Hades II

The (credits) ending did not resonate with me as much as the first one, but such is the fate of the sequel :D Great game with great characters and a boat-load of content. One gripe: can't invite Artemis to the hot springs, but I rather not get turned into a deer and hunted down by dogs, so I guess it's fine

[RU] Этот рогалик унаследовал основу первой части, но почти всё в нём увеличено вдвое — местами не только в количестве, но и в качестве. Сочетание дизайна, музыки и переработанной боевой системы с благословениями способно доставить чистое удовольствие от игрового процесса. Новый подход к благословениям может вызвать чувство «поломки» (power fantasy), знакомое по The Binding of Isaac. Игра наполнена разнообразными возможностями развития персонажа, которые постоянно создают ощущение прогрессии. Лично я получал чистое удовольствие на протяжении всей сюжетной линии, которая заняла у меня около 25 часов. Однако закрытие всего контента (113 часов) и получение всех достижений вышло душным и затянутым. [EN] This roguelike inherits the foundation of the first part, but nearly everything in it has been doubled—in some places not just in quantity, but also in quality. The combination of design, music, and a revamped combat system with blessings can deliver pure enjoyment from the gameplay. The new approach to blessings may evoke that familiar feeling of “breaking the game” (power fantasy) seen in The Binding of Isaac. The game is filled with diverse character development options that constantly create a sense of progression. Personally, I had pure fun throughout the entire story line, which took me about 25 hours. However, completing all the content (113 hours) and unlocking all achievements turned out to be tedious and drawn-out.

Almost every aspect of this game is a [b][i]LITTLE[/i][/b] worse than the first game. Want to upgrade your camp? Well, you need to grow a garden, harvest some BS somewhere, and then watch a long ass animation of you doing some ritual to unlock a toilet or sum ♥♥♥♥. Want to know who you gave a nectar to? Well, tough ♥♥♥♥. You have to do an "incantation" (upgrade camp) just to see that ♥♥♥♥. Or you could just write down your keepsakes. But why even do this? why make the game more tedious and lock away basic features???? They upped the amount of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you have to gather and grow. Remember in Hades 1, you had, like, maybe 8 currencies? And 5 of them, you could get as room rewards? Well, in this game, theres flowers you must grow which means you need to collect seeds. and silver. and bronze. and limestone. and some weird yellow flower. and some black rock. and realistically, many many many more. All used to upgrade your base btw Fine. Maybe its just a grindy game because they dont want you to put it down. What about the gameplay? The gameplay, or the weapon and mechanics, are EXACTLY the same as Hades 1 but a LITTLE worse. Wanna charge attack? well, itll cost you mana. A lot of weapons feel extremely clunky and unsatisfying. Like the fire torches or the axe. You also cant spam dash because they only give you 1 and then you have to sprint. so, somehow, big fat Zagreus is more mobile than Melon girl. That cast you had in Hades 1 where it made the enemy take more damage or do less damage? replaced by some slow circle. Yippee. At least the boons you get actually give a ♥♥♥♥ about the weapon youre holding, so thats cool. But often times, i cant figure out what god to go for since they always offer some BS. Apollo, you mfer, give me something useful A lot of the character designs are chopped, and they're significantly more annoying. The in-game model for artemis looks like BUNS. Melon girl is extremely annoying to listen to and has ZERO rizz compared to Zagreus. She talks like a low self-esteem college girl trying to compliment-fish. Charon still has 100% of the rizz and aura from the first game, thank god. You have an annoying ghost in your room that talks like Vex from League of Legends 🤢🤢🤢 So far, every god design in this game looks TERRIBLE. Rather than the cool shadow look from the first game, every character has a shimmer effect on them. Even if it doesnt make sense for a character of darkness to shimmer. And for the most part, their faces are HIDEOUS. Hermes, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Zeus, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Poseidon, HESTIA????, and HERMES (again) are absolutely [b]DISGUSTING[/b] to look at. Botches nose jobs, clown-like makeup, and the complexion of a human-hamster hybrid (Hestia, what have they done to you 😭) And the voice acting for Narcissus is SO garbage. That mfer sounds like he's doing the WORST Nicholas Cage impression 😭 I'll keep playing the game because I like Greek Mythology, but they're doing the Greek pantheon a MASSIVE disservice portraying them this way. The game is inclusive-bait, ive noticed. Comment on how inclusive the game is, and you'll get an army in the comments trying to label you. It cant be that easy to get a die-hard loyal fanbase that defends your game, and all you have to do is hit every char with the Inclusivity Ray™, right?

[h2] Gameplay and Mechanics [/h2] The control scheme is same as the prequel and the combat system is more detailed with the addition of magick and Ω moves. The gameplay system of travelling across regions and defeating the region bosses is carried over from Hades and there is 2 pathways that can be traversed one going up towards the surface and the other going downwards. [h2] Story and Artwork [/h2] The story is top tier and new characters and Olympian gods are introduced that were not part of the prequel while still having the characters from the prequel. [h2] Performance and Optimisation [/h2] I have not faced any performance bottlenecks or optimization issues while playing this game and the experience has been pleasant from the performance standpoint. Resolution: 1080P (1920x1080) Preset: High FPS: 165 [h2] Audio and Graphics [/h2] Darren Korb and team have produced another musical masterpiece for this game and I am very happy with the soundtracks as well and have purchased the soundtrack for this game as well. New art is added which is more visually attractive than the prequel. VERDICT: 10/10 An upgrade and not just a successor to one of my favorite games.

If you liked Hades, you'll like this! Ultimately feels like a more polished rendition of the same, but while it would be easy to look at the surface and claim it could have just been a hefty DLC, the total amount of game to play here is so massive you just can't make the claim seriously. As for what's new: More variety in zones / bosses, an entirely new set of systems for upgrades, and obviously a whole bushel of new stories and characters to interact with. It's hard to say which of the two games I like more, given that a lot of the surprises you get from playing the first game start-to-finish end up diminishing similar surprises here, but it had quite a few new tricks up its sleeves. I think I liked the core narrative of Hades a little bit better, but I like Melinoe more than Zag. The systems here are definitely better realized, and the overall ability to amp the difficulty via different modes/ modifiers is excellent. The zone variety is also hugely beneficial. The end result? now we have two fantastically fun games to sink a bazillion hours into, instead of just one!

Pra mim, que particularmente não sou a maior fã de rogue like mas 100% vou jogar pelo estilo de arte único, a experiência e sensação de progressão e aprendizado é bem melhor aqui que no primeiro. O jogo tá bem maior também, e a possibilidade de alternar entre as runs deixa menos frustrante e bem mais variado. Só queria opções mais variadas pro romance (mesmo que não seja o foco do jogo). Muito bom jogo, recomendo demais.

A great followup sequel that has a lot to it albeit a little bit repetitive due to the extended game run time. I found the story was rather well done especially when refined from the initial release alongside getting additions like repeatable romantic plus bonding scenes. I really like how the trinkets especially have been tweaked to be more varied to allow a variety of playstyles such as rerolls (boon, deity specific) alongside some different gameplay options such as fate bound trinkets allowing you to just make builds on the fly beyond what you may typically run. The great post release support alongside even a nice modding scene that can let you play w/ prior weapon aspects present in Hades I gives you plenty of more Hades action alongside a refreshing shift in the format (alongside an overall better fear: heat system rework that isn't very rng dependent toward runs).

Hades两部，在商店页面的吸引力不大，我是游戏荒了才开坑的，玩了之后才知道为什么好评这么多，因为它的制作实在太精良，在细节上可谓匠心雕琢。 明明是一款主打游戏性的作品，你却可以发现：对话立绘的表情严格对应文本内容，结局的时候，某些角色罕见地笑了；对话极其丰富，甚至你在战斗中的具体表现，也会反馈到部分对话里，比玩GAL的反馈还有效；许多欧美游戏似乎不大注重平面画像，但Hades的画风兼具细腻和清新，画工很强。 一般游戏的第二部往往会有质量衰减的情况，Hades两部都很好玩，制作也看不出缩水的痕迹，良心啊！