How could that happen? :S

Not much time for gaming the last couple of years. At least I have the game now. :/

Which is a marvelous thing!! Keep'em coming, PB !!!

I only played a littof ELEX 1, and overall liked what I saw. Seemed like it has the same heart as the Gothic games. Especially for exploration. But the jank in the melee combat system really surprises me. Gothic 1/2, while not perfect, had pretty decent systems. Why did they have to go and reinvent the wheel, and not make it a blocky wheel. :p

Anyways, it probably couldn't just be ported over as easily as I make it out to be. But my point still stands. The had a good system in Gothic 1/2, then they failed miserably with it in Gothic 3. Went a little back to something decent in Risen, and now again they had to reinvent it in ELEX. I think I dislike the floatyness most of all, if I remember correctly. It's been quite a few years since I tried it. But I'll someday get back to it. Come to think of it, I said the same thing for Risen 2 and 3.

But I really hope they make it out ok with ELEX 2. They deserve another big seller. Unfortunately their games never seem to get away from the cult-status they've been under. Which is fine, as long as they keep managing to make new games. And keep the souls of their game design philosophy alive.

I don't finish a lot of open-world games but I have completed Elex and Gothic 2&3. Something about being so weak at the beginning and then getting revenge at higher lvls. These games always have the big boss monsters that you have to try and defeat in the late game. Reminds me of the early Might and Magic games where there were giant monsters on the paper map and you went back to try and defeat them.

Plus, I really like exploration in these games and the new zones are always interesting.

I also tend to get bored of a game around the 50 hour mark unless there are significant gameplay/story developments that keep me interested. Games like most of what Bethesda pumps out start out pretty fun, but then you reach your power pinnacles around the 40 hour mark with 70% of the map still to explore while repeating the same thing over and over with no plot significane, it gets boring fast.

If Elex 2 can avoid this then I'm on board.

That might be correct for you and @Ivanwah, but it's certainly not correct for me. :)

I could have kept playing for another 100 hours after having finished all side quests and the contracts (but not all the treasure hunts).

New stories, characters, moods, and locations are enough to keep me interested (if they're of good quality obviously).

Then I must say I'm a little envious. I enjoyed TW3, but I didn't enjoy it that much. :)

Whenever I replay it someday, I might try some mods that tweak the character system. Maybe something that slows the leveling process. Being overleveled towards the end definitely contributed to me getting burned out.

I'm envious of my past self who hasn't already played the game. :|

Bethesda should take a note out of XCOMs difficulty levels and have you select optional modifiers like restricted factions. It would need to be more than just a restriction through and have gameplay consequences.