Hades II - Time Well Spent (Review)

Hades II

Released: September 25th, 2025

Developer: Supergiant Games

Publisher: Supergiant Games

Systems: PC, PS5, Switch (reviewed), Switch 2 (reviewed), Xbox X/S

Hades II only has one significant drawback - Hades came out first. 

Make no mistake, it’s a brilliant game, a truly astounding undertaking, just as the last one was. It is exactly as good as one of the most impressive showcases of talent this medium has seen. That’s its biggest strength and only weakness. 

Hades II demonstrates how much is to be said for the power of revelation. The best card Hades played was the gradual reveal of its breadth and depth, the way it unfurled itself the more you uncovered, how it just kept going and going and going. It was such a delightful surprise, and it’s a card Hades II can’t play.

Again though, this is the only major struggle it faces, because Hades was much more than one expansive reveal - every surprise was itself an excellent component of a brilliantly written, artistically stunning, intensely fun videogame. Hades II is all of those things, as well as another great example of how Early Access can maximize a project’s potential when used correctly. 

Rare is the sequel that doesn’t raise the stakes, and Hades II does just that, putting the Underworld’s titular ruler in jeopardy via the machinations of daddy Chronos. With the last game’s characters held captive by the Titan of Time, Zagreus’ sister Melinoë takes the lead, venturing through realms both old and new as she fights to slay her grandfather. 

Melinoë’s story is molded onto Hades’ familiar skeleton. Once again, we have a protagonist who spends each night battling across four regions made up of randomly selected arenas in classic roguelite fashion, acquiring Boons from the Olympians to create a build along the way. Naturally, a ton of stuff is gradually added to the experience with each run. 

There are fresh ways of structuring regions, with some of them livening up the room-to-room format. The Fields of Mourning consist of several large arenas containing multiple encounters, while the City of Hopefully I’ll Google This Before Publishing is a central hub from which you can pick five of the many locations on offer. I like these variations a lot. 

The new suite of weapons take some getting used to, but each one is a potential powerhouse. These Nocturnal Arms kick off with the fairly straightforward and balanced Witch’s Staff, but you’ll soon get your hands on a fast dagger/sickle combo, a pair of wands that spew projectiles, and a giant fuck-off axe. Those are the less exotic ones, and they’re all useful, though the default axe’s slowness excruciates me.

My personal favorite is the Argent Skull. It fires cranial “shells” that need retrieving either manually or via a magnetizing rush where Melinoë surges forward and spurts wide projectiles either side of her. It’s unconventional and tricky, but it’s become my go-to run winner. The final Arm, the Black Coat, is a fucking jetpack Power Loader with macross missiles. It’s amazing. 

Each Nocturnal Arm can unlock additional forms that alter their behavior, such as the Moonstone Axe’s faster scythe variant or the Sister Blades’ Artemis makeover that allows for blocking and parrying. They’re all cool, especially the third “hidden” forms that drastically change how they work (the Skull’s Hel form is so bloody good) but upgrading them is a grind - I really don’t care for the brutal challenge modifiers that award the materials you need. 

Melinoë isn’t simply descending into Tartarus to slay Chronos every night. After a few goes, Hades II offers the choice of down or up, either to pursue the Titan or battle her way to Olympus where the gods are fighting his army. While this doesn’t make the entire game twice as big, it does effectively double the gameplay when it comes to runs.

Both routes feature entirely unique encounters, enemies, bosses, rewards, and NPCs. I think it’s fair to say they possess individual difficulties, with the Olympus route proving far harder thanks to tougher bosses and a back half that borders on bullet hell. The only problem I have with this is one particular boss who teeters on the border between challenging and inaccessible. 

What I mean is, fuck Prometheus. 

A fight with a sequence of five quickly telegraphed  AoEs that each deal extreme damage if you don’t remember the safe spots makes me feel punished for having a memory disorder. It’s a high stress battle and the isometric perspective already gives the horizontal flame waves a learning curve, and to make it a memory game on top fucks over anyone who struggles with their working memory. Even if you turn on God Mode, the damage just one AoE deals is almost comically excessive. 

Nothing has made me want to walk away from the game more than this one boss, either by killing me or wrecking my chances of surviving the toughest region in the game afterwards. I’ll dive right into the game after falling to any other boss, but that one attack killed my enthusiasm on several occasions. 

Prometheus aside, Hades II is a tremendous amount of fun. Making her home at the Crossroads, Melinoë regularly chats with the witch Hecate, Odysseus the tactician, jealous guard Nemesis, and a rotating assortment of visitors. The returning litany of stuff between runs includes  planting seeds and using resources to create valuable upgrades. 

I was excited to see the renovation options come back until I remembered how unremarkable it is. Being able to alter and add various Crossroads cosmetics is a missed opportunity as much it was last time, each item proving wildly expensive for a disappointingly subtle background change. Similarly, fishing is still just a case of catching ‘em and selling ‘em, when I really want a proper fish tank as opposed to the shitty “aquarium” that just tells you how many you’ve caught. 

Renovation is a personal and minor gripe in the grand scheme. I just really love the idea’s potential and I hate to see it wasted. The fish are also so delightfully designed that I am desperate to see them used as more than sellable junk.

Taken as its own separate story, Hades II has a great revenge plot at its core with intensely likable characters and some intriguing developments along the way. The tradition of having Kojima amounts of dialogue continues, with enough banter from allies and bosses to support a staggering number of runs, well into the postgame portions.

In typical Supergiant fashion, the voice acting is as integral as the script. Melinoë as written doesn’t overflow with personality, being so focused on her goal, but the understated warmth with which Judy Alice Lee performs her has me rooting for her every step of the way. Logan Cunningham is deliciously catty as a sneering old Chronos whose every line oozes disdain for the “mere” gods he’s opposing. 

It never ceases to amaze me how many vocal contributions to a Supergiant game comes from within the studio itself, being so professionally top notch. They hire truly multitalented artists over there. 

As excellent as the writing is, I must say it lacks the thing I loved most about Hades’ writing - its core conceit was entertainingly undramatic for a videogame. A young man rebels against his father with a simple desire to see his mother. While it did have its own drama, it was so personal and familial that it really made an impression on me. The sequel’s plot is infinitely more consequential with lives on the line, and it’s less unique as a result.

It is totally understandable, however, that Hades II is a lot more life-and-death, since retelling the same kind of story as Hades would be no better. Escalation is a natural route for a sequel, and given that some of its climactic moments really are terrific, I can’t exactly say the wrong call was made. Nonetheless, Hades II is at its best when it focuses on the relationships more than the plot. 

Gotta say though, Narcissus is in this one and he’s wildly amusing. He’s one of the highlight characters, along with Scylla and the Sirens.

A bunch of new Boons from fresh and returning gods are here, with some truly devastating synergies. Like with the Nocturnal Arms, it took me a little while to appreciate the new offerings, but combining the axe with a certain mix of upgrades to create a mobile three-ringed circle of death around yourself is really hard not to adore. I appreciate much more of the overall arsenal in this one, that’s for sure. 

Familiars scratch a large part of the itch left by my lack of aquariums, with a small collection of animals to meet and collect. A chosen familiar accompanies you on runs and confers passive benefits as well as a practical battle effect like blocking projectiles or stunning enemies. Most importantly, you get a pet frog, and it’s superb. Oh, and their cosmetic renovations are genuinely awesome - you can have a pet Moon frog!

Really though, I can give no better testament than this - I’ve developed a callous on my thumb from playing Hades II. I couldn’t even say that of Hades, which I thought I’d played the hell out of just as much. I may prefer quite a few things from the original, but in terms of raw gameplay, I get more comprehensive enjoyment with the sequel. 

Every weapon is either fun out of the box or has a variant that is. Once you see the value in the new Boons, you can put together many builds that are so brilliantly effective you can feel it on a tactile level. Aside from Prometheus, the bosses are really cool and combat is chaotic but super tight. Even into the postgame, there’s so much stuff I can’t to play with like a toy. 

Hades II isn’t Hades, and it’s the only thing keeping Hades II from being as remarkable as Hades. While it can’t surprise players in quite the same way, this game’s bottle contains so much duplicated lightning that only a player with unrealistic expectations could be disappointed. It’s an engrossing audiovisual treat that’s structured beautifully and boasts gameplay I struggle to keep away from. 

In all honesty, I wasn’t sure if Supergiant could make a sequel that did such an impressive game as Hades justice. I had doubts that any developer could match such an insurmountable creation. Hades II isn’t more than a match, but it's absolutely worthy of standing alongside it. 

9.5/10