Elex II (2022)
Elex II is a 2022 role-playing (rpg) video game made by Piranha Bytes and THQ Nordic.
Years after Jax put down the Hybrid, dark Elex rains from the sky and a new invader threatens every faction on Magalan at once. The sequel keeps Piranha Bytes' science-fantasy blend of ruined tech and raw magic, then loosens the jetpack so flight and vertical exploration matter from the start. Jax returns older and roped back into service, forced to court Berserkers, Clerics and the rest into an alliance none of them want. The world is hand-placed rather than generated, the combat still spiky, the writing still blunt and earnest about its choices.
Quick answers
What is Elex II about?
Years after Jax put down the Hybrid, dark Elex rains from the sky and a new invader threatens every faction on Magalan at once. The sequel keeps Piranha Bytes' science-fantasy blend of ruined tech and raw magic, then loosens the jetpack so flight and vertical exploration matter from the start. Jax returns older and roped back into service, forced to court Berserkers, Clerics and the rest into an alliance none of them want. The world is hand-placed rather than generated, the combat still spiky, the writing still blunt and earnest about its choices.
When was Elex II released?
Elex II was released on 1 March 2022.
Who made Elex II?
Elex II was made by Piranha Bytes and THQ Nordic.
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A few thoughts on Elex II
Play the first Elex before this one, then chase the feeling into Piranha Bytes' Gothic and Risen. For the same lonely wandering through a broken, tech-choked world, Fallout: New Vegas and Horizon Zero Dawn stay the reference points, while Blade Runner sets the mood for Magalan's neon-and-rust ruins.
Industrial and electronic music for a sky that's started raining poison
Elex II opens with dark Elex falling from the sky and rewriting the rules Jax spent the first game learning, and this music has that same corrupted, high-voltage unease. Black Holes and Revelations, Simulation Theory, The Fat of the Land, Deltron 3030 and Painkiller all run on cold synths and distorted beats that sound like the world short-circuiting.
Rival factions forced into an alliance none of them wanted
Jax spends Elex II talking Berserkers, Clerics and Outlaws into standing together against a threat none of them can beat alone. Game of Thrones, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Stranger Things and Hunter x Hunter all build to that same reluctant truce, where old grudges get shelved only because something worse just showed up.
Older, worn-down heroes called back for one more fight
Jax returns to Elex II years older and roped back into a war he'd rather be done with. Half-Life 2, The Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War (2018) and The Witcher 3 all center on a similarly weathered protagonist, past their prime but still the only one capable of holding a crumbling world together.
Stories about a body or soul reshaped by forces from outside
Dark Elex doesn't just power weapons, it can remake whoever it touches, for better or worse, and these picks share that same premise of an outside force rewriting who you are. Ghost in the Shell, Galaxy Express 999, Repo! The Genetic Opera, Phoenix and The Time Traveler's Wife all follow characters whose bodies or fates are reshaped by something bigger than them.