WARNING: This article contains spoilers forHades. Proceed at your own risk.
Supergiant Games’Hadesis an incredible game with snappy dialogue and memorable characters, and it gives a fresh take on stories that are three thousand years old. While the story is brilliant in many ways,Hades 2has the opportunity to improve onHadesby presenting its story better than its predecessor, especially in the third act.Hades 2will take place sometime after the first game, with the perspective shifting to Melinoe, Zagreus' sister, depicted in Greek mythology as a chthonic deity and bringer of nightmares and madness.
Not many details of the story have been revealed yet, but the trailer has shown that sometime after thestory ofHades,the Titan of Time, Chronos, has captured Hades. The god is now in need to be rescued by his daughter, Melinoe. The setting of witchcraft and magic in Ancient Greece, with the introduction of Hecate and Melinoe’s own use of magic, is a fantastic way to expand the world and myth ofHadeswhile keeping it grounded and connected to the characters players are already familiar with.Hades 2just needs to avoid some of the pacing issues its predecessor made in its third act.
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Hades 2 Needs More Content in the Third Act
After the credits roll inHades, it’s not clear that there’s still a lot of the game left to complete before it can be considered finished. Even after the credits, there are still the issues of reconciling Persephone and Demeter as well as Hades and the Olympians, building a relationship between Zagreus and Persephone, and sending out party invitations for a grand feast in the Underworld. Rather than the third act of the story, it feels like it’s the end of the game and the beginning of an epilogue. While there’s a handful ofconfirmed characters inHades 2, some of their stories will likely not continue from the original game.
Persephone’s return to the House of Hades can happen as early as halfway throughHades, depending on how quickly the player has made their escape attempts. This means that there’s still a ton of the story to cover after the credits roll, even though the pacing of the main story slows to a crawl and other important plot points, like reuniting Achilles and Patroclus, freeing Orpheus from his contract, and pursuing the various romances, all feel more like busywork rather than a natural progression alongside themainHadesstoryline.
The Solutions to Story Pacing In Hades 2
The player could time these subplots so that they’re resolved before or just after the credits roll, but it’s highly unlikely a fresh player on their first run will be in the know. ManynewHadesplaythroughsoften confuse players by suddenly presenting the credits when the story hasn’t really ended, and it shouldn’t be up to veteran players to pace the game properly because the main plot slows down in the third act.Hades 2has the chance to fix these kinds of pacing issues through more obvious cues and direction, in addition to giving more content in the third act.
Hades' pacing had no issues until this point, which made the sudden slowdown of the plot all the more jarring, but it also is a good sign that this is a weak point that can be improved upon when moving ahead. With the success ofHadesrarely seen on such a scale by indie studios, the sequel has the chance to shape its story in a way that gives players a new cast ofcharacters from Greek mythology inHades 2. As such, it’s the perfect pretext to have a brilliant story from beginning to end as well as a new look at tales thousands of years old.
