Review based on patch 1.05
Story
Invaders
to the post-apocalyptic planet of Magalan bring a dark power with them
known as "Dark Elex" that converts the native life into one of their
own. Former hero Jax leaves on a mission to unite the Factions of
Magalan against the "Skyand" invaders.
While the story claims to be about uniting the disparate factions of Magalan to form a 'sixth power' able to fight back the invaders, this isn't the case. The five factions don't factor into the invader arc at all and will always remain independent regardless of the player's actions. At most they will acknowledge the invaders existence; little more. Meanwhile, Jax will be investigating the invaders, finding new recruits, and fighting hordes of enemies entirely on his own. Even the final confrontation is done completely alone, without the help of companions, let alone the absentee factions. The player's base of operations - the Bastion, likewise serves little purpose in the grand scheme of things. Little pest-type enemies may attack at scripted moments, but a large scale invasion is never a threat. You can even hire a builder that will do absolutely nothing to repair the crumbling walls or extend the base. Not that that's an issue, because the "Skyand" invaders are never actually a threat. Outside of the occasional skirmish or altered pocket of land, the invaders don't have much of a presence. They never invade a faction, cause a food shortage with their terraforming, change a loved one, or seem particularly strong given how easily Jax can single-handedly annihilate small armies of them. The invaders ability to spread their taint to others through a scratch was concerning initially, but then Jax just shrugs it off through 'willpower'. If only every infectious disease could be rid so easily.
Then there's the issue of Jax's son. Why is the kid even in this game?
He is kept out of sight with a babysitter for most of the game because
neither of his parents have time for him. The kid talks like an adult,
became an expert on intergalactic computer systems after a week with the
Clerics, and has no relevance to the story. The mother doesn't even
acknowledge her son's death, which was pointless, because the game stops
abruptly without resolving anything. The true villain of the game
(Adam) gets away, the Skyand invaders continue to be a problem, Dex (the
son) dies for literally no reason, and Jax may still be tainted. I
didn't even realize the final boss fight was the final boss fight until
after it was all over and I was left thinking "wait, that's it?".
Bugs are commonplace, even with the most recent patch installed.
Elex II has no character customization, opting instead for a preset-protagonist, Jax, who not only looks generic but is devoid of all personality, although, the game explains this away as the result of elex ingestion, similar to how becoming a Witcher makes one emotionless. Supposedly Jax is a forgotten hero, but the game is really bad at demonstrating this because every NPC I spoke with seemed to know him. All but one faction has a history with Jax, so every leader, shopkeep, trainer and their pals bring up his past deeds. Four of the seven possible companions you get already know Jax from the previous game and two of them were possible romances. He even starts the game out with a kid and an (ex?) wife. It wouldn't have been so bad if one or two important people were already acquainted with Jax, but as someone who hasn't played the first game, I was constantly feeling out-of-the-loop and definitely didn't buy into the 'forgotten hero' thing.
Talking with the ex(?) wife at the start of the game demonstrates the sort of oversights and inconsistencies one can look forward to over the next 40 to 50 hours.
I can't say as a new Elex player that I am endeared to the world of
Magalan either. Not every game world should be sunshine and roses, or
reward the player for every good deed, but there should be some
breathing room. I lost count of the number of times someone tried to
scam Jax or pulled a stunt like Striker, who gave a tour of the Fort
(faction base) and then demanded payment afterward. Payment was never
discussed but I could spare the requested $100. The next day he hit me
up for an additional $200 and made threats that culminated in a physical
altercation. Magalan's population in general are some of the most
abrasive, unpleasant people imaginable. NPCs are overwhelmingly
antagonistic, offensive and downright rude. They swear like sailors,
which I can only assume was the developers attempt at being "mature" or
perhaps this was a deliberate part of their world design, either way, it
isn't realistic or endearing, especially when every single person,
including very young children, act like this. There is no nuance or
personality to the cast of characters; women in particular are written
as especially aggressive and domineering. The three possible romances
(all women) are all too eager to sleep with Jax upon meeting him and get
jealous (you take a hit to your morality score) if he so much as talks
to another possible romance, regardless if he is in a relationship or
not.
Gameplay
Elex II is split into four chapters, but because Piranha Bytes likes to front-load their games, all the best quests are at the very beginning. If the player finishes all the available quests early they will be left with nothing to do late game. The final two chapters are also the weakest, as they devolve into "kill 150+ enemy" type quests - no joke, and they're main quests so you have to complete them in order to progress. The companion quests were equally long, repetitive, and often filled with the game's odd logic/quest structure. A few examples:
* Fox believes his dad murdered his mom when he was a baby and made up a story about her being mauled by wild animals. Jax finds Fox's mom hanging out by a cliff (I don't know why she was there) and discovers Ulf told her a similar story about Fox. She takes everything Jax tells her at face value and doesn't question that Fox is her son despite having not seen him since he was a baby. Did she take Ulf's story at face value too? She knew where the attack happened but didn't find it strange that there wasn't any blood? And what was the motive? Ulf says he was embarrassed to have had a child with a Morkon but how does the dead mom/child shenanigans factor into that? Couldn't he have just stopped seeing the morkon? Was this his way of ensuring sole custody of Fox (whom he despises)? It just doesn't make sense to me.
* Caja comes to believe malfunctioning robots were sent by the Clerics and mutants looking for elex were sent by the Albs; both times Jax has to give her a reality check. Then she becomes convinced one of her men may be a spy. Drabak straight-up admits to seeing his old Outlaw pals but denies doing anything that would sabotage the Berserkers, and there is nothing to suggest he is lying about this. Caja, who has approved of pacifistic actions up until this point, doesn't buy it and asks Jax to murder Drabak. This caught me so off guard because it was very out of character for her. And Jax has to kill a potentially innocent man (and rack up negative moral points) to satisfy Caja's paranoia or set the man free causing the relationship with Caja to deteriorate.
Left: Chapter screen. Right: Chapters 3 and 4 devolve into killing large hordes of enemies.
The jet pack is the best thing about Elex II, allowing the player to
quickly zip across the landscape or scale buildings in seconds.
Unfortunately, the massive map is made up of just forest and snow biomes
that lack anything geographically stimulating - no unique landscape
features, structures, or events. Outside of the major cities, points of
interests boil down to the same handful of ruins filled with literal
junk items. The world is also very static. There are no travelers on the
road (outside of an unnamed merchant), no fraction skirmishes, or
wildlife with early signs of elex infection.
The towns are much
more impressive in terms of design and density, with each one sporting
its own unique aesthetics, features, and values. The downside is that
only a few locations within these places will be visited by the player,
or host a quest-line. Most of the unused space just makes these areas
hard to navigate, and in the case of the Outcasts and Morkons, tanks the
frame-rate.
The jet pack is great, but depending on where you are, the frame-rate will tank.
Jax has four basic attacks: quick attack, heavy attack, a running
attack, and kick/shield-bash. Each attack uses some of Jax's stamina but
also deals stamina damage to enemies in addition to removing health.
Its easy to spam the quick attack and in some cases stun-lock an
opponent with it. Heavy attacks deal more damage but have a very long
animation that leaves Jax vulnerable, especially if not timed
appropriately. Running attacks do a lot of damage and stagger or
knock-down enemies, but like heavy attacks it locks the player into a
lengthy animation that can become a liability. The kick is good for
interrupting enemy attack animations and with a shield equipped will
significantly eat into enemy stamina bars. When an enemy's stamina is
depleted they are knocked to the ground and rendered vulnerable for
several seconds.
Jax also has four defensive abilities:
dodge/side-step and block/parry. Dodging will cause Jax to roll in a
specified direction. Actively holding to block can only be done with a
shield and the effectiveness is determined by the damage reduction stat
of the shield. Shields can also block elemental damage and will turn
regular doges into step-dodges. Without a shield, blocking turns into a
parry. After successfully parrying an attack, the player's follow-up
attack will knock the opponent on the ground.
The combat is clunky and too hard or too easy, depending on how much of a meta-gamer the player is. The rain of fire spell and shotguns, for example, can be very over-powered.
Finally, the game uses a "creative/destructive" morality system that railroads most quests into having 3 options: nice guy (low destruction), neutral, and evil (high destruction). Elex II does a good job of highlighting my issues with morality systems in video games in how they tend to paint everything as black or white and don't really allow for grey areas or alternate ways of interpreting a situation. For example, I was given "high destruction" points and told in no uncertain terms that I was a heartless monster for refusing to give money to a random man on the street collecting money for charity - supposedly. My issue was that this occurred in a crime-ridden location run by a faction that promotes an "everyone for themselves" attitude. In addition to not trusting this scruffy stranger, I had just been pick-pocketed by a child moments earlier. I have no idea what happens if you elect to give the man money; the game seems to be implying he was genuine but everything up to this point had conditioned me to believe otherwise.
Conclusion
Elex
2 feels like an unfinished game from another era, and I mean that in
the worst way possible. I love AA games and the ideas, quirks, and
creativity they can bring, but Piranha Bytes seems resistant to any kind
of self-improvement. I get that they cater to an audience that loves
euro-jank, but so doesn't Spiders, a company that has made leaps and
bounds between game releases. Piranha Bytes by comparison is stagnating.
Like, how has a company that's been making games for over 20 years not
developed a decent combat system yet? For context, Elex II's combat is
only marginally better than Risen 2, a game that come out over 10 years
ago.
I knew Elex II would be rough but I didn't expect it to be this rough or nonsensical. The writing is B-movie quality, movement is janky, combat is weak, progression is glacial, and even after several patches there are terrible performance issues. Everything about Jax's infection and the way it was implemented was disruptive to gameplay. For example, what does Jax teleporting to a random location while in the middle of a conversation or looting achieve? This 'feature' turned me off the game more than any other.
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