From West to Other Worlds

 Weird West was a fairly good little game. The setting is pretty... well... weird West? "Cowboys and Indians" with magic and supernatural stuff added in. In-the-moment gameplay is decent, with areas to explore that can be rewarding and combat that tends to be reasonably simple and quick.

I've seen it called an "immersive sim" a lot. I guess that's reasonably accurate, in that you have some opportunity to approach things in a few different ways and there are some choices that have impacts, but none of them felt very major or distinct to me. As you move from one chapter to the next, certain choices may change things (pigmen living among humans or being wiped out, for example) and yet that did not feel to me like it made a difference. Maybe that's because I only played through once, but still. I would also say the amount of time spent on the map traveling between areas did not do the pacing of the game any favors.

The five-chapter format, where you possess and play a different character for each, is interesting, but had me looking for some greater common thread when there wasn't one, so it ended up being a slight disappointment. I liked some of the stories better than others. Overall, it was a next positive, but nothing really outstanding for me.

I also played through Elex 2. Now, I played the first game so I went in fully expecting a certain degree of non-AAA open world jank. I was therefore not disappointed.

Melee combat is rough, but functional. Ranged combat is much safer and more effective, but costs ammunition and seems to take a lot longer to be usable as a primary method. Better weapons are locked behind attribute increases. So with all that together, it takes a while to go from being overwhelmed by more than maybe two enemies at a time to being able to take out groups. Companions can help in the early hours, but running is not always a bad idea.

The jet pack is pretty good, adding some options even if fuel limits usage. There are a good number of nooks to explore on the map. The voice work is decent. Quests are a mixed bag. There are a ton of escort missions early on (perhaps to force certain exploration). Later on, many missions let you teleport straight to the area. The worst missions, though, are heavily loaded toward the end of the game and amount to killing several groups of 20-40 enemies. By that point, it's doable, but just a grindy slog.

The story is okay. It's similar post-apocalyptic scifi to the first one. Instead of rallying various factions to fend off one particular group it's... rallying various factions to fend off a new group invaders - not exactly revolutionary. We find out a little more about Jax and elex and the history of Magalon, but several things are still kind of vague. And by the end there's another big threat coming, so the pattern can be repeated in a sequel.

In short, Elex 2 is fine if you know what you're getting into. It isn't something I would recommend purely based on genre or story, but it was entertaining enough for a while and I'd probably be willing to play a sequel in a few years.