Imagine visiting a lovely little restaurant that made a name for itself by daring to mix up the usual ingredients. You’ve been here before. You know what to expect. The food might not be groundbreaking, but it has a unique quality unmatched elsewhere, and you gleefully anticipate what’s in store. Only, when your host presents the platter and removes the lid, the thing looking you in the face is a pair of Pop-Tarts. That tantalizing smell slinking out from the kitchen, laced with promise? Oh! No. That’s just leftover from the chef’s previous meal. It’s not for you, not this time.
That’s roughly how I feel about Hades 2‘s story after spending quite a lot of time with it in early access and even more with the 1.0 build. The sympathetic dramas and intimately realized characters Supergiant is known for are nowhere in sight, and the family conflicts that made the first Hades so emotionally is just the dressing for something that, after dozens of hours, never rises above its trite beginnings. Now, the adage about making an ass out of yourself when you make assumptions is never false, but my disappointment in Hades 2‘s story isn’t entirely of my own creation.
[Ed. note: This piece contains light spoilers for the broad scenario of Hades 2‘s true ending.]
Supergiant quietly encourages a belief that Hades 2 is about something more than just curbstomping your cantankerous, undying granddad at several points throughout the game. Here’s just a handful of the many possible themes that show up during Melinoë’s quest:
- Melinoë’s status as an outsider in a family indifferent to her beyond what use she can be to them — a marked contrast with Zagreus, Hell’s Favorite Boy, and one that could’ve been full of potential as a mirror of the first game’s themes.
- What counts as family, since Hecate stole and raised Melinoë as a daughter-slash-warrior princess and is effectively more of her mother than Persephone. The topic arises several times and never goes anywhere.
- The issue of taking sides in a family conflict. Chronos brings it up when he realizes who Melinoë is, and nothing happens with the idea.
For context, I’ve cleared the boss on top of Olympus and defeated Chronos. None of these topics showed up in meaningful ways. Then I looked up Hades 2‘s true ending to see if maybe something finally happens with them. The issue of resolving family conflict does turn up, but in a frictionless way that ensures everyone gets a happy ending without having to confront anything too unpleasant.
Sure, following any of those narrative threads might make Hades 2 uncomfortably similar to Rick Riordan’s popular Percy Jackson series, which often flirts with many of those same ideas. Ironically, Hades 2 ended up being like that anyway: a bland band of misfits doing the bidding of uncaring gods, without complaining, to restore the status quo at great personal cost to themselves.
The problem lies deep in the core of Hades 2‘s storytelling. The cataclysmic event behind the tale already happened; the villain is clear, uncomplicated, and unsympathetic; and everyone’s positions in this conflict are firmly established. The only possible route for this story to travel is so well-trod that it’s more of a ditch than a road at this point — band together, and beat The Big Bad. Supergiant’s message of working together to topple an oppressive regime is admirable and timely, but when everyone’s goals are aligned from the start, there’s little room for growth or change.
One of the clever things about the first Hades‘ story is how unbothered it is about moral conundrums and big stakes. The fate of the Underworld? Labeling good guys and bad? These things don’t matter. What matters are the broken parents trying to do what they think is right by them and the kid who just wants his family back together. This setup granted Supergiant room to build a world that doesn’t rely on Zagreus. Nyx, Thanatos, Theseus, and all the rest are fully realized characters for whom the son of the underworld is just one part of their lives, and much of the game’s narrative comes from seeing how Zagreus and his mission fit into (and might upend) everything for them. In Hades 2, you can forget the witch’s moon. Melinoë is the sun, and the gravity of being a hero pulls everyone into her orbit, to the detriment of the entire system.
You know what seems like everything there is to know about your allies at the Crossroads after a few runs. Oh sure, the reason behind Nemesis’ sullen attitude eventually comes out. Hecate isn’t just a witchy mentor and a rebel rouser, though she’s mostly those things. Even Odysseus has a dark history that left him sad and alone, tinging his dad jokes and surprising lack of strategic competence with an air of tragic nobility. None of this has a material effect on your relationship with these people or your understanding of Melinoë’s world — not that I’ve seen in the run-up to the credits, anyway — and it’s a marked contrast to how Hades handles Zagreus learning more about the people in his life.
The sad backstories, dearly held dreams of justice, and other driving factors only exist to serve Melinoë’s goal. The point, for example, of learning about Hecate’s fight against Chronos is to spur Melinoë’s quest for vengeance, and hearing of Odysseus’ lonely past comes with a reminder for Melinoë to keep fighting for her family so she doesn’t turn out like him. The setup leaves everyone feeling flat, empty, and, worst of all, uninteresting. Yes, alluring Nemesis and beautiful Odysseus, I’m happy to melt into the spring’s heated mists with you for a time. Just know it is only for your looks. Even Melinoë herself remains largely unchanged, with few noteworthy differences in perspective or personality between her first expedition and when she finally ascends Olympus, to say nothing of how one of her final decisions undermines the thrust of the entire game.
The nights wear on, but there is nothing new under the Earth. And yet I’m still enjoying Hades 2. I put 30 hours into the early access version and can easily see myself putting double that into the launch version, if not more. It’s that fun and rewarding to play, and I don’t see myself growing tired of experimenting with builds for a while. With Supergiant’s second venture into the land of the dead coming to an end, though, I just hope their next batch of characters has a bit more life to them.
