Exile 2 plays very similar to the first Exile, featuring skill-based characters and level advancement in a 'classic' RPG system. The view is top-down, with turn-based combat and lots of items to hoard and use, along with a bunch of mage and cleric spells. Besides human party members, the player can chose to have one of the 'tamed' races join you, including the rodent-like Nephil and reptilian Slith.

In Exile 2, the land of Exile, an underground system of caverns used by the overland empire for dumping undesirables, is facing several problems - after the actions of the party in Exile 1, the empire has decided the nation of Exile is too dangerous to leave alone, and begin sending raiding parties and troops of their best soldiers into the caverns. Besides this threat, strange impenetrable barriers have begun popping up over the land, restricting vital areas of the land. Your party sets out to stop the threat of the Empire and find the source of the barriers.