ELEX 2 Review - The Final Verdict

Elex 2 is not a game that gives you a very good sense of purpose or even immediate goals at times, nor does it have a very interesting cast of characters or a particularly good story. Nor does it run very well or reward the player for trudging all of those issues in a way that feels proportional. Yet I can see why the uphill battle of getting much of anywhere and the perpetual mystery of what exactly you’re getting yourself into at any given time can add up to a genuine delight for the right players.

There are undeniably some addicting loops to be found beneath the rubble, but not enough to make this a particularly recommendable game in a day and age where so many better iterations of this genre already exist. If this was simply a case of the game catering to a niche crowd and being “more about the journey than the destination” I could roll with that. But with mediocre-at-best combat, vanilla-at-best graphics and some staggeringly bad performance issues eating away at Elex 2’s already limited appeal, I can’t help but advise those entering this version of Magalan to proceed with caution.

[klubstompers]

So when you run into a enemy that can absolutely destroy you in early game, it is called bad game design, but when this happens in Souls games, every minute and a half, its called GOTY-10/10? A NPC told you to go kill a giant, and you thought, "yes this should be cake, i mean i have this stick to swing at it, what could go wrong, it's just a giant."

[ParanoidAandroid]

Looks great to me. I disagree with your critique about pacing: finding a troll you can’t kill because you’re underleveled is not a bug, but rather it’s actually a nice feature for all of us piranha bytes fans

[klubstompers]

As someone who really enjoyed Elex, all I wanted was more story and content, not flash or gimmicks, but substance. Will defiantly be buying and playing this. Glad they stuck to what Piranha does best, good story writing.

[yrrah]

I never have a problem coming across a.i at the start of a game that I can not take on I find it fun avoiding harder monsters and coming back hours later to lay the smack down . It makes the game more rewarding to me

[grilybear]

This is my most anticipated RPG of 2022, so I’m super excited. Loved the first game! I love Piranha Bytes RPG’s & they’re personally my fav! ✌️

[I-Rex]

2:25 no respect for your time? To me this sounds awesome, a cocky npc was like "lets kills a bigass troll" as your first quest and got smacked so hard he died. This seems like a lesson for how the game works rather than just poor game design, and its also pretty surprising too, I would much prefer to have that experience rather than another quest when you just hunt a troll like literally any other game

[DM-fpuw]

Terrible review. No mention of magic, tech powers, tech guns, or ballistic weapons? Barely a mention of factions. You seem to have based the review on a few hours playing with a pipe.

[yrrah]

I still love Elex and will love Elex 2

[cjavan]

This is Elex for you. Some (including myself) love it, some hate it. Pre-ordered.

[TheSGBrown]

"Elex 2's disregard for pacing." Uh, player-choice in an open world always leads to pacing issues: Player-caused pacing issues are not "Poor game design", imo.

[mercy-zo]

I'm an older lady and I loved the first one. If u see a skull u know not to fight it or if u do chances are u are going to die. I used mainly a bow in the first one and once levelled up it was great.

[starwarstimeline]

Great review guys. Thank you for your honest opinion. The videos on this game honestly are the biggest tell. This is a budget game that should be enjoyable at a $30 price mark.

[sensoeirensen]

I love soulsborne games, in fact the best combat system ever has Nioh 2. But for some reason I loved Elex a lot. Yes it was clunky but the world exploration felt so good, better than in any AC out there (I finished them all too). With that said yes it's rough around the edges but I'll love Elex 2. The release window is VERY bad for this game....only days after Horizon and the absolute masterpiece Elden Ring! Elden Ring will take half of the year for me....maybe 400-800hrs.

[decado]

I liked the unknown danger in the first one. It was super hard straight away. It was much harder to find easier enemies than those that’d own you

[leighkenyon]

First comment! Well I'm currently playing the first it's a bit rough around the edges but I quite like it. So I'll eventually get elex 2

[notedsinner]

The game is exactly as expected ! No surprises there !

[jeffreyanderson]

The lock on system is definitely an issue. I turned it to manual about an hour into playing elex and it was fine after. Can't wait to play this.

[yhckelly]

I have a special place in my heart for janked up AA games. Sometimes a small budget and a small team of developers absolutely blows you away. The next time you chuckle and think "oh well..." And then move on. I've experienced both. I think maybe I'll wait on this one, it sounds like it needs a little more time in the oven.

[HotTakeAndy]

This review summarized all of my gripes perfectly. And I’m maybe an hour in on the PS5. Thankfully it’s a GameFly rental and will be going right back in the mail.

[lizzardking]

Had this on preorder but canceled it in January, will wait until the price drops to $19.95 .
Great review 👍👍