ELEX

It took me 32 hours to finish this game to an allmost 100%-stat (questwise, with only 1 seemingly bugged quest and the romance-options left out). You could probably shave off 10 hours off of that, since I ran around like a bum for the first 10 hours, saveing up skillpoints/abilitypoints and doing every factionquest before takeing on the coat of any of them. By the end of it, I had no problems with anything the game offered me. 10 hours of moderate fun and roughly 22 hours of extensive exploration and plotline-finishing. Here are my thoughts. First off, the Good: + A nice array of characters and factions + Interesting worlddesign with some really nice screenshot-setups + A challange in it's early gameplay with somewhat rewarding character-progression Now the Bad: - The combat-system It tries to emulate the darksouls-stamina bar, but does so badly, since damage is based allmost only on your equiped weapon. This means that not your mobility and reactions determine the outcome of a fight, but how well you can wait for the bad AI to expend their stamina so you can unload your quickattack into the enemy, hopeing your weapon does enough scaleing damage after the first 2 hits. - The characterprogression-system Most skills outside of the combat-skilltree have no impact on the gameplay. Even those do not have a higher impact than %-bonuses to dmg. Most damning, they encourage you to gimp your character by pumping useless skills to be able to pass arbitrary skill-checks in dialouge for extra rewards/questoutcomes etc. It's just a drain on your allready too plentyfull skillpointpool. - The Story It's a sequal-setup. And a unnatural one. Gothic 2 followed Gothic 1 from a finished plot. The return of the sleeper was as much a surprise for the nameless hero as it was for you. Here, it isn't. The Ugly # The graphics # The voicework (even the german one is weak, emotionless) Conclusion: In absence of great games, even the weak can shine. For some.

To make it short: I've always loved the Gothic-Style RPGs and am quite happy they stay true to their roots whilst experimenting with other settings. There's nothing quite like these sort of RPGs, they are rough, unpolished and often unforgiving... yet I love them to pieces. And for this review to not be completely irrelevant, here's a pro and con list: PRO: + Atmosphere an Immersion + Soundtrack + Feeling of Secrets hidden everywhere + Open World + VERY long game + Lots to do and explore + Interesting Setting + Story is quite good CON: - Unpolished, often clunky (especially combat) - Graphics not really up to date - Very unforgiving, especially so in the beginning - The Menu structure and descriptions are horrible and are flat-out lies sometimes - Some dialogue trees make no sense ("We will meet as enemies on the battlefield, I'm afraid" - then fights alongside you) All in all, I'd recommend this game to anyone that has enjoyed a GOTHIC or RISEN game before. If you haven't... I suppose it's pretty hit-or-miss, I can imagine the difficulty at the beginning driving a LOT of people off.

When Andreas Pankratz introduced the game, I was not really excited. I was a huge fan of gothic 1-3 and risen 1, whilst risen 2-3 seemed to be pretty bad for me. When Elex was introduced, it felt liek they just wanted to do new stuff for the sake of it. Boy was I wrong. I had a lot of fun in this game. It may not be on the level of WItcher 3 and has many flaws, that's why only 4 stars. However, I naver had that mich fun and excitement exploring the map, caves and dungeons. THe start is so hard, and you are afraid to die all the time. I played as a beserk, and every skill you learned, every new armour and weapon made you really feel stronger. The map is designed so beatifully. If you live hard RPGs, and exploring beafutiful and exciting locations, this game might be what you are looking for.

The mechanics in this game are somewhat outdated. Graphically it will win no prizes either. Main story is somewhat bland. At what point do PB just introduce a character creator? Not like Jax has any more personality than a blank sheet of paper. But god damn if this game doesn't pull you in anyways. The world is vast and lively, the side quests are interesting and the random roadside encounters you can have while just... wandering around trying to get to where you want to be are amazing. Every corner of this world feels lived in, which is a massive feat considering how many there are. Watching Rat in Tavar go from beggar who thanks me for 50 shards to basically pimp of the town because I made it so is amazing, even if it's not relevant to the whole "where's my armor and why is the world ending?" bit of the game. And while combat is clunky, it also feels great once you are actually strong enough to fight through some of the areas that were softblocked from you at the start by way of big scary thing in the road. This is not a hack'n'slash, you have to pick your encounters. Is it worth it to kill that Rotboar if I might have to take a potion or eat some food afterwards? Maybe just go around. Oops, there's a big scary crawly spidery thing there. Better just kill the pig even if it may do some damage. Overall great game I'm still not done after 30 hours and I won't be for another 30 I'd guess.

This game has a bit of a learning curve. Check out some youtube videos if you feel like you aren't progressing. You can also tweak some things in the ingame options menu like setting the stamina cost to low or off if you want more fast paced combat. Don't sweat it if you die alot even on easy and normal difficulty. Several quests can be completed without combat and early game you are better off running away and avoiding enemies. This game has some jankyness with the controls but don't let that turn you off from it. The open world is beautiful and unique with large expansive areas to compliment the jetpack mechanic. The different factions are interesting and they do add to the replayability of the game. Voice acting may not be the best but there is lots of funny dialogue. The ambient exploration music is actually very well done. Elex has some rough edges but IMO this roughness adds charm to the game.