Elex wasn’t perfect when it released back in 2017—it comes from the studio behind Risen and Gothic, after all—but if you’re worried that western RPGs are slowly chipping away the RP aspect, and if you don’t mind flailing for the first 10 hours or so while you come to grips with everything being extremely dangerous, then it’s a very fine videogame.
A sequel was announced earlier this year (Nat wasn’t excited, but I was) and pleasantly enough, the release date is pretty soon: March 1, 2022. A bunch of YouTubers got access to the game back in September (here’s one) and it definitely looks, uh, marginally prettier than the 2017 instalment. The production values are definitely higher in cutscenes at least.
Piranha Bytes is promising “unprecedented freedom” as you explore the planet of Magalan, but probably more exciting is the promise that there’s a “massively improved control system” with “fluid close and ranged combat.” The combat in Elex was serviceable—it’s only a small portion of what you do in the game—but it could definitely benefit from being fun. Did I mention Elex had a jetpack? Elex 2 does too.
Jon rated Elex a 64 back in 2017, writing that “its world and visual design are top tier, and it’s a game with a wide scope and an eclectic vision—it’s fun for the forgiving—but that ultimately leaves much of the game underdeveloped.”
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