Elex First Impressions

Originally Posted by booboo
@Ragnaris - do it! I'm enjoying myself immensely, despite some minor gripes about how they have implemented things like the UI. I wasn't sold on the weird fantasy/sci-fi setting, but it's grown on me. The world is very big and there is a lot to see and do. If you do bite the bullet, give it a chance to grow on you - initially when I fired it up I was a little 'meh', but that soon vanished as I started interacting with the world and NPCs.
EDIT: I've had no crashes or any weirdness and the game has been stable for me and runs smoothly. I do have a reasonably high-end system though.

Perhaps I'll do just that. I tend to be fairly patient with games, and the screenshots/videos have my attention already, and this comes from someone who isn't entirely enthralled by sci-fi RPGs. Additionally, the moment I saw dinosaurs I said "ooh!".

I've got a rather high end system myself. Not the best, but I've been very satisfied ever since I constructed it. GTX 980 Ti, i7 5820k processor, 32G RAM…a bit overkill perhaps, but I haven't needed any upgrades for some time now!

I'm fiending to get a GTX 1080 already. I want to play ELEX in 4K.

The game is very well optimized. Like freakishly so. It runs rock solid for me on a GTX 970, 16mb RAM and i5 4690. Not so much as a screen tear or hiccup. First open-world RPG like this I can remember that didn't have spikes or lags in the framerate in certain areas as well.

Originally Posted by Fluent
I'm fiending to get a GTX 1080 already. I want to play ELEX in 4K.

The game is very well optimized. Like freakishly so. It runs rock solid for me on a GTX 970, 16mb RAM and i5 4690. Not so much as a screen tear or hiccup. First open-world RPG like this I can remember that didn't have spikes or lags in the framerate in certain areas as well.

I've got a GT765m and it still runs well on that, so a 970 shouldn't have any issues.

They did quite well for such a new game to run on old hardware like mine.

I probably will play this game next year completely though as I have so many other games to play and I also will be buying a new laptop next year.

It arrived over the weekend, and I thought I'd be done with Prey now and install Elex. Nope.

BTW, don't bother with a physical purchase. The manual is just a 1 page quick start key mapping. 6 DVDs. Well at least it will install faster than a DL.

Originally Posted by Pladio
They did quite well for such a new game to run on old hardware like mine.

Definitely. I think they did some clever things to have the game run so well, including maybe toning down the overall graphical complexity, but in exchange it gives the game rock solid performance. I notice there's very little pop-in too, other than minor plants and grasses in the area, but that might even be a bug on my end, not sure. And their engine always had an above average view distance, too.

Have fun with the new laptop! I enjoyed my old Alienware a lot. Was cool to just relax with that baby, chill and play some good games in 1080p60 on it.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
It arrived over the weekend, and I thought I'd be done with Prey now and install Elex. Nope.

BTW, don't bother with a physical purchase. The manual is just a 1 page quick start key mapping. 6 DVDs. Well at least it will install faster than a DL.

Good to know. GoG was actually where I was planning to pick it up myself. I would consider a physical copy if it had a real user manual, however.

Doesn't the Collector's Edition have a manual with it? It's also a lot more expensive though.

Not sure. But it includes an artbook. The "manual" you may be referring to is the lousy quickstart 1 pager.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
6 DVDs. Well at least it will install faster than a DL.

Must be on a really slow connection? The only reason i no longer buy physical copies is because if it comes on DVD's it takes me ages to install, did that mistake with the latest GTA.. Steam is 1 click then wait 1-5 mins depending on size.

Yes, I have shitty ADSL. Refuse to give more money to our crappy cable monopoly.

Also from Amazon, "Collector's Edition Contents: -Premium Quality Display Box - Mage Figurine -Cloth World Map -Companion Drone Amulet -Original Soundtrack CD -The Art of Elex book -"Making Of" DVD -(SHITTY) Quick start Manual"

Originally Posted by lostforever
People were complaining about story in Elex but I find it pretty good in general. The main quest as well as all the side quest were all very interesting. The problem is with the quality of English and not the story itself. Its like they got their English intern to do the translation!

Lol yes this was my feeling. In a way its a good thing. I am so spoiled playing English based games. Now I finally get to see what it feels like to play a game that is not in my native language and have to deal with a poor translation job.

That being said it is still fun but I often wonder what I might be missing due to translation.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Not sure. But it includes an artbook. The "manual" you may be referring to is the lousy quickstart 1 pager.

That sucks. I'd like to see a decent paper manual. A strategy guide for the game would be dope too. I love me some strategy guides for RPGs.

Originally Posted by HiddenX
Nasty will be important… later!

I wonder if you can do the game without her. I am pretty much sticking with Duras for the whole game outside of a couple of cases with factions - like I may hang with Falk a little doing Hort and hang with Ray when doing The Fort. I didn't have any intention of picking up all the companions. Oh except the female berserker - I rather like her. Her and Duras are my favorites so far.

Pretty much any game I play I focus on a few companions. I dislike the idea of going through them as toss away achievements only done till their rep is maxed and the stroy done. Have over 1200 hours in FO4 and still have only reached idolize status with Mac, Danse, and Piper. Have hung out with Nick and Preston. Never did any of the others.

Likewise all ME and DA games. Only do the companion(s) I really like (depends how many you can have) and skip the rest unless the game forces me to use them for a while.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Not sure. But it includes an artbook. The "manual" you may be referring to is the lousy quickstart 1 pager.

Oh, no. What I was referring to were the 20-90 page manuals that were typically paired with games. I can't necessarily fault the game for not having one given the way the gaming industry functions now, but I do miss them. Game manuals would persuade me to purchase physical copies any day of the week (though I prefer physical media over digital anyway).

Anyway, GoG it is!

On a side note, vertical transportation seems interesting. I'm spending a little bit of time reading up on the factions without spoiling too much. Maybe I'll save it for the weekend, though. The more I read comments from the watchers, the more I look forward to diving in.

Originally Posted by Ragnaris
On a side note, vertical transportation seems interesting.

IMO, it should (and hopefully will) set a new standard for open-world RPGs, i.e. the ability to travel and explore vertically. It's a gamechanger IMO.

I wouldn't read too much on the rest of the game though. You can only do your first playthrough once.

Originally Posted by Fluent
IMO, it should (and hopefully will) set a new standard for open-world RPGs, i.e. the ability to travel and explore vertically. It's a gamechanger IMO.

I think some inspiration might have come from Zelda BoTW.. it has some great vertical exploring (and real climbing - not jump-to-climb or fly-to-climb) and some pretty interesting ways to move around (hang glider, skate on shield, and a few different mounts)

IMO the ultimate fantasy RPG would be something like a mix of Gothic and Zelda.. I think Zelda can be a little bit too cute sometimes which can remove some of the atmosphere for me personally..

Yep. And Zelda BotW is more like a PB-style world than any other RPG is, lol. Pretty remarkable. But yeah, ideas from that game should influence future RPGs a lot, too.

Beth is in an incredible spot to design the next TES game, that's for sure. They can sit back and see what's working well for these games and study them.

Originally Posted by Fluent
Yep. And Zelda BotW is more like a PB-style world than any other RPG is, lol. Pretty remarkable. But yeah, ideas from that game should influence future RPGs a lot, too.

Beth is in an incredible spot to design the next TES game, that's for sure. They can sit back and see what's working well for these games and study them.

With their recent involvement with Nintendo, you can bet climbing will be added to the next Elder scrolls game.

Originally Posted by Fluent
Beth is in an incredible spot to design the next TES game, that's for sure. They can sit back and see what's working well for these games and study them.

Not even sure i want to see the next Bethesda ""RPG"", it's probably gonna be less RPG than the first Assasins Creed I bet they look at the scores for ELEX and then say "ok, that's exactly what we are NOT going to do next!".. But Zelda probably has an impact though.

The TES/Fallout team at Bethesda is too stuck in their ways to evolve their games anywhere else but an ever-increasing soup of bland, stagnant, copy/pasted content. The real talent over there is the marketing department.