ELEX II Reviews
Elex II is an initially promising but ultimately disappointing RPG that fails to be better than the original.
Elex II can be entertaining in all the wrong ways, but as a sequel, it's just more of the same.
To sum it all up, Elex II is a blast, both literally and figuratively. What Piranha Bytes was able to achieve in Elex I they were able to build upon, expanding on a world that lives and breathes independently and because of your character. Aside from those little technical issues, the game is sound. I feel like you could also easily get into playing Elex II without having played the first game. However, if you want to understand all of the references, maybe at least watch a recap video first. Either way, this game holds a lot of promise, especially when you consider all the different routes you can take on your playthrough. Who knows where you'll end up?
Overall, ELEX 2 is solid experience for fans of the series, as well as gamers who enjoy open-worlds with a lot to offer, with only a few areas where the game falls short.
Elex 2 is so full of problems, asking consumers to pay full price is ridiculous.
Elex 2 is another proof that "Piranhas" can create excellent open worlds that are pleasant to explore.
Review in Polish | Read full review
ELEX 2 doesn't have much going for it outside of some incremental improvements over the first game, limiting its appeal more than it needed to.
Despite some weaker elements, everything combines nicely in ELEX II to provide an unpolished journey, but one that I was thankful I experienced. The game is rather unique, with some modern touches and attributes. Yet at the same time, if you played this game without knowing anything about it, you could mistake it for something from over 10 years ago. It has a unique charm, and if you are willing to put up with some janky combat and odd glitches, there is certainly an engaging story to follow with exceptional dialogue and choices that really seem to alter the world around you. ELEX II takes you on a long journey filled with meaningful engagements and a world teeming with character.
While there's plenty to applaud in ELEX II's freeform open-world approach, it comes at something of a cost. Technical issues, inconsistent dialogue quality, and some wonky combat do much to muddy the good that can be found in Piranha Bytes expansive RPG.
The saying that everything deserves a second chance should not have applied to Elex. Elex II takes so many steps backwards from an already poor game, it’s astounding. Its writing, optimisation, combat, and game systems all stand as a new benchmark on what to not do.
An ambitious sequel with a beautiful content-packed open-world, complex factions, and interesting choices to role-play your way.
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 retains both the best qualities and the worst problems of its predecessor, but it's overall a better game. Still, it's hard to recommend it without qualms to anyone who hasn't played a Piranha Bytes rpg before.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The great things that Elex 2 brings to the table are overshadowed by what a buggy, buggy mess it is.
ELEX II is like a weathered veteran donning their armor for one more campaign, ready to show the youngsters some of the old tricks they may have foolishly forgotten. It's a brand-new game that somehow feels like it has a grey beard - it feels dated, in good and in bad ways. I personally enjoyed it thoroughly and I was happy to start it back up each day, eager to carry on playing because products like this one, ones that don't just play homage to the classics but rather play like the classics, are few and far between. Given the size of the team behind ELEX II it's remarkable that they've managed to push out a project this good - Piranha, you've done it again. Once again, you release a game that's bigger, better and prettier than its predecessors, and I hope you'll continue doing so for many years to come.
Elex II is a particular game, to say the least. If you were a fan of the initial game, you're going to like this one. But if you didn't play it, you could have an unsatisfactory experience. The idea of a minimalist HUD is striking, an open world that you must explore to discover its secrets, difficulty in combat. But there are many things that do not become satisfactory, the main one being combat. Elex II does not manage to get out of that feeling that you are playing a retro game, having launched in the middle of 2022.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
ELEX II is a good example of being in the right place but at the wrong time. It's a great action role playing with some killer gameplay mechanisms and quest designs, but it just can't compete at the moment, and thus not getting the attention it deserves.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Elex 2 has provided a good experience with different categories of peoples and their diverse and overlapping disciplines and tasks, but the surface fighting system and technical problems have made it difficult to move to the category of games that are recommended not to be missed.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Elex 2 features interesting elements and has a lot of content that can be fun and engaging for fans of the free world role-playing titles, but at the same time it also suffers from numerous structural and technical problems that distance itself from today's standards of role-playing titles.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Elex 2 is one of the games that I have the hardest to review. On the one hand, we have here a good story and interesting assumptions that are overshadowed at every step by archaic mechanics. Still, fans of Piranha's work will have fun with this title.
Review in Polish | Read full review