I had a rough start with Elex, that much i have to admit. But i kept playing, all day, all night, i couldn't stop. This game is just amazing. The world is huge and there is literaly not an inch, wich could bore you. Same goes for most of the quests. And after a while I came to like the combat system, wich in the beginning is really hard to master. But the jetpack, and the over all liberty to find my own gamestyle and path in Elex, a making this game a fantastic experience and a challange.
I'm gonna say it. Elex is the best game I have ever plays that tells stories SOLELY through the environment. The game has a lot of issues which the majority of other reviews cover adequately. But one of the things that the majority of games do is only tell their stories through dialogues, quests, or perhaps in documents or books found throughout the land.
Elex, on the other hand, tells stories through the placement of objects, of skeletons, things that may not even relate to the main story of the game but help to build the world and the lore, to bring it all to life. Things occur around you and the evidence is there for you to find, be it of the old world from before the comet hit, or of the new world with the placement of bodies, of objects, and yes, with documents.
This game is the best that rewards exploration, not just for the sweet loot, but with the stories it tells. I can highly recommend it for that reason alone.
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.
It's rare that I complete an RPG. More rare that after beating one I immediately want to start over again and play it through a second time.
Gothic, Neverwinter Nights, Dark Souls, Salt & Sanctuary, Deus Ex (does this count?), and now ELEX. Is my complete list of non-roguelike RPGs I have played more than once.
If you want a story, an immersive world, multiple factions each greatly different in ideology, asthetics, and arms, and actually interesting quests that - with two exceptions - never felt like needless busy work akin to MMOs and Borderlands "Go kill X amount of monster Y" or "Take parcel A to person B within timespan C". Then you must try this game.
Be warned, the combat is a little clunky to get used to, money actually matters (you'll never be rich), and monsters lack 'level' indicators. If you want to know how strong something is you'll have to survive a fight with it, watch it fight something else, or use your own judgement. If a raptor gave you a hard fight, than a pack leader (bigger raptor with thicker scales) probably isn't the best enemy to engage with. Start with the oversize chickens, work your way up. Even at maximum level enemies like Trolls are still hard to kill...
BAD: It ends abruptly, it may be forcing you to pick a decision you are most like not comfortable with; the combat is a bit clunky; it crashes from time to time
GOOD: large world, multitude of characters in different locations to meet and help, the story is interesting and world is fun to explore, there's a grind part that may have a very negative outcome (see BAD), that might catch completionist people off guard
Overall: it was fun for 60hours. It has 3 factions to chose from, so there's some replayability... I have had enough after single run.
