Hades II review: Improving on perfection

16 months later, I am delighted that it has been more than worth the wait. Hades II doesn't just live up to the lofty bar established by its predecessor but manages to reach entirely new heights altogether.

Hades II takes place some time after the first game. The house of Hades, replete with Zagreus and the rest of its misfits, has been conquered by Chronos, the Titan of Time.

Before this happens, however, Hades's newborn daughter Melinoë was smuggled out of Asphodel, taken in by the Witch of the Crossroads, Hecate.

Under Hecate's charge, Melinoë is raised to be a fighting force, trained in combat and witchcraft to one day take down Chronos and restore her family's rightful rule over the underworld – our story begins with her first foray into the darkness of Erebus.

Like its predecessor, Hades II's opening hours unfurl at pace, barraging you with a literal pantheon of gods and mortals, myths and legends.

Ever-present aides of Asphodel such as Nyx and Achilles are replaced by the likes of Nemesis and Odysseus and more. Names equally as legendary and characters equally as charming.

On the surface, Hades II should be a rather boring experience for anyone who played the first game.

Sure, the enemies and bosses are different, but in terms of combat and story progression, things are effectively the same, save for a few tweaks or new additions.

It is therefore a testament to the sheer talent of Supergiant's developers that Hades II is so well-written, those tweaks small yet so impactful, that I have not found myself bored for even a second, despite in many regards playing the same game I played several years ago.

Melinoë, it goes without saying, is fantastically written. On balance, I certainly prefer Zagreus's wittier and more abrasive personality, but Melinoë's more straightforward personality often helps other characters to shine more prominently.

This is especially true when she plays the straight woman to some of the game's more outlandishly silly characters, such as Narcissus who balks at the idea that Melinoë may not actually be attracted to him.

Combat, while again, largely the same, does come with some tweaks that improve it significantly.

The pantheon of Gods has been revamped. Some old favourites such as Zeus, Podeidon and Aphrodite remain, though with entirely new sets of Boons, while new faces Apollo, Hephaestus, Hestia and more join the fray.

Unlike Hades, in which I felt more than one God bestowed rather poor Boons that I would look to avoid at all costs, each God in Hades II is far more balanced, though I of course still have my favourites.

Melinoë's weapons lean somewhat more towards ranged combat than Zagreus, whose sword, spear and fists often encouraged close-quarters brawls.

Your Cast, too, has been replaced with a magic circle that inflicts various ailments on the enemies within depending on which Boons you've picked up on your journey.

Perhaps it is because I am already familiar with the combat on a fundamental level, but I have found that many of Hades II's regular enemies pose far less of a threat than they did the first time around.

The same cannot be said for its bosses, however, many of which are not only a tremendous challenge – Chronos is a far tougher fight than Hades ever was – but come with perhaps even more pomp and circumstance than their predecessors.

Scylla, in particular, is a nightmare to fight, even as many hours into the game as I am, but her presentation is so blood-pumping and fun, playing her own stellar boss theme as you fight, that I simply can't help but look forward to our encounters every time.

With regard to story progression, much of it is linked intrinsically to a cauldron boiling away at the feet of Hecate in the Crossroads, your hub world.

As you repeatedly fall on the path to Chronos, you repeatedly unlock various Incantations, requiring you to spend the resources you gather to cast spells that cause anything from summoning the Fates to building a hot spring.

The need for materials, many of which can only be obtained in the furthest reaches of Melinoë's trek, means that it can take hours and multiple runs all the way to Chronos to unlock some of them.

It adds that same tangible sense of progression as the Mirror of Night in Hades I, for example, but has the added bonus of having real effects on the story as it plays out.

A few hours in the Olympians call for you to put your quest on hold, begging you instead to travel to Mount Olympus to aid them in pushing back Chronos.

Through various Incantations, you unlock a new path, not down to Asphodel, but up to Olympus. But Melinoë, born of the underworld cannot survive on the surface, requiring further Incantations to allow her to progress.

This addition entirely switches up the way in which you approach the game – this is no longer a single-minded beeline to the finish, but a calculated weighing up of your options.

Naturally, as was the case with the first game, Hades II does not truly begin until after you first defeat its final boss.

It is at this point that the game's story truly comes into its own. The various players, from Olympian to lowly shade, experience the most growth in these moments, as you increase your relationships with them bit-by-bit.

In a game that is so full of polish, from the fluid combat mechanics to the lush art style and music, I really cannot emphasise enough how much of a triumph it is on Supergiant's part that its developers have managed, not only to reimagine the world of Hades, but to create a whole new story and raft of characters that are just as compelling as the first bunch.

Much of your time will no doubt be spent with your loyal troupe at the Crossroads, learning the tragic backstories that led to their being in the afterlife, swapping tales over hard-won bottles of Nectar and Ambrosia.

It is these moments with characters I have grown to love that are the most compelling, and in my mind, the greatest strength of Hades II. It is therefore a tragedy, that it is these same moments that I cannot talk about, lest I spoil it for everyone else.

This is the same magic that made the first game so enthralling – an almost infinite gameplay loop complimented by dialogue that evolves alongside you.

It is clear to see that Supergiant is a developer at the peak of its powers, somehow managing to improve with each and every game they create.

Upon playing Hades, I was confident in saying that Supergiant had brought the roguelite formula as close to perfection as it could come. To this day, no other studio has managed to use the genre as a storytelling tool so thoughtfully and effectively.

Hades II has achieved the impossible, managing in every regard to improve upon one of the greatest indie games of all time, at no point feeling derivative of what came before, but iterating so thoroughly as to create something as novel as it is familiar.

In the grand scheme of things, my time with Hades II has only just begun, and I expect that it will continue pulling me back into its world again and again in the heady pursuit of that one perfect run.

Hades II releases on 25th September for PC and Nintendo Switch consoles. We reviewed on PC.

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