“Several years after Jax defeated the Hybrid, a new threat arrives from the sky, unleashing the dangerous powers of dark Elex and endangering all life on the planet,” the announcement explains. “In order to defend the peace on Magalan and the safety of his own family, Jax embarks on a mission to convince the factions to unite against the invaders, as well as a personal quest to find his son, Dex, who got separated from him…” Once again, you’ll be running (and jetpacking) around a sci-fantasy planet, fighting baddies, doing quests, and seeing what happens when you pick at the threads of the world and stories with consequences to your actions. It’s made by Piranha Bytes, who made the first three games in the fantasy RPG series Gothic before going onto Risen then Elex. John Walker really did not enjoy his first hour in Elex but Piranha Bytes games often find firm fans in people with more tolerance for Eurojank. Alec Meer got on better with some of their games, saying of the first Risen that “This grim, half-broken thing got into my head and took over”. He came to quite like that fantasy RPG series, even sometimes appreciating the jank. “As much as the awkwardness, the wobbly writing and the ghastly attitudes often pushed me away from Risen, I’d still take its offbeat ambition and clumsy ambition over a slick, impersonal Diablo or a focus grouped BioWare effort,” Alec said in his Risen 3 review in 2014. “At the same time, sharper, caveman-free writing and a big spend on more accomplished voice-acting would be redempetive - would transform Risen from appealingly odd and into truly impressive. But maybe what’s special about this would be lost if it were able to pursue norms. Perhaps it needs to be as weird and awkward and unpleasant as it is. Perhaps that’s why I like it so much, even when I hate it.” No word on a release date, but Elex 2 is coming to Steam as well as PlayStations and Xboxes. It’s published by THQ Nordic, who acquired Piranha Bytes in 2019.
E3 2021 may be over but our memories live on - see everything on our E3 hub. Many more big game showcases and streams are still to come this summer, leading up to Gamescom, so see our summer games stream schedule to stay up to date.
