My review here is that of somebody with lower play time on record, and I am still working through settings slowly to see if they help. I suffer only from a very few games with any motion issues, and generally that is just a headache. This title is one of the worst in this regard, bringing me to having to stop after no more than 15 minute if I wish not to suffer for a while afterward. I'm going to play with the setting more, to see if they can improve the situation. Why 4 stars then? The game itself has some good design, solid quality, good sound, and interesting ideas. The downside is that issue with the motion. That's the only negative I have here. I thus give it good marks, but with the warning that motion issues may plague those susceptible to them.
The game has rough spots, but ELEX returns to many of the things that made Gothic and Gothic 2 so incredible. You don't get your hand held so much, things crush you if you go trying to fight them too early, and the world is open and exploitable to an extent. Also, much like the others, you will get swarmed if you aren't careful, but unlike the others more things tend to attack at range. Thus negating a lot of the normal stand on X rock and shoot until it dies avoidance mechanics. Okay, so the rough spots: Animation and combat are the two big ones. Animation, well, certain outfits with the attempt to simulate wind look very odd, as if chests bounce oddly when standing still. Also, some mouths have highlighting artifacts, so you may see glowing hot pink inside the NPCs leaving you wondering just what exists in there... Combat, on the other hand, is mostly getting used to it, and a little balancing. Hand Grenades are too OP, other things are a little too weak Magic is especially weak compared to other entries by PB, and the mana costs rather high compared to ease of gaining more mana... but given you can still use everything else it isn't extremely bad. Fix the balancing issues, make the timing a little less of a problem, and add in a little more for choices of attacks, and the combat would be much better. On the bright side, it brings back the grim, deadly world, people die left and right, and things are truly dangerous until you power up. THAT and the improved consequences systems make a might argument that PB could do some very impressive things once again, and left me hoping that they can work with publishers and funding to do what they want and need, instead of getting cut short once again.
