It's not even been in Early Access a full week, but Hades 2 is already my GOTY until further notice

I'm experiencing Hades 2 with a remarkable sense of childlike glee. I always knew that the sequel to one of my favorite games of all time would be a hard bag to fumble – that simply wouldn't be developer Supergiant's style, after all – but I didn't expect it to knock the wind out of my sails in all the right ways so immediately.

You see, the thing about Hades 2 is that it already feels like one of the best things I have ever played in the history of ever. I'm only 12.6 hours into it, according to my Steam account, but with every new biome provoking audible gasps, delighted whispers of "oh my god", and an ever-increasing pain in my upper back due to my inability to keep from leaning in to admire each artistic detail of it, I'm frankly in awe. It's hard to imagine how Hades 2 can possibly get any better, but I am more than excited for Supergiant to prove me wrong.

Spellbound

More furies. More NPCs. More incredible music. More unusual pets to confide in. It would be easy to encapsulate Hades 2's current standing in Early Access as providing more of the same, only different – but I think that would be an understatement of epic proportions.

In every meaningful way, Hades 2 is a prime example of how to make a sequel. It's also a feat in reworking a genre, complicating what's expected of a roguelike to show there'll be more to Melinoë's journey than simply flipping the setting of Hades on its head. Perhaps it's the limits of my own imagination, but that was all I dared expect of Supergiant's latest at one point – especially for a game only just entering Early Access. It's safe to say that all of my expectations have been well and truly bulldozed in the best of ways.

Having played about 10 hours of the game during its technical test phase, I had expected the EA launch to feature exactly the same content. But when I beat Erebus boss Hecate on my third or fourth run, fully expecting to be sent back to the Crossroads and told that more content would come soon, my heart leapt into my throat: I was able to move on to the next biome, Oceanus. Immediately I grabbed my phone to tell anyone who cared before scooting my desk chair even closer to the screen, hungry for more.

Somehow, playing the technical test has made each new discovery in Early Access even more exciting. I'm able to dispel the wards that keep me from the surface, meaning I'm not only battling down to the underworld, but up to my Olympian family. I'm unlocking more collectibles up here, too, from bronze to moss and other precious reagents needed for my cauldron decoctions down in Erebus. I even meet Homer's legendary cyclops Polyphemus, something that resembles a kraken, and the Heracles himself – Hercules, as you may know him. I'm drinking in each new find, from newly-unlocked Nocturnal Arms to keepsakes and NPC dialogue, and the feeling of total awe only mounts with each run.

That being said, I know the journey to a full Hades 2 release has only just begun. Hell, even the Hades 2 devs don't know what the true ending will be since they've yet to write it. I guess it's all part of the Early Access experience, even though the devs have confirmed that there's more of pretty much everything in Hades 2 compared to the first game already. That reassurance has convinced me that Hades 2 won't be leaving my game rotation anytime soon – if anything else can get a look-in, anyway.

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