Praise the gods, it’s Hades 2 update day, and developers Supergiant are not mucking about. They have bolstered the nippy roguelike with a heap of shiny new things in this “Olympian Update”, including a new weapon with homing attacks, a liver-pecking boss fight, two new animal familiars, and the home region of the Gods – mount Olympus. It’s probably the biggest update they’ve made yet in terms of fresh sights. And by “fresh sights”, I mean Dionysus sporting a leopard-print thong. Yikes.
Chief among the changes is the new region, Olympus, which looks suitably full of marble statues and ionic columns, if suspiciously gloomy. The new weapon is called the Black Coat, which can launch a bunch of missile-like orbs at enemies or be used to perform damage-blocking counterattacks. Your two new animal familiars will be Raki the raven and Hecuba the hound, who can dig holes for you in place of the usual shovel, it seems. Yes, you can pet the dog. Don’t make Frinos the frog jealous, now.
If you’re wondering how much this update advances the story, we’re told that there are now 2500 new voice lines, plus “expanded subplots” for certain characters like Arachne the spider gal and Dora the friendly ghost. But the big new development in this regard is probably the appearance of Prometheus, the Titan that made humans from clay and then stole fire from the gods to give to humanity. You’ll be fighting him as a boss, and likely learning a bit about his motivations. The eagle who chows on his liver every day also seeks extra protein from your face.
Like I say, it’s an absolutely stacked update. You’ll be able to decorate your hub at the Crossroads. Many hexes and keepsakes have been tweaked. There’s new portrait art for Charon, Medea, and Hades, among others. And while Olympus is the big new hot spot, existing regions also have some new locales, we’re told. I’m not even going to try to summarise the many, many changes to boons and blessings. Just know that there are some new boons, while others have been altered, and a few have been removed.
All the highlights are mentioned in this Steam post but you can get into the nitty gritty of the full patch notes if you like. Supergiant has even recorded a 26-minute long “dramatic reading” of the changes, featuring Logan Cunningham, voice actor of Homer and vocal calling card of the studio. This sounds like the most niche bedtime listening.
I found the fast pace and quippy conversatin’ of Hades 2 a lot of fun in our early access review. But I haven’t been back to it much. Maybe this update will convince me to go check on my favourite rival, Nemesis. According to these patch notes, “she is less quick about gruffly running through exits; she is less quick to purchase items from Charon.” Aw, I always liked that about her.