Sequels are always difficult, I imagine. How to capture the core brilliance of a thing and build on it? What to add, what to remove? I’ve always loved Sid Meier’s rule of thirds for Civilization games: one third remains the same, one third is improved, one third is totally new. But not every game is Civilization.
Sequels for roguelikes, though? Cor. Difficulty cubed. This is because roguelikes, with campaigns composed of endlessly repeated runs, all with their own fine chances for variation? Roguelikes are games that already carry an infinite number of sequels within them. I have Spelunky runs even now which feel like sequels to the first game, where something unprecedented happens, and where I feel like I see the whole challenge in a new way, completely reframed. If Spelunky struggles with this, what hope for everyone else?
Hades 2 seems very happy being a sequel, even a sequel to a roguelike. Everything from the swift-pen art style and the evocative, pensive soundtrack, down to the menus and the fonts and the UI choices speaks of a desire for continuity. After years of racing through baddy-filled rooms packed with classical horrors as Zagreus, there was almost no period of reorientation needed before I started racing through baddy-filled rooms packed with classical horrors as Melinoë. I’ve spoken to a few people about this, actually, and it’s almost perverse: the sense of being right at home from the off is almost the most confusing thing about Hades 2.
Hades II – Reveal Trailer
That said, there are changes, and big ones. And yet before I get into them, two interlinked questions and answers. Firstly: are any of these changes big enough that they don’t feel like the sort of thing that might have cropped up in a Hades run back in the day? Not sure, actually. Secondly: in terms of the fun I’m having, does that really matter? Not at all.
Melinoë is a great new lead, quick and smart and, so it seems from the current build, even more devastating in battle than Zagreus. Her standard weapon is a witch’s staff, which is like weidling a holy cattle prod, but I’m particularly fond of an unlockable weapon, the Sister Blades. Firstly: that’s a great name for something. Secondly, it has a standard one-two-three attack where the third beat goes off like a machine gun. Nothing standard about it!
Image credit: Supergiant Games
Like Zagreus, Melinoë has a sprint dash, and she has a standard, special, and cast attack. The cast attack is now a circle laid on the ground which can do various forms of nothing-good to anyone inside it, depending on your upgrades. But the biggest change to the system is the addition of Omega attacks.
Omega attacks work on a pool of Magick mana that sits above the health bar. (Or maybe below? Hades 2 remains sufficiently frantic that my concept of the UI is even more impressionist than normal.) Omega attacks cost Magick, and you trigger them by holding down either standard, special, or cast attacks for a bit of time, and then you let rip. They’re bigger and more devastating, and if that hold-down-to-release brings back happy memories of Fable 2’s combat, continue to be happy! They do feel a bit like that to me.
