Elex II is easily one of the biggest flops in Piranha Bytes portfolio. It was so bad, that the studio went down after releasing it. Funnily enough, Elex II is an improvement in certain areas over its predecessor (better visuals, combat, UI). Unfortunately, the more important aspects of the game were neglected, so the improvements didn't matter in the end.
It's a sad way to end, but I can't tell that this is undeserved. All their newest titles are simply average to bad in terms of quality.
If you're looking for an interesting action RPG, you won't find it here. Elex II could be good, but it's severely undercooked and badly written. I can't recommend it.

World
This is still the same post-apo + sci-fi + fantasy world, and again, we need to save it. This time, the enemy is slightly different (you should already know who, from Elex I ending).
Everything else? Almost the same as before. Same map (but expanded and visually different), mostly the same factions, and similar enemies.

Characters
Jax is still the protagonist. You'll meet old friends (Falk, Crony, Nasty, Caja, Nyra) and find new ones (Bully, Fox). What connects them all? They are all dull, generic, and often annoying.
The writers added a decent amount of banter between Jax and his companions, but the quality of it is rather low. Honestly, this isn't just a problem with the banter. It's an issue with the whole game. The dialogues are so poorly written, that they actively harm the game.
For some reason, Caja and Nasty behave in a completely different manner when compared to Elex I. Instead of slight character development, they turned into annoying ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ (especially Nasty).
Your companions will evaluate your decisions. If something is against their character, they will inform you about it. Unfortunately, this system doesn't work well. Most of the time, your companions will like/dislike something that completely doesn't make sense. I dunno. This system often feels like a coin toss rather than something with logic behind it.

Story
The choices from the first Elex don't matter. If you don't like what the authors choose as a canon - tough luck.
Somehow, the main story is even worse than in their previous game. It's extremely boring, predictable, poorly written, and awfully animated (static and not natural). There's no redeeming qualities in it.
At least some side quests were solid. They may be not the most memorable, but they did bring some diversity. After all, something other than another variation about "go x and kill y" is always welcome.
Unfortunately, after the first chapter, the number of new quests is minimal, and they are mostly about killing tons of enemies
The ending being a 10 minutes slide show didn't help anything.

Balance and World Design
For some ungodly reason, Piranha decided to remove one of the best features of their games. You no longer suck in the early game just to slowly rise in power. Jax is strong almost since the beginning (despite forgetting his skills - again).
Part of this is caused by combat changes and a lack of upgrades to the AI. Another part is caused by the addition of low-tier enemies. There are too many of them, so it's way easier to power-farm and gain huge amounts of XP. I also feel like the "normal" enemies were nerfed and are easier to beat (didn't check the stats, so can't confirm).
The economy is also way worse than in the previous Elex. You can gain massive amounts of money just by selling all the weapons dropped by your enemies (it didn't drop previously). There's no need to do anything else, which kills the purpose of other systems (like crafting).

Gameplay
The gameplay didn't change much compared to the first Elex. Most of the mechanics are the same or just slightly changed. The changes often didn't improve anything, but that's another story.
Surprisingly, the combat feels less clunky and more responsive. The AI of the enemies is still super dumb, but at least the stamina system is no longer problematic. What's funny about the combat improvements, is the fact that the game is way easier because of them. Like I said earlier, the AI of your foes barely exist. Now, you can smoothly roll around the enemy and quickly jab them two or three times before they start their combo. You can beat almost everything that way (besides flying creatures). It will sometimes take ages (because of massive health bars), but it's easy to do.
The magic and ranged weapons didn't change that much (yeah, they are still overpowered). There's a decent amount of tools to choose from (bows, crossbows, guns, shotguns, grenade launchers, etc.) and a bunch of different spells per faction.
The overall movement is smoother (including jetpack). It's not great, but still better than before.
The game still has the reputation system (this time named "destruction"), and again, it sucks. It doesn't change anything important - it only allows you to pick different dialogue options from time to time.
I liked that the attributes finally do matter, but that's the only real change regardless of character progression. Everything else is still the same (with slightly different skills to learn).
Maybe it's just me, but I hated the default camera. At least there's an alternative option with something less "in your face". Sadly, you can't change the FOV.

Visuals
Visually, the game looks slightly better than its predecessor. The new shaders probably did the biggest job making everything look "nicer". The animations are still wooden and models are often too low poly, but at least the textures are slightly better. The LODs were also improved (they are no longer pixelated and pop-ups aren't as common).
On the other hand, the level design received a downgrade. The locations are big, but also often empty. This is not as noticeable in the main locations, but everything else looks like something straight from Morrowind.

Audio
The sounds are mostly low-quality. You can hear the artificiality, which is never a good sign.
The soundtrack is okay-ish, but not memorable. It felt repetitive after 15-20 hours of hearing the same thing.
The voice acting was also a mixed bag of good and bad. The quality of the recordings was fine, but the acting was often hilariously lame.

Technicalities
The performance is not good. The game can barely hold 70 FPS, with many drops below 40 FPS.
There are tons of bugs, crashes, and glitches. I can live with some gaps in terrain or with wonky ragdolls, but the broken quests and scripts are a little too much.

The graphics aren't the best, but the gameplay is flawless, the dialog is fun and entertaining, and the quests are creative. What's not to like? I don't understand the bad reviews. This game is a lot of fun.

9/10

This game is a Gothic Remake waiting room for me. Junky combat, decent dialogue, funny NPC expressions with infants look like they are on big head cheat. Grab a shotgun and you can faceroll the entire game. 10/10 if you like Gothic games.