IGN did NOT like Elex - 4.9/10

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/10/20/elex-review

The biggest problem with ELEX is that it’s buggy to the point I almost wasn’t able to finish it. Broken event triggers, horrible party member AI, and missing or misplaced map markers that make quest targets impossible to find call to mind the worst of Fallout: New Vegas or Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines at the time of their respective releases. At one point I had to chase down and speak to every named NPC in a large town - most of which do not stay in one place for long - due to having no indication of which one had the quest that would let me advance the story. In another case, I spent almost an hour jetpacking around looking for a way into a locked structure because that’s where the quest marker told me to go, and I was never tipped off that it unlocks through another quest I hadn’t completed yet. I’m not the kind of RPG player who needs everything spelled out for me with GPS directions on every quest. But the reason great games like Morrowind got away with less hand-holding was the fact that you could read books, talk to guards, or otherwise get clues from the environment on where you needed to go. ELEX offers none of that, so a lot of quests aren’t so much involved treasure hunts as they are a guessing game mixed with hide-and-seek.

That's one thing I don't like if true, it's why I don't care for 'NPC schedules'. I take that as suspension of disbelief, when my character goes to an NPC it doesn't mean the NPC is fixed in place, that's just me (the player) feedback on what him (the character) did: he got there, asked some random villager about NPC's house, they told him where it is, he got there, NPC was sleeping, he waited and came back in the morning. I don't have to see that as it's totally uneventful, just like I don't have to see my character peeing to believe he actually does pee.

IGN sees problems that don't exist in my game.

Misplaced map markers? What bloody map markers? This is supposed to be an exploration, not handheld game.
Also, what exactly is so buggy one can't finish the game? I have yet to see a bug that I'd call critical. Etc.

They're not incorrect in everything. NPC AI definetly has problems and I've posted it in early impressions. However, it happens only if I engage with melee weapon. If I shoot with the bow first, no problem, AI joins the fight immediately. Simply a bug that will get patched sooner or later.

I’m not the kind of RPG player who needs everything spelled out for me with GPS directions on every quest.

Yes mr. IGN reviewer, you are.

In the past IGN showered utterly broken games with scores above 9. They lost credibility with me ages ago.
Panning Elex just because it isn't mediocre casual crap is not gonna change my mind about IGN.

I'm not saying the score IGN put is wrong. Maybe upon completing it I reach the same conclusion and set it low (I mean, trashmobs respawn, that's instantly -1 on my scale).
Whatever score I'll wield, definetly won't reflect silly reasons IGN listed.

Fluent, are you posting as Joxer? First DOS2 and now Elex; can European devs do no wrong in your book, J? I can wait till your other hand is free for your response….

Yes, I'm joking.

LOL
Of course european devs can do wrong.
A recent example I played is Styx. It starts great then falls into abyss - you're crawling through the same few areas over and over only trashmobs and locations of collectibles get different. I cannot recommend this game to anyone. Scratch that. To those who adore grinding, this game will feel like a paradise. To me, it's just another garbage.

Sadly I didn't play Styx 2 long enough to know if it's the same repetition garbage. It's on pause since too many RPGs released one after another - Styx and it's sequel are stealth games amd not RPG so it can wait.
But in this case, Dishonored series is vastly superior.

If we'll talk only about recent RPGs, I believe I've repeated a few times that there is only one game from Kickstarter I backed that's an utter disappointment: Earthlock. It's dev. studio pushed the worst possible console/phone designs onto PC and is from Norway. Not only the game is annoying with respawns, it's story can't be more boring than it is. puzzles are on kindergarden level and such disastrous interface on PC I haven't seen in a decade. It's worse than pisspoor Neptunia port!
There is no way I'd ever back any possible future project that comes from them.

Erm… As usual, my other hand is not free. I'm always smoking in my room. Yea. White walls became yellow walls over time, black lungs are imminent doctors say, etc.
But you knew that.

I actually agree with you about IGN though. When were they last relevant, 1995?

Originally Posted by crpgnut
I actually agree with you about IGN though. When were they last relevant, 1995?

Well they just acquired Humble Bundle so that made them relevant this week

I feel like the hivemind was expecting a bad game so the first reviews were in anticipation of that and written with that expectation in their subconscious. I expect now that the game is much better than expected (1100+ reviews on Steam and still Mostly Positive, which was unexpected), future reviews and overall perception of the quality of the game will go up.

So, yeah. 4.9 is hilarious though. This is my GOTY by far so far.

Everyone knows you pay IGN for reviews.
Not even joking….

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. I don't pay any attention to these sites anymore. They are dinosaurs in the gaming world. But I have been keeping an eye on the Steam reception and it's much better than I expected it would be. Lots of positive reviews not only from Gothic/PB fans but newcomers as well. It's an interesting twist of events as I expected much harsher reception on Steam.

Like their No Mans Sky review….
Everything was awesome, 9/10…
Then came the storm of shit from players, they changed early review number to "in progress" and a couple weeks later gave it "OKAY" rating..
After advertising the everlivingness out of it…

IGN is the literal definition of paid shill.

Or simply incompetent shill. Or shill wanting the acceptance of a certain set of gamers for ultimately financial reasons. They could have not wanted to seem "out of line" with the other reviews and wave of negativity that was happening with the game at the time as they feel they'd lose credibility or something.

Just another reason I have been scanning user reviews for years now. It's much better coming right from the gamer and you can pick out useful bits in each review.

Not the first time they did this. I believe they gave Prey 4/10 because of a savegame bug that wasn't even widespread.

Giving a game an unusually low score stands out like a sore thumb and give the site more traffic.

Bah! Deceitful bastards.

Meanwhile on Steam reviews… as of now-
All (1747)
Positive (1364)
Negative(383)

So,that has to mean something. Right?

Originally Posted by Black Rune
Meanwhile on Steam reviews… as of now-
All (1747)
Positive (1364)
Negative(383)

So,that has to mean something. Right?

Exactly.

I suspect when reviewers start getting wind of this you'll see some "revised reviews", or at the very least new reviews coming out that are more positive. IMO.

Gamespot (PS4) - Score: 4/10

Originally Posted by HiddenX
Gamespot (PS4) - Score: 4/10

Wow! That's insane bro. lol

Oh dear, that was a console review, so I wouldn't give it much credence for a PC playthrough. Control issues, bugs, and not liking a challenge seems to be the common themes in these low score reviews.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Oh dear, that was a console review

Ah ok, so that's not even the PC version? I was about to go on a rant about how blantantly false so much of what he said was. Still, I find it hard to believe the console version could be that much worse than the PC version.

Saves me the trouble of ranting too.