ELEX

Played the game on launch and came away feeling it was an unbalnced mess. As a long time Gothic / Risen player I was disappointed. A new attempt years later has greatly changed my opinion. It's mechanics have shifted slightly from previous Pirahna Bytes games, but the core is still there. My main criticism lies with encountering enimies early in the game. Avoiding enemies is a staple for PB, but here high / low level encounters are more evenly distributed across the map, where previously they were logically placed with character progression. As a result I was counfused about which missions to do. I finished many by running away from enimies. Combat is an evolved version of Risen, but more stiff. This is not a hack-n-slash. Rather it's slow and methodical where gurading, dodging, and stamina are vital to success. This is well executed for one-to-one engagements, however it's not great for multiple enemies. By default, the camera and character locks onto an enemy. So if you have one in front and one in back you simply lose sight of the one in the back. Dispite it's limitations it still remains satisfying. Missions are great, with many twists, turns, and branching conclusions. Your choices really do matter here. Make the right calls and you can join a faction quickly. Likewise making choices that help other characters can hurt your renown in a faction. Solving these missions are not linear, but more like an adventure game in that you need to think about each step logically. They are not headscratchers that halt the progression, just add a little depth. Attacking human characters are rare and carry real consequences. Unlike The Witcher 3, where just about every quest results in attacking a guard, thief, or somebody you don't see eye-to-eye with, here it's grounded and makes sense. This is a Role Playing Game after all, you aren't force into stealing or murder. To conclude, I think it's a great PB game and looking forward to the sequel.

The Good: Atmosphere/setting, exploration,the jetpack from the start of the game, the auto save system, game runs buttery smooth even under linux using wine(Very impressive). The auto save systems makes multiple autosaves so you can roll back farther than just 2mins. Say when you spend all of your resources killing 6-7 bandits to hack in to a safe you assume has loot in it, the loot turns out to be toilet paper and the currency of the game. The Bad: Pacing, Loot, enemy placement, technical issues, overall design, leveling, just about everything else The writing is even poor, you take on the role of Jax, an ALB commander. Albs are revered as battle hardened warriors who wish to conquer everything. Jax, the ALB commander, struggles fighting a chicken and can easily be overwhelmed by children. Quests from the starter town take you to areas with monsters that 1 shot you till much later on. Nothing drops armor and 99% of enemies wont drop weapons and combat is mehh. Early on you'll find a sword or hatchet you can upgrade, don't. This levels the sword and you cant use it for another 6-10 levels. You are only allowed 1 active quest at a time, upon completion of a task sometimes you'll need to go back in to the menu and reactivate the same quest you are working on. This is especially a pain in the beginning of the game because you are in a town called Goliet. They hate technology and complain every time you bring up your map/inventory/quest log or anything else. The game with maybe a year or two more of development and tweaking could have been outstanding. When you play Elex you see quality base with a bad implementation. Its frustrating to see such a quality world held back. I just cant recommend you spend full price on this.

I bought the game some time ago, but I didn't get to play it then. I have since played Witcher 3, Mass Effect LE, Cyberpunk 2077 etc.. I played Risen long time ago and I remembered I liked that game. After finishing Cyberpunk 2077 I started Elex. I read about it online and understood quickly that this is a different RPG than others. You are not in a kindergarden game where the opponents are as weak as you, but thrown into the world as a weak person. There is no shame in running away from monsters. So like the companions you meet in Elex, I was first neutral to the game, then started to like it and soon found that this is alongside Witcher 3 the best game (for different reasons) I have played in a long time. I like the way you can roleplay in this game and travel around and be free. Like that you have to learn abilities and like that you gain companions by doing quests for them. The environment is beautiful. It is almost like it gets better and better as you progress. The story is really nice, and there is a lot of stuff to do and it doesn't get repetitive. I underestimated this game for so long, but glad I did finally play it! Get it, it is really something to experience.

I’ve been a longtime fan of Gothic 1 and 2, but I’ve not played any Piranha Bytes game past Gothic 3. Thus, I didn’t really know what to expect from Elex. I was kinda HOPING for a “sci-fi Gothic 2”, since Gothic 2 was pretty great. I replayed it last year and it was still very enjoyable, even nowadays. Overall, I guess I DID kinda ejoy Elex and I don’t regret playing it, but “sci-fi Gothic 2” it wasn’t. It had some pretty deep flaws and was overall more than a bit frustrating. First of all – I think Elex handled difficulty wrong. The difficulty curve was horribly unforgiving, I’ve literally struggled with killing basic enemies for like HALF of the game. The main reason for that would be, I guess, that Elex’s idea of “difficulty” is just turning every enemy into a damn bullet sponge. Second, the game was INCREDIBLY frontloaded. You could (and I did) do like 95% of all of the sidequests in Chapter 1 or 2, and it seriously affected the pacing of the game in a negative way. The story overall was good enough, I guess. It wasn’t groundbreaking or particularly touching, but it had interesting moments and kept me somewhat invested. I’m actually PRETTY STOKED about the sequel hook idea. I liked the factions in Elex. Because they all kinda sucked. I know, that sounds contradictory, but my point is that I found all of the factions in Elex to be INCREDIBLY flawed. And it made for a very interesting decision when it came to joining one. The world itself was kinda cool – the patchwerk of magic/sci-fi/and “mundane contemporary” elements was a bit rough and sometimes a bit artificial, but I was able to suspend my disbelief and have fun with it. That may be because the exploration overall was done superbly and was very enjoyable. If you’d be interested in seeing me playing through Elex for the first time, you can see a blind playthrough on my youtube channel, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0aj9WFAinY&list=PLp4TpsJ7HUWXw6b0Z_Ogu5ouJZbuzC7Ly

I wasn't expecting much from Elex, but was pleasantly surprised by the whole experience. I haven't enjoyed an open world game this much for a long time. There's just a little too much jank keeping me from giving it 5 stars. +A large open world that's actually fun and rewarding to explore. +Combat stays fairly challenging all the way through. You never really become God-like. +Interesting, world building lore to be discovered. +It ran flawlessly on my computer without any major bugs. Just a few graphical glitches here and there. +Fully voice acted (although some characters are better voiced than others). -The main story isn't all that interesting, especially compared to the background lore. -There are sometimes different voice actors performing lines for the same character. It's very immersion breaking when it happens. -Conversations in the game suffer. From what, I'm not sure. Bad translation, maybe? But they too often don't feel like real conversations. It's hard to describe, but imagine talking to someone and they just randomly change the subject without any cause. It's like that. There's no flow. -Follows old-school design principles. Go here-Do this-Talk to this person. In that order. It limits player agency. -Parts of the map feel under-utilized. I think the developers had plans for those areas and just ran out of development time. -The game likes to make you sit through a long cutscene and then deposit you directly into combat. -Ending is a huge letdown. It just kind of stops with no real conclusion; just a set up for the sequel. I enjoyed my time playing Elex (67 hours). I'll likely never replay it, though I am looking forward to Elex 2 now.