ELEX - Released: More Reviews

It's not about being "casual" gamer or nowadays people prefering easier games with handholding.
It is for most "professional" game "journalists", though. Hence most of the review scores.

Of course, most also critize rightfully the still bad animations and the completely buggy and stupid AI.
Once I play it, I will try to do it without a companion.
 
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Couple of hours in.

Bit of a shaky start given how rough the game looks compared to other rpg's but this is a long form game by a smallish company - adjust your expectations. Took a couple of hours before it really hooked my interest (this is why you see angry posts in the game's steam forum by numpties who've played it for an hour or less, explaining why they got a refund and why others should too <sigh>).

Something of a return to Gothic - in fact, it has a distinct Gothic 3 vibe for me - which is not a bad thing as the exploration in G3 is one of my favorite gaming memories.

The map is enormous.

Loot is everywhere. Exploration into nooks and crannies is worthwhile.

Also like that the landscape is open rather than corridors gated by monsters as often seen in the Risen series.

Can swim, sleep, cook food. I like that the day/night cycle is quite long - making finding a bed and sleeping till morning more meaningful.

Melee combat seems awkward. As per my standard approach to Gothic games, I've gone ranged instead. Jump jets help here in escaping danger and reaching safe perches - although not entirely sold on jump jet implementation - not enough fine control to manouevre onto spots such as the tops of walls.

Everything wants to kill you. Engage a monster and any nearby monsters will also be alerted. Monsters are ferocious. I feel very vulnerable.

Conversations are in that typical verbose and workmanlike PB dialogue that is one step away from being dull as dishwater. There's a lot of it too + choices. Suspect a lot of players won't have the patience. Really wish PB would lift their game in this respect.

Voice acting is generally ok.

Main character is not much more than a gruff space marine cypher.
But as a character thrown into a strange world with nothing, story fits the things the player will be doing better than magic titans and ghost pirates. I find the player character's motivation more relatable.

No MMO style collect x number of items missions so far - which is very welcome as I despise these sorts of quests in my RPG's.

Finding a skeleton in an old car with a radio nearby sort of highlighted that the game is a bit cheesy in its post-apocalyptic setting.

No gamebreaking bugs so far but it's early days.

Best moment so far, hanging out in the Berserker tavern with night outside and the rain visible into the far distance - real Gothicky feeling of a vast world outside.

<edit> runs in 4k at 30fps with most settings maxed (except for ambient occlusion) on my GTX1060 6gb.
 
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Any opinion on "humor"?
IMHO PB's attempt at humor is pretty much cringe worthy (Risen 2, Risen 3).
 
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Haven't really come across much that's humorous - except perhaps the skeleton cruising in the burnt out car - it's all pretty serious stuff so far.
 
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I agree with most of what you said there. However, I have come across at least 1 or 2 "collect x amount of x" missions already, one of which is in the Besrker camp.

I'm not really getting a Gothic 3 vibe though. I'm reminded more of Risen 1 so far, but that's a good thing to me.

Also, I think the game looks really good on the highest settings. It's not Witcher 3 quality, but overall I think the visuals are great for an open-world game of this size considering the smaller development team.
 
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Could any of you guys comment on the technical quality of the game on a regular (not pro) PS4? (I originally bought it for Bloodborne...)
 
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Awfully bad reviews here in France.

Reviewers say (among other "bad" points) :

- world is populated with very different monsters levels, so the player can't explore easily with progressive level fighting, and even had often to run for his life,
- combat is like Gothic 1/2 where the player has to attack at the right time instead of dynamic & fast combat (read : clickfeast).

If those are the negative points, I want REALLY to play it.

You wrote : "The reviews show that ELEX is not made for casual gamers. The reviewers today expect handholding, questmarkers and a 'nice' difficulty curve".

I think you said it all.
 
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Is a game "open" world if you can't go most places from the beginning? If monsters force you into playing only in certain low-level areas, then the game isn't open world. It's monster-gated.
 
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Is a game "open" world if you can't go most places from the beginning? If monsters force you into playing only in certain low-level areas, then the game isn't open world. It's monster-gated.

I guess a skilled player can beat higher level monsters and go wherever he wants, or you can run past them.
 
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Is a game "open" world if you can't go most places from the beginning? If monsters force you into playing only in certain low-level areas, then the game isn't open world. It's monster-gated.

Monster gated is still better than level scaled. There is senses of accomplishment when you run away from a monster but come back and kill it later on. It makes leveling meaningful as well.
 
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I guess a skilled player can beat higher level monsters and go wherever he wants, or you can run past them.
It's exactly that design except you can't avoid battling certain "guards" that lead to smallish closed potions that have no other entrance or "minibosses" that are near some loot you want desperately to grab. But otherwise, you can just fly over or circle around a trashmob currently too hard to kill. Another possibility is to lure a hard to kill trashmob towards friendly NPCs who'll then kill it instead of you (but you don't get XP then).

In any case, trashmob levels don't scale with your level nor with levels of your equipment/skills like in Skyrim.
So yeah, it's monstergated openworld but not in a way these monsters require you to kill them all in order to reach some spot. Monstergated and openworld are not mutually exclusive here.

Also note that you can activate teleport spots on the map and fasttravel on them at any time ignoring anything you've avoided to kill previously.

EDIT:
In case you can't understand the combat system and trashmobs feel too hard which leads you to think it's monstergated linear game (here's hope Angry Joe sees this before reviewing the game):
http://steamcommunity.com/app/411300/discussions/0/1483233503861430860/

I made this short video quickly explaining the single most important element of the melee combat in ELEX which, sadly, is very poorly explained in-game. I think the combat system (not the animations) is brilliant, and it's definitely one of the better open-world combat systems once you get the hang of it.

A quickly cobbled-together video talking about the TREMENDOUSLY important combo meter that, sadly, is very poorly explained in the game.



Please send this to anyone who dislikes the combat, as well as any reviewers you know who are still working on the game.

Also, don't forget to use the 'lock' button if you're fighting one-on-one.
 
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Is a game "open" world if you can't go most places from the beginning? If monsters force you into playing only in certain low-level areas, then the game isn't open world. It's monster-gated.

That reminds me of how M&M X was. That's not how Elex is though. Monsters don't keep you out of entire areas.

You might not be able to enter a specific room because of a monster, but you're never forced in/out of certain areas.
 
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It's exactly that design except you can't avoid battling certain "guards" that lead to smallish closed potions that have no other entrance or "minibosses" that are near some loot you want desperately to grab. But otherwise, you can just fly over or circle around a trashmob currently too hard to kill. Another possibility is to lure a hard to kill trashmob towards friendly NPCs who'll then kill it instead of you (but you don't get XP then).

In any case, trashmob levels don't scale with your level nor with levels of your equipment/skills like in Skyrim.
So yeah, it's monstergated openworld but not in a way these monsters require you to kill them all in order to reach some spot. Monstergated and openworld are not mutually exclusive here.

Also note that you can activate teleport spots on the map and fasttravel on them at any time ignoring anything you've avoided to kill previously.

EDIT:
In case you can't understand the combat system and trashmobs feel too hard which leads you to think it's monstergated linear game (here's hope Angry Joe sees this before reviewing the game):
http://steamcommunity.com/app/411300/discussions/0/1483233503861430860/

Thanks for the video - just watched. I doubt I will get into this game as I tend to hate combat like this. Anything remotely like Dark Souls is a major turn off. I have poor reflexes and the narrator said "I don't think I have ever played a game where I had to pay attention to so many different things in combat" which just sounds like a chore to me. Combat is secondary to me in games and if I have to be a twitch player who needs to be able to monitor dozens of signals at the same time while also trying to have my hands on the correct positions on the keyboard and mouse … and time everything … and be constantly aware of my surrondings … and so on.

That will stress me out and then I start fumbling things with fingers and will end up dead … just like in W3 when I set Geralt's horse on fire as the combat was too frantic and complicated.

But this sounds like an awesome game for those who love complicated and skillful combat. I am not dishing it at all … and hope people read and understand what I am writing here.

Just old and I don't do well with this type of combat. Even in simpler games like FO4 I can only manage thanks to VATS slowing things down or the ability to be a sniper and take my time picking out shots.

I am not going to refund the game though. They are a good company and I am happy to support them by paying and keeping the game.

Plus I haven't actually tried things yet lol … it just finished installing. I admit I am getting lots of vibes from all the comments, however, that the combat is going to be a major problem for me.

Just hoping I am wrong and maybe on easier difficulty I will be able to get enough of a rhythm to play and the game itself will be a little forgiving of finger fumbling and not being able to always monitor rapid inputs from many different areas.
 
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I doubt I will get into this game as I tend to hate combat like this.
It's important only earlygame and only while you're alone (which won't be long as you'll be able to add sidekicks). Later when you get better weapons and up some stats you'll ignore it completely as it'll need one hit ot two to nail a trashmob.
Also, eventually you'll get your hands on ranged weapons and spells.
Just hoping I am wrong and maybe on easier difficulty I will be able to get enough of a rhythm to play and the game itself will be a little forgiving of finger fumbling and not being able to always monitor rapid inputs from many different areas.
I'm playing on normal difficulty and early trashmobs aren't problematic at all. JDR says they instakill him with one hit on hard difficulty, but on normal they need to hit you 5-6 times before you drop.
And that's earlygame. One thing more, parry seems completely useless, at least against animals.
 
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It's important only earlygame and only while you're alone (which won't be long as you'll be able to add sidekicks). Later when you get better weapons and up some stats you'll ignore it completely as it'll need one hit ot two to nail a trashmob.
Also, eventually you'll get your hands on ranged weapons and spells.

I'm playing on normal difficulty and early trashmobs aren't problematic at all. JDR says they instakill him with one hit on hard difficulty, but on normal they need to hit you 5-6 times before you drop.
And that's for earlygame.

Thanks - that is reassuring. Just finishing up some online stuff then going to start the game up and see how it goes. I really like what I read on the other review about the exploration and how things interact. That was all a plus for me.

But won't know till I play.

Unrelated ... just made it to the city of Arx last night in DOS2. Didn't quite finish that before this game came out so probably going to focus a bit more on DOS2 to wrap that up.
 
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This looks vaguely interesting but I'm in no rush to jump in, knowing how rough these games are at launch. My niche at the moment seems to be turn based anyways, so it all works out.
 
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@wolfgrimdark;
The time has come for you to stop watching for reviews and play the game. You've passed the the review stage and are now firmly entrenched in overthinking everything :)
Play, enjoy, experience.
 
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I have to admit the game looks better in that video than in others I have seen. The graphics, at least in that video talking about the combat, are good. Better than some reviews are saying, that's for sure.

Regarding combat, I also hate Dark Souls-like combat and am not a big fan of stamina based combat systems either, especially this one as seen in the video where the stamina runs out way too quickly. That said, I get that the video was made at the beginning stages, so the skills and character will be weak, and there are probably various ways to fix that stamina running out so quickly later on.

That said, if they have ranged weapons and magic then I can see how you can bypass the melee combat to a large extent, if it turns you off. I would never pay $50 for this game, they are asking too much -- close to a AAA game for this -- (in my opinion) but if it ever went on sale for, like, $20 or so, I might consider it.

I would also be much more likely to buy it if infinity mods made a trainer for this game, and then I could put on "unlimited stamina" if necessary, and "unlimited ammo", and use laser guns most of the time in the combat, lol.

Anyway, nice to read the player's impressions.
 
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