ELEX

I was very afraid of this game. Honestly. I was waiting for something like Risen. Instead, I got a game that feels more like Gothic 2 and plays the same. And now I am happy with it. Of course, game has it's flaws, like strange jump and fall animation, a little bit outdated graphics (I really suggest to slap Reshade upon Elex, it makes miracles). But know what? Those "flaws" are actually features of PB games we all used to at this day and age. In short. You want a good and interesting RPG experience? Buy and play Elex.

This text is written with a few months of distance. Elex is a direct successor to the Gothic / Risen games, utilizing pretty much the same techniques at story telling, world bulding and character progression. Elex basically suffers from being outdated in almost every aspect. While quite a few reviewers praise that as being "oldschool" or "true to the spirit" it's basically really just the inevitable result of trying to compete with the current wave of open world games. The Good: The world is rather well crafted, you can see that they tried to supplement the overall experience by telling little stories via the environment. Walking around, trying to explore is fun. The bad: The GRAPHICS are... okayish. The world is colorful, the textures are fine, although the rough terrein geometry speaks volumes about the aging rendering engine holding everything together (used in Gothic, then, Risen, then Elex). But the animations are horrible. What really left me speechless is the fact that they used THE SAME SMOKING ANIMATION FROM GOTHIC 1! And yes, it already did look awkward back then! Even worse, NPC models are reused so frequently. The MUSIC is neither standing out in terms of good or bad. It's just there. The VOICE ACTING is plain horrible, no matter if you play in English or German. Especially the protagonist just makes your eyes roll. The NARRATIVE feels worth digging into, but unfortunately due to the uninspired WRITING you won't feel very invested in finding out about the world or the NPC inhabiting it. Unfortunately people are as shallow as a mud puddle. The quests involve a lot of running back and fro, basically reducing it to fetch item / find person with intermittent, frequent combat situations. The COMBAT / SKILL PACING... is what ruins the game. Pacing is horrible. After hours of gameplay, you still are reduced to run away from almost everything, spamming arrows from elevated positions. The game lacks flow and immersion. It's a dull experience.

Its a perfect tribute of the Gothic series (its not an actual continuation, but you know what i mean). You have the three factions that you can choose to join, Clerics - technology based faction, Outlaws - guns and grenades and Berserkers - swords and bows. You have freedom to go just about anywhere in the open world that you can get to, if you can survive getting there. Lots of varied quests, but a lot are fetch or go there and kill this. Heaps of hidden secrets to be found when you explore, and rewards to be found if you are willing to look around. The story is actually really well put together and it compelled me until I completed the game. The combat starts off quite challenging but comes together quickly once you find a weapon you are happy with. I enjoyed my time with the game and look forward to the next from the developers.

I will keep this short. I saw some mixed reviews and mentions of bugs, but i tried the game anyway and it was totally worth my money. If you like singleplayer Adventure RPGs it's a must-buy-on-sale. Atmosphere: Excellent Sound Design: Good Voice Acting: Great to Average Combat: Average* Exploration: Excellent * Combat isn't terrible like some say, and it isn't polished either. But it gets the job done and you learn the system. I found fights very fun. World feels dangerous. Main Protagonist is boring in a good way (think Sheperd from Mass Effect) but would be better if it had no voice actor.

As a big fan of Gothic I'm happy to see Pirhana Bytes making still games in their classic formula, but with huge improvements. I didn't hear much about this game when it came out and simply overlooked this, and I'm glad that I discovered it now. It is really fun if you know how to play a Pirhana Bytes Game. In some ways it's also an old school RPG (which is a good thing!) and some bad reviews seem to be because some people nowadays don't get it, if the game does not explain everything. The story (as far as I played) seemed very inspired by great classic Sci-Fi/Fantasy like for example Dune, Gamonghurst etc. I really love that. Maybe graphics are not 2020 standard anymore, but I don't care anyway for that and most games nowadays prefer graphics over choice, immersion, story etc. so this game is much better for me in that regard. Just an opinion, but really fun for me.