The story takes place several years after the events from the first part. The main character Jax withdrew after defeating the hybrid, the surrounding world almost forgot his actions and the individual factions are fighting among themselves for supremacy over Magalan. Jax even started a family, but now lives a solitary life in a dilapidated cottage. His idyll is disrupted by a new enemy – the mutated Skyands, who come from heaven out of nowhere. One of the main tasks will be to unite the opposing factions in the fight against a new and far stronger enemy. In addition, Jax is injured one of these monsters shortly after the start, which brings a new substance into his body, called Dark Elex, and we have another extra concern.
I will not reveal more. But the game will definitely be enjoyed more by those who have the first part finished. You will meet a lot of famous characters, and because the story takes place more or less in the same area, you will soon be at home in the game. Of course, not everything will be the same as before. E.g. the capital of the Outlaws of the One is now occupied by a Berserker faction and, under the influence of their magic, is transformed into a place full of greenery.
And since we’ve bitten those factions, let’s talk about something more. There are five of them in the Magalan world. The first to be hit are the aforementioned Berserkers, who reject technology and rely mainly on nature and the resulting magic. Then there are the Albos, the main villains of the first part, who use Elex as a drug to suppress emotions, and third in order are the Morkonas, who are cruel and evil fanatics who worship the various rituals of the ancient god.
If you reach the thirtieth level, two more options will open. Fans of the Alb will be able to join the Clerics, and supporters of the Morkons will be able to join the Outlaws. It should be noted that the so-called Destruction Level system works in the game, which depends on how you solve the tasks and how big Mirková Dušínová radiates from you. So you can finish the game as a new Savior, but just like the worst of the worst, which is a big reason to play the game again someday. In addition, there is the opportunity to finish the game without joining a faction, but this closes the opportunity to learn specific skills, get the best armor and you will lose a lot of tasks. So it is clear that finishing the game in this way will be much more difficult.
Great world without recording screens
The world of Magalan is huge and practically the whole is at your disposal from the very beginning. The developers boast that it is possible to go through it without a single loading, which I can confirm. Of course, you can’t walk everywhere you like. The handwriting of the developers of Piranha Bytes is known at every turn (remember that in addition to the Elex series, they are also responsible for the Risen and Gothic series), so there are a lot of dangerous monsters everywhere that will peel you like a raspberry in a few seconds at least in the first half.
Elex II
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As before, the jetpack will be a great help to you, which can take you to elevated places where most enemies cannot chase you. Although the Jetpack wastes fuel after a few seconds, so you can’t fly longer distances, but fortunately it refills itself after a while, and the Jetpack can be improved at special tables and, in addition to a larger supply of fuel, gain the ability to use a weapon in the air ( necessary to fight flying monsters if you specialize in melee weapons) or fly forward (and not just up), which I recommend to do as soon as possible, moving through the landscape will be many times faster.
The magic of discovering this vast world is, of course, in the locations and loot, ie the items and equipment that can be found. There are many locations and their diversity is the basis for success. Most of the world is full of greenery and various ruins, ruins and old houses. However, we can also find snowy plains, dusty remains of an ancient city or lava river. The design of the whole world is really good and when you find yourself on a high rock with a view into the distance, you will really enjoy it.
When exploring the world, you will of course collect a variety of items. To be precise – tons of items. Unfortunately, the number of different loot is absurd and often completely illogical. It is really no exception that you will find a dilapidated house that has not been inhabited for years, in which there will be a grenade, a healing bottle and a lettuce or a bowl of chilli con carne on a dusty shelf. There is a lot of useless shops everywhere, from children’s toys, through plates and cutlery to lamps or microscopes. These items are completely useless and are only for sale, often unfortunately for a minimal price. But if you’re like me, you’ll always pick up the worthless plush dinosaur, even though you already have thirty in your inventory, but you won’t leave it there…
However, exploring the world still pays off. Sometimes you can find unique weapons and equipment, which even if you do not use it, can be sold for a solid amount. And there is never enough money, at least in the first half of the game, respectively. until you buy the best armor (it can’t be picked up anywhere). Then there is not much to buy and I finished the game with more than a hundred thousand in my pocket.
Elex II
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In order not to be alone in the survey, you can take one companion with you to help. You will get these during the game within the story, and most of them are connected by their own story line full of special tasks. Some are pretty boring, but there are exceptions, led by Nasty’s controversial personality and her list of uncomfortable people. At least I recommend fulfilling this line, Nasty is one of the few characters that will really be etched in your memory. Unfortunately, as in the first part, the artificial intelligence of the partners in the fight is quite lousy and before they look around, it is often over. The same goes for enemies, who just rush headlong at you, will jump exceptionally.
The main grave of the right game of heroes are tasks. There are really a lot of them (or at least 300, for the fulfillment of which I have an achievement) and after a while in the game you will not know where to jump first. Unfortunately, most of them are old find / kill / bring / bring. Yes, there are also more original pieces, but at the same time I was not enough to wonder what kind of design monsters are going on on my monitor. Some deus ex machina crutches were really calling to heaven.
As for the main story, it came to me exactly the opposite than in number one. There I complained about a boring start, but then it started. Here I enjoyed the initial premise of reconciling the individual factions and persuading them to bury the axes of war and fight together against the new enemy. However, the more I immersed myself in the story, the more tangled and meaningless the space mambo jumbo became, and these story missions completely stopped entertaining me.
In addition, the last approximately one-fifth of the game is literally set to a mess, and the game time is stretched by completely unnecessary action passages, when you have to discharge enemy robots on the map in various hundreds. The game thus becomes a hack’n’slash soulless band, and when you get several similar tasks in a row, the fun drops to freezing. Completely useless, and most importantly desperately boring.
Elex II
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The developers are also bragging about the well-known claim that your choices will have a major impact on what’s going on around you, but to be honest, I haven’t noticed many of these effects throughout the gameplay. I was quite disappointed that when I joined the Albs, even my wife from the highest ranks of the Berserkers had no need to comment, and everyone didn’t care more or less.
From an audiovisual point of view, I have nothing to complain about. Graphically, this is not a revolution, but everything looks really nice and well-designed. The game is completely professionally spoken and I also don’t have a single reproach here. The absence of Czech subtitles, which a game of a similar nature directly encourages, is a bit freezing, but unfortunately. Maybe later.
Technically, it’s no longer such a miracle. In some locations, textures flickered, or character models and entire houses disappeared before my eyes (especially in cities), and I often witnessed moments when I talked to a normal character for a while, then her body disappeared for her to appear, but the head disappeared, and in the end only the hair itself was levitating in the air. The game also crashed for me from time to time, so let’s hope that some ailments will soon be removed by a patch. But what I have to praise is how fast everything goes. The game is loaded in a few seconds, saving is virtually instant.
All in all, I enjoyed playing Elex II, but my hand on my heart, I thought the game had more. At number one, the authors entered new waters and one would expect to learn from the community’s responses, but as I wrote above, some design flaws came to me as an amateur. But not to complain, there is still the addictive gameplay where the desire for a better character and equipment drives you further and further. And good gameplay is simply something that will allow you to close your eyes to some ailments. So if you are a fan of Piranha Bytes studio or the first part of Elex, give the two a chance. It’s not a complete bomb, but you’ll still not regret it.
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