There wasn’t even a dialogue where the parents greeted their child after a week in the wildlands. I expected a tearful family reunion and instead they all just stared blankly at each other. Later, when Jax’s wife became a tag-along companion, we happened to visit the place I’d left the kid 6 odd hours before. What’s worse is I feel this little episode was a clumsy attempt to make us care about Jax’s life and character, but it was awful. I dutifully “rescued” him, and then when I fast travelled back to the Enclave that was it. I backtracked and found him just standing in a bit of wasteland with three huge monsters wandering about. As I fought off monsters with no discernible science to their level banding, at one point I got separated from him. And so he literally accompanies you out of the enclave – you, armed with a rusty sword and two-thirds of a breastplate. There’s a bit where Jax and his grizzled ex decide that he should spend more time with their son. It doesn’t help that Jax looks like a football hooligan who’s lost his team strip, and has about the same level of charisma.

There are no characters to like in this game, because every one of them has the same wry, sarcastic, embittered personality.

Everyone is an arsehole to everyone else. While the world-building remains some of Piranha Bytes’ best work, the characters within and their interactions are often maddening. Companions will join you throughout the game, reacting to your actions in ways that will inform their opinion of you and certain elements of the narrative similar to, say, Fallout 4. When aliens invade the planet of Magalan and bring with them a new, dangerous, purple version of the magical Elex compound, dubbed “Dark Elex”, Jax’s house gets flattened and he must make the long, arduous, five-minute journey to where Caja, his estranged ex-wife is leader of a convenient faction to throw in with. Presumably after the first game Jax should have a John Wick-style basement under his house with enough ordnance and body armour to outfit a small army, but no. No special abilities and no gear, just a stick and some cloth clothes. Anyone expecting to pick up where you left off, progression-wise, will be disappointed. You play Jax, protagonist of the first game, living a very basic life out in the wilderness. Unfortunately though, despite the sci-fi leanings, Elex 2 follows Piranha Bytes’ established pattern of being stuck firmly in the past. It improved a lot on their existing systems, delivering a large-scale RPG that won them a few new fans thanks to the change of setting. Sadly, Piranha Bytes never seem to learn this lesson.Īfter Risen 3 failed to set the world alight, Piranha turned their attention to science fiction with Elex. When the space between what you want to do and what you’re capable of doing is so vast, you need to address that. And I suspect it’s that ambition that’s the problem. Both mid-tier studios with ambition that overshadowed their budget, but enough heart to somehow make their affectionately-nicknamed “Eurojank” titles endearing.īut with the release of Spiders’ Greedfall, and this offering from Piranha Bytes, the gulf has grown considerably. Once upon a time, long before Elex 2 was announced, I’d have put Piranha Bytes in the same category as Spiders.

Elex 2 characters