Elex Elex First Impressions

Since I have always liked the early levels in any game I really enjoy how hard it is to start. It makes each level precious and to be enjoyed. Makes choices hard that you have to think about. Especially since I prefer to go more diplomatic which means trying to balance combat focus with the often less useful charm/persuasion focus. Another reason I play on easy since I tend to gimp my characters somewhat.

I know someone said it was cliche "chosen one" but just because Jax was a senior commander hardly means he is the typical chosen one in games where the character is like some special demi-god. RP wise he starts as a blank slate which I attribute to the ELEX withdrawal from being an ALB.

The game is rather refreshing in many ways.

crpgnut said:

I bought the game for more than $29.99 so even though I don't think it's worth it, I made the purchase. However, I think that price point is more accurate. This game looks old imo. Old and poorly designed too. It's big though and it has lots of macho dudes running around speaking very poor English. I think animations are better in almost anything over these too.

Still, the game has a little of the Risen charm and the exploration might be spades for this loot-aholic. Okay, I shouldn't multi-task while posting, but hopefully you get the gist.

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I'm glad you are liking it a bit. But I still can't agree that it's a $29.99 game. Jeff Vogel's games sell for $20 now, and while I'm a big fan of Jeff's, ELEX is a huuuge undertaking on a much larger scale than Jeff's games. The world is 1.5x the size of Gothic 3 with every piece of loot meticulously hand-placed. I just explored ONE building in the game and there were so many hidden nooks and crannies to find that even Fallout's designers would blush. Not to mention the vertical exploration. You could jetpack or even climb around, it was all interconnected and had multiple levels. It is one of the craziest designed areas I've seen and it was just a single building where a warlord lives in the first town in the game.

That's not even mentioning the interconnected quests, the reputation system, 3 unique factions with their own story and quests and God knows whatever else they managed to miraculously fit in this game with their team of 27 developers.

And better animations do not make a game worth $30 more.

I'd pay $50 for a game like this 10 times out of 10, but that's me.

crpgnut said:

i bought the game for more than $29.99 so even though i don't think it's worth it, i made the purchase. However, i think that price point is more accurate. This game looks old imo. Old and poorly designed too. It's big though and it has lots of macho dudes running around speaking very poor english. I think animations are better in almost anything over these too.

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You're a funny guy nut. This game looks at least as good, if not better, than Fallout 4 without mods, and that was released last year.



And it's not poorly designed. You'll see that once you've played more than 1.3 hours.

I dont have any problem with the price, but I do see the argument that games at a full price point should expect to be judged against other major games.

For me, it's not actually the rough edges of PB games that one might expect from an indie budget that detract from my enjoyment. It actually that they just aren't too skilled in certain areas of game design - combat gameplay, writing, etc. It's a shame from my point of view, as I think these things could be improved upon without necessarily throwing money at the problems.

Well, like I say, I have no problem with the price, and I don't criticize it on that basis. I'm just saying that I can at least understand the more general argument that one can't expect to excuse weaknesses as an indie game, if you're selling at full price. I suspect Elex can probably quite easily defend its pricetag based on its content.

I ninja'd you. But after playing several hours I definitely agree with your last sentence there.

But wow. The game brought back the Gothic system of unwieldy weapons at low skill levels. My bow is hard to aim. Unreal.

Considering 59.99 barely buys you the intro basic package to all crap AAA games and you still have season passes, micro trans, loot box, preorder content scamware…

I disagree with anyone that says this $50 game isnt "worth it".

I'd say its closer to the true cost of a game than any of the AAA BS peicemeal released this year.

Also to whoever compared Jeff Vogels reskinned 1990s shovelware at 20$ to this product…
Wow.. just wow…
If that was the 20$ standard, ELEX should be priced at 175$

I think I may have to eat my words as this game is very, very good. Been a long time since a game kept me playing well past bed time. I keep looking at the clock as it creeps later and later going ... just one more quest, one more corner, one more thing to do.

Just finished the quest for Duras and he is now my companion. Good place to stop for tonight.

So hmm ...perhaps this will be my GOTY after all. Once you get used to things (animation, visuals, etc.) it doesn't really stand out and just becomes part of the world.

Anyhow my first impression has become very positive at this point.

I love the hardest difficulty of this game! It forces you to seek out easier enemies to get xp and trophies to sell while avoiding tougher enemies. I suspect the difficulty will keep up until the end of the game.

crpgnut said:

I bought the game for more than $29.99 so even though I don't think it's worth it, I made the purchase. However, I think that price point is more accurate. This game looks old imo. Old and poorly designed too. It's big though and it has lots of macho dudes running around speaking very poor English. I think animations are better in almost anything over these too.

Still, the game has a little of the Risen charm and the exploration might be spades for this loot-aholic. Okay, I shouldn't multi-task while posting, but hopefully you get the gist.

Click to expand...

I never understood PB fascination with macho dudes! They will need to add more female NPCs. If you look at the male to female ratio, you would think Elex is set in china or somewhere where they have girl child infanticide!

One thing I noticed in recent interview with PB is that, they seems to have more women in their team so this is even more puzzling.

Anyway I am only at the beginning of the game so things might get better later on.

I disagree with everything else you say in terms of looking old and bad design. This game has more soul and character than Skyrim ever did

wolfgrimdark said:

I think I may have to eat my words as this game is very, very good. Been a long time since a game kept me playing well past bed time. I keep looking at the clock as it creeps later and later going … just one more quest, one more corner, one more thing to do.

Just finished the quest for Duras and he is now my companion. Good place to stop for tonight.

So hmm …perhaps this will be my GOTY after all. Once you get used to things (animation, visuals, etc.) it doesn't really stand out and just becomes part of the world.

Anyhow my first impression has become very positive at this point.

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Hold on to your horses about GOTY just yet! PB is great developer and they do an excellent job in beginning and middle of the game. However they always suck at the last part of the game. It all feel rushed and sometimes ruin the game. Only Gothic 2 was an exception to this.

Rabarivoni said:

I'm playing on a 6 year old AMD cpu @ 2.9Ghz and an R7 260X and with a little tweaking I get more than 40fps. Sometimes it dips to 30fps but it's fine.

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Thanks!

Sidekick AI sux.
I'm not sure what's going on, but if I engage with melee weapon, often happens the sidekick ignores what's going on while if I shoot something with a bow, AI joins the fight as should.

Trying to decide if I should get game on GoG or Steam? Is there Steam Workshop for Elex? Would rather get on GoG but will do Steam if mods are made thru Workshop.

No Workshop.
If you don't want to hassle with any client and can't care less about steam cards crap, go with GOG as it's DRMfree.
Note that devs and publisher don't care about steam/gog forums, only for the official game forum, so that shouldn't be a factor in your decision.

If you want some discount, greenmangaming sells only Steam keys.

Hastar said:

Trying to decide if I should get game on GoG or Steam? Is there Steam Workshop for Elex? Would rather get on GoG but will do Steam if mods are made thru Workshop.

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It seems steam seems to get patches faster....

go with gog, more money for PB

I'd go with Gog every time, on principle. I'd be very surprised if mods are confined to the Steam workshop - all the good stuff is usually on the Nexus.

EDIT: the first couple are already up. https://www.nexusmods.com/elex/?

Hmmm, I still agree with my $29.99 statement. The graphics aren't close to F4, nor are the animations, armor/weapon/magic/books/everything graphics are much worse than that 2015 game.

However, the game itself is quite fun so far. Unlike most, I totally skipped Goiter and just left DoAss at the bridge. I've been wandering outside that area and looting everything I find. If I see harder monsters, I sneak and fly away or just run. I've found a couple thousand Brexit in the abandoned buildings in the area, so should have enough dough to buy a few things when I decide to head into town. If there are no lady companions, I won't be using them, so I need to learn to fend for myself. I will pick up the robot companion Ed-E? once I head north to Abcess or whatever it was called.

Yes, I do like to change the names of everyone/everything

This game feels more like PB's version of Fallout-3 than anything else, and that's not a bad thing imo. I wonder if the game is truly open though. Can I be a mage without being a beserker? That will decide my long term interest. Can I be a cleric-mage? I see the options so I assume if there are enough learning points to go around, that this is viable. I wonder if there is a level cap. Anyone know?

BTW, I paid $38.00 via DLGamer, so people on the fence can save a few bucks.

https://www.dlgamer.com/us/games/buy-elex-44488

Just to let folks know, most of the stuff outside Goiter can kill me. I fight from the roofs with arrows and only drop to the ground when I'm out. I do a ton of sneaking, flying, and running away but I've got tons of lootz