The first Hades was so good because it built an essential and logical narrative around the gameplay loop and the implementation of permadeath. Every time you and Zagreus went on a run through the dungeons between the underworld and the surface, it made sense when you died and were sent back home in order to start again.
Perhaps the thing that delighted players most: on each journey through the underworld, there were interactions with notable figures from Greek mythology.
In fact, everything about the game was cleverly infused with aspects of folklore, and we’re expecting much the same from the upcoming sequel.
Hades 2 release date
Let’s get this out of the way now, so we can get back to the narrative goodness that we’re all here for:
Hades II is set to release in Q2, 2024.
Supergiant’s current timetable has the game hitting Early Access on PC, on both Steam and Epic Games Store.
Before that, there will be a very limited technical test with a much smaller slice of gameplay, but that’s only going to appeal to the most eager of players (like me).
We’ll know more about both EA and the closed test, closer to the time.
What we’re getting from Early Access
We’re not sure how much of the game we’re going to get at first, but we’re likely to get a good chunk of it up front. The plan is to then stagger the release of later chapters. This will see the Early Access process culminating with version 1.0, when the end of the game is added.
Supergiant has confirmed its intention to provide a stable and playable build in Early Access. What’s more, they intend for your saves to work throughout the development process and past launch.
For a much more detailed exploration of the Hades 2 release date, hit this link.
What is Hades 2?
Ok, let’s get back on track. First, the basics.
Like its predecessor, Hades II is an action roguelite steeped in Greek mythology. The game is a direct sequel to the original, although much has changed between the first game and now.
For starters, we’ve got a new main adversary. The big bad in Hades II is none other than Chronos, the Titan of Time.
This guy is a mean old bean and he has serious beef with his kids, among them Zeus and Hades. Somehow ol’ Chronos has escaped his imprisonment and so he’s out for revenge against Olympus.
The studio insists that you can go in cold, and you don’t need to have played the first game to enjoy this sequel. However, according to the devs, “if you do know the ins and outs of the original game or the classical mythology that inspired it, you’ll find plenty of connections, as well as plenty of new challenges you’ll have to learn to overcome.”
Hades 2’s protagonist
Although the game is a direct sequel, in Hades II we will no longer be playing as Zagreus, the playable character from the first game.
Instead, we’re being introduced to another obscure character from Greek mythology, Melinoë, the Princess of the Underworld.
Supergiant describes this new leading lady as “an immortal witch and sorceress with powerful magical abilities, deadly skill with a variety of shadowy weapons, and a score to settle.”
Together we’re going to take on Chronos and his minions, no doubt aided by the Olympians as before. While we might see a few familiar faces, there’s certainly scope to introduce lots of new characters that didn’t get a look in during the first game.
Melinoë and Hecate
We don’t know much, but Supergiant was good enough to share a few interesting details with us. The key point is the link between Melinoë and Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft and the crossroads. It sounds like witches are going to be at the heart of things.
There’s more in the studio’s FAQ, where the team explains how Hecate “plays a significant role in classical mythology surrounding Hades and the Underworld, and has been an influential and deeply compelling figure in witchcraft, myth, and folklore in a variety of cultures for thousands of years… so much so that we felt we needed a whole new game to try and do her justice.”
In the first game, the studio handled the relationships between the gods and each other, as well as their individual quirks, with great elegance. Thus, we can’t wait to see how it handles the mythology around the dawn of witchcraft in Hades II.
So what’s next?
Alas, this one’s rather straightforward: we wait.
Supergiant is beavering away on the game, and as far as we know, it’s dropping in Q2 of 2024, as previously announced.
We’re just going to have to give it time, and with Chronos waiting for us at the end of our wait, that seems rather fitting.
