Elex 2 is a game that is difficult to review, because it very much depends on what you like and even how old you are. Objectively speaking, it is a pretty bad game, and I say this as a long term Piranha Bytes fan who played almost all of their games. Yet, even though I see many flaws, I still play it, which happens to me probably only with PB games.
The most shocking thing to me wasElex 2 is a game that is difficult to review, because it very much depends on what you like and even how old you are. Objectively speaking, it is a pretty bad game, and I say this as a long term Piranha Bytes fan who played almost all of their games. Yet, even though I see many flaws, I still play it, which happens to me probably only with PB games.
The most shocking thing to me was that Elex 2 looks worse than Elex 1, at least in terms of graphics. I don’t know how they managed to make the second game look worse than the first one, but at least on my Xbox one, this is indeed the case. It just looks ugly.
The combat system is as bad as ever, not much has changed here, except that you can now fight while flying with your jet pack, which is kind of fun. Apart from the jetpack, fighting generally sucks. If you played any PB game before, you will get a familiar feeling. The balance is also non-existent, for example a bow with 134 damage deals actually significantly less damage than a shotgun with 94 damage does, even on longer distances. The enemies kill you with few (1-3) hits, and armor does little to help, at least in the first half of the game. Magic system is even worse, hard to hit anything, and animations which look worse than gothic 3. AI is not even there, enemies are as dumb as it gets. Now I don’t think the game is really hard (I played on normal), but it takes getting used to.
Now, the good parts: yes, the immersion is still kind of there, exploration is still fun, characters, dialogues and the story are decent. That is probably what kept me playing, the excitement of discovering new areas and finding good loot in unexpected places. Also, some quests are interesting and offer at least some degree of unpredictability.
Overall, it’s hard to recommend this though. 20 years ago, this would have been a great game. Even 10 years ago this might have been borderline acceptable. But it is 2022, and PB are still stuck in the early 2000s. Give this a try if you are a PB fan, or if you liked Elex 1. If you are below 25 and don’t know the old PB games, you are likely to be disappointed with this one.… Expand