Today we are going to take a look at Elex II. This sequel to Elex promises to take you on a science-fantasy journey in an open world with classical RPG features that we all love from Piranha Bytes. Elex II is available on Steam for 49 Euros and 99 cents or your regional equivalent.
With this review you have a choice of either reading it here in text form or listening to the video review. They both contain the same content.
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After five years we get the successor to the innovative RPG Elex from the legendary German studio Piranha Bytes. Sadly, the original Elex was full of technical problems. So, let’s see if Jax – the hero of the first installment who saved the planet of Magalan but decided to go live in his half-destroyed hut and start a family as all the factions have forgotten him and his warnings can have fewer problems this time.
Sadly, Jax was right. One day a strange purple meteorite hits his home from which an army of purple aliens spews out with a singular goal. To terraform (or alienform) Magalan so they can settle there. Thus, you have no choice but to become the hero again. But before you get to get rid of the aliens you first need to make sure the factions will cooperate. And while you won’t truly need to know the original Elex it will be more than useful. Piranha Bytes skimped on getting new players into the story just as they skimped on the tutorial so unless you know Piranha Bytes’ games you will feel lost quite often.
But if you do know how Piranha Bytes make their games you will be greeted with a fully open-world experience straight from the start and since you’ll also be getting a jet-pack you can truly go anywhere and verticality doesn’t matter. And it’s nice that you can just move through Magalan without any loading screens but the rest just seems to be a bit old-school. But let’s face it, that’s just Piranha Bytes' target audience – people who loved RPG about 10 – 15 years ago. So get ready to do a lot of questions for reputations with all the factions but do not expect to see innovative combat as here it’s just about a bit of shooting and smashing with your stamina being the only limiting factor.
Elex II just feels like something that came from fifteen years ago. And this was okayish with the first Elex as Piranha Bytes were trying something new… but five years later even I who just finished the full Gothic series again just a month ago don’t want to look at awful character models, deal with crashes and bugs that aren’t solved even after several patches. I really feel like Piranha Bytes need to get a partner studio that will do the technical side of things for them because they are amazing at creating worlds and stories you want to explore. But only until you have to deal with the bugs.
The models feel old, the animations are laughable and the game just feels like it was created for the few fans that still are loyal. And honestly, I’m one of them. I actually enjoyed playing Elex II. But if I’d try to tell my girlfriend who loved the Witcher or Skyrim to play she would stop in about an hour. And that’s the real problem… While you can easily spend 50 – 60 hours of gameplay and fans of Gothic will find all the stuff they loved in here but it all just feels like nothing has changed since Gothic II. The fights feel the same and even the story and quests do feel like they are repeating if you are a fan of Piranha Bytes.
Conclusion
If the world of Elex speaks to you it isn’t a bad choice per se… It’s a bit of a spiritual successor to Gothic and Gothic was amazing. But before you venture into Elex II be sure to play the first one and be ready to play as you played at least 10 years ago. But for the majority of players, picking up a more modern RPG will most likely be more fun. And maybe, in a few years after the community releases community patches, even Elex II will be in a good enough technical state that everyone will be able to enjoy.