Hades getting a sequel is obviously fantastic news, but question marks hang over whether it will be possible to replicate what made the first game so special while still finding new ways to make Hades II somehow even better.
Hades II stole the show for me at The Game Awards. A sequel to one of my all-time favourites and one of the best games on Game Pass while it was still around, from a studio that doesn’t miss… what’s not to like, right? Well, the more I think about it, the more I question whether it’s even possible for a sequel to have the same kind of impact as the god-tier original. Not so much whether it will, as I trust Supergiant more than most studios to deliver something amazing, as its track record is basically flawless, but whether it even can. Please allow me to explain.
Can Hades’ magic be replicated?
For me, much of what made Hades so special exists beyond its tight mechanics and beautiful presentation, beyond the things that make Hades good as a game and transcending into the things that shaped it as an incredible experience, one that was both unforgettable and unique. That second part is especially important, as the moment you go back to the well, you immediately face a new challenge — finding a way to make a direct sequel somehow feel unique all over again, separate from the original and inventive on its own terms. In the case of Hades, one of the major reasons it stood out from its peers was that permanent progression went beyond mere character upgrades that carried over between runs, incorporating elements like narrative and character relationships in a way that few (if any) other games in the genre had done. There’s more or less no such thing as a dead run in Hades, since even if you don’t do well enough to earn anything persistent from a gameplay perspective, you’d almost always have opportunities to strengthen bonds with characters and progress narrative beats.
The problem with this for a sequel is that it stops being something revolutionary for the genre and instead becomes something required in order to keep pace with the original game. It’s now an expectation, not a surprise. It’ll undoubtedly still feel great to know that every attempt will deliver some kind of progression, but the same system can’t have that same spark again without significant investment and development. Again, while I trust Supergiant implicitly, I’m just pointing out the uphill struggle the team will face in evolving this mechanic to a point where it has the same impact as it did in the original, and while not quite a Sisyphean task, it’ll be a labour worthy of Hercules if the studio can somehow nail this. One boon that Hades II has on its side is that this breadth of progression isn’t something that has been widely emulated in the genre since Hades, so Supergiant really only needs to one-up itself. It’s done that time and again since Bastion over a decade ago, too, so I’m confident the team will find a way, and I’m excited to see what form it might take.
Another thing to consider is that Supergiant’s catalogue thus far is built on constant reinvention, with no given pair of its four released games being all that alike. It has no experience in direct sequels, having bounced from project to project, so it’ll be really interesting to see how the team approaches this follow-up. Sure, they could quite easily just give us a new main character, a bunch of new weapons and boons, and new areas and enemies and deliver a great game, but that’s the crux of my point here — ‘great’ isn’t really enough when you’re doing a sequel to an all-timer, and we’ve seen this time and again across every form of media. Supergiant made a rod for its own back when it made Hades as good as it is, and all eyes would have been on whatever came next regardless of what it was, so a direct sequel is only going to be subject to even greater scrutiny. My intent here isn’t to be part of that, rather to point it out — it shouldn’t be an especially spicy take to say that Hades will be a hard act to follow, especially in the same universe.
Sequels are hard. I could probably count on my own two hands the number of times a direct sequel has blown me away even to the extent that an original (or at least the first big hit of the series) has, let alone more. One prime example would be Burnout, going from tech demo original to amazing arcade racer in Burnout 2 to the takedown carnage of Burnout 3… a remarkable evolution and I would argue a textbook case for anyone wondering what good sequels look like. Mass Effect is another good one — ME2 is without doubt the series high point, but the first game had to be more of a lore dump to set up the series’ world in the first place… not really something Hades has to worry about when it’s dealing in the well-trodden ground of ancient Greek mythology. All too often, though, sequels tend to either underdeliver or to overreach, to try and do too much to set themselves apart from the game that spawned them, and I suppose that’s my concern here. It’s an incredibly difficult balance to strike. And as much as I have faith in the studio, bottling lightning a second time will not be an easy task.
How are you feeling about Hades II? Excited to revisit this wonderful world, or worried that Zagreus’ sandals might just be too big to fill? Let us know down in the comments!
