ELEX - More Reviews

“Combats great, no bugs at all, any problems should be dismissed because it was made by 29 people, PB perform miracles, there’s nothing wrong with the game , people are just playing it wrong.”

Nope, looks like your being as objective as always about a game you like. Don’t have the energy or desire to go back and forth with you. Glad you love the game.

Gee, @JDR13; agrees and says exactly the same thing I just did. Huh.

People are actually playing it wrong, btw. I gave concrete evidence. IGN's review, go look at it. They are no small outfit. They have over 9 million subscribers.

In their review, they mention fighting enemies that take 2 hours and 1000+ hits. Yes, that is playing the game wrong. And sadly, there are many reviews that cite similar things that show a clear lack of understanding of how to actually play the game. Which is also why I recommend PB adds better in-game education material (see previous posts.)

A handcrafted open-world RPG 3 times the size of Skyrim yet 3 times more interesting :)P) made by 29 people is a miracle, IMO. If you don't think it is then please show me similar games made by 29 people.

Spoiler, they don't exist. :)

If you also read my post I cited several things that can be improved, and dozens more if you're interested.
 
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I can only remember two presentations or so where anyone from THQ Nordic was even present. Everything else was all Björn himself, soloing the marketing "campaign" or sometimes with his wife Jenny at his side but she gave birth to a baby recently so that's why we haven't seen her much since Gamescom :) .
Björn always gave me the impression that he didn’t want to be there during the Gamescom presentations. He came across as being quite bored and probably wondering when the torment of explaining his game to a bunch of not that interested so-called journalists, would come to an end.
He is not alone in that though, I experience the same with other developers as well, especially on the last day. But not with all, some of the smaller developers are quite enthusiastic and as far as larger ones go, I suspect Swen Vince drinks a lot of Red Bull :)
 
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Swen Vincke can talk faster than his shadow :)

***

I have the feeling that Piranha Bytes don't care much about the international audience. They just rely on their big German fan-base and don't reach out to international game sites to get more publicity.
 
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Swen Vincke can talk faster than his shadow :)

***

I have the feeling that Piranha Bytes don't care much about the international audience. They just rely on their big German fan-base and don't reach out to international game sites to get more publicity.

Makes sense based on the historical international reception
 
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Well, this international gaming site has always done well for PB; we've always been a big supporter!!
 
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I'm sort of a PB fanboy in that I've bought and played all their games and, in fact, joined RPGwatch because of the G2 forum activity. Elex is a very good game in most respects and pretty bug free. In many ways a "fixed" G3. However it's been a disappointment to me because of the mixed post-ap setting; I just can't get into it - too much like Fallout which I really dislike. But that is just my personal problem, I don't get the complaints about combat and pacing, I don't see any notable technical issues with it.
 
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I'm sort of a PB fanboy in that I've bought and played all their games and, in fact, joined RPGwatch because of the G2 forum activity. Elex is a very good game in most respects and pretty bug free. In many ways a "fixed" G3. However it's been a disappointment to me because of the mixed post-ap setting; I just can't get into it - too much like Fallout which I really dislike. But that is just my personal problem, I don't get the complaints about combat and pacing, I don't see any notable technical issues with it.

Understandable there. Going into the game I thought it was going to be a very weird setting that might not work well. I'll just add that the setting grew on me tremendously once I started learning the lore of the world, talking to important faction members and just exploring. ELEX is a fascinating substance, and it's cool to learn about how all the different factions have different beliefs about using it. The companions flesh this out more, too, and give you interesting stories as well.

Still probably won't beat Gothic 3 medieval fantasy for me, though. :)

Just as a side note I thought I'd mention, the game is also large enough to naturally support all the biomes, so it doesn't feel cramped in the slightest, and the transition from area to area is logical and well done. That was also a cause for concern going in and they seemed to have pulled it off very well. I personally think the scale of ELEX should set a new bar in this type of open-world, i.e. the giant sandbox/exploration world a la Bethesda.

The jetpack is a must going forward, too, but that's another topic. :)

I would offer a criticism, and this may be engine-related, but long distance scale looks…odd. Maybe it's me, but while the structures themselves are really huge when you are exploring them, i.e. large bridges, hotel ruins, or the Domed City, etc., from a distance they don't look as large and imposing as they should. It seems to be an issue with the view in the entire game. Not sure how to explain it but maybe I am missing something there.
 
Well, this international gaming site has always done well for PB; we've always been a big supporter!!

Yes, I think we may be the only site to have been pro-PB (sometimes to the point of craziness).

However, we have 500 active members. We should not be their only focus :p
 
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RPGWatch is what turned me on to Gothic in the first place. I remember reading old posts by @JDR13; and a few others in some old threads, noticing that everyone praised Gothic as one of the best PC RPG series, etc.. Being a console gamer mostly but loving RPGs I was interested and checked it out eventually.

The rest is history. Primarily a PC RPG gamer now. :)
 
I haven't had the time to really delve into this.

I must say that my initial impression is that the power curve is counterproductive compared to most PB games.

I don't remember having to spend THAT long being absolutely worthless in their past games.

Granted, I play on "Hard" - but I don't think that changes anything about the frustration of about experiencing zero progress for the first 10-15 hours. Something is off about that, to my mind.

Other than that, though - I think the game seems pretty good. The skill descriptions are for shit, however, which is making it very hard to decide where to invest.

The jury is out on this one.

I'll wait for a patch or two - and then I'll start over.
 
I haven't had the time to really delve into this.

I must say that my initial impression is that the power curve is counterproductive compared to most PB games.

I don't remember having to spend THAT long being absolutely worthless in their past games.

Granted, I play on "Hard" - but I don't think that changes anything about the frustration of about experiencing zero progress for the first 10-15 hours. Something is off about that, to my mind.

Other than that, though - I think the game seems pretty good. The skill descriptions are for shit, however, which is making it very hard to decide where to invest.

The jury is out on this one.

I'll wait for a patch or two - and then I'll start over.

I don't believe the power curve is all that different from say Risen 1 but it is harder than Risen 3. I could kill *some* monsters (which didn't have skull next to them) with the starter rusty axe right at the beginning. I even manged to kill group of raptors by picking them one at a time with the said axe without using companion.

You can get level 4 or 5 with 1 or 2 hours of play and that is what 40 or 50 attribute points. I put *all* them into strength and bought a decent weapon and things were much easier after that. So as long as you don't spread your self too thin at the start, you are easily making progress within 2/3 hours tops. Obviously I play on normal …

And welcome back :)
 
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I don't believe the power curve is all that different from say Risen 1 but it is harder than Risen 3. I could kill some monsters with the starter rusty axe right at the beginning. I even manged to kill group of raptors by picking them one at a time with the said axe without using companion.

You can get level 4 or 5 with 1 or 2 hours of play and that is what 40 or 50 attribute points. I put *all* them into strength and bought a decent weapon and things were much easier after that. So as long as you don't spread your self too thin at the start, you are easily making progress within 2/3 hours tops. Obviously I play on normal …

And welcome back :)

Thank you.

Well, in Risen - I could actually kill the majority of the creatures I met in the earlier stages of the game (like those on the beach where you begin the game). They were challenging, sure, but it could be done.

Same with Gothic. The game was hard - and you died a lot of the time, but the early creatures were killable with a low-level character once you learned the rhythm of combat.

While I'm sure if you go out of your way to focus on melee and pick up a great melee weapon - it's not impossible.

The thing is, though, that I kinda want to focus on ranged weapons.

It seems part of the design that the first 10-20 hours are supposed to be about evading and dodging 99% of every single enemy you meet.

To me, that's not great design and it's not how I remember PB games.

Again, it could be the "Hard" setting - but in that case the "Hard" setting is crap :)

We'll see when I get back to it. I haven't been quite myself lately, so maybe I'm being too harsh.
 
It definitely has a steeper curve. I even mention it in my review. There are two main differences:
1) It takes longer to grow in power
2) Shadowbeasts, Orcs and such exist in the world and can be encountered at low levels, but the player is never tasked with killing them at that point. The quests that involve such creatures are only handed out later on.

I don't mind it, but I can see how it can appear frustrating or confusing, especially since Risen 3 was very easy by PBs standards. In fact, they seem to have listened to the feedback and gone completely the other way.

Edit: I should probably point out that, when replaying it, it doesn't appear as difficult, as there are ways of avoiding most of the early challenges (get a companion, join a faction, know which quests to do etc).
 
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Yeah, they took community feedback from R3 and went hard in that direction. I love it but it takes some getting used to to learn how to survive and thrive in Magalan.
 
Yeah, they took community feedback from R3 and went hard in that direction. I love it but it takes some getting used to to learn how to survive and thrive in Magalan.

Indeed. The good thing about that is that when progress kicks in, it really kicks in. Very satisfying.
 
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It definitely has a steeper curve. I even mention it in my review. There are two main differences:
1) It takes longer to grow in power
2) Shadowbeasts, Orcs and such exist in the world and can be encountered at low levels, but the player is never tasked with killing them at that point. The quests that involve such creatures are only handed out later on.

I don't mind it, but I can see how it can appear frustrating or confusing, especially since Risen 3 was very easy by PBs standards. In fact, they seem to have listened to the feedback and gone completely the other way.

I'm glad to hear I wasn't imagining things :)

I think you guys know I'm not squeamish about being challenged - but there has to be some kind of design paradigm behind it that I can recognise as being better for the game.

In this case, I think they went too far - especially if you like to optimise your build towards something other than melee combat.

Certainly, I found no other way to deal with enemies than simply fleeing.

Now, I could get behind that if that was for "tough" enemies - like the case was in Risen/Gothic. Once you figured out the harsh nature of the early PB games, it became pretty evident when you stood a chance and when you should simply run away.

But when even the weakest enemies present all but impossible challenges until quite a ways into the game, something is off in my view.
 
The weakest enemies can be killed at the start. Runt critters, runt biters, clumsy rotboars, etc..

Jax had all ELEX removed suddenly so he lost all his power. Typical PB start with the main difference being there is a much wider variety of walking death on Magalan. :)
 
The weakest enemies can be killed at the start. Runt critters, runt biters, clumsy rotboars, etc..

Jax had all ELEX removed suddenly so he lost all his power. Typical PB start with the main difference being there is a much wider variety of walking death on Magalan. :)

It makes no difference when there are still entry-level creatures all around that you can't defeat without cheesing it.

It's also really jarring that you can kill a few enemies with total ease - and in the very same beginner area, you get your ass handed to you by another without warning.

I'm not saying you can't make a case for why I'm killed constantly in terms of lore, I'm just saying it feels off to me. It's not good design.

I'm all for the rags to riches experience of PB games - and I love the sensation of satisfying progression.

But delaying my ability to kill entry level creatures for 10+ hours seems senseless to me.

The end result is that the pleasure of progression is pointlessly delayed for a good amount of hours - instead of starting from the initial stages. Again, that's what PB games have always been about, to me.

But we all enjoy different things. It's all good.

I'm sure the rest of the game will be worth the frustration.
 
Yeah, the game is definitely worth sticking with. I'm enjoying it more than any RPG since Skyrim released in 2011.
 
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