Board 8 > "You've been invited to help test Hades II"

(+) Yeah! (+)

Wicked.

Anyone else here sign up for the Steam playtest, and did you get selected?

Congrats! When I saw the test openings I considered it but I dont even know what my graphics settings are, don't play any games on PC. Also dont have a Steam account so that probably doesnt help, lol. Loved Hades on switch and if Hades II isn't a day one multiplatform release it'll be Steam registration time for me, for sure.

Looking forward to hearing any thoughts/experiences you want to share, assuming testing doesnt come with an NDA or something...

I should play Hades 1

i did not sign up, and then was rudely not selected

MartinFF7 posted...

Looking forward to hearing any thoughts/experiences you want to share, assuming testing doesnt come with an NDA or something...

I don't think so? It seems like it's just like a limited demo that automatically makes crash reports (haven't had any yet), not anything official enough that I'd have to agree to an NDA. If I wasn't allowed to share thoughts I feel like they would've made that clear. So with that said...!

-Seems to play perfectly on Steam Deck, so far at least.

-My first run goes pretty poorly, I die at the first miniboss. I feel like 100%ing Hades gave me a big head about how good I'll actually be at this game (not very).

-Seems like you have basic weapon combos on X, cast on Y, and a sigil that traps foes on B, and each of those can be charged to be more powerful, but that consumes magic. Magic does not seem to recharge automatically so like, make it count each run I guess.

-There are new gods and old gods to get blessings from. So far I've seen Apollo and Demeter.

-The goal here is killing Chronos, which is kinda interesting and makes me wonder if they're intentionally merging Chronos with Cronus or if it's specifically Time Itself that is the enemy.

-I am not immune to hot dad Odysseus

I would've signed up if I'd known! Congrats.

i thought about it, but when I read it was even more limited in content than Early Access will be, I decided Id rather just wait a bit longer for proper EA

-On my second run I killed the miniboss that ended my first run. It's a bit tricky for so early in the game but also very predictable. Basically it can trap you in a patch of roots, shoots a bunch of small projectiles, and has a minion that chases you down while underground then pops up to do a melee attack. You basically just keep circling around it and keep the damage on and it'll go down.

-There are definitely new enemies but most of the ones in this first area aren't terribly exciting. The wailers, an enemy that chases you down while screaming at you, are probably the most annoying unless you kill them as they appear (they don't have much health)

-I got to the first boss (who I'll avoid naming even though it's not really spoilers) and won, but barely. It feels a lot more complicated than Meg in Hades 1; it makes illusory copies of itself, summons minions, and uses a lot of different shockwave-style attacks. It's not terribly difficult though.

-Since you can't progress past here, the demo ends with a little narration and then kills you lol

-The narration reveals that it is indeed Time Itself that is the big bad in this game, which is interesting because like... the characters from the first game definitely look noticeably older. It's Supergiant so I almost wonder if, by the end of the game, the message will be something like "even gods can't live forever".

-The goal of the demo is to beat the first boss 5 times total, but I dunno if I'll give any more impressions here. Depends how much new content I see in further runs I guess.

Anagram posted...

I would've signed up if I'd known! Congrats.

I think you still can! Not positive though. If it's still open there's a button to sign up where you'd normally click to buy:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1145350/Hades_II/

MoogleKupo141 posted...

i thought about it, but when I read it was even more limited in content than Early Access will be, I decided Id rather just wait a bit longer for proper EA

Yeah it ends after the first boss, so like if Hades 1 ended at Meg.

I like the new magic system. That should help make the game stand out more from the original. Otherwise everything does feel the same as the first one. I wouldn't say that's a bad thing, because the first one was so good, but it'd be disappointing considering how often you were encourage to replay that over and over.

Then again, it's just one small area so there's plenty of room to add new stuff later.

Things I really liked:

• Petting the frog
• The spell the boss uses that turns you into a sheep
• Schelemeus!

I signed up and am hoping/waiting for an invite.

Kenri posted...

I think you still can! Not positive though. If it's still open there's a button to sign up where you'd normally click to buy:

Just signed up. Thanks for the info.

I only signed up now so I prob won't get chosen for a while

Oh thanks for the heads up, I just signed up.

Not too confident I'll get in but hopefully the wait until EA isn't long either. How long were signups open before now?

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

Oh thanks for the heads up, I just signed up.

Not too confident I'll get in but hopefully the wait until EA isn't long either. How long were signups open before now?

They opened up yesterday

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

Oh thanks for the heads up, I just signed up.

Not too confident I'll get in but hopefully the wait until EA isn't long either. How long were signups open before now?

This demo is supposed to last 1-5 weeks before we get EA, depending on how it goes? They announced EA for Q2 previously.

technical test playthrough streamed by Supergiant

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XucgtuFqIec

I skimmed through it mostly, maybe watched like 30 minutes in total but yeah, looking pretty good, certainly have high expectations and I'm liking what I'm seeing so far!

Grand_Kirby posted...

Things I really liked:
* Petting the frog
* The spell the boss uses that turns you into a sheep
* Schelemeus!

Agree on everything there especially the last spoilered point, I marked out, lol

I never got around to Hades 1, lol.

I see they redrew all of the gods, and added a few new ones. Not in love with Hepheastus, and Hestia is using a placeholder, but I do like Aphrodite's and Poseidon's new looks.

Anagram posted...

I see they redrew all of the gods, and added a few new ones. Not in love with Hepheastus, and Hestia is using a placeholder, but I do like Aphrodite's and Poseidon's new looks.

I missed those so I went back and checked - is it just me or is the Artemis voice actress different? Her new look is nice but she was my favourite in original game so the voice is burned into my memory (well, like all the other gods I guess, lol). Maybe not as memorialized as I thought if she is still the same.

Dunno about her voice. Artemis' new look is definitely not as good as her old one. I hope we also get Hera. Do we know if Selene is one of the power-up gods, or has a lesser role? I saw a picture of her, but I don't know.

power-up, she's at 2:09:30 in the video

Thanks. Completely bizarre choice for a non-Olympian god to add, she's both not that famous and covers something Artemis is also the goddess of, but maybe they also plan to add Helios?

I caught somewhere in my stream-skimming, where they noted that Helios was name-dropped a few times in the original game, don't remember when in the stream, maybe shortly after the Selene intro? They didn't say he'd be in but that's the impression I got.

We've already seen 5 of the 9 Olympus gods from original game based on that video (unless I missed more). Makes sense to cycle some out for some new faces though still hoping Dionysus makes the cut in the end, lol.

Selene seems to fill a slightly different role than the other gods that grant boons. Her boons mention powering up depending on your "path of stars" which, idk what that means. Maybe she's closer to Chaos in Hades 1?

I really dislike the second weapon, the Sister Blades. They're very, very short range. I went into Boss 1 with like 90 health and still donked it. Speaking of which, Boss 1 seems to get a different pattern and attacks on attempt 3, or maybe I just really stopped paying attention?

Fishing is back but I haven't found a rod yet.

Kenri posted...

-Seems like you have basic weapon combos on X, cast on Y, and a sigil that traps foes on B, and each of those can be charged to be more powerful, but that consumes magic. Magic does not seem to recharge automatically so like, make it count each run I guess.

I was wrong about this stuff btw. Y is your weapon's special, for the first weapon it's a small projectile which is why I thought it was like the cast from the first game. The sigil on B is your actual cast. There also seem to be lots of ways to recover MP, including ways to make it recharge over time.

Are all of Mel's weapons different from Zag's?

Oh cool theres a 2 i just brought Persephone down to hades earlier today

Beat the boss on second run, I like the magic system in this one. Dunno how I feel about max mana reservation abilities, though. I'm sure it'll synergize with something later on (to put it in PoE terms, maybe mana reservation efficiency), but I thought I'd get the reservation back after getting hit a few times or something. Nope just over half of my max mana gone for the rest of the run!

Feels like an improvement over the first game yet different enough gameplaywise to warrant both being worthwhile experiences. Digging's Mel's murder vibes so far

Anagram posted...

Are all of Mel's weapons different from Zag's?

Seems like it, but I think the demo only has two. Her starting weapon is a staff with a long jab and a single projectile on Y, her second weapon are the twin swords that are very short range but strong and fast, and have a multi-directional forward burst on Y. Probably best compared to the spear and claws in Hades 1 but different enough to not feel the same.

Thanks.

Just got my invite.

Since this topic came up (and I finished Rebirth) I started a new game of Hades and been playing it almost non-stop, goddamn the gameplay loop is just so addictive even if I've already been through this all. I guess i really love doing repetitive stuff over and over, lol.

Re-experiencing the game and the story and what the Hades II story we're seeing so far in the technical test is setting up, so many questions of where the House of Hades crew are (beyond seeing dozing Hypnos and the main man Skelly), man. I can't wait.

Urge to get into early access group, rising... I wonder how limited that group is.

My frothing demand for this game increases