5/5 ★ – SilverScroll's review of Hades II.

Fucking hell, the madlads at supergiant actually did it. This is an improvement upon the first hades in most every single way, while not diminishing the achievements that the first game had. As such, this makes for a nice continuation of the first game, upping the stakes of the narrative and giving players a whole new playstyle(s). Melinoë is a fundamentally different character to Zagreus and this is shown both through her personality and her playstyle, she feels different to play than Zag did in the first game. Giving two different paths for the player to venture down was a genius decision and this helps replayability massively, with entirely different enemies dependent on whether you go to Olympus or the Underworld. The rest you probably know if you've played the first game, six weapons to choose from, boons to shape your build which results in runs that are totally different from one another, it's still as fun as the first game. Characters are brilliant, bursting with personality that might take a little too long to get intriguing but that could be both a negative and a positive depending on your view. The banter between Melinoë and the next boss is great and watching her go back and fourth with the guardians is brilliant. Also any excuse to see Zagreus again is a welcome one, I fucking love that guy. That doesn't mean Melinoë is worse than him, they very cleverly made the two have quite different personalities and the situations the two are in in their respective games cause the siblings to act quite differently. Put in another way, Melinoë works for the story told in this game and vice versa. I enjoyed the plot alot more this time around, mainly due to the heightened stakes, I didn't necessarily feel the need to do another run once I beat the first hades but the war against the Titan and olympus makes for a fascinating conflict and you can feel the tension in the dialogue as certain characters talk about the stalemate between the two Once again, the music is fucking incredible and near every track is perfect for the situation, there's too many to list here but the fucking sirens who've formed a band cracked me up every time. Some won't like the ending, some won't like the story, but most of the criticisms I can think of for hades II are subjective opinions, not definitive fact. This is undoubtedly one of the best games of the year if not all time, it is the perfect sequel and my personal game of the year. Also, at twenty five pounds this is an absolute steal, another massive win for games in a year filled with corporate horrors.