I won't lie, its not quite as good as Hades 1 at the moment.
Enemy armor/boss health is way too high, meaning battles drag on for way longer than they should and the chip damage adds up a lot. I had a hammer upgrade that just straight deletes armor and it was the only time I felt closer to the original's combat. Few boons give outright % increases to damage like they used to, which seems to be where the issue is. Instead they have pretty neat effects that give great synergy and make it quite fun to use, but it continues to lack actual punch to kill things.
There is also a lot more grind baked in, which is probably because the original had nearly 0 on release and people ran out of content quick (which is why the big Darkness Dump title guy was patched in). But some of it feels like its an EA thing meant to drag out the content while they finish the later stages.
And having put more time into it, it continues to be more and less woke at the same times. A handful more Gods have darker skin, but lack the facial structures to actually appear black so its in a strange limbo of not being fully black but also being a bit beyond just swarthy Mediterraneans. The only one who goes full black is a straight up Aunt Mammy, which is also hilarious.
Honestly, I'd give it a major update or so before I think its worth the price. Mostly just to fix the health issue because it makes the game feel way harder than it should from the outset.
Based on having played Hades 1 in its Early Access release and then on vanilla, I'm fairly confident it will be fixed because both are easily solved and immediately obvious to anyone from the outset. If not, it'll be laughably easy to mod regardless.
I won't lie, its not quite as good as Hades 1 at the moment.
Enemy armor/boss health is way too high, meaning battles drag on for way longer than they should and the chip damage adds up a lot. I had a hammer upgrade that just straight deletes armor and it was the only time I felt closer to the original's combat. Few boons give outright % increases to damage like they used to, which seems to be where the issue is. Instead they have pretty neat effects that give great synergy and make it quite fun to use, but it continues to lack actual punch to kill things.
There is also a lot more grind baked in, which is probably because the original had nearly 0 on release and people ran out of content quick (which is why the big Darkness Dump title guy was patched in). But some of it feels like its an EA thing meant to drag out the content while they finish the later stages.
And having put more time into it, it continues to be more and less woke at the same times. A handful more Gods have darker skin, but lack the facial structures to actually appear black so its in a strange limbo of not being fully black but also being a bit beyond just swarthy Mediterraneans. The only one who goes full black is a straight up Aunt Mammy, which is also hilarious.
Honestly, I'd give it a major update or so before I think its worth the price. Mostly just to fix the health issue because it makes the game feel way harder than it should from the outset.
I saw some extended gameplay and I agree with you.
Boss health is too much and the grindy aspects seem worse in this.
I opted not to buy it at this time.
I will see if the final release is any better.
Based on having played Hades 1 in its Early Access release and then on vanilla, I'm fairly confident it will be fixed because both are easily solved and immediately obvious to anyone from the outset. If not, it'll be laughably easy to mod regardless.