Summary
Hades 2, at least from what we’ve experienced so farin the Technical Playtest, feels like a true sequel in every sense of the word. Systems from the first game have been expanded upon, time has passed for all the characters, and there’s even a brand new protagonist to take control of named Melinoe.
Quite honestly, while the core gameplay is mostly the same if not incredibly similar, most of the story aspects ofHades 2are incredibly different from the original. So, let’s take a deeper look, or as much of a deeper look as we possibly can through the playtest, at what exactly is changing inHades 2andwhat’s carrying over from the first game.
10Family Drama
All Greek Deities Come With a Ton Of Family Issues
First up is a returning aspect of the Hades storyline that was pretty much a given from the start, family problems. The entirety of the Green Pantheon of Gods pretty much fits the description of ‘someone with incredibly heavy family baggage’. Nearly every God in this extended family has betrayed each other, slept with each other, or anything and everything in between. So, it goes without saying that Melinoe would be going throughher fair share of family problems too inHades 2.
For one, it seems like Chronos is the big bad of this game, who is technically Melinoe’s grandfather (Gaia and Chronos are the parents of Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades). However, if that wasn’t enough, it seems like most of Melinoe’s extended family, AKA the Gods of Olympus (outside of Artemis and Hermes) had no idea she even existed.
9Incredibly Beautiful Character Designs
Social Media is Already Thirsting Over Them
For anyone who keeps up withHadesnews on any form of social media, the last couple of days, after the Playtest became available, posts related to this game have all followed a certain ‘theme’. People have been constantly posting about these beautiful designs for new Gods introduced inHades 2or even the design changes of returning Gods.
Hades 2makes it very clear from the start that they want to show time has passed not only through what the characters say but also how the characters look. So, every single God looks different from how they looked in the firstHadesgame. Even Aphrodite, who literally isn’t wearing any clothes, has a lot of noticeable changes in her design.
8The Core Attacks Remain The Same
Attacks, Specials, & Casts are All There
Anyone who might be thinking thatHades 2completely switches up the way Melinoe fights enemies, this isn’t the case. While Melinoe is a much more agile and Magick-based fighter, she heavily relies on all thesame tools that Zagreus did.
She attacks, she uses specials, and she has a cast ability. While the way these work and how Boons affect them is absolutely different from Zagreus,the core three main attacksare all still mostly the same, they’ve just been expanded upon.
7Ambrosia & Gifting System
Buy Your Friendship With Fancy Drinks
The nectar of the Gods, Ambrosia, is back again inHades 2and remains the main way by which players are meant to up their affinity with all the characters in the game. It’s unclear if they’ll get the Keepsakes this easily in the full game or the early access version, but one Nectar is all it takes for any NPC to hand Melinoe their associated Keepsake.
And, the primary way that Melinoe acquires these bottles of Ambrosia is the same as in the firstHadesgame too. During a run, players will see that the reward preview for the upcoming rooms might, from time to time, show a Nectar bottle. If players then head into these rooms and clear out all the enemies, they’ll get a bottle as a reward which they can then give to their diety (or human) of choice.
6Fishing
Even Though You Can’t Actually Fish in The Technical Playtest
This next returning system is one that, honestly, might make or break a purchase for a lot of people. One of the most important benchmarks for just about every game in history is determining whether fishing is possible or not, after all. All jokes aside, in the firstHadesgame, fishing was actually a big part of the game that played into a lot of different upgrades and achievements.
Thankfully it does seem like fishing is returning inHades 2, though it doesn’t seem accessible in the Technical Playtest quite yet. Right now, Melinoe can only mine silver, dig up seeds, or use a mystical tablet to help out Shades for more materials but she can’t quite gain access to the fishing rod yet.
5Hypnos
He’s Back, But He’s Not Very ‘Active’
It’s not entirely clear how many of the characters from the House of Hades will actually appear inHades 2quite yet, but one character in particular has already been seen. Hypnos, one of the quirkiest characters and a sibling to both Melinoe and Zagreus is in the main hub area ofHades 2.
However, Hypnos seems to be sleeping, and from the way Melinoe talks when interacting with him, it seems like this isn’t a slumber that Hypnos can ‘choose’ to wake up from. Hopefully, given how beloved of a character Hypnos is, Melinoe will find a way to wake him up so players can be blessed with his quirky sarcastic wit every time they’re forced back to the hub area after losing a run.
4Fated List Of Minor Prophecies
A ‘Hand Me Down’ From Zagreus
Another core mechanic of the firstHadesgame that is coming toHades 2primarily unchanged is the Fated List of Minor Prophecies. This list, a gift from the three fates, is basically a list of constantly updating challenges that players can complete during their runs to gain all sorts of extra resources.
While a lot of the resources themselves (and how they’re gathered) seem to be completely different inHades 2, gaining resources from the challenges completed in the Fated List of Minor Prophecies is mostly the same. However, it is worth mentioning that, given what happens in the story during this Technical Playtest, it does seem like the three fates will be playing more of an integral role in this game’s storyline than in the first game.
3Funny Lines After Reaching The Content End Point
‘And So, Melinoe Slipped on a Banana Peel & Died’
This next system is one that only people who played a lot ofHadesin Early Access are likely aware of, the ‘end content’ death screen. The originalHadeswas in Early Access for years on the Epic Game Store, and during this time a lot of the later run areas and story weren’t done yet. So, when players got to the end of the available content, Zagreus would walk through a doorway and would be forcibly killed by the narrator.
Usually, this would be accompanied by some funny line like he ‘slipped on a banana’ or ‘fell on his head’ in the next room. This way of returning players back to the hub area after they’ve reached the end of the available content returns inHades 2, as players who beat Hecate in the Technical Playtest will quickly figure out.
2Keepsakes
Returns in Hades 2, Pretty Much Unchanged
While a lot of the side systems ofHades 2seem to be different or heavily modified this time around, such as the new Magick system or Grasp Meter, some things are entirely the same. Keepsakes, for example, seem to (for the most part) be returning with little to no changes other than new Keepsake options being added.
The Keepsakes themselves and their associated effects will assuredly be different, as they’ll be given to Melinoe by different characters, but the Keepsake system as a whole seems to be mostly unchanged.
1The General Core Gameplay Loop
Hades 2 Isn’t Suddenly a Farming Sim or Anything Like That
Lastly, it’s also worth mentioning that the majority of the core gameplay loop ofHadesis obviously returning in the sequel. This is still a roguelike, players will still use Boons to construct the majority of their build, and the protagonist will still be going through a variety of different ‘realms’ to fight their wayto some end goal/end boss.
While the protagonist, general environment, enemies, and side NPCs are pretty different, this is still a sequel game.Hades 2truly is just moreHadescontent, but with updated or brand-new mechanics added on top, and this is likely exactly what mostHadesfans were asking for.
