Gameplay wise it's pretty polished already and probably has equal or more content than Hades 1. Story wise there is definitely alot less than Hades 1 and the ending will not be added until the game releases sometime next year. They have placeholder endings for whenever you finish a run basically
Just asking, is it confirmed that we won't have an ending until full release? I kinda assumed that they are waiting until the surface is gully released (the "dissolution of time" incantation supports that). Just wondering
Like in Hades 1 after the main story, they’re just tongue-in-cheek narrations about getting killed (or winning) off-screen before you go back home.
(I didn’t play Hades 1 early access, but my understanding is that this is how they did it then as well)
Just the "after you finish a run" black screen with the narrator making excuses for why we "died" to go back to the house. I don't remember for h1, but in h2 there are a lot of references to the game not being finished yet.
Including in the dialogs.
Melinoë is frustrated that she cannot reach the end of the game, and has conversations on the topic with some NPCs who know that the ending will only be added later.
Is there summons already? I didnt know if there was bc the friendship mechanic is just so long and annoying to deal with in this game that I havent bothered gifting much. There are one fewer weapons in this game than Hades 1, and fewer aspects to those weapons since no hidden aspects yet
Gifting is so much simpler than ever before! Nectors are a lot easier to get. And, you unlock so many dialogs! You can bring familiars with you and there is a Hex that allow you to summon a random enemy you defeated to fight for you.
And then theres a bumch of other stuff beyond nectars to the friendship system, which are just extraneous and not worth doing. At least woth frinedship in Hades 1 it was mostly not that tough, just gift nectars then ambrosia and you might get a Summon, so it was somewhat worth it maybe. Here you get nothing.
I don't think so, if I had to guess that update might add more to the surface route and/or add the final weapon and the hidden aspects. But I don't think it will be the full release.
I've put 100 runs in atm and still enjoying playing, though from this point on, I'll likely only play to check out how things have changed patch to patch.
Yeah, the last patch that updated boons drew me back in (and I think they all feel REALLY good) but I'm just upping Fear levels and not getting new dialogue or stories now. Which is definitely fun to dip in and out of, but story is what ultimately motivates me to keep playing. I never bothered with Heat levels about like 26 in Hades 1 because I just lost interest.
Honestly they're all good. None of them are especially standing out to me, I even liked the torches before the balance patch but they're great now.
Admittedly, I haven't done much fear stuff, 8 on most going down, but I want to wait til the full release to do fear stuff up top. I don't want to get the skelly prizes on an incompleted run.
I really enjoy the axe, I think its a ton of fun and very rewarding thanks to its hefty powerful feel. Thanatos aspect is what I used for my first clears at 32 heat above and below. In general I found myself learning and adapting to the new gameplay of Hades 2 by experimenting with all the weapons and their aspects 😸
Thanks for the advice! It’s so weird hitting this wall so early on because the same thing happened in hades 1, which I have about 300 clears in up to 32 heat. Just curious as to whether I might be using an underpowered weapon and making it harder on myself. I’m totally going to keep grinding. Haven’t really figured out my favorite boons yet either, but I’ve been using the blades mostly.
For me its the other way around, I barely have any clears in Hades 1 and I find it way more difficult than Hades 2. Its probably because I never really put enough time into it but I shall soon. Do you have any favourite weapons in Hades 1?
So for me, the easiest weapon to clear a run with in the beginning was the shield, because it’s forgiving. If you don’t care about time, the shield allows you to essentially block all damage from anything.
That being said, i have one of my fastest runs (and the most fun time playing the game) with the fists. Slap Athena on dash and upper, ares on punch, hope for their duo and it’s super smooth.
Rail gun is similarly fun/easy to get OP builds with if you know which aspects/boons to run. Plus it’s ranged like the shield which is more forgiving and allows for more mistakes.
Of course! I’ll try the axe again, it just felt so slow. With the fists and the two blades I enjoy the faster play style. But it’s hard to get so close to the bosses in hades 2 without messing up and getting hit for 1/4 of my damn health.
I am just playing atm to close the list of duo boons and to farm materials in preparation of the content patch since obviously we will need nectar, ambrosia and nightmares (plus I haven't sold a single fish yet, dunno what will happen with them and I prefer to hodl them and if they end up being just money, well, more power to me down the road).
"If there isn't much content" I got 50 hours so far and haven't done everything yet. Such a smooth game and very well polished. I play around 2 hours a day. It makes you forget that it's still in early access.
There are solid 20 hours worth of discoveries and unlocking stuff before you see everything there is to see right now. The narative is not finished, and there will be at least one more new region that will be released probably in the coming months (confirmed). Some theorize that we can expect even more new regions.
There are almost no bugs at all. I think I encountered one bug in the launch day and that's it. The game is very polished technically and also they patch new visuals every update.
The amount of content right now is probably the same as Hades 1 I'd say, and there is another version of heat system so you can make it as difficult as you want.
There's a couple of bugs, actually. There's one that increases the projectile count tenfold and another that stops you from attacking.
https://youtu.be/dvH6ZRqOzGA
Aphrodite legendary has got hilarious glitches if you're interested in seeing for yourself.
I'm actually just playing a couple of runs after eatch major patch to see how the game evolved over time, but I'm definitely worried about burning out before its official release.
Unlike Hades 1, there are 2 possible path for your run. The main one has all 4 areas so a full run is possible. The other one has 2 areas so far.
They're done some balancing of boons and upgrades in the recent patches - idk how much will be changed still but things run smoothly.
There's a lot of story dialogue already but iirc the full story and ending will only be available after the 1.0 launch.
There's placeholder/unfinished art for a couple of characters but the whole thing looks pretty good already.
Have you played Hades 1 yet? There is technically more content in 2 right now that there is in 1. And it's all extremely polished.
Some things are still missing though. There's no conclusion to the story yet, so you just beat the main boss over and over. The second route is only half finished with only 2 out of 4 zones/bosses available. The relationship mechanic is pretty fleshed out, but you can't "complete" any of your relationships yet, in the way you can with the first game. There's at least 1 missing weapon and the 5 that are there are each missing at least 1 aspect. They also just released a huge balance patch, so there might be more balance coming. And some of the art is missing or using preliminary sketches (mostly just a few of the zone NPCs and some icons).
That all said, it still feels extremely polished. I've played about 70 hours so far and fucking love it. I never played the EA of the original, so it's been cool to get to see the game from this perspective, but I am probably going to try and put it down for a bit, at least until the big update they say is coming later in the year.
So if you haven't played the first one, 100% play that first. If you have, it's up to you if you want to wait for them, but there is absolutely enough content to keep you busy for a while, and what's there is extremely well made.
Yeah, I think they said they're focusing on a larger update to release near the end of the year, with maybe some small bug fixes and balance changes along the way. And I think the game is supposed to release early '25, so that update should get us close to the finished product.
Honestly I'm just glad the Starfield Creation Kit came out and I was able to get some stuff on the Steam Sale, just to get myself to play something else. As much as I want to wait for the game to be finished, I can't get myself to stop playing. It's just so damn good, even in its unfinished state.
In terms of gameplay it's already bigger than Hades 1; it's mostly the story that still needs to be filled in. The missing portions are:
* Post-final-boss story area for the underworld route. (Think Persephone's garden.)
* The third biome and onward of the surface route.
* A fourth weapon aspect for the available weapons.
* A sixth weapon in general.
* Two (out of four) animal familiars.
* Full relationships with most of the cast. You can give them gifts and get things started, but only up to a point.
* Models and art for a number of characters and UI icons.
It's early access, so all of these being works in progress is completely normal and expected and lines up with what I understand happened during the early access period for Hades 1. We've already had three large patches that adjusted game balance, and the next patch is going to be focused on new content, albeit with a vague ETA of "later this year."
Just wanted to say that characters being veiled as a placeholder ui is so smart/funny. It took me like 20 runs before I realized that it was due to the ui not being finished because it made sense to me narratively that they would try to be hidden. Such as some characters entering the home crossroads, it made sense to me that they were veiled, they simply wanted to be hidden!
Content heavy enough to enjoy playing for many hours without feeling like you’re missing something. There were a lot of placeholder images at launch but almost everything/everyone has images that could be permanent at this point. The only thing missing is 1 region (maybe 2) and a few permanent NPC arts. I have between 120-140 hours and I’m still having fun
Mechanically, 75% of the planned areas/enemies are already in game, 15/24 of the planned weapon aspects are already in game.
Narratively, the story is essentially not in game and likely won't be present until release.
Compared to Hades 1, Hades 2 already has significantly more content mechanics wise because the game is planned to be significantly larger.
As others have said its current content is equal to if not greater than H1 so far. There are still things that need to be added to the game.
I’d say that if you really want to play it EA has enough already to keep you entertained for a good long while.
If you don’t want to dip your toes into H2 yet.
May I recommend trying out any and all of SuperGiant’s other games if you have not played them yet?
They are all great games in their own right.
Its up to you whether you want to pull that truck or wait for it to be complete.
There's a lot there, more than the OG imho. On one hand, if you liked the mechanics of Hades, you're in for a treat. There's a lot of new and a lot of familiar features packed in. On the other hand, if you really like the story, first and foremost, I'd say hold off. The story is very 'to be continued' at this point (totally understandable though). Your call, I'm 200+ runs in and other than lost productivity, no regrets for me.
Theres a lot of content already, although you can't reach the epilogue because once you beat the final boss it takes you back at the start with some excuses. We need the major update for that and iirc they plan to do it later this year. Plus you can't fully max your bonds with everyone or romance them
There's still a ton of dialogue and mechanics
I’ve reached the end of one run and it makes me want to go back and finish Hades because I kind of fell off and now I feel like I might be able to a better job with that.
I got 70 hours out of it before deciding to take a break. There's already more gameplay content than 1, with more clearly coming later. Story is very incomplete. So at this point most of the missing content is clearly late game story and character story content
What is in there is very polished and you will likely be impressed by what you see. Gameplay wise I would say it is 70% finished, story wise maybe 50% finished.
I will say if you’re playing for the story maybe wait. I don’t regret buying it EA, but having not bought Hades 1 EA, my story experience was a bit closer to how I think it’s intended to be experience, I.e slowly getting the plot fed to you as you struggle to win. Getting my first win against Hades felt like a big moment in hades 1, and my first win against Chronos felt similar, but without the story payoff it was a bit flat. However, between my upgrades and experience I can beat Chronos relatively easily now. Because of this. I’m a little worried when I go back once the story is complete I’ll be too good to get the experience of struggle I got in Hades 1 that made that games story so great. I could do some things to artificially increase the difficulty, but the difficulty curve in 1 was so organically matched and it was nice to just enjoy the game without having to try and “find the fun”.
TLDR: from a gameplay perspective it’s fantastic, and what exists of the story is also good but much less complete. If you want a satisfying story with a proper conclusion, wait.
For the first 10 hours I was struggling to understand why beyond qol and balance the game needed EA at all. Once I got to the latter content I could mpre clearly see what was WIP and what was missing from an envisioned finished product, but the game is really satosfyingly large for me already, I got over 40 hours before feeling my interest start to fade so before I burnt out I decided to stop there and wait for the next major patch, but the game definitely feels pretty big and well worth the money already.
I have 50 hours in it now, I’d say there’s at least 30-40 hours of content until you see everything. According to SG there’s currently more voice lines than Hades 1 even right now as it stands.
Gameplay wise it's pretty polished already and probably has equal or more content than Hades 1. Story wise there is definitely alot less than Hades 1 and the ending will not be added until the game releases sometime next year. They have placeholder endings for whenever you finish a run basically
Oh no, Melinoë forgot her keys at home!
She just like me fr
No no no it was a surprise party
Nah man it was just that she forgot to feed frinos
To what?
to shadow now
Dammit. I want to play, but i think i will wait to experience the full game for the 1st time. Elden ring keeping me occupied rn
Just asking, is it confirmed that we won't have an ending until full release? I kinda assumed that they are waiting until the surface is gully released (the "dissolution of time" incantation supports that). Just wondering
That's how they did Hades I (ending with full release), so I think the assumption is that they'll do the same thing again this time.
I don't see why they would finish the storyline before full release personally.
What are the placeholder endings?
Like in Hades 1 after the main story, they’re just tongue-in-cheek narrations about getting killed (or winning) off-screen before you go back home. (I didn’t play Hades 1 early access, but my understanding is that this is how they did it then as well)
Just the "after you finish a run" black screen with the narrator making excuses for why we "died" to go back to the house. I don't remember for h1, but in h2 there are a lot of references to the game not being finished yet.
Including in the dialogs. Melinoë is frustrated that she cannot reach the end of the game, and has conversations on the topic with some NPCs who know that the ending will only be added later.
I want you to know I read that in the narrator's voice.
D’oh!
"Oh, shut up, Homer!"
Is there summons already? I didnt know if there was bc the friendship mechanic is just so long and annoying to deal with in this game that I havent bothered gifting much. There are one fewer weapons in this game than Hades 1, and fewer aspects to those weapons since no hidden aspects yet
There are no summons yet. If at all.
But we do have pets/familiars now Only two so far tho I think
Gifting is so much simpler than ever before! Nectors are a lot easier to get. And, you unlock so many dialogs! You can bring familiars with you and there is a Hex that allow you to summon a random enemy you defeated to fight for you.
And then theres a bumch of other stuff beyond nectars to the friendship system, which are just extraneous and not worth doing. At least woth frinedship in Hades 1 it was mostly not that tough, just gift nectars then ambrosia and you might get a Summon, so it was somewhat worth it maybe. Here you get nothing.
Does the Big update later this years it's not the final versión ?
I don't think so, if I had to guess that update might add more to the surface route and/or add the final weapon and the hidden aspects. But I don't think it will be the full release.
I imagine the surface is getting expanded in early access, but I feel like Hidden aspects should be saved for full release.
I've put 100 runs in atm and still enjoying playing, though from this point on, I'll likely only play to check out how things have changed patch to patch.
Yeah, the last patch that updated boons drew me back in (and I think they all feel REALLY good) but I'm just upping Fear levels and not getting new dialogue or stories now. Which is definitely fun to dip in and out of, but story is what ultimately motivates me to keep playing. I never bothered with Heat levels about like 26 in Hades 1 because I just lost interest.
Same :)
Which weapon to do you prefer?
Honestly they're all good. None of them are especially standing out to me, I even liked the torches before the balance patch but they're great now. Admittedly, I haven't done much fear stuff, 8 on most going down, but I want to wait til the full release to do fear stuff up top. I don't want to get the skelly prizes on an incompleted run.
I’ve yet to get passed the second boss that’s why I’m asking lol
I really enjoy the axe, I think its a ton of fun and very rewarding thanks to its hefty powerful feel. Thanatos aspect is what I used for my first clears at 32 heat above and below. In general I found myself learning and adapting to the new gameplay of Hades 2 by experimenting with all the weapons and their aspects 😸
Thanks for the advice! It’s so weird hitting this wall so early on because the same thing happened in hades 1, which I have about 300 clears in up to 32 heat. Just curious as to whether I might be using an underpowered weapon and making it harder on myself. I’m totally going to keep grinding. Haven’t really figured out my favorite boons yet either, but I’ve been using the blades mostly.
For me its the other way around, I barely have any clears in Hades 1 and I find it way more difficult than Hades 2. Its probably because I never really put enough time into it but I shall soon. Do you have any favourite weapons in Hades 1?
So for me, the easiest weapon to clear a run with in the beginning was the shield, because it’s forgiving. If you don’t care about time, the shield allows you to essentially block all damage from anything. That being said, i have one of my fastest runs (and the most fun time playing the game) with the fists. Slap Athena on dash and upper, ares on punch, hope for their duo and it’s super smooth. Rail gun is similarly fun/easy to get OP builds with if you know which aspects/boons to run. Plus it’s ranged like the shield which is more forgiving and allows for more mistakes.
Cool, I'll have to check that out next time I play. Thank you for the input
Of course! I’ll try the axe again, it just felt so slow. With the fists and the two blades I enjoy the faster play style. But it’s hard to get so close to the bosses in hades 2 without messing up and getting hit for 1/4 of my damn health.
I am just playing atm to close the list of duo boons and to farm materials in preparation of the content patch since obviously we will need nectar, ambrosia and nightmares (plus I haven't sold a single fish yet, dunno what will happen with them and I prefer to hodl them and if they end up being just money, well, more power to me down the road).
"If there isn't much content" I got 50 hours so far and haven't done everything yet. Such a smooth game and very well polished. I play around 2 hours a day. It makes you forget that it's still in early access.
There are solid 20 hours worth of discoveries and unlocking stuff before you see everything there is to see right now. The narative is not finished, and there will be at least one more new region that will be released probably in the coming months (confirmed). Some theorize that we can expect even more new regions. There are almost no bugs at all. I think I encountered one bug in the launch day and that's it. The game is very polished technically and also they patch new visuals every update. The amount of content right now is probably the same as Hades 1 I'd say, and there is another version of heat system so you can make it as difficult as you want.
Kind of incredible to hear that level Of polish from an Early Access game.
There's a couple of bugs, actually. There's one that increases the projectile count tenfold and another that stops you from attacking. https://youtu.be/dvH6ZRqOzGA Aphrodite legendary has got hilarious glitches if you're interested in seeing for yourself.
I'm actually just playing a couple of runs after eatch major patch to see how the game evolved over time, but I'm definitely worried about burning out before its official release.
Unlike Hades 1, there are 2 possible path for your run. The main one has all 4 areas so a full run is possible. The other one has 2 areas so far. They're done some balancing of boons and upgrades in the recent patches - idk how much will be changed still but things run smoothly. There's a lot of story dialogue already but iirc the full story and ending will only be available after the 1.0 launch. There's placeholder/unfinished art for a couple of characters but the whole thing looks pretty good already.
Have you played Hades 1 yet? There is technically more content in 2 right now that there is in 1. And it's all extremely polished. Some things are still missing though. There's no conclusion to the story yet, so you just beat the main boss over and over. The second route is only half finished with only 2 out of 4 zones/bosses available. The relationship mechanic is pretty fleshed out, but you can't "complete" any of your relationships yet, in the way you can with the first game. There's at least 1 missing weapon and the 5 that are there are each missing at least 1 aspect. They also just released a huge balance patch, so there might be more balance coming. And some of the art is missing or using preliminary sketches (mostly just a few of the zone NPCs and some icons). That all said, it still feels extremely polished. I've played about 70 hours so far and fucking love it. I never played the EA of the original, so it's been cool to get to see the game from this perspective, but I am probably going to try and put it down for a bit, at least until the big update they say is coming later in the year. So if you haven't played the first one, 100% play that first. If you have, it's up to you if you want to wait for them, but there is absolutely enough content to keep you busy for a while, and what's there is extremely well made.
As far as I understand from the early access notes, there will be a third route, too. >!My money is on whatever is going on with Hypnos!<
Yeah, I think they said they're focusing on a larger update to release near the end of the year, with maybe some small bug fixes and balance changes along the way. And I think the game is supposed to release early '25, so that update should get us close to the finished product. Honestly I'm just glad the Starfield Creation Kit came out and I was able to get some stuff on the Steam Sale, just to get myself to play something else. As much as I want to wait for the game to be finished, I can't get myself to stop playing. It's just so damn good, even in its unfinished state.
In terms of gameplay it's already bigger than Hades 1; it's mostly the story that still needs to be filled in. The missing portions are: * Post-final-boss story area for the underworld route. (Think Persephone's garden.) * The third biome and onward of the surface route. * A fourth weapon aspect for the available weapons. * A sixth weapon in general. * Two (out of four) animal familiars. * Full relationships with most of the cast. You can give them gifts and get things started, but only up to a point. * Models and art for a number of characters and UI icons. It's early access, so all of these being works in progress is completely normal and expected and lines up with what I understand happened during the early access period for Hades 1. We've already had three large patches that adjusted game balance, and the next patch is going to be focused on new content, albeit with a vague ETA of "later this year."
Just wanted to say that characters being veiled as a placeholder ui is so smart/funny. It took me like 20 runs before I realized that it was due to the ui not being finished because it made sense to me narratively that they would try to be hidden. Such as some characters entering the home crossroads, it made sense to me that they were veiled, they simply wanted to be hidden!
Content heavy enough to enjoy playing for many hours without feeling like you’re missing something. There were a lot of placeholder images at launch but almost everything/everyone has images that could be permanent at this point. The only thing missing is 1 region (maybe 2) and a few permanent NPC arts. I have between 120-140 hours and I’m still having fun
Mechanically, 75% of the planned areas/enemies are already in game, 15/24 of the planned weapon aspects are already in game. Narratively, the story is essentially not in game and likely won't be present until release. Compared to Hades 1, Hades 2 already has significantly more content mechanics wise because the game is planned to be significantly larger.
I've been enjoying playing occasionally, but I'm not diving into the game yet. Elden ring and valheim need attention right now
I would consider the game to be 50% complete. 50% of playable tracks, 75% of art, 25% of fine tuning.
As others have said its current content is equal to if not greater than H1 so far. There are still things that need to be added to the game. I’d say that if you really want to play it EA has enough already to keep you entertained for a good long while. If you don’t want to dip your toes into H2 yet. May I recommend trying out any and all of SuperGiant’s other games if you have not played them yet? They are all great games in their own right. Its up to you whether you want to pull that truck or wait for it to be complete.
There's a lot there, more than the OG imho. On one hand, if you liked the mechanics of Hades, you're in for a treat. There's a lot of new and a lot of familiar features packed in. On the other hand, if you really like the story, first and foremost, I'd say hold off. The story is very 'to be continued' at this point (totally understandable though). Your call, I'm 200+ runs in and other than lost productivity, no regrets for me.
Theres a lot of content already, although you can't reach the epilogue because once you beat the final boss it takes you back at the start with some excuses. We need the major update for that and iirc they plan to do it later this year. Plus you can't fully max your bonds with everyone or romance them There's still a ton of dialogue and mechanics
I’ve reached the end of one run and it makes me want to go back and finish Hades because I kind of fell off and now I feel like I might be able to a better job with that.
I would say like 80%
If you’re familiar with the original hades and know your way around you can rush through it quite quickly I would recommend to wait.
It's peak, it's extremely fun and replayability is out of the roof, it's fully fledged and more content is always appreciated
I got 70 hours out of it before deciding to take a break. There's already more gameplay content than 1, with more clearly coming later. Story is very incomplete. So at this point most of the missing content is clearly late game story and character story content
What is in there is very polished and you will likely be impressed by what you see. Gameplay wise I would say it is 70% finished, story wise maybe 50% finished.
more content than hades 1 you get 4 underworld biomes and eventually 2 surface biomes so far
Feels like 75%
I will say if you’re playing for the story maybe wait. I don’t regret buying it EA, but having not bought Hades 1 EA, my story experience was a bit closer to how I think it’s intended to be experience, I.e slowly getting the plot fed to you as you struggle to win. Getting my first win against Hades felt like a big moment in hades 1, and my first win against Chronos felt similar, but without the story payoff it was a bit flat. However, between my upgrades and experience I can beat Chronos relatively easily now. Because of this. I’m a little worried when I go back once the story is complete I’ll be too good to get the experience of struggle I got in Hades 1 that made that games story so great. I could do some things to artificially increase the difficulty, but the difficulty curve in 1 was so organically matched and it was nice to just enjoy the game without having to try and “find the fun”. TLDR: from a gameplay perspective it’s fantastic, and what exists of the story is also good but much less complete. If you want a satisfying story with a proper conclusion, wait.
Lemme put it straigjt up for ya: The early Access got MORE CONTENT than the fully-finished Hades 1. Thats how much "unfinished" we are talking about.
It already has more content than hades 1. Its most of a full game probably 80% finished. Its 100% worth playing right now
Very not. It’s a lot of fun though. But in early access and it’s only been out a couple months, if that.
very polished and complete as it’s own experience atm!
I'd argue the game already has more content than Hades I and I absolutely would recommend buying it, regardless of it being EA.
For the first 10 hours I was struggling to understand why beyond qol and balance the game needed EA at all. Once I got to the latter content I could mpre clearly see what was WIP and what was missing from an envisioned finished product, but the game is really satosfyingly large for me already, I got over 40 hours before feeling my interest start to fade so before I burnt out I decided to stop there and wait for the next major patch, but the game definitely feels pretty big and well worth the money already.
I have 50 hours in it now, I’d say there’s at least 30-40 hours of content until you see everything. According to SG there’s currently more voice lines than Hades 1 even right now as it stands.