ELEX - Some Thoughts

Maylander said:
Yeah, it's really well done. I like that a lot. PB also made great use of the Z-axis, which is probably what Fluent is referring to.

Quick example: The small area right outside Khorinis, on the way to the inn. It contains:
- The cave with the orc and the teleporter
- A small path down into a valley, with Field Raiders, Wargs, a Shadowbeast and a cave.
- Go along the path further up, and then go left and you're suddenly on a farm, seemingly completely awasy from all that other stuff.
- Go straight ahead instead and you go under a bridge, with a crime scene, another small cave and a guy with a quest. Further on is the inn.
- If you go to the previously mentioned farm, turn right and go across the bridge, you are actually just a few meters from the inn, but you'll still feel like you're in a different location (yet again), as you'll find a cave with lizards, a graveyard and another teleporter cave. You'll also bump into the bandits mentioned by the guy below the bridge.

This area, with all that content, never feels cramped, yet has more going on per meter than just about any game I've seen. It's a fascinating design.
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Z-axis and overall density, really. The world is dense but with hand-placed stuff, so you never get the feeling you are exploring a randomly generated world. Every square inch feels lovingly made and with interesting things to discover.

ELEX also makes excellent use of verticality, more than any other open-world RPG I've played. I love the jetpack and think it's a must for future RPGs like this (or some form of vertical exploration ability, levitation or what have you.) Wouldn't be surprised if Bethesda brings back levitation after they've seen ELEX. :)

ELEX also obviously increases the scale greatly, but the world is not diminished in any way, actually enhanced. Gothic 3, which I've played recently, can be argued to be much emptier overall, whereas somehow PB with their 25 person team was able to fill the world with interesting things everywhere, everything hand-placed down to the coins you find in a chest. Remarkable and fascinating indeed.
 
Fluent said:
ELEX also obviously increases the scale greatly, but the world is not diminished in any way, actually enhanced. Gothic 3, which I've played recently, can be argued to be much emptier overall, whereas somehow PB with their 25 person team was able to fill the world with interesting things everywhere, everything hand-placed down to the coins you find in a chest. Remarkable and fascinating indeed.
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Oh yeah, the world of ELEX is definitely more interesting than that of Gothic 3. The only thing I miss from Gothic 3 is more settlements. The ones in ELEX are certainly much more interesting though, so we got quality instead of quantity here. Would have been nice to have both.. :D

Pladio said:
Try ALT < > or CTRL <>.

In previous PB games that's how it worked.
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Indeed, leading to +/- 10 or 100 at a time. Doesn't work that way here, unfortunately.
 
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Maylander said:
Oh yeah, the world of ELEX is definitely more interesting than that of Gothic 3. The only thing I miss from Gothic 3 is more settlements. The ones in ELEX are certainly much more interesting though, so we got quality instead of quantity here. Would have been nice to have both.. :D


Indeed, leading to +/- 10 or 100 at a time. Doesn't work that way here, unfortunately.
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Oh well, worth a try

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Drithius said:
Because I find your nonstop posts in every Elex thread about HOW GREAT THE GAME IS OMG I WANT TO HAVE THE DEVELOPERS' LOVE CHILD fucking annoying and tiresome and I reached my breaking point with your drivel.

It's the same in every damn thread for every damn game you like. THIS GAME IS GREAT. NO YOU ARE WRONG, THIS GAME DESERVES YOUR SUPPORT. HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY!

It's like the ramblings of a 12 year old.
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I don't know, but anyone that says Happy Happy Joy Joy, is OK in my book. I love Ren and Stimpy you IDIOT :)
 
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zahratustra said:
I agree but I wonder if the reason is that, by the time of Risen series, we got used to the bigger game worlds?
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Mmm really? I admit I always failed replay gothic 2 past the first 3 plays, and gothic 1 even less.

No way I have the wide outdoor syndrome, I see the coming trend of wide outdoor games as a painful curse coming. So I have doubts it's the point.

I could be wrong, but I remind that Gothic 1&2 had an art of obstacles design that was and still is unmatched, until some DAI areas. And this point plus a dense filling are what destroy the cramped feeling and that makes an area feel a lot bigger. DOS is an half succeed example, succeed because the world feels definitely bigger than it is objectively, failed because it fails fully build the feeling it's a world more than some areas. In my opinion there's various causes:
- The task is much harder with the iso like view than the almost first person view of Gothic.
- DOS is very very far to have the same art of designing obstacles that has Gothic 1&2.
- Past first areas, no way the filling density matches Gothic 1 or 2.
- The lack of scheduling like has Gothic 1&2 diminishes the illusion of a world.

For Risen series, ok I don't know.

EDIT: For ELEX the Jetpack is a clear difficulty to design obstacles and make the world feel bigger than it is. Fly and absurd climbing and jumping is what destroyed Morrowind world feeling that at a point start feel tiny. So the world probably had to be bigger in ELEX. But I'm waiting some Po'ed clones since decades so I won't complain too much, even if ELEX will hardly match. :) Also if really the filling density is high, it's a new thing I never experienced before, wide world always felt somehow empty, and The Witcher 3 failed avoid the feeling for me, at least overall, not for every part of it.
 
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