Just like the first game, Supergiant Games’ Hades 2 didn’t launch on PlayStation or Xbox platforms when it hit 1.0, meaning those players would have to wait just a bit longer to venture back to the underworld. Well, now that wait is over — Hades 2 hits PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Xbox Game Pass April 14, giving everyone the chance to experience last year’s highest-rated game (and Polygon’s #2 favorite from 2025).
Despite being a sequel, you don’t really have to have played the first Hades to enjoy the second. The same roguelike structure is there from the first game, but Hades 2 features new weapons, enemies, characters (who are all hot AF), and storylines. It takes what made the first game so great and adds just enough new wrinkles to make a name for itself as a sequel.
You play as Melinoë, the sister of the first game’s protagonist, Zagreus. Instead of trying to escape the Underworld, Melinoë opts to travel deeper and deeper within it on a quest to save her family from the clutches of Chronos, the Titan of Time. Chaos, combat, and many tests of your patience follow as you’ll surely die. A lot. But at least you’ll get a little better each time.
I enjoyed dozens of Hades 2 runs last fall, but I hadn’t picked it up since. Playing it again recently on PS5, I’m glad to find my reflexes haven’t left me. On a new save file, I easily bested the game’s first boss on my first attempt, and its second boss a couple runs after that. There’s a wonderful flow to Hades 2’s combat, and it doesn’t take long to find the right rhythm on the battlefield, whether you’ve played before or it’s entirely new. Returning to Hades 2 is like listening to a favorite song again for the first time in a few months. I may not remember every word, but all it takes is a few listens to be able to sing along without problem.
Melinoë has a tremendous arsenal at her disposal, and each of her weapons have different base attacks and specials. She’s trained as a witch, and many of her weapons feel magical in nature, like the Umbral Flames that shoot magic fire balls. Each of Melinoë’s Nocturnal Arms have their uses, and even the starting weapon, the Witch Staff, is enough to carry you through the whole game. I quickly returned to the dagger and sickle Sister Blades, since trapping foes in Melinoë’s cast and hurling daggers at them is my tried-and-true strategy.
There are no shortage of boons, which enhance and modify Melinoë’s attacks, given to her from the gods, and all of them mix up your builds in various ways. Hades 2 is right up there with the best roguelikes in terms of sheer variety of approaches to its combat. Poseidon’s watery boons will alter your attacks, dash, or cast ability to make them splash enemies with damage and bounce them away. Aphrodite can make your enemies Weak, causing them to do less damage. Hestia can apply Scorch (damage over time) to your attacks, Demeter slows foes down with Frost, Zeus electrocutes them with Blitz — you get the point. I’m no mathematician (though I was on the high school math team… twice), but, with the amount of options at your disposal, I’m thinking no two builds in Hades 2 will ever be the same.
All that stuff in Hades 2 was a point of contention among some reviewers. Bountiful boons are welcome, but Hades 2 is filled to the brim with so much else to keep an eye on that staying on top of everything can become quite complicated. There are so many different currencies, upgrade materials, plant seeds, and more consumable items to collect, purchase, and throw into the cauldron. Add in the random nature of roguelikes, and you might have to go through a few runs hoping a specific chamber shows up so you can snag a specific item. Or, conversely, you may be consistently presented with rooms that contain currencies as rewards instead of boons to make you stronger, hearts to add to your health pool, or coin to purchase upgrades for your run.
Hades 2 looks better than ever on PS5, and it already looked great playing in handheld mode on my Switch 2. Supergiant boasts it can reach up to 120 FPS on PS5 and Xbox Series X, and I believe it. The action is gorgeous and fluid, and never buckles — despite how much chaos can be going on at once. Hades 2 also takes advantage of the DualSense, as Melinoë’s attacks produce a low rumble of haptic feedback. Unlike when the game came to Switch and Switch 2, however, there’s no cross-save for PS5 at the time of this writing. The PlayStation and Xbox versions of the first Hades don’t have cross-save support either, so I wouldn’t hold out hope for the sequel.
But, because Hades 2 is so damn good and I… never actually beat Chronos anyway, I didn’t care about having to start from zero. In a way, it felt just like heading out on a new run; after all, roguelikes are all about starting from scratch. I’m excited to set out on more and more Hades 2 runs because there are so many characters to meet, stories to follow, and enemies to take down. While it does offer more complications than its predecessor, Hades 2 is a must-play for fans of the roguelike genre, regardless of whether they’ve experienced the first game or not.
