D
Deleted User
Guest
Was another wall-o-text really necessary, DArt? I vote no. You are really creating a wild scenario there in your head. But here's a wall for you, my good man.
Maybe ELEX just isn't for you. I didn't notice anything crazy about the early hours myself. Just adapted, I guess. Was still occasionally killing runt critters, etc.. Seemed like typical PB there, just runt biters/critters/clumsy rotboars in place of scavengers and molerats.
It is actually challenging to avoid enemies, though. Without high-tech sunglasses, you can get jumped a lot. Gotta stay on your toes then.
I think it's challenging to make good choices in quests at times early on. It's easy to misread a situation or a response. I've messed up a few, increased my Cold level by accident, had to pay a huge fine for a crime, even locked myself out of a couple by making NPCs angry. You have to pay attention. The game tells you Duras will help you survive, Magalan is dangerous, etc.. Gotta heed that advice, bro. So I worked to get Duras as a companion ASAP. Let him kill things and my dude will be a support character. Makes sense, he's a seasoned Berserker, I'm coming off ELEX. Now 70 hours in, I'm getting pretty badass. Finally.
The thing is, this type of world design leads to unpredictability, rather than a 100% repetitive game loop. The first several hours are about making friends, getting your shards up and acquiring a few skills. You avoid a lot of combat, moving in the world is dangerous, etc.. Even the enemies you can kill give you little XP, and that is not a good way to progress in the game.
Then the game loop changes a bit after you gain some strength and a companion. You can start surviving in combat a bit. Then you start gaining a little better XP, and by that time you've probably got Animal Trophies or something else to make hunting worthwhile. So that aspect starts to come together more. Yet it's still dangerous to move in the world.
Finally, when you get powerful, enemies start giving you a bunch of XP. Lots. And then you can actually hunt in a true sense and start slaughtering wildlife left and right if you like. Just watch out for the uber strength enemies that can still maul you, and were roaming in those same spots at level 1.
Point is, the early levels are different and the game is better off for it. It at least offers a change of pace and different stages throughout the game, rather than the typical "kill enemy, get XP, level up, kill slightly stronger enemy, get XP, level up, etc.." It actually leads to a much stronger sense of progression as you start developing your dude. And the unpredictability of enemy placement in the world plays greatly to that. It goes against typical conventions of "Dangerous area, do not enter. Higher level area, avoid. Low level area, okay to explore, etc.." Yes, those exist somewhat, yet within them there also exists different levels of strength that can vary greatly. So overall I find it just creates a very unique, very pleasing RPG experience for me. Much different than pretty much any open-world action RPG before it, and in these ways it is a pinnacle of the genre so far. For me.
Just felt like rambling a bit there.
And the UI could definitely be improved. The icons still confuse me all these hours in. But it just doesn't bother me all that much. I spend enough hours ranting and raving on forums like this to also spend time studying the game mechanics.
Just wing it, bro.
Maybe ELEX just isn't for you. I didn't notice anything crazy about the early hours myself. Just adapted, I guess. Was still occasionally killing runt critters, etc.. Seemed like typical PB there, just runt biters/critters/clumsy rotboars in place of scavengers and molerats.
It is actually challenging to avoid enemies, though. Without high-tech sunglasses, you can get jumped a lot. Gotta stay on your toes then.
I think it's challenging to make good choices in quests at times early on. It's easy to misread a situation or a response. I've messed up a few, increased my Cold level by accident, had to pay a huge fine for a crime, even locked myself out of a couple by making NPCs angry. You have to pay attention. The game tells you Duras will help you survive, Magalan is dangerous, etc.. Gotta heed that advice, bro. So I worked to get Duras as a companion ASAP. Let him kill things and my dude will be a support character. Makes sense, he's a seasoned Berserker, I'm coming off ELEX. Now 70 hours in, I'm getting pretty badass. Finally.
The thing is, this type of world design leads to unpredictability, rather than a 100% repetitive game loop. The first several hours are about making friends, getting your shards up and acquiring a few skills. You avoid a lot of combat, moving in the world is dangerous, etc.. Even the enemies you can kill give you little XP, and that is not a good way to progress in the game.
Then the game loop changes a bit after you gain some strength and a companion. You can start surviving in combat a bit. Then you start gaining a little better XP, and by that time you've probably got Animal Trophies or something else to make hunting worthwhile. So that aspect starts to come together more. Yet it's still dangerous to move in the world.
Finally, when you get powerful, enemies start giving you a bunch of XP. Lots. And then you can actually hunt in a true sense and start slaughtering wildlife left and right if you like. Just watch out for the uber strength enemies that can still maul you, and were roaming in those same spots at level 1.
Point is, the early levels are different and the game is better off for it. It at least offers a change of pace and different stages throughout the game, rather than the typical "kill enemy, get XP, level up, kill slightly stronger enemy, get XP, level up, etc.." It actually leads to a much stronger sense of progression as you start developing your dude. And the unpredictability of enemy placement in the world plays greatly to that. It goes against typical conventions of "Dangerous area, do not enter. Higher level area, avoid. Low level area, okay to explore, etc.." Yes, those exist somewhat, yet within them there also exists different levels of strength that can vary greatly. So overall I find it just creates a very unique, very pleasing RPG experience for me. Much different than pretty much any open-world action RPG before it, and in these ways it is a pinnacle of the genre so far. For me.
Just felt like rambling a bit there.
And the UI could definitely be improved. The icons still confuse me all these hours in. But it just doesn't bother me all that much. I spend enough hours ranting and raving on forums like this to also spend time studying the game mechanics.
Just wing it, bro.