Hades 2 will likely be in early access until 2025, with first big update to add new enemies, maps and features

As you might've heard, Hades 2 is out in early access, offering up the much-anticipated sequel to Supergiant's mythical (and delightfully thirsty) roguelite. Though the sheer amount of polish and Stuff in even its pre-release form might have you thinking that a full 1.0 release can't be too far down the line, the game's creative director reckons we've still got around a year to wait before it's considered all finished up.

That's per Greg Kasavin's recent chat with cheery RPS fansite PC Gamer, during which Kasavin touched on the gameplay differences between OG Hades' Zagreus and Hades 2 hero Melinoë - with more of a lean towards fast-paced spellcasting and area-of-effect attacks - and the litany of small details packed into the game, such as the different reactions of characters to the player's choices such as picking boons or during boss fights.

With Hades 2 crammed full of those small touches on top of the obvious need to constantly tweak and balance its combat, Kasavin said that the team won't be rushing to get the finished game out the door. In the near future, there'll be a run of smaller patches that further polish existing parts of the gameplay - similar to the recent tweaks to resource-gathering and sprinting - with at least one bigger update that will introduce brand new elements such as enemies, environments and features. While that big update is in the works for "several months", there'll be a pause on the smaller fixes.

"We'll patch that a few times to shore up any issues, and repeat this broader process... until we consider the game complete!" Kasavin said, which suggests we'll see some more 'Major Updates' after that, too. For the first big addition, at least, Kasavin teased that Supergiant already have a particular theme in mind, which enterprising players may uncover if they delve deep enough into the game.

All in all, Kasavin expects Hades 2 to remain in early access "at least through the end of this year". That's perhaps not surprising given the first game took around two years from early access launch to 1.0, and the sequel has arrived with even more to play with in the meantime - meaning even more to tweak and balance along the way for its developers, too.