Ah shit, here we go again! Piranha Bytes is back with Elex II, another one of their brutal RPG titles that feel like climbing a mountain without any gear. A game that feels like the developers who made it hate the people who play their games. You see, the fun here isn’t so much from playing a game from the studio, rather, the fun comes from surviving the experience and joining what often feels like an elite and very old-school community. They make the sort of games that have achievements pop for completing the first quest line that only 20% of gamers who own the game get. Their games feel like legitimate work and care little for you or your comfort. It’s like a FromSoftware title, only more unfair and a lot more clunky. In fact, clunky is the best way to describe their games in general.
Elex II plays to type and is a sci-fi-themed open-world action game that shoots for the stars in terms of scale and scope, but can’t quite break from the surly bonds of Earth as it’s clunky and old-school nature drag it back down. This adventure picks up right where the 2017 original left off. The overall story sees you working to unite the games warring factions against a new alien threat to your world. The big difference this time around is that the story also plays heavily on you sort of being a shitty dad as you need to reconcile with the family you left hanging to go adventuring.
But there is more than just playing dad as you are also infected by some disease that those pesky alien’s brought along with them and need to find a cure. There’s a lot to take in, but because this is Piranha Bytes, it can’t be that simple. You see, because you left your family to “live your truth” or whatever people call it, you will also need to find your son who your wife sent away to live with some group of rebels or some such. Once you do reunite the game isn’t over or pulls a Fallout 4 as he will then tag along on your adventures. This might seem like some deep part of the game, but it ends up pretty silly a lot of the time. Remember, this team is great with big ideas but not so much with the details. This means when your kid is along he will seem almost totally ignored most of the time by those you meet and deal with. Almost as if he’s more a companion pet like in some MMO.
As with the original, the world of Elex II is dictated by the mysterious substance known as Elex that showed up after the meteor impact that ruined the world. This magical resource is used by each faction in certain ways and gives some unique abilities while others wanting nothing to do with it and being against it. This helps to create this huge world steeped in a political struggle over Elex and what to do with it in this post-apocalyptic future. And it’s the Elex that pushes the story forward as each faction will dole out quests based on what they want from the substance as you work to have them trust you and bring them together. It works pretty well and keeps the player engaged as to what might happen next and how it might affect each faction in the long run.
Elex II is a bit of a clunky mess when you zoom in and focus on the details of worldbuilding, gameplay, and story, but if you look at it from a distance it’s pretty impressive. The world is huge and you won’t be seeing a single loading screen as you make your way through it. If you see some mountains off in the distance then you’ll know that you’ll be able to go visit them whenever you want. But that’s the devious trick that both Elex games like to use against the player. I’m talking about death as you can easily walk someplace, even someplace near your starting zone, and be killed in a few hits because you are severely under-leveled. But even then you just get back to the main story and do some grinding because you then have the incentive to work to see what is hiding beyond those tough enemies.
Elex II, and the original for that matter, is really good at hooking you into the overall world. The games world is a lot of fun and has enough unique aspects to it that you’ll want to work to be able to access someplace new. It’s hard, but it feels much more grounded, almost to a fault, than something like a JRPG where you are essentially feed down a specific path and enemies either grow in strength alongside. Exploring is where Elex II really standout out as you want to explore the world even though you know its going to be really dangerous to do so. Add in a cool jetpack to aid in traveling and you have a pretty cool experience.
Combat has a “unique” feel about it. What I mean to say is that the team seems to hate players and haven’t done much in the way of modernizing their combat structure since the days of Gothic. For those that remember that game will understand how much of a mess engaging in combat was for that series. Actions and commands were laid out all across the keyboard and things that should be automated weren’t, and still aren’t. First off, you can’t pick up something when you have your weapon in your hand. If you want to loot anything you need to holster your sword and then grab the item. It also doesn’t help that while the game looks great the animations look very clunky and stiff at times. Nothing feels quite right and the janky animations mean combat lacks that satisfying impact of something like The Witcher.
Because Elex II is an RPG, that means you’ll be doing a whole lot of crafting, but where the modern RPG has refined the process, Elex II want you to work for your new gear. Each type of item you want to craft requires its own specific crafting table. Most games just have a single dedicated crafting table that lets you do everything, but not in Elex II. This means that you might find a crafting table that you don’t need, or can even use. What’s worse is that these crafting tables can be anywhere in a given village and are not kept together neatly in one location. And the process of leveling up is also more of a chore than any sort of fun. That’s not even mentioning learning new skills from specific trainers that are laid out in the same manner as crafting tables. So much of Elex II feels like homework for a subject that you love but given by a teacher that hates you and wants to ruin your evenings.
Gaining levels is also a slow process which means weapons will be locked off from you for quite some time. Want a cool weapon? Well, there’s going to be dozens on things to do before you can make one. It almost feels like I’m building weapons in the real world with how much is required. Nearly every RPG, and every modern RPG, has sort of figured out that players love some instant gratification. They will frontload the experience with lots of quick levels that make the player feel like they are doing really well and hook them into the game. They will then slow down progress the more powerful you get to help pace things out and because by that point you’ve invested a ton of hours into the experience and will play to the end to see what’s in store.
Elex II is a game that takes a lot of work to fall in love with. There seems to be this wall that most players will never be able to scale, but for those that do, they will find something really special in terms of scale and the world you get to play inside of. Still, I don’t know how much has really improved since the original Elex this time around. Many might see Elex II as more of a visual improvement than anything else, even maybe wondering what this story wasn’t DLC instead. They surely didn’t fix many issues that critics and players complained about, instead opting to release a new game based on the teams very dated concepts. I’d say pick up the original Elex and save a few bucks to see if this style of RPG is for you.
Elex II simply lacks the impact that the original had simply because of timing. The RPG landscape is much different in 2022 than it was in 2017. We have so many new options in both MMOs and RPGs that are doing something different. Aside from the JRPG offerings something like Elden Ring, a game that is brutal in its own right, feels much more accessible to players simply because of its design, especially in terms of combat. You simply can’t get away with having one or two solid features (the open world and wild story in the case of Elex II) when there are games that are not only doing everything right, but also trying new things. That said, Elex II is probably exactly the sort of game that fans of Piranha Bytes expected and wanted. For the rest of us, well, we’re not living or gaming like it’s still 2001.
Elex II is bigger, deeper, and offers more choices than the original, but its “vintage” game design ideals and janky animations hold it back from being something great.
Final Score:
*A Review code was provided by the publisher*
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