Playing it now (Dec/Jan) and planning to play again once DLC comes out and bugs are fixed. I'm hooked. First and foremost, since Neuromancer is one of my absolutely favorite SF books, living it is bliss, since the game takes A WHOLE LOT of concepts from there, without being a simple ripoff. In Night City you breathe cyberpunk and are completely immersed in the bleak society the genre envisioned. Don't expect too many heartwarming carefree characters around - all the more reason to treasure those few friends you DO have. BTW, I love the Johnny Silverhand character even though he gets constantly on my nerves, and that's CDPR magick at work: shy away from the obvious. In terms of gameplay, I like the technical setup of battles. Ultra simplified shootouts was one thing that always bored me to hell in RockstarGames productions (yes, I couldn't force myself to finish the much vaunted GTA V). Here you have special abilities, special weapons, different classes, attributes, which lends to a lot of freedom in the way you can play. Unfortunately, it's also pretty rough and needs balancing. Playing on hard, in yellow areas (moderate danger) I regularly get one shot killed from normal enemies. They can take about 2000% the damage I can take, which forces me to fight through walls as most shots can be fatal (I don't have too many hp but I do have very high armor). This also limits my choices somewhat: melee weapons are very dangerous to use against more than one enemy and most guns are pointless. When my revolver deals 400+ damage through walls, what's the point of another pistol dealing 35 damage? If an enemy can take two full pump gun faceshots at point blank and walk, what's the point in taking the risk to get close and personal? There's a lot more to be said about bad driving AI, miscellaneous bugs and more; still, I'm enjoying every minute of it. I can't wait (and in fact, I *did not* wait) to play it once it's fixed and tuned!
So, after a nearly pointless tutorial and a forced series of quest that don't even allow you to get some sleep or organize your inventory (emergency! Go there! Emergency now go there, don't waste a second! Emergency, look for this! Emergency, look for that!), you are thrown against two bandits, who apparently can attack three times as fast as you. The horrible control system does not alliow you to control the battlefield and the sluggish speed of your attacks make it a nightmare. Your attacks almost never connect, they are just parried with instant counterattacks. Hey, somehow you have laboriously managed to hurt one of the two? Too bad, the other one is on you and attacks one-two-three-four-five times in a row, you are dead. In a game that does not allow you to save. Maybe there IS a way to fight, too bad that there is no way to practice before you are thrown in unfairs fights. This is by far not the only thing that does not work in this game, but for me it's the most egregious.
I really wanted to like this game, as I'm a long time fan of Piranha Byte, but I simply cannot. Even ignoring the ten year old graphics, the abysmal dialogues and the clunkiest combat animations this side of the galaxy, the game remains terrible. I tend to like difficult games, for example I really enjoyed Nioh. The character there responded instantly to controller input though, making hard challenges rewarding and fun. In Elex, on the other hand, you move a wooden character who moves veeery slowly and is instantly exhausted, every single encounter is a major PITA. Maybe my mistake was to choose the "difficult" level, but at level 8 my weapon DID NOT DAMAGE AT ALL enemies near my level (no skull next to their name). Level 9, better weapon, now I can deal some minor damage to basic critters that ravage me any time they hit. Considering that they are much faster, can hit several times in a row while I'm exhausted if I so much as perform one roll and one light attack, I still have to rely completely on my follower to deal any damage, and I'm really fed up with this. Did they playtest the game before release? Is "normal" the only level one is supposed to play? Did they not realize just how bad the combat system is, with second-long lags between one keypress and the corresponding move? Whatever the answers, I really cannot recommend Elex to anyone. And please bear in mind that I did love Gothic and Risen games.
Those praising the procedurally-generated universe must not have played Ellite 34 years ago. Yes, the graphics in Elite were much simpler, but it was a masterpiece of programming, residing in a few dozen kilobytes. No Man's Sky is of course much better looking, but it takes away the commerce element and especially any enjoyment of the combat sections, that are so bland as to be just a nuisance. Space combat is not based on skill, but rahter just on how much armor-fixing material you have in tour ship. No trace of real dogfighting, no adrenaline. Ground combat means standing still and firing at the few enemy types you encounter. The planets are all essentially the same, rare minerals conveniently surface every twenty meters. Think of how varied the Earth landscape is: this is NOT how it works in NMS. Planets are just as repetitive as the ones you could explore in the first Mass Effect - but there, they were just a minor part of the game, here they are all there is. May be worth buying at less than ten euros, not more.
Starts out fun, and having a special gun able to fire six different types of round promises strategic depth. Then it all falls down. There's little to no reason to use the special rounds, there's no variety in the gameplay, no story to speak of. It's a lot like the first Doom: simply shoot anything that moves (well, *almost* anything).
