The post-apocalyptic science fantasy ELEX 2 Release Date is currently slated as March 1st, 2022. As some of you may already know, Eurojank is a veritable niche in gaming. We won't go into too much detail on what it means for a game to be janky or not, but, with massive environments and unrivaled freedom, ELEX II PC pretty much encapsulates the meaning of the word.

Coming from the award winning creators of the Gothic and Risen franchises - Piranha Bytes - ELEX 2 is more or less a direct continuation of the narrative of the first game of this gothic and risen series. The story, however, seems like it will be easy enough to pick up on, even if you haven't played the original ELEX.

The thing that makes ELEX special by default is its epic story and dark, gritty combination of magic and science-fiction. What other RPG lets you spec your character into a berserker or a plasma-wielding super-soldier? With multiple factions and diverse environments, ELEX does! And ELEX 2 aims to up the ante to unprecedented levels.

With this article, you're about to learn everything you need to know about the completely unique world of  ELEX 2. And - yes - you should care about this project, even if you didn't like the first game.

ELEX 2 Release Date Announcement

ELEX II PC: Combat Sequence 1

ELEX II is currently slated to launch on March 1st, 2022. This means we're effectively just a few short weeks away from the game's launch! This being an AA production, it's not particularly surprising that the game's not being featured all across the web.

From everything we've seen so far, there's no real reason to worry about a potential pushback at this time.

ELEX II Collector's Edition Content

Now, the interesting bit here is that the post-apocalyptic science fantasy ELEX II is getting a physical Collector's Edition launch, too. Namely, while the game doesn't have any sort of digital special edition content to go with the launch-day festivities, particularly keen fans of Piranha Bytes and/or ELEX can splurge on something heftier still.

Priced at €149,99, Collector's Edition features the following real-world goodies:

Overall, we've seen less stuff featured in more expensive Collector's Editions. Piranha Bytes seem to have gone all-out this time around. Note that you can only get ELEX II Collector's Edition via THQ Nordic's official web store, too.

What is ELEX 2?

A post-apocalyptic science fantasy described as 'a sequel to ELEX, the vintage open-world role-playing experience from the award-winning creators of the Gothic and Risen series,' ELEX II is a direct continuation of the gothic and risen series with a completely unique world, diverse environments set, and unrivaled freedom.

Anyone who has ever played a Piranha Bytes title will know what they're getting into, here. They are award winning creators for a reason, after all. What we've got at hand is a classic open-world ARPG epic story with massive environments that doesn't concern itself with excessive flashiness in any way, shape, or form. Featuring real-time exploration and combat, hard-locked enemy levels, and truly free-form progression systems, ELEX II is basically alone in delivering this type of gameplay in 2022.

The ELEX franchise is, however, far more open to innovation than any other Piranha Bytes IP. As we suggested before, this is a game where magical barbarians duke it out with souped-up psychopaths in literal power armor. When they're not pushing back ridiculously predatory super-dinosaurs, of course.

No other IP has ever managed to meld classic fantasy tropes with top-grade science-fiction. Though ELEX certainly is laden with genre tropes, it uses them to great effect.

Now, it's important to point out that ELEX was a deliberately hardcore RPG. Not really for the faint of heart. Some streamlining is being done for ELEX II, but it's still a game for the core RPG audience.

How does ELEX II compare to ELEX?

Naturally, ELEX II isn't a simple content expansion for the original post-apocalyptic science fantasy ELEX. Though the two games certainly share the same Piranha Bytes DNA, there are huge improvements being made under the hood.

For example, ELEX players will certainly remember the game's verticality. Characters kicked off their adventure with a veritable jetpack, which immediately reinvented the game's otherwise ordinary exploration and resource gathering meta-features. Now, with massive diverse environments set and unrivaled freedom, these vertical leaps are being retrofitted into actual flying, and aerial combat is making an appearance for the first time.

"Something that’s not jumping straight into your eyes," said Piranha Bytes' representative in a recent interview, "is the increased density of content throughout the world. Although the game world did not grow compared to ELEX, there is much more to do in ELEX II."

Combat systems have traditionally been a matter of hit-or-miss implementation with Piranha Bytes. In ELEX II, they aim to give players more control over their character's combat behavior to make the whole system significantly more dynamic and satisfying.

Faction & content improvements across the board

Playable factions deserve a separate mention, as this particular feature has been substantially expanded upon. ELEX II will let players join any of the six playable factions during their respective playthroughs. These are:

Though the Skyands faction is also referenced in official materials, it doesn't seem to be anything but an adversarial faction. In fact, from what we've seen of the narrative so far, all five factions that the protagonist will actually have the chance to join will need to put their heads together to deal with the bio-tech Skyands threat.

The post apocalyptic science fantasy game has a fixed ending from the original ELEX in mind, and a fixed protagonist - Jax - who is returning from the original title. Piranha Bytes have also promised vastly improved romantic pursuits, as well as a more reactive overworld for the game in general. So, we've got high hopes for this one!

ELEX 2 PC Technical Overview

Now for the dedicated ELEX II PC section. Here, we've got some important technical considerations that many will be interested in. Namely, the availability of post-launch content for ELEX II, and its respective hardware requirements. Important stuff if you're on the lower-end side of the PC hardware spectrum.

System Spec Requirements

Piranha Bytes have already pushed out their official spec sheets for ELEX II, featuring both the minimum and the recommended hardware listings.

Minimum ELEX II Hardware

Recommended ELEX II Hardware

Overall, we're looking at some very sensible hardware necessities. Especially considering the massive environments and diverse environments set of the post-apocalyptic science fantasy game. It is curious, however, to see the RTX 2060 as the recommended GPU. From what we have seen so far, ELEX II has no raytracing visual features in place. Since virtually all the new GPUs offer raytracing hardware of this or that kind, however, it's almost certain that RTX 2060 is simply the level of GPU needed for the game to run properly, even when fully maxed-out.

Post-Launch Content

Finally, there's the matter of post-launch content. Piranha Bytes game veterans will know that none of their games offer additional content after they have been launched, and this will still be the case with the completely unique world epic story of ELEX II.

A Piranha Bytes representative recently went on record explicitly saying that the small German dev-team dislikes the idea of DLCs in general: "We think, if people buy our game, they should get everything that we've planned to put into it. Therefore there is no paid new content planned for ELEX II after the launch."

That about settles this particular notion, we feel.

ELEX 2 Trailers & Showcases

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2VFl91oa0Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwZE7u5VrrY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8maVaJUbw8

The post-apocalyptic science fantasy ELEX 2 Release Date is currently slated as March 1st, 2022. As some of you may already know, Eurojank is a veritable niche in gaming. We won’t go into too much detail on what it means for a game to be janky or not, but, with massive environments and unrivaled freedom, ELEX […]