Elex First Impressions

Originally Posted by Fluent
Nice, hah. It's cool that we seem to agree that it's a really good game. I restarted for a YouTube series and man, I'm seeing a bunch of new stuff already that I missed initially. The world is just ginormous.

Yes, and exceptionally well crafted.

It's odd that sales are quite low though.

Steamspy says only about 120k owners… That's not good.

Nothing to worry about there. Bieber sells more than Mozart.
Besides, EU will still partially fund the next game.

Björn Pankratz is now on Gamasutra TwitchTV.

I would like ot give Bjorn one piece of advice, he doesnt need to speak fast, if he took more time to speak he would stutter a lot less and his speech would be much clearer.

Bjorn is that dude! I want to buy him a beer and talk RPG design.

Originally Posted by HiddenX
Björn Pankratz is now on Gamasutra TwitchTV.

That was a great stream, lots of interesting questions were answered by Bjorn.

Originally Posted by Damian
I would like ot give Bjorn one piece of advice, he doesnt need to speak fast, if he took more time to speak he would stutter a lot less and his speech would be much clearer.

It sounds to me his problem is somehing else: he is probably translating on the fly.

Originally Posted by Gorath
It sounds to me his problem is somehing else: he is probably translating on the fly.

That is probably true. Still though, if he took more time, he would be able to do both without stuttering.

I expect ELEX to keep selling, too, at least at a higher ratio than usual for games like this post-release. I think the early, largely publicized negative reviews threw it for a loop, but already the word of mouth is picking up on it, and good reviews keep coming in on Steam. The positive reviews are also increasing in ratio compared to the negative ones since the release.

It seems like one of those titles that a lot of people were probably making fun of at first after hearing a bad review or two, then maybe see their friend has 80 hours in it and left a glowing review, and then slowly go, "Huh…", and then before you know it they buy it, are playing it and end up loving it.

It seems like one of those titles to me, anyway.

Originally Posted by Fluent
It seems like one of those titles that a lot of people were probably making fun of at first after hearing a bad review or two, then maybe see their friend has 80 hours in it and left a glowing review, and then slowly go, "Huh…", and then before you know it they buy it, are playing it and end up loving it.

It seems like one of those titles to me, anyway.

Divine Divinity

It had a couple middling early reviews (computer gaming world: 70). The game had an absolutely horrible, horrid, horrendous, hideous opening level dungeon. It was so very hard to trudge through that part of the game. But once you did, the game became Iconic. It easily ranks in my top 10 RPGs of all time. Word of mouth got that game over and now I would bet most RPG folks consider that game a classic.

Way too early to determine what RPG history will say about Elex, but the game has only been out a few weeks.

Originally Posted by Dajjer
Divine Divinity

It had a couple middling early reviews (computer gaming world: 70). The game had an absolutely horrible, horrid, horrendous, hideous opening level dungeon. It was so very hard to trudge through that part of the game. But once you did, the game became Iconic. It easily ranks in my top 10 RPGs of all time. Word of mouth got that game over and now I would bet most RPG folks consider that game a classic.

Way too early to determine what RPG history will say about Elex, but the game has only been out a few weeks.

No doubt! I expect it to do well in the next several weeks. Will be interesting to keep an eye on.

I actually enjoyed the opening dungeon of DD. I hated the contrived final section of the game!!

Originally Posted by Corwin
I actually enjoyed the opening dungeon of DD. I hated the contrived final section of the game!!

really, those stupid, stupid skeletons and the way too dark dungeon and it was so big. ugh.

In doing some research for that post I came across the sad news that Kirill Pokrovsky, the composer for most of the Divinity games passed away in 2015. The score for Divine Divinity might be one of the best game tracks of all time. But I really, really, really like Kai Rosenkranz, the composer of most of the Gothic games. Some days I say Divine Divinity has the best track and the other days I say Gothic has the best track.

I remember this magic bit from Div Div 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDuCLC_sZZY

And the best ambient traveling music in gamedom from Gothic 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLZ1…Xcnm-k&index=7


So now Kai is no longer with PB and Kirill has passed away. I'm sad now.
Time to escape to Elex. Just discovered this girl with a troll boyfriend. And the troll just keep whomping on my buddy Duras. Can't we all just get along . . . .? ? ?

Originally Posted by Dajjer
So now Kai is no longer with PB and Kirill has passed away. I'm sad now.
Time to escape to Elex. Just discovered this girl with a troll boyfriend. And the troll just keep whomping on my buddy Duras. Can't we all just get along . . . .? ? ?

I actually specifically mention those two composers in my upcoming ELEX review, because I genuinely feel they add a unique touch to specific locations and in-game atmosphere. It's not that other composers are bad, but they lack a more distinct touch.

I know that some gamers prefer to simply turn off music and only use sound effects, which is fine, but to me the music can be an important part of the experience if done right.

It really is a shame that KaiRo didn't work on ELEX and Kirill didn't work on D: OS2 (and beyond).

Originally Posted by Corwin
I actually enjoyed the opening dungeon of DD. I hated the contrived final section of the game!!

I couldn't agree more. It was the late-game of Divine divinity that was lacking not the beginning.

Originally Posted by Maylander
I actually specifically mention those two composers in my upcoming ELEX review, because I genuinely feel they add a unique touch to specific locations and in-game atmosphere. It's not that other composers are bad, but they lack a more distinct touch.

I know that some gamers prefer to simply turn off music and only use sound effects, which is fine, but to me the music can be an important part of the experience if done right.

It really is a shame that KaiRo didn't work on ELEX and Kirill didn't work on D: OS2 (and beyond).

I didn't care for the music at first, but it grew on me the longer I played. It's more of an ambient soundtrack than actual music (similar to Gothic 1&2), but I thought it was pretty good overall. I especially liked the BGM in Ignadon.

Who was the composer anyways? Was it the same guy who composed Risen 3?

Originally Posted by JDR13
Who was the composer anyways? Was it the same guy who composed Risen 3?

It was actually Bjorn Pankratz, the Project Manager of every PB game. Risen 3 was done by several composers at Dynamedion.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I couldn't agree more. It was the late-game of Divine divinity that was lacking not the beginning.

Totally agree.. The later part was very badly made and made me lose interest unfortunately. I loved the beginning of the game, that dungeon was not too bad imo.. The music was fantastic too. What happened to atmospheric and melodic music in RPG's, i miss that..

I turn all music and sound OFF in games I find it a distraction!!

Originally Posted by Corwin
I turn all music and sound OFF in games I find it a distraction!!

looking for the Thumps down icon. Hmmm, that needs to be fixed.