ELEX

Elex is definitely a game that you need to have patience with. Where this game really shines through is exploration and slowly becoming more powerful in the world of Elex. It definitely gives you that sense of achievement when you are finally able to wipe out a group of Reavers with health potions to spare, where before you were a short snack for a Biter - and it is a very long road before you can get to that point. The enjoyment level is a bit of a roller coaster ride. I'm either playing it until the wee hours of the morning, forcing myself to stop, or playing it for no more than an hour before I rage quit from being killed by a low level monster, or suffering a glitch, or just plain bored. The way quests are given and followed is a bit lacklustre - again typical of a PB game - where it doesn't really give you much direction. The more hardcore fans will say this is because it doesn't hold your hand, I just think it's sloppy implementation to be honest, and often I found myself solving a quest by accident, or just bored running around wondering what to do next. The combat itself is ok, however it does tend to have typical tropes of a PB game. The stamina system is broken (why does it even need one?) which makes pouring skill points into ranged combat a must. It gets a lot better after level 10 or so, before that it is a real grind, and you won't be able to take on much. Levelling your character is ok, however knowing when and where to distribute points is difficult in the beginning, if you haven't played the Gothic series it'll be a new system entirely - it's not a very good system to begin with. Can't understand why they included the whole 'Cold' mechanic. Reminds me a lot of Mass Effects Renegade mechanic, and it's kinda useless, and feels a bit tacked on. Finally, you have to join a faction to progress the story, and I don't know if it's just me, but none of the factions seem like a party I'd want to be a part of. I actually really hate most of the NPC's in the game world. They all come across as selfish A-holes.

This is a great game, solid story and lots of quests ... not Skyrim pace, so you need to do quests and run from monsters until like level 15. This makes the game very unique, you need to run and hide more than fight ... strategy and stuff. After you get enough level u can kill a lot of monster, but exploring, questing and getting to know the factions make it really unique. Keep in mind that 40h is a lot of time for this game and factions dont matter that much...

A love child from the creators of the famous Gothic series. One of the best games I have played in a long time. So for whom is this game? If you liked Gothic this is a no-brainier, go get it. If you haven't played any games from the series, be warned: A lot of people complain about it being too "difficult": If you expect a smooth and easy experience, that constantly holds your hand and makes you feel like a badass from the first minute, this is NOT your game. In Elex you start with nothing and you got to earn your place in the world. You get thrown into a dangerous post-apocalyptic world with dangers lurking at any corner. You wont be able to take on every monster you encounter. Sometimes you have to run away to fight another day. Later you get better armor and weapons and can got back to those scary monsters and get to feel like a badass while killing them. You earned it. Oh and the difficulty settings don't really do much, so don't get your hopes up. Fights are not only about your weapons and attributes but also your skill as a player. They require you to time your attacks and manage your stamina. That said, the fighting system stills follows the Piranha Bytes traditions of being a little bit clunky. You will experience some balancing issues and character progression is not exactly smooth, to say the least. Still the good news is that while the game takes some getting used to, it is also pretty fair. Enemies telegraph their attacks ahead of time, giving you some fighting chance. You can also travel together with a companion, that can help you with killing the enemy. Also you don't really have to grind or die a thousand deaths to progress. Most quests can be solved without even killing anyone and you will progress just fine just from them and some exploration. You don't need to mindlessly kill enemies for experience. Also you get all the time in the world to figure out what and who you want to be. While it does favour long term thinking in how you use your skill points, it is still pretty forgiving. Contrary to similar games, you don't really need to hyper-specialize you character in any direction. You can have a character that is good at everything if you want to, you just might progress a bit slower. My biggest concern before buying this game was the setting. I really liked the medieval setting of the original Gothic series and was skeptical if this futuristic setting would work out. You get the nature loving Berserkers that live in a primitive feudalistic society that forbids any use of technology and banishes anyone not following their laws. The Clerics, a bunch of technology-loving religious zealots that try to brain wash anyone into accepting their way of live and finally the Outlaws, freedom loving criminals that are crazy enough to actually LIKE living in a post apocalyptic wasteland. So classical medieval fantasy meets Fallout meets Science Fiction. Funny enough, it fits perfectly together into a crazy but beautiful world that is lots of fun to explore. Speaking of exploration. Jet pack. Remember awkwardly trying to climb mountains in Gothic? The jet pack adds another dimensions to the explorations game and is just just super fun to use. The quest design in this game is superb. Many quests offer multiple choices on how to solve them and some dialog options are hidden through skill checks. Some of the choices you make in this world have actual consequences on the story and you will be forced to make some interesting ethical choices that are hard to classify into the traditional "good" or "bad" scheme. You will meet a variety of super interesting NPCs with their own backstory and quirks. Graphics are great for its age, weapons, armour, landscapes all look great but but variety of NPCs models is a bit lacking. Especially the female Characters all seem to have the same face which can be confusing at first. Considering the small budget of the game, this can be forgiven though. And yes, speaking of female characters, the society in Elex is still pretty patriarchal but that could be argued to fit the setting. Still there are some memorable and powerful female characters in this game, so progress, I guess. Also probably cause of small budget, the cut scenes are a bit lame for a modern game. Mostly people standing around and talking. But there is only a few of them so they can be tolerated. Music and sound are great, so to be expected from Piranha Bytes. So if you want a rough gem and can tolerate a game, that treats you like an adult that doesn’t need constant hand holding, this game is a great immersive open world RPG experience!

I don't even know where to start... Sure, thedialogue is okey, and the cinematics are over-average decent. But then you start playing, and it's honestly just horrible. Using an x360 controller was okey. The controls were klunky, but they're sort of natural. Think hack'n'slash layout. However, there is no way to swap X and A, so you're stuck with A being the 'action' button, even though pretty much every other rpg has X as its action button. This doesn't make much of a difference though, as you're already going to be annoyed by the fact you have to pretty much stand inside the item you want to pick up or use anyway. So finding healing plants is going to be hell, unless you know exactly what to look for. Which you don't, btw, since they're so scarce you won't get used to it. The only things i've found to be ample so far is the stuff you're not allowed to take. So you do a couple talk missions, and you get some stuff for some people, but then you have to fight to survive. And what a fight it is. You get a 3-, 4-, 5-combo streak on the enemy, and suddenly your character decides you have no more stamina. Tough luck, dude, you just slashed 10% off their health, but because there's nothing you can do without stamina, you're dead within 2 strikes. And you better have saved beforehand, because the autosave feature just randomly decides when is and isn't a good time to save. You just talked? Save. You entered a new region miles away? No save. So good luck walking all that way back again. Then i tried the keyboard setting. God it's terrible. Click to pick up? What happened to "E for general action"? Did these people create this game in an alternate universe where keyboards have a different layout? Hold shift to run? And when you jump, trying to be precise, make sure you're expecting a leap to your death, because this character has no idea how to jump less than 6 feet, unless jumping straight up. This game isn't even worth the discounted €10. Let alone the full price.

Well, as I consider the time spent with this game pointlessly spent, I will keep this short and to the point: The worst part was the progress in the game. The game itself is just Gothic taken and crossed with Fallout. Unfortunately, it did not keep the good stuff from either of the games. Some people consider this a great asset of the game, that it does not guide you in any way. I found it deeply depressing as I was often wondering through the world and did not know what to do and how to get forward. Levelling system is slow and rewards are meaningless - new weapons are incredibly difficult to get, as their requirements are sky high and skill points are few. The game's graphics are outdated, controlls are frustrating. Fun can be found only if you are into survival games. I am not getting the time spent with this game back, and if you have better things to do, I recommend them, whatever they are.