34 hours in, level 23. Finally mastered chemistry, so mass production of elex potions began. Still in chapter 1 though, did not pick a faction.
Exploration is still fun, though the world somehow seems smaller, despite having more landmass and 5 big settlements instead of 4. I also miss old desert of Tavar. Now it's either greenlands, snow or volcanic terrain. Since you get access to strong companions really fast, it's easier to venture far and fight more advanced monsters early. The improved jetpack also helps to avoid most of the heavy-hitters and quickly traverse the map.
Some quests are cool, even if most are kill this, fetch this. Dialogue stopped sucking balls after the intro, but it's not stellar either. It gives context to the story, but that's about it.
Performance is poor in populated areas. Sure, I play on PC from late 2015, but it managed to run much more beautiful games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance or Horizon: Zero Dawn on max settings with better framerate. So it comes down to PB's inferior coding.
High requirements aren't really justified by gorgeous visuals. It mostly looks like Elex 1, with the exception of character faces, which are pure decline, both Caja and Nasty are uglier than in the previous game, and they weren't exactly beauties back then.
Combat is a frantic affair (mostly due to low framerate), I miss the old combo system. Now it mostly devolves into button mashing, Gothic 3 style.
So far I do not see Elex 2 as an improvement over its predecessor. And yet I cannot stop playing it. Yesterday I spent 8 hours in Magalan. Most games usually don't manage to grip me so strongly. Somehow PB magic still works, despite all the ineptness and all the jank.
