With the arrival of Supergiant Games’ Hades 2 nearly upon us, I’m reflecting on just how well the early access model has worked for this team.
When Hades 2 was first launched in early access back in May 2024, Supergiant was no stranger to early access. After all, the original Hades used an extremely similar release schedule, adding new chunks of material to the story, with better artwork, weapon and boon rebalancing, and more added over time.
With Hades 2, that formula has been perfected.
If you’re unfamiliar, Hades 2 continues the narrative established in the first game, with Melinoë (younger sister of Hades protagonist Zagreus) working to take on Chronos, the Titan of Time that has imprisoned her family and is waging war on Olympus.
Plenty of other games have used early access as a release strategy, with the developers opting to provide an unfinished version of the game in order to take feedback.
While storefronts are filled with games that never made it out of early access — or for those that did, never reached the same heights of players and attention that they had before officially launching in full — Hades 2 seems set to follow in its predecessor’s successful footsteps.
Instead of getting mired down or having to delay large features, Supergiant’s early access release schedule has been smooth sailing over the past year and some change. Hades 2 was already fairly large in early access, with multiple regions and boss fights available to tackle.
Subsequent updates have expanded it dramatically at a regular cadence, adding new areas, new foes, additional weapons, and much more. My particular favorite is still the Olympic Update, which (among many other things) gave Melinoë what is essentially a mech suit. Seriously. It’s awesome.
One major problem I often have with games released in early access is how awkward t feels to put it down for weeks or months at a time, forgetting what last happened and making it harder to get back into an established gameplay rhythm. Here, too, Supergiant cleverly threads the needle.
A huge part of the reason Hades 2 (and the original Hades) work so well in early access is the roguelike structure. Because the game’s narrative is built around loops of going through the same area over and over, it doesn’t feel weird or jarring to put it down for an extended period of time.
Similarly, it hasn’t been awkward to reach the end of a successful run, only to come up on the end of the available story content. It’s fine, it was just another practice bout as Melinoë continues her training.
I’ve had a blast spending over 70 hours in Hades 2 so far, and it’s never felt strange to come back to the game after leaving it alone for a month or four at a time.
The original Hades is one of my favorite games of all time. When the 1.0 update arrives in a few days from when I’m writing this, I’m hopeful that Hades 2 can supplant it.
Hades 2 is currently available in early access on Windows PC (Steam and Epic Games Store), and is slated to launch in full on Sept. 25, 2025, when it’ll also be available on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.
The game is a timed console exclusive on Nintendo platforms, meaning Xbox and PlayStation players will have to wait a bit longer.
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