters, and with the Olympians, deepen naturally over time, and will be deepened additional by providing them “nectar,” a useful resource obtainable in both route. Give somebody one nectar they usually’ll hand you a personalised, equippable merchandise with distinctive attributes; give them extra, and also you’ll start rising nearer with them. Very often, that closeness could blossom into intimacy.

The tales and characters in these video games do principally nothing for me. I used to be in all probability prepared to be a bit kinder towards Hades as a result of it was a brand new, shiny factor with novel concepts about how one can construction a online game narrative, however outdoors of some thrilling beats and the occasional humorous joke, Hades II had my eyes glazing over. This is uninspired fanfiction by nature and in execution, a sanded-down and self-serious reinterpretation of Greek mythology that warps its figures into cuddly, quippy relationship sim archetypes. I’m not at all basically against any work of fiction that wishes to riff on these myths (although I’m getting a kick out of imagining how a lot the Hades video games would piss off my highschool Latin instructor). I solely take difficulty with Hades II’s irritatingly focus-tested writing, which comes off as little greater than crimson meat for fan engagement; instantly downstream from that is the sport’s dorky faux-eroticism, presupposing the sexual attraction of its characters after which refusing to really allow them to do something horny. It’s exhausting to care about cleavage when everybody talks like a gifset.

Let’s all be adults about this: I’ve not “finished” Hades II. I’ve accomplished just a few runs and performed a number of dozens extra, although one of many sport’s largest attracts is {that a} profitable run is merely one other plot level; the story and gameplay each proceed evolving lengthy after. I’m prepared to just accept that there could possibly be an eventual second, which I’ve but to achieve, the place a brand new improve makes the weapons as participating as these within the authentic’s arsenal, or the place the writing takes an surprising flip for the higher, or the place the useful resource administration evens out into one thing extra relaxed and coherent. I’m additionally prepared to just accept the sport’s foibles even when they continue to be uncorrected, as a result of I’ve had, roughly, a good time with it. Supergiant’s core design philosophy remains to be kinetic sufficient to chop by means of the noise, and unpredictable sufficient that I wish to see the place it goes. This remains to be Hades we’re speaking about, II or in any other case.