ELEX II

 PC
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 115 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 69 out of 115
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 115
  3. Negative: 28 out of 115
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  1. MolokoNoir
    May 25, 2022
    2
    The first Elex was unpolished but had some decent ideas and an alright world. I found the combat system to be a bit clunky but serviceable once you understood how it worked (not that the game did a good job of relaying that to you). Dialogues and characters were sometimes funny, sometimes a bit off, but overall reminiscent of Gothic in their blunt but endearing manner. It mostly sufferedThe first Elex was unpolished but had some decent ideas and an alright world. I found the combat system to be a bit clunky but serviceable once you understood how it worked (not that the game did a good job of relaying that to you). Dialogues and characters were sometimes funny, sometimes a bit off, but overall reminiscent of Gothic in their blunt but endearing manner. It mostly suffered from a world that was way too large and mostly filled with nothing. Loot was 90% literal junk item, that you could simply sell and rarely use for some crafting. Overall story was fine, nothing groundbreaking, but presentation was hit-and-miss with PB trying too hard to sell an emotional story while lacking the ability to write one.

    I had hoped that Elex II would build on the strengths (world design, interesting factions and their relations to each other) and polish out the weaknesses (janky animations, useless jet pack, clunky combat and overall presentation). Instead, it massively improved the jet pack (that really is a lot of fun now) and dropped the ball on everything else.
    The world is once again large but mostly devoid of anything interesting.
    Writing took a turn for the worse and is now complete trite and nonsensical - on top of that it seems there was nobody looking over the finished dialogue trees. Conversations jump between topics, NPCs suddenly start mentioning things completely unrelated or change their voice. They added children and wrote them in the most obnoxious and cringeworthy way. It's supposed to be a core gameplay item that you build a relationship with your son (btw you have a son now), who, by the timeline of the game, must be 5 at most, but talks like a teenager using a small child's voice. Any kind of emotion that PB wants to create is lost in atrocious writing, terrible timing and involuntarily funny moments.
    Loot is slightly better but still meaningless overall.
    The story is an incoherent train wreck that dawdles for most of the game only to sprint into the finale and throw twists at you.
    Combat is janky and poorly balanced.
    The end of the game (as well as the majority of quests) are literally "go there and kill X enemies" over and over and over.

    I honestly cannot understand the reviews that give this game a glowing recommendation. I can only assume that those are bought, same as the ones from the German review sites that name this as a great game.
    Even as Gothic/PB fan, this is a slap in the face. A huge step down from what was a niche appeal to begin with. An unfinished, unpolished, janky hell of a game. And I liked Elex I, despite all its shortcomings. It had the chance to lay a good foundation for a sequel that could really take off.
    Instead we got this ... a trash indie game that has the audacity to ask for a AAA game price, while delivering an insulting game that could have been spat out by any random indie studio faster and better.

    At this point I don't know what the problem is PB has. If they're trying to recreate Gothic despite not liking it. If it's all because of their own outdated custom engine they refuse to let go. If it's simply terrible project leads that time and again end up running out of time to deliver even the basics. If it's purely cynicism trying to milk the remaining PB fans that keep hoping to have that Gothic-feeling again.

    Either way, Elex II has deleted any last goodwill I may have had for the studio and I really hope Elex III will either be done by a competent studio, or better yet, will never release.    … Expand
  2. FreshFriendz
    Mar 28, 2022
    3
    Elex 2 is a fantastic Action RPG until you enter the second chapter.
    At this point, the story reveals its uninspired, disorganized, and dull face.
    Any quest turns into a fighting/kill quest, highlighting one of the weakest parts of the game: the old fighting system. The game let me down after I had invested ~30h during chapter one. I also created multiple save files for each    Elex 2 is a fantastic Action RPG until you enter the second chapter.
    At this point, the story reveals its uninspired, disorganized, and dull face.
    Any quest turns into a fighting/kill quest, highlighting one of the weakest parts of the game: the old fighting system.
    The game let me down after I had invested ~30h during chapter one. I also created multiple save files for each path/faction because I was so hyped.    … Expand
  3. huskiescrack
    Aug 8, 2022
    0
    Worst PB game yet. I played all of them.

    -Bad music. especially near Dex and Caja -Worst combat design, shooting blasters etc. got so bad. Mods can do it 1000 times better. -Worst enemy design. Even the Skyands are copy and paste. None of them are special or dangerous. -Incredibly useless perks, attributes. -Ammo Crafting is again more expensive than buying, just wtf. -Worst    Worst PB game yet. I played all of them.

    -Bad music. especially near Dex and Caja
    -Worst combat design, shooting blasters etc. got so bad. Mods can do it 1000 times better.
    -Worst enemy design. Even the Skyands are copy and paste. None of them are special or dangerous.
    -Incredibly useless perks, attributes.
    -Ammo Crafting is again more expensive than buying, just wtf.
    -Worst story-quest design, kill 1000 types of the same enemy.
    -Bad mobility, need more jetpack fuel, teleporters and movement speed.

    Without modding I would never have played it to the end and it was still extremly boring.    … Expand
  4. Ratingss
    Apr 3, 2022
    3
    Same as the first game, as in even the same map and locations, a blatant rehash, but they managed to make it a worse game.
    The combat sucks and you can exploit it easily. Its a direct sequel with just a few years lapse but your character unlearned everything, lost all his gear and become a weak lvl 1 again, of course.
    Most quests are immortal npc escorting. The performance is abysmal,    Same as the first game, as in even the same map and locations, a blatant rehash, but they managed to make it a worse game.
    The combat sucks and you can exploit it easily. Its a direct sequel with just a few years lapse but your character unlearned everything, lost all his gear and become a weak lvl 1 again, of course.
    Most quests are immortal npc escorting.
    The performance is abysmal, the story boring and the world not interesting anymore.    … Expand
  5. Czechinator
    Oct 23, 2022
    2
    Exploring and combat is slightly better. Incredibly boring walls of text.Dialogues are cringe More is not better , if the dialogue sucks. I'm so bored with the quests .Elex is the worst series from PB. Please don't do a third episode!!
    After I finished playing it, I realized they wanted to make a third episode of this **** God, why?!
    Uninteresting factions, uninteresting characters.    Exploring and combat is slightly better. Incredibly boring walls of text.Dialogues are cringe More is not better , if the dialogue sucks. I'm so bored with the quests .Elex is the worst series from PB. Please don't do a third episode!!
    After I finished playing it, I realized they wanted to make a third episode of this **** God, why?!

    Uninteresting factions, uninteresting characters. The blending of medieval and magic into the modern world just doesn't fit here. (I love warhammer, they did it well there. Or horizon zero dawn.)

    Since risen 2, the quality of their games has only gone down.
    They can't use a good name from the gothic era indefinitely!    … Expand
  6. euu
    Mar 12, 2022
    4
    They had more than 4 years to work on this, a bigger budget and more support from the Publisher... and this is it? A game that reuses 70% of the assets from the previous one but manages to have even less content. Yes, there are more factions now, but they are mostly a variation of the first 3. Morkons are just Clerics without the cool technology stuff. Albs are just Clerics with autism.They had more than 4 years to work on this, a bigger budget and more support from the Publisher... and this is it? A game that reuses 70% of the assets from the previous one but manages to have even less content. Yes, there are more factions now, but they are mostly a variation of the first 3. Morkons are just Clerics without the cool technology stuff. Albs are just Clerics with autism. Berzerkers went from Viking hippies to just hippies and the Outlaws are just as useless as in the first game. Magic seems to also be useless, at least for the Berzerker faction, as most guns you will get will deal more damage by the time you advance well enough into the game to get magic. Also, there seems to be fewer weapons than in the first game, so no more cool stuff like the Flamethrower or Chainswords.

    Story and Dialog are also pretty bad. The storyline of the first Elex was not what pretentious game journalists would call the "Citizen Kane of Gaming" but I liked it. The premise of bringing together Traditionalists, Anarchists and the Religious to fight a Collectivist metahuman faction that seeks to transform and homogenize the entire planet is not something you see in most AAA games, where stories seem to be specifically made for Twitter feminists and redditors. In Elex 2 you'll be doing mostly the same thing, only without the few interesting bits of the Original. Also, Jax is so whiny and annoying and now he has a stupid kid and a nagging ex wife to deal with. I guess this is PB's idea of an emotional core. Also quest design is even worse than the first game. This is Gothic 3 level of fetch/kill quests, I think even modern MMOs have better design.

    On the gameplay side, it still sucks. A minor improvement for the Malee combat, but still bad even compared to other mediocre AA games like Greedfall. Ranged is still OP, like in most PB games, but the newly-includded flying enemies are the worst thing I've seen in a game latelly. Not only are they small and have smaller hitboxes, but they also move around so fast that you can barelly hit. They are more annoying than challenging.

    Lastly, performance is attrocious. I don't have a monster PC, but still the framerates are so low for a game that looks like it was made in 2010 on a low budget.

    Are there good things? Sure. The environment and world design still look great. Exploration is still fun and can be rewarding and the Jetpack upgrade system is pretty neat. But this is just not enough. I was a big Pyranha Bytes fanboy and even I can't recommend this. If you really need your Gohic fix you should tryChronicles of Myrtana: Archolos instead.    … Expand
  7. Gysmo7777
    Mar 31, 2022
    0
    Sorry, but this is a big step back from the first elex. Mission Design after chapter one is like in an old bad mmorpg. Just like: go there and kill 30 of These.
    Story: is a joke. Its all copy paste from elex 1, but now there are new enemys. Improved combat only improves clunkyness.
    The only thing i really see as okay is the graphics, the faces are from 2000, but the Overall lighting    Sorry, but this is a big step back from the first elex. Mission Design after chapter one is like in an old bad mmorpg. Just like: go there and kill 30 of These.
    Story: is a joke. Its all copy paste from elex 1, but now there are new enemys. Improved combat only improves clunkyness.
    The only thing i really see as okay is the graphics, the faces are from 2000, but the Overall lighting looks great.
    I really love Piranha Bytes Games. But this is the worst until now. I don't understand, because they told with the New publisher there is more time and money to polish their games. But it just feels like pushed out without love.
    i finished the first Elex with every possible Faction. But i will never touch Elex 2 again.
    - Dissapointment    … Expand
  8. TheFrog
    Jun 2, 2022
    4
    The game is like all past Piranha Bytes offerings in the past fifteen years or so. You begin as a wimp who can barely wield a weapon, SLOWLY build up your character, in a world where every enemy is much stronger than you. At some point, you manage to join a faction, which finally allows you to develop some really powerful abilities, and eventually you are strong enough to confront even theThe game is like all past Piranha Bytes offerings in the past fifteen years or so. You begin as a wimp who can barely wield a weapon, SLOWLY build up your character, in a world where every enemy is much stronger than you. At some point, you manage to join a faction, which finally allows you to develop some really powerful abilities, and eventually you are strong enough to confront even the strongest enemies.
    Unfortunately, the combat system is possibly the worst I’ve ever seen. In any game. Characters move as through molasses; enemy movement harks back from the last century. I’m positive I’ve seen games from the 90s with much better combat animations. Reading their stance to decide when to parry or dodge, is completely random: they twitch and turn, but apparently some of these erratic movements count as attacks; you only realize it because your health drops to zero and you die. Since all creatures can kill you in two hits, even combat against minor enemies becomes a deadly danger (I'm playing on hard). Hitboxes that are so glitched as to be almost funny: an axe may cut the air one full meter away from you, and you still get the damage. Also, you can lock onto enemies, which helps in attacking and avoiding damage - that is, until the game decides you lose your lock for some reason: bam! You dodge the wrong way and die.
    Earlier today, I was fascinated and incredulous, as I watched my cyborg companion utterly failing to land a single hit against a tough enemy. The AI was broken, like most other things in this game, and he kept freezing, looking at the enemy without doing anything, even though I tried to interpose him between me and the attacker. When he did decide to attack, he regularly missed, because his attacks were too slow to ever connect. Essentially, I was alone – but fear not, he’s not the only companion available. At the moment, I have two more. A fire mage, whose slow fireballs rarely hit anything, and a small robot, whose sniper shots deal relatively low damage, but thankfully usually hit the intended target. But does he fly out of enemy range? Of course not, he usually remains where they can hit him with melee weapons.
    Save often! There is an auto save feature, but it doesn't work 90% of the time.
    Everything in this game costs in-game money, even level ups. Money is hard to come by; the best renewable source of income is trophies from monsters, but you need to attain the highest level in this ability, and this can only happen late in the game. So, for now, I have to grind like crazy to afford anything, while the game designers thought it fine to include stupid missions where the quest giver gives you money to buy something, but the actual price turns out to be much higher. Pure genius.
    Dialogs are boring and badly written. Even when discussing something straightforward, NPCs tend to antagonize you and ramble on and on, with nonsensical lines that only induce sleepiness. The temptation to right-click through the voice acting is strong. NPC attitude is inconsistent as well. The first companion you encounter, wants you to butcher a party of invaders. Makes sense, no problem (apart from the fact that you are WAY too weak to do that, and she won’t join forces with you until you do). Later on, I encounter a hiding alchemist, whose bodyguards have been killed by an outlaw. He asks me to deal with said outlaw, but if I accept to kill the murderer, the warmongering mage doesn’t like it, she is suddenly averse to violence. Fast forward a bit, and she becomes bloodthirsty again, asking me to kill someone for a minor slip. Duh.
    On the positive side, the jetpack is fun, especially after you upgrade it with sprint jets, which allow you to zoom over the terrain like a missile. I really like the environment and the graphics, it’s a relaxing world, at least if you forget all the monsters that want to eat you. And character growth is satisfying.
    This keeps me playing, at least for now, but really: both the Gothic and the Risen series had better combat and equally satisfying character progression. I preordered this game after liking the first Elex in spite of its shortcomings, but I won’t certainly preorder a third one, if it ever comes out. They NEED to fix combat; as things are, it's simply atrocious.    … Expand
  9. Ryan76
    Mar 2, 2022
    4
    Optimization doesn't seem to exist in this game, soundtrack almost the same as in the first part (terrible disappointment). May THQ Nordic finally take care of them properly. Terrible technical disappointment, dialogues are also at a very weak level. Only exploration, which is wonderful, defends itself. I was terribly disappointed with the laziness of Piranha Bytes, technically it's theOptimization doesn't seem to exist in this game, soundtrack almost the same as in the first part (terrible disappointment). May THQ Nordic finally take care of them properly. Terrible technical disappointment, dialogues are also at a very weak level. Only exploration, which is wonderful, defends itself. I was terribly disappointed with the laziness of Piranha Bytes, technically it's the second Gothic 3.… Expand
  10. Erebus1986
    Mar 18, 2022
    0
    Yes i played Gothic, yes i played Gothic 2. At Release. And i love them. I played Risen 1-3. And i liked them. Even they are not as good as Gothic. And yes im German. So Piranha Bytes gets their German Studio Patriot Bonus they get from the German Magazines.

    But im done with it. After 20 Years the same, in the past cool and new, Mechanics are boring. Different Camps, Harsh Speech, Open    Yes i played Gothic, yes i played Gothic 2. At Release. And i love them. I played Risen 1-3. And i liked them. Even they are not as good as Gothic. And yes im German. So Piranha Bytes gets their German Studio Patriot Bonus they get from the German Magazines.

    But im done with it. After 20 Years the same, in the past cool and new, Mechanics are boring. Different Camps, Harsh Speech, Open World. Yes thats all fine, but Björn Pankratz, the Head of the Studio, dont recognize that the Gaming World evolved. Its not enough and after 6 Games the old "Gothic was cool and the best RPG of its time" Fame is only a memory. Elex 2 is a shame. It looks awful, while PB was 20 years ago a guarantee for benchmarking grafx, but today there is much more money in the business. As a small studio you have to license a engine. Or People will laugh about you. The Face look way more awful than in Mass Effect Andromeda, there is no DirectX12, no Vulkan, no DLSS, no FX, even no good AA or AF. It looks like **** and far worse than a risen 3.

    Then the Fighting system, the animations.....12 years after a dark souls you cant bring an "smash the healthbar but the mob dont recognize your sword" Hack and Slay System. Especially when Elden Ring comes one week earlier. The game looks and feels like a beta and after 20 years im done with the same game. Play Gothic 1 and 2. Maybe Risen. Far better Games. This game is a shame for german games development.    … Expand
  11. Whitelandia
    Mar 10, 2022
    0
    The writing in this game is so bad it should be considered malpractice. In my forty years of gaming I don't recall anything as atrocious. The companions are shallow and cliche, female storyline NPC are all Nurse Ratched, male NPC are all Gny. Sgt. Hartman. Add to this basically non-stop hardcore profanity ... even from the protagonist ... and you have to just shake your head and wonderThe writing in this game is so bad it should be considered malpractice. In my forty years of gaming I don't recall anything as atrocious. The companions are shallow and cliche, female storyline NPC are all Nurse Ratched, male NPC are all Gny. Sgt. Hartman. Add to this basically non-stop hardcore profanity ... even from the protagonist ... and you have to just shake your head and wonder how it was ever approved for release. Every conversation is like two foul-mouthed fifteen year-olds smack-talking on the playground. The combat is lame, enemies are bullet sponges, the skill trees are uninspired. This game is a fail in every way.… Expand
  12. IlyaHero
    Mar 23, 2022
    0
    Optimization is terrible. Piranha bytes are stuck in 1998. What a shame. Simply trash
  13. LarenX
    Mar 3, 2022
    3
    Just compare Elex II with for eg. Shadow Worrior 3 – buhaha Elex II is a joke, tragedy and embarrassment. Don’t even waste your precious time on it!
    Dialogue is a farce, FOV swims so you want to vomit, graphics worse than in 2010 games, optimization is a failure - in every aspect this game is lazy ****
  14. teshia
    Apr 29, 2023
    2
    This is the first time I've ever not recommended a PB RPG. It hurts to say that because I've been a big fan of their games since I first played Gothic 1 and 2 when Gothic 2 first hit shelves in North America. I've been playing their games since and apart from a few moments where they've come close to Gothic 1 and 2 (Risen 1), it's been a slow steady decline. This decline was barelyThis is the first time I've ever not recommended a PB RPG. It hurts to say that because I've been a big fan of their games since I first played Gothic 1 and 2 when Gothic 2 first hit shelves in North America. I've been playing their games since and apart from a few moments where they've come close to Gothic 1 and 2 (Risen 1), it's been a slow steady decline. This decline was barely acceptable with Elex but Elex 2 hits a new low that I cannot support in any way. This is not just one of the worst games PB has ever made, it's one of the worst games I have ever played. The combat is juvenile, the graphics are buggy (and recycled from Elex), as is the music (most of it from Elex 1) and terrible (an insult to anything Kai Rosenkrantz ever did). The writing is some of the worst I've ever encountered. The quests make almost no sense. Factions don't make any rational sense (why would anybody join the Morkons?) and things that people say make little to no sense. The entire script sounds like it was translated from German to English using Google Translate, then passed to mostly bad voice actors with no coaching or guidance on emphasis, cadence, tone, or pronunciation. Some characters from the first game are retconed, yet new characters are brought in and you are expected to believe you played with in the first game (ie. Bully). Companions are abusive (ie. Nasty, Bully, etc.) for seemingly no reason. You have a child, who you and your partner treat like garbage (this can't have been written by a parent), especially at the end of the game. This is genuinely embarrassing to see from PB. I will be stunned if these developers manage to get funding for Elex 3 and even more stunned if I can be convinced to play it. I am stupider for having played this game. And for people that say "they're a small studio of 30+ people", enough. It's been over two decades since Gothic 2. This company is not learning from their mistakes. They are regressing into insignificance and have been for quite some time. Rest in peace, Piranha Bytes, I guess. Sad to see it come to this.… Expand
  15. svatlex
    Apr 5, 2023
    1
    Irt is just awful. It looks like it was made by teenagers who didn't even want to try. You can't really ask for more than a dollar for that. Everything is terrible. 2003 graphics and animations, no optimization, story and dialogue written by a heroin junkie. I've been playing games for over 25 years and I've never spent my money as badly as I have on this game.
  16. PenetratorGod
    Aug 20, 2023
    3
    A second game that should never have been made. The developers pushed their luck and lost the gamers they gained from the first game by making this game. The first game was already very bad and didn't appeal to everyone, but somehow they managed to make it even worse. Piranha Bytes should stop making games. They are trying to make outdated games that are trying to appeal to gamers who areA second game that should never have been made. The developers pushed their luck and lost the gamers they gained from the first game by making this game. The first game was already very bad and didn't appeal to everyone, but somehow they managed to make it even worse. Piranha Bytes should stop making games. They are trying to make outdated games that are trying to appeal to gamers who are probably 40-50 years old now. They've never been open to improvement and innovation, and when they've tried, they've failed, like with ELEX 2. This company needs to shut down and step aside. Like their games, they should be relegated to the dusty shelves of history. It's just laughable that they are trying to survive in this industry like this. I wonder when they will stop making failed games and even more failed series. They will probably continue to fail in the same way for another 20 years if they get the chance.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

51
#51 Most Discussed PC Game of 2022

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
64

Mixed or average reviews - based on 23 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 23
  3. Negative: 2 out of 23
  1. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Oct 19, 2022
    62
    Two decades have passed since the first Gothic came out, but Piranha Bytes still sticks to the old formula in hopes that once again it will make a miracle. [Issue#259, p.66]
  2. RPG Site
    May 31, 2022
    60
    Elex II is a disappointing game that fails to build on the potential of the original. While at some moments it manages to capture some of the same strengths, it feels like a poorly implemented retread in several ways. Slight improvements to combat don't make up for a less interesting story, worse characters, weak quest design, and a stark lack of polish.
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  3. Riot Pixels
    Mar 31, 2022
    67
    In contrast to the original Elex, this awkward sequel is a typical Piranha Bytes game. And no, it’s not a compliment.
    Read full review
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