Hades 2’s Crossroads Is Already An All-Timer Hub World

Highlights

• Instead of the Underworld, Hades 2 has you returning to The Crossroads upon your death after each run.
• The Crossroads is filled with a growing cast of characters, vendors, and mechanics that will grow and change over time.
• You also have a number of cute animals to pet and benches to sit on, which is quite a vibe.

Hades 2 is still in the throes of a technical test, but Supergiant’s sequel has already won me over. It’s a bold, familiar, and experimental expansion of the original game with much higher stakes upholding the main narrative. Instead of Zagreus simply trying to get back at his Dad, you play as his sister Melinoe, tasked with rescuing her brother and father from the clutches of the Titan Chronos, a being who has control over the concept of time as we know it.

Rather than giving her Dad the middle finger, Princess Melinoe must save her family and the entirety of Olympus. If she doesn’t, who knows what will happen? Hades 2 immediately sets the stakes of your journey, and instead of returning to a lofty home in the underworld, you’ll operate out of the Crossroads – a temporary camp made up of awkwardly placed tents and cauldrons which are positioned to serve the war effort more than anything else. Despite this, after returning to it again and again, it still harbours a feeling of homeliness.

Home Is Where The Hades Is

Melinoe respawns just behind her tent, where a friendly little frog awaits her, asking to be pet and comforted now their master has returned from battle. Melinoe even talks to the frog while reflecting on the gods she’s met and the foes she’s vanquished, even if ultimately her goal of vanquishing Chronos is yet to be accomplished.

The tent itself is centred around a portrait of Zeus, Zagreus, Persephone, and a sweet little baby Melinoe. It’s a clear sign of what you’re fighting for, and I find it oddly hilarious that you can press ‘R1 to brood’ whenever you come close to it. Then there’s Dora, a talking shade who loves to loiter in your tent and scare you whenever you return from the battlefield. Dora is rare for a shade, given she can speak, and I hope the full game is able to delve into exactly how she came to be.

I imagine the hub world will change during the early access period, but right now it already feels surprisingly fully featured with all its different characters and mechanics.

Once you leave the tent behind and walk through the winding clearing, you’re met by Hecate standing beside a cauldron which can be used to craft new items, weapons, along with some other new additions I’m still figuring out. Moros will also appear after a few runs before introducing a scroll of the fates filled with challenges you can complete in exchange for rewards.

Many of the new additions in the hub world only serve to reward you for going on more and more runs, feeding into how Melinoe grows as a character both mechanically and narratively. There is a lot of depth here before I even touch on the dialogue, which remains the big reason why I love Hades 2 so much.

Creative director Greg Kasavin has written an exhaustive amount of dialogue and character interactions that are able to dynamically react to how your last run went, who you encounter, what you have equipped, and how far along you are in the game without so much as a hiccup.

I even wore a specific piece of equipment only for a character to comment on it after I met them, which then deepened our bond further. I look forward to every single conversation, because I know that Supergiant has put in the effort to make every word matter, shift, and change depending on how I approach each situation.

You choose who to gift nectar too, which in itself opens up entire new character arcs and conversations. Even in the technical test, there is a depth with Hades 2 that few games can match. I especially love that, in the midst of a war like this, not everyone in camp gets along. I came across Hecate and Nemesis at one another’s throats at one point, worried that I may have to step in and put a stop to their bickering.

Hypnos can also be found napping in the corner – another mystery to solve – alongside Odysseus, who waits near a table filled with all sorts of maps and strategies. From one glance around camp, it is obvious we’re all in this together, whether we like it or not.

An Unexpected Journey

The hub world doesn’t stop once you leave the camp’s threshold, however. Skelly makes a return in much fancier form alongside a selection of new weapons you can pick from before experimenting with, while there are gathering tools like shovels and pickaxes which factor in each run now. There is more detail to everything, and it all feels complementary rather than overwhelming, which could’ve happened easily if Supergiant wasn’t careful.

I love to take my time moving between these areas before each run. Not necessarily to get prepared for the fights to come, but to vibe with the atmosphere and make sure I don’t miss a single conversation or interaction. There are even benches scattered about the place that Melinoe will refuse to sit on, because she has too important a mission to relax. I’d love to see her attitude change once Chronos is defeated, allowing her to sit back and reflect on all she has achieved instead of fighting for her life all the time.

This hub world is so wonderful because the potential it holds is limitless. We’ve already seen how the original game expanded upon and subverted our expectations with its own hub, and Hades 2 has an opportunity to take that perception even further. To make us care for a place that our heroes have been forced to turn into a home under the most dire of circumstances, and will do everything in their power to protect it.

It’s a place I never want to leave, but also one I’m more than willing to fight for.