I am pretty much done with Hades II (Supergiant Games). I may do a few more runs to see if I get any more post-true true ending content, but I’m not much fussed if I miss out on a few new lines here and there. That’s so different than how I felt about the first game, dialogue-wise, and it makes me a bit wistful for OG Hades. Here’s the second part of my official review after 100%ing the game. I didn’t get that far into my review, but I wanted to show my work before continuing.
Before I review the game after finishing the true true ending, I want to state up front that I turned God Mode on after beating
*SPOILERS*
Chronos for the first time. Not right after, but when I could not come close to beating Typhon, I decided to give it a try. Then, for the next few days, I turned it off while running the levels and on for the bosses. After a few days of that, I gave in and kept it on. I liked the game so much better once I did that, and my only regret was that I did not tturn it on earlier.
I gave Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Sandfall Interactive) a 7 when I reviewed it. This game is better than that game–or at least I enjoyed my time with it more. I was always going to give this game a better score than that one, but before the true true ending, I think I would have given this game a 7.5. I’m not going to say what I’m giving it now, but you can assume it’s going to be higher than that.
I struggle in talking about this game because my emotions are all over the place about it. In fact, that’s my theme for this year–games that I both really like and deeply dislike at the same time. I would say that this game falls into that category, but I like more of it than I dislike. However, I can’t help but compare it to the first game, which I liked better.
Let’s talk weapons. There are six weapons with three aspects for each weapon. You start with one aspect for each, with is the Aspect of Melinoë (the main character). It’s the basic moveset and isn’t anything special, but I preferred it in at least one of the weapons. You have to unlock the other two aspects for each weapon in different ways. You don’t know how you’re going to do it, so basically, just keep playing the game with the different weapons and you’ll eventually unlock the other aspects. Then, you have to level them up, and it’s costly. I’ve written about it before that I thought it was too costly.
Speaking of, too costly, decorating around The Crossroads cost a currency called kudos. There were several ways to get kudos, including trading in resources I harvested while playing the game. It was so fucking expensive, and I felt like I was being fleeced. In the latest patch, the devs adjusted the exchange rate, and I got something like 44,000 kudos back. Which, great! But I had bought everything by that point, so I don’t need it.
Back to the weapons. There is one I hate; one that can be really amazing or really terrible–no in-between; one that is fun, but I would not instinctively choose; one that is easy mode personified; and two that I really enjoy. I thought the weapons in the first game were better overall–and, yes, I can’t help but compare this game to the prior one because they are so similar.
The music is aces. I like that many of the songs are variants of the main theme, and yet, distinct from each other. The song I included above is my absolute favorite, and I love that when it’s first played in the game and I go to battle Scylla and the Sirens, the whole set-up is a music video. It’s incredible, and I love it. I disliked Scylla the first few times i met her with good reason, but she really grew on me after facing her so many times. We got to know each other, and I grew to admire her tenacity and ferocity. Yes, she’s screwed up in the head, but she’s also talented as fuck. And I can’t help but wish them success. I like the little touch of being able to buy a poster from them back in my room in The Crossroads and putting it up on the wall.
I like the decorating aspect, which was fun in the first game as well. I wish the currency had been better calibrated, but that’s fine. I got all the items It was nice to take a few minutes after a run to pick out a new candle or plushie or statue. There was a whimsy to it that I appreciated. For example, there was a set of figures you could get that were plushy smol versions of them, and I have them on my shelves near my Arcana cards.
The gameplay has that engaging ‘just one more run’ feel to it., and it’s as addictive as fuck. It’s smoother in some ways, but the dash isn’t quite as good. You can make it better with boons from Hermes and other gods, but it’s just not as good as the one in the first game. Overall, I prefer the areas in the first game because I find them more distinct than the ones in this game. Or, rather, and I’m just going to say it. This game has so many echoes of the first game, it’s hard to ignore them or not make the comparison myself.
It’s the curse of the sequel, really, and it’s not completely a bad thing. Part of the reason people play the sequel is because they love the original. That’s not a bad thing at all. It’s a very thin line, of course, because while you want people to be reminded of how great the first game was, you don’t want them to fixate on that.
Sadly, I think Supergiant Games has strayed a bit too far on leaning too heavily on the past game, in both small ways and big. The big way, well, I’ve ranted about that plenty. The small ways, I’ve also mentioned, but I’ll quickly rattle off a few of them here. They made two of the NPC characters in this game almost direct copies of characters in the first game. One I ended up adoring and one I ended up despising.
Here’s is one of my biggest issues with the game–the female characters were not well written at all. From Melinoë to Nemesis to Eris to Hecate (not talking about the Olympians here), they all fell flat for one reason or another. By the end of the game, I hated Nemesis and Eris. In the latest patch, the devs noted that they made it so Nemesis could only bother you once a run, which means they know how fucking annoying she is. One is still too many, though, and I really wish that wasn’t part of the gameplay loop.
Here’s my biggest issue with the characters–none of them grow during the game. At all. I’m talking pre-patch here. So what you see is what you get, which was not the case in the first game. I’m done for now. I will pick this up again tomorrow.