Tech: Hades II review

I mostly enjoyed the first Hades, a hack-and-slash roguelite from developer Supergiant Games, but I eventually tired of the grinding that was required to reach the final ending. That's why I held off on picking up Hades II until it cleared early access and celebrated its 1.0 release on the Nintendo Switch 2:

Hades II takes a brute force approach to solving my primary criticism of the first game.  Now there are two paths you can take: a descent into the underworld to confront Chronos, the Titan of Time, and a "surface route" up to Mount Olympus that unlocks after a few hours.  It's essentially two Hades games for the price of one, with twice the levels, enemies, bosses, and NPCs, all of which goes a long way in staving off the tedium of the grind.

As in the first game, you'll maneuver your character (this time, Melinoë, the Princess of the Underworld) through gauntlets of enemies using six unique weapons (including one that gives Melinoë a homing missile attack a la Panzer Dragoon).  Your character can be buffed by random gods and goddesses during a run, and enemies and levels will vary from run to run, but that still only goes so far - after you've unlocked all the weapons and beaten each path a few times, you've basically seen all the content in the game. 

Hades II may not be a huge leap from its predecessor, but I did like it for what it is.

Rating: 87/100