The open-world RPG was the staple of the 2010s, with several franchises such as Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and others seeing several releases to flood the market by decade’s end. With narrative, linear tales such as God of War and The Last of Us eking out the frontlines, the genre saw a bit of a decline, but some franchises pushed on, one of them being Elex. This title performed well enough to warrant a sequel, so how does it fare?

Elex and Elex II are developed by Piranha Bytes, who have a storied history in the RPG genre, developing Gothic and Risen to much acclaim. While those stories were more medieval, Elex looks to the future for its setting, incorporating a mix of energy-weapon-toting soldiers and robots with sword-and-shield brawlers. The lore is fairly well-built, as “berzerkers” inhabit the lands and “outlaws” oppose them in the open world.

Combat in Elex II is a pretty standard fare, complete with stamina, dodging, and knockdowns. Playing on normal difficulty, I saw myself in the early-game getting killed in 3-4 hits and needing to connect with my weapon at least a dozen times, whether it be with a sword or a crossbow. You start with 10 points in each constitution, and you’ll have to defeat a bevy of opponents for 10 upgrade points. The daunting grind is mitigated by completing missions, but after several hours in, I still felt underpowered. It didn’t help that all the upgraded gear cost an exponential amount of money that was hard to come by.

As Elex II is a true blue open-world RPG, you’ll spend just about as much time exploring/fighting as you will interacting with NPCs. Thankfully, most of these conversations are actually quite enthralling and humorous. Sure, there’s the standard “fighting rats” intro quest, but much of the other side content, which you’ll value if you want the much-needed experience, isn’t phoned-in. Thanks to great voice acting (aside from the protagonist Jax), characters come to life with vibrant personalities and understandable motives. Fans of open-world games crave cracking down on the proverbial checklist and Elex II is great in attending to that, so much so that it dwarfs the main questline.

Getting from point A to B throughout the large open-world isn’t too troublesome thanks to a generous sprint bar and a jetpack given early on. You can also teleport to major settlements at any location once you discover the teleporter. If you encounter an enemy that’s at a vastly higher level than you (indicated by a skull, or three if even higher level), you should be able to sneak around them, or sprint to safety if aggro’d, though it may be several hours of playtime until you can take them on.

If you’re up for a slog of a grind that will be rewarding in the end, Elex II is the game for you. It certainly warrants its dollar-per-hour price point, but much of that time will be spent leveling up and doing errand runs for NPCs. If Jax was a bit more unique and grinding was minimized, Elex II would warrant must-play territory for open-world RPG fans, but I can’t help to put it on the backburner as games like Elden Ring and Horizon: Forbidden West precede it.

A PC review copy of Elex II was provided by THQ Nordic for this review.

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Elex II

49.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Engaging Side Quests
• True RPG Freedom
• Great Voice Acting

Cons

• Boring Protagonist
• Serious Grinding