It's been several months since Supergiant Games announced that it's secretly been developing Hades 2, despite never creating a sequel to one of their games before. In a blog post, the developer stated that it's not yet done with the world of Hades, and Hades 2 brought with it opportunities to tell stories that didn't have the space to be told with Zagreus' story. As one of the most anticipated games of the year, players are excited to return to the world of Greek mythology with a whole new cast of characters and some awesome new surprises.
Hades 2 has been slated for early access release in 2023. While not many technical or story details have been released yet, it follows the same genre of gameplay and storytelling as Hades, and most of the essential information has been confirmed by Supergiant Games. Some details, such as which Olympians will be returning, what heroes will be featured, weapons, and gameplay specifics in the game still need to be confirmed by the developer at the time of writing.
The Story of Hades 2
Hades 2 will be a direct sequel to the original game, said to take place after the events of Hades. It will also be centered around Greek mythology, but the protagonist will shift to Zagreus' sister, Melinoe, a goddess daughter of Hades and Persephone who's closely associated with nightmares and madness. She'll be facing Chronos, the Titan of Time and leader of the Titans, who has appeared to have kidnapped Hades.
Supergiant has stated that Hades 2 will have a larger emphasis on witchcraft, and explains in a blog post that witchcraft is central to many Greek myths, including the ones that inspired the original Hades. Hecate, the Goddess of Witchcraft and Crossroads, plays a central role in the main myth concerning Hades and Persephone, and was one of the key deities worshiped by many cultures across Ancient Greece for thousands of years. As such, she'll play a central role in Hades 2, possibly taking on a mentor role as Achilles did for Zagreus in Hades.
The Technical Details in Hades 2
Hades 2 will be a rogue-like dungeon crawler, and Supergiant promises Underworld locations that'll be bigger than Hades along with new locations, challenges, and upgrade systems. Melinoe, as a witch and magic-user, will have a completely different set of abilities to Zagreus and her combat skills will focus on magical abilities and more "shadowy" stealth-based abilities and weapons; players can probably expect smaller weapons like Melinoe's scythe and dagger featured in the trailer and official art as opposed to Zagreus' sword or spear.
As the Olympians supported Zagreus in Hades, Olympus is on Melinoe's side, and will receive all the buffs and upgrades the Olympians have to offer to augment her godly skillset. Confirmed Olympians that will appear in Hades 2 include a return for the King of the Gods, Zeus, and a debut for Apollo, the God of Light. As yet, there haven't been any heroes from Greek mythology confirmed to appear but, as the game will take place in the Underworld, the possibilities for any to appear are endless.
Hades 2 will also be a single-player game and Supergiant has announced that it has no plans to add multiplayer at any point in the future. Like Hades, Hades 2 will first release on PC as early access and work with the player community to improve the game before releasing a final version on console. Early access will be available on Steam and the Epic Games Store sometime in 2023, though an official release date hasn't been announced yet.
Hades 2 is in development.