PC Critic Reviews

Those expecting a well-polished AAA RPG experience with the highest possible production values will probably have to lower their expectations. For Piranha Bytes fans, however, ELEX II is exactly what they would want it, and expect it, to be.

Wonderful open world with an awesome jet pack, yet outdated technology.

We're judging Elex 2 by the amount of progress made since its predecessor. The developers didn't waste time and did a terrific job for such a small team. Elex 2 is still pretty crude, but it has been polished much better than Elex 1.

Elex II is a classic Piranha Bytes RPG: clumsy, crude, imperfect, but full of virtues that will lead fans to overlook problems.

Returning to the apocalyptic fantasy associated with science fiction offers a new threat that the player must face and he constantly die there.

Playing ELEX II left me with a strong impression that the game is largely geared towards those who have already spent a lot of time playing games from this studio. If that's you, your take from the game may be different than someone new to the series and you'll likely have a blast, especially if you loved the first game. If you're new to the series, you may want to bone up on YouTube videos about ELEX I before diving into an interesting, multi-faceted world albeit one fraught with performance and graphical issues. Chances are things will improve with time and patches so maybe it's best to wait a while and let the dev team catch up to the game's potential.

Elex II is not without its flaws and some of them can sometimes be quite jarring, but underneath them all is a nice action RPG that gets more than a few things right and that can provide many, many hours of entertainment.

Elex II is your usual Piranha Bytes game. Long, classic in the RPG formula and aesthetically clean, but as always plagued with non optimized combat phases and the trademark issues with anything technical. However, it is still a step forward for the future of the franchise and for Piranha Bytes.

Visually, Elex 2 is uninspiring and lacks a competent UI to make its plethora of quests enjoyable to keep track of and complete. Its visuals are also severely lacking for a game where its whole world is filled with interesting people to meet and various locations to explore. Once you get past this initial shock, however, you will realize Elex 2 is a solid RPG with a unique story that grows on you over time.

The games of the Gothic series had a decisive influence on my childhood and Piranha Bytes as developers have always had a special place in my heart. This atmosphere and credibility in a game world can hardly be found in any other role-playing game to this day. But the magic has slowly faded for me. Yes, Elex 2 also pushes the right buttons and the first chapters were among the best the studio has produced in years. So I could easily overlook the once again mediocre battle system and the weak technology. But I was all the more horrified when this whole structure began to crumble halfway through and completely collapsed towards the end. Piranha Bytes should have focused less on the long playing time and more on a consistently strong atmosphere and quest-design.