While everybody else with an Xbox Series X is playing Elden Ring, I'm in my happy place – and on Xbox Game Pass, my happy place is Hades.
And no wonder. It's pretty much perfect: not so difficult that I'll end up rage-quitting in frustration, but just difficult enough that "one more minute" turns into ten turns into two hours turns into I haven't done any work in three days. The soundtrack's great – I've got the dun-dun dun-dun-dun-dun of every respawn going through my head right now – and Zagreus is a brilliant character: I love his one-liners, the barbs he trades with his sister and the utter contempt his dad has for him.
So where's the sequel?
A Hades sequel? Don't hold your breath
As much as I love Hades, there are some things that would make it even more fun. Being able to play more than one character, for example, and meeting a few more Greek gods with some new powers to share. And if we're talking new things, some new weapons would be lots of fun too.
Unfortunately for me, it doesn't sound like a new Hades title is coming any time soon, or ever: developers Supergiant say they don't plan ahead, and while Hades itself has been out for a while the devs were busy ensuring that it and its predecessor Transistor were verified for the Steam Deck; Supergiant's focus in 2021 was to make Hades available on as many platforms as possible, which of course is how I ended up falling in love with it on Game Pass.
As for future plans, it was "still to early to say what's next for us" back in December, and as Supergiant doesn't like talking about projects until it's got something to show you I'm not expecting any news of a Hades sequel or successor soon. But it's worth pointing out something they wrote in their Hades FAQ last year: "Each time we’ve completed a project, we’ve found ourselves eager to dive into something new." So while Hades 2 doesn't sound very likely, I can't wait to see – and play – whatever Supergiant is working on right now.
