The first side-quest I came across after starting the game involved me following another NPC to go kill a giant troll, which seemed like a great way to start, but upon getting there and seeing him kill the NPC in one blow, then seeing that I do no discernible damage to him at all, the entire excursion felt like a totally pointless non-sequitur that had zero respect for my time. Some behave differently depending on what you’ve done leading up to meeting them, and some quests are effectively impossible to complete depending on when you accept them. On top of that, some NPCs can turn on a dime and become enemies. "With only a small handful of improvements over its predecessor and a couple new problems of its own, ELEX 2 succeeds in little more than being another ELEX game for those who dug the first one." One second you might be slaying small monsters way under your level, then the next, getting one-shotted by a giant robot that’s exponentially stronger than you. The problem is, of course, with ELEX 2’s complete disregard for pacing of any sort. Between members of the game’s five major factions, the eclectic assortment of monsters that range from giant trolls, to raptors, to flying insects, and even crazier things, you won’t be running around for very long before running into something of interest.
Not because it’s particularly large or detailed, though, but rather, because of what inhabits it.
The elephant in the room here, and perhaps ELEX 2’s greatest achievement, is the densely-packed open world that feels very much more like the dystopian sci-fi world Magalan that the first game wanted to be. With only a small handful of improvements over its predecessor and a couple new problems of its own, ELEX 2 succeeds in little more than being another ELEX game for those who dug the first one. ELEX 2, for better and for worse, mostly treads those same waters. And yet, somehow ELEX managed to make it all work well enough to be a decent game.
It prioritized its signature challenge and grind-heavy action of the gameplay before all else even polish, narrative cohesion, and fun combat. ELEX from Piranha Bytes was a decent package for those that enjoy their RPGs with a hearty helping of old-school sensibilities on the side.
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