Razor-sharp art direction, buttery smooth animations, instantly readable visual language, it's all here. All refined and polished to an exceptional quality. Every environment feels dense with personality. Every character is designed with unique flair. Every animation feels handcrafted with love, care, and obsession. This game’s art direction oozes confidence. The subtle and quiet kind of confidence that comes from a studio who knows exactly who they are, and what they’re good at.

And if there’s anything Supergiant Games are good at, it’s combat. Fast, fluid, responsive, and endlessly satisfying. Attacks snap with weight. Dashes feel precise. Abilities are unique and flashy. You are constantly in motion, constantly adapting, constantly making micro-decisions, and it results in a cripplingly addictive gameplay loop that will constantly have you itching for more and more runs.

The new mechanics and weapons layer beautifully onto that foundation. They create a stronger emphasis on spacing, timing, and positioning. The introduction of magick adds onto that complexity a new layer of balance and build variety. It expands the player expression in meaningful ways, and when your build comes together, the game reaches satisfying dopamine heights you will never forget.

And just as unforgettable is the game’s story. A melancholic tale wrapped in mythology, family, destiny, and defiance. The writing is sharp, intimate, and surprisingly intelligent. Characters feel real, with each one bringing unique personality and emotion. The dialogue is natural, sometimes witty, but emotionally grounded. And with each completed run, you unlock new dialogues, new faces, new interactions. Every return to the main hub soon begins to feel like coming home. You begin to feel a sense of familiarity.


No matter how polished, how expanded, how refined the systems are, the core loop feels deeply recognizable. If you’ve poured dozens (or hundreds) of hours into the first Hades like I have, you will immediately understand Hades II.

That’s both its greatest strength and its quietest weakness. Because while everything here is better, smoother, and more ambitious, very little of it feels revolutionary. The structure, pacing, and rhythm of progression are largely unchanged. You’re chasing upgrades, unlocking weapons, deepening relationships, repeating runs, and slowly unraveling the story.

It’s excellent. It works. But it’s also incredibly safe.

At a certain point, that sense of discovery that defined the original begins to dull. Not because the game becomes bad, but because your brain already knows the language it’s speaking. You’ve spent countless hours studying it already. You’re already fluent in it. It makes the mystery thinner, the surprises smaller, the experience more predictable. The magic is still there. It just doesn’t hit quite as hard as the first Hades.

The balance is also lacking. Some builds feel wildly more powerful than others. Experimentation feels more punished than encouraged. Certain runs snowball into effortless dominance, while others feel like uphill slogs dictated more by RNG than skill. The bosses are well-designed and visually striking, and yet still begin to blur together mechanically over long play sessions. You learn their patterns. You solve their puzzles. And very quickly their sense of danger fades, and so does their novelty.

What was once exhilarating becomes procedural. And that’s the heart of Hades II’s biggest problem. It’s so damn good that you expect it to constantly amaze you. But perfection is not sustainable.


This is a phenomenal game. A beautifully crafted, expertly designed, lovingly written action roguelike that delivers moment-to-moment excellence with absurd consistency. It just doesn’t redefine the genre the way its predecessor did. And maybe that’s an unfair expectation. Because what Hades II ultimately is, is a masterclass in iteration. Not a revolution. Not a reinvention. Just a refinement of a formula that already worked. This is comfort food for people who love this style of game. Very high-quality comfort food.

Hades II is excellent. Not flawless. Not groundbreaking. But deeply, undeniably excellent. And sometimes, that’s enough. It's certainly enough for me.

That is why Hades II is the perfect sequel, and that is why I can't recommend it enough.

8.7/10

its like hades 1 but hades 2

Vraiment déçu par ce deuxième opus, la base de Hades 1 et reprise mais vidé de son âme, les décors sont toujours très beau mais les personnages... mon dieux que c'est laid ! les monstres sont vraiment moche et digne de jeux flash des années 2000, la police des dialogues est horrible et les nouveaux dieux et leurs dessins... un dieu en fauteuil roulant quoi ?! sans oublier tout le casting de base minorité et lgbt... Encore une franchise gâchée par un DEI wokiste... vraiment dommage tant Hades est incroyable.