It was all the way back in 2021 that Metacritic crowned Hades as the Xbox Game of the Year, with the hugely popular roguelike dungeon crawler racking up a massive average score of 93/100 based on the critics' reviews.
On reflection, that seems like a very fair score! Hades is absolutely one of the best games of the decade so far, and the good news is that a sequel is officially on the way - with the first Technical Test taking place on PC this week.
To mark the occasion, various outlets have been going hands-on with Hades 2, and the reaction appears to have been extremely positive so far. Here's just a sample of what some of the critics have been saying about the sequel:
GamesRadar
"The roguelike genre has moved on considerably since Zagreus first stepped out of his pool in 2018. So while Hades 2 is no longer the unique prospect that its predecessor once felt like, in its doubling down on all the places that made Hades so special it's already clear to me that this is the next roguelike hit – it's just merely waiting to be crowned."
Kotaku
"I’ve spent about an hour with the game thus far, and it’s abundantly clear Supergiant has maintained the grabbiness of the original while ensuring that the sequel expands upon that formula..."
PC Gamer
"It's all here. Supergiant has honed its ability to quickly hook you into its story and dangle exciting reasons to jump back into a run as it did in the first Hades. It's going to make it extremely hard to wait out its early access period."
In terms of an Xbox release for Hades 2, it's not actually confirmed just yet, but we're certainly expecting it to make its way to Microsoft's consoles. The game's official website mentions that PC is the focus for now, and then the game is expected to "eventually be available for PC, Mac, and console platforms", with more details to be revealed in time.
Let's keep our fingers crossed that Hades 2's Xbox release isn't too far away... we can't wait for this one!