ELEX

The graphics are great after you get used with them. The world has a lot of details. The voice acting is great. I do not need recognizable voices from Hollywood in all of my games. No problems on ultrawide rez, thx devs. Finished the game the first time with no game breaking issues. Great story and gameplay. I had lots of fun. Only played it twice so far.

First of all: It's a Piranha Bytes RPG. You can feel it the very first minute in the game. But to compare it with Gothic wouldn't be fair. It's something new and unique. The world ist fresh, full of life and well shaped. It is made for adults and not for children and their children childrens like it was with Risen. Exploring is fun again and every faction in game has its own charm. Moreover their are credible again. The factions in Risen were a joke. Five people were forming that faction. And so I had a lot of fun with Elex. The german localization is good, while the english localization may be even better, but I can't complain. I've played over 60h so far and I am still not trough. You should definitely give it a try!

I was looking for a believable world only Pirana Bytes could achieve, like they did in the first Gothic games and Risen, where even the mechanics drove the plot (like the main hero being a nobody and having no way to improve without others - hence looking for a camp). I was expecting much more populated cities. I was alienated by weird cutscenes that took control of my character (it proved to be only two of them, or something, both at the very beginning). And I dropped the game after several hours. Then I tried to do it again. This time, I forbade myself to use the quest markers all the time, and tried to use teleporters only from other teleporters, not from random map points. This made me explore more. After a very slow start (almost 10 hours), I upgraded my weapon (bow) for the first time and was able to travel much more freely. And it started to kick in. The communities started to feel the right size. The companions, although being follower-puppets, engaged in the main plot in interesting and unexpected ways (treason, sacrifice, love, main plot tools). Also the plot was leaking intriguing details. The world had new locations for me to discover until the very end. I've completed almost every quest there was. I even starting to use the markers and teleporters, it didn't hinder my pleasure any more. Then I completed the end battle, saw the end credits. And it still continued! I had another hour of gameplay with the ability to see how the world changedwill change because of my actions. And then the second round of credits. And I still had the ability to play, but I want my sequel now!

After reading mixed reviews I hesitated to buy this, but I am really enjoying this game. It can be tough at times but there is usually a way round. Wish I could swap gender.

people who like gothic will probably like this one aswell. very much in fact. overall i think the movement is fairly well done and the jetpack is a nice addition to traverse the open world. it has an immersive, "living" openworld and although some of the writing is a bit B movie like, there are some interesting characters, quests and nicely written lines. it is also intentionaly funny in a lot of places. i would say however that a lot of flavour gets lost if you dont play with the "original" german voice acting. it adds a lot of character and nuance. the english acting isnt appaling but in some places rather monotone. combat can be a bit frustrating so id recommend a mix out of melee and ranged combat while using the jetpack and setting the difficulty on easy. its still a challenge. gothic games never made you the special hero, the chosen one. you were never on top of the world but just a part of it. you had to find a place in it to survive and elex is no different in that respect. i havent gotten very far in the game yet but played a good couple of hours and have not encountered many bugs. the only bug that i find to be very annoying is that sometimes the companion AI doesnt respond. or it respond only after the fight has been going on for a couple of seconds. npcs seem to react without hickups tho. graphically i think it looks nice. especially at night were you might realize that the lighting effects in this game are not too bad at all. some sound effects are a tad too loud. really none of these issues cant be fixed with a patch its far from broken and overall a very gothic like expierence. better than risen 1,2,3 imo perhabs not surpassing gothic 1 and 2. dont know about 3. never played it. its janky and rough around the edges and a bit "gamey" but has a certain magic about it and every rpg in which you can spend a long time in a single settlement talking to people and getting screwed over is a fun game to me. :) i also like how most characters have a hidden agenda and how you must be careful not to be fucked with. lots of choice and consequence and the citizens of elex have a raunchy tone about them and will tell you of and refuse giving you certain quests if you act like a smartass. i would totally recommend if you are okay with slowly getting more powerful and dont mind the jank.