Is it just me or, is it:
THQ Nordic bought them, then they raped ELEX franchise?
Raped? Man, way to jump to conclusions.
Dark ELEX doesn't make sense. [...] Dark ELEX just says: we need story, we need final boss, and it doesn't need to make sense.
Mining ore has always been central to PB games. There's a resource that can do many things, and everyone wants it for different reasons or has goals tied to it, which focuses the story and creates a reason for conflict between factions. With Elex they added terrain and species corruption, which is great.
I don't see the problem with the introduction of a new resource. In any case, they'll make it make sense. It doesn't need a big explanation really, it's a catalyst, a way to drive new conflicts, evolve the setting and the enemies, present a new mystery, add more abilities, transform the factions, etc. It's not really about an endgame boss, but that will be derived from it too. The reshuffling of the world and conflicts will make exploring the setting fresh again, and that's much more important than some boss.
From what I seen from trailers, ELEX2 is using a some sort variant of old cliché story.
About the story, we honestly don't know shit but the setup. I think the main conflict is not in the trailers at all, because I think it's a mystery driven thing tied to dark elex, and PB likes to understate it, as it is better discovered in play.
What's new is that they're going with an emotional hook with the family. We'll see what they manage to do with it. They also tried to inject more emotional motivation in the first ELEX, what with you being betrayed at the start. That wasn't a bad driving purpose at all. They might even go with the vengeance angle for the kid, maybe even the horror one. Man I sure do hope horrible things happen to that kid, that would be great. Caja too.
About the main character's face, yeah, that's a shame. Same for the voice. Pure decline there, granted.