Elex First Impressions

First thing I always do when starting a computer game is disable sound. There was one exception, but that was quite some time ago. I like my music, not what someone else might think passes for music.

Originally Posted by JDR13
You're wrong there. There's a stamina bar under the enemies health bar. It's small and kind if hard to see, but they certainly can and do run out of stamina, and they can't attack while it's recharging.

Then it's been fixed with last patch, because before it, stamina was shown but not used. And if it is used now, then there's a cleric effect lowering enemy stamina that is probably great now.

I thought it would be difficult to fix because it would be difficult to balance, if they did it (as they should) it's cool.

EDIT: Do I answer a deleted post? No idea why I answered it if it wasn't the last.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
First thing I always do when starting a computer game is disable sound. There was one exception, but that was quite some time ago. I like my music, not what someone else might think passes for music.

The only time that really works is for the Bethesda games where they have different folders to put your own music into for combat, exploring, etc so that it will fit in.. Otherwise i really don't see how it would work without constantly having to put effort into selecting pieces that works to heighten the atmosphere of the game..

For many games (including the Gothic games) music really works to the game's advantage.. to not use its music would be a bit like playing it in black & white.

Yeah, the auditory clue that you've aggro'ed an unseen monster is sometimes quite useful.

Works just fine for me. I really dislike wearing a headset, and I like to flaunt my huge stereo. Enlightening my neighbours to superior music is one of the many joys of my existence on this planet.

why would you need a headset to listen to the game's music though.. i never wear headsets or headphones (really bad for your hearing, eventually).

Enlightening my neighbours.. well, i guess i did that some 20-25 years ago. Actually i had a bit of fun with it recently, one of them had a bluetooth speaker on (no kind of of protection to connect to it), so i decided to stream some early 80's industrial music (whitehouse) to it (like 5.30 in the morning..)

Personally, I love wearing a headset while gaming. It helps to block out any outside noise and makes it a more immersive experience for me. Hopefully I don't go deaf from it.

Originally Posted by Dasale
Video game music is low quality for me, I rarely see any reason to endure that.

I'm listening music albums some artists tried craft with care, imagination and with art if possible. Video games just don't match, it's poor music quality.

Wow, I just feel totally different. Music game composers put in as much craft, care and imagination as any musical artist, because simply, they too are musical artists. While the level of talent may vary and some neophytes may get involved in music production, the real musical game composer are as good as any other musician.

^ Of course they are. In many cases they are even more versatile than typical musicians because they often have to do several genres and different styles, not only in the same game but in other games they work on (combat music, ambient exploration music, tense chase scenes, etc. etc..)

Originally Posted by JDR13
Personally, I love wearing a headset while gaming. It helps to block out any outside noise and makes it a more immersive experience for me. Hopefully I don't go deaf from it.

you won't go deaf but you might get tinnitus (which sucks, i have it - from using headphones).

personally i love having proper surround sound when gaming. currently playing No Man's Sky and the sound is quite good, love hearing the ships above my head and thrusters turn on behind me etc.

I think the quality of game music varies extremely, i do think it has gotten worse and i think that partially has to do with now "anyone can make music". All it really takes is a computer and a professional sound library and you can begin to lay down some ambient music and drones very easily. It might sound "professional" but it's usually very boring music with no soul.

Originally Posted by Fluent
^ Of course they are. In many cases they are even more versatile than typical musicians because they often have to do several genres and different styles, not only in the same game but in other games they work on (combat music, ambient exploration music, tense chase scenes, etc. etc..)

I loved the music of Gothic 2 and the town music for Khorinis is just jaw droppingly awesome. But really, Rosenkranz took it another level in Gothic 3. I don't think there has ever been any better snow and desert music accompaniment in gamdom.

However, for a singular piece of ambient music accompaniment it has to be Jeremy Soule track from Skyrim called Music day 3. I would pay big money to watch an orchestra/choir perform this piece.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wyczq3l1yms

Sadly while the music for Elex works, none of the pieces are that memorable, and I have over 200 hours in the game . . . .

Just started playing and left Dura (or whatever his name was) sitting in his spot because I wanted to go 'find my armor.' Actually, I wanted to find my helmet that I so casually dropped in the opening video! I managed to jet pack my way back up to the top and found my ship… but no helmet. Harrumph!! (But there was some other nice stuff there.) (Well, nice for a total n00b.)

It's looking great so far!

I wonder how many hours I'll poke around on tutorial mountain before I go down and find Mr. Friendly Berserker Guy?

Originally Posted by Zloth
Just started playing and left Dura (or whatever his name was) sitting in his spot because I wanted to go 'find my armor.' Actually, I wanted to find my helmet that I so casually dropped in the opening video! I managed to jet pack my way back up to the top and found my ship… but no helmet. Harrumph!! (But there was some other nice stuff there.) (Well, nice for a total n00b.)

It's looking great so far!

I wonder how many hours I'll poke around on tutorial mountain before I go down and find Mr. Friendly Berserker Guy?

That's one of the cool things about pb games. I didn't even think about doing that as I thought the tutorial area was enclosed…

I'll be picking Elex up again after I get my new computer at the end of the year so that's good to know

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

In Elex gameplay very simular with Gothic, and this is awful. I played with trainer .

Originally Posted by VipVic27
In Elex gameplay very simular with Gothic, and this is awful. I played with trainer . It very help me to walktrough this game.

This is heresy here at RPGWatch …

why not just turn down the difficulty.. too proud? i played on easy and sometimes on normal, had no bigger problems. The beginning is supposed to be hard, but on easy it's a breeze.

I thought elex had a weird difficulty curve or more like 180 degree hairpin curve.

The first 10 hours I found it pretty much impossible to kill most things. Not really hard as thing we’re easy enough to dodge but it would have taken very very long to nibble at enemies health bars and I found the best strategy was just to run away.

Past the 10 hour or so mark to the 20 hours I played in one play through I had no problem killing things. It felt like a very abrupt change. Maybe I didn’t venture out far enough to find more difficult enemies but the abrupt change felt weird to me.

Hopefully I’ll get back to it and get a full play through in. There wasn’t anything one thing that I didn’t really like about the game I just slowly lost interest and started it up less and less over the weeks until not at all.

Originally Posted by sakichop
I thought elex had a weird difficulty curve or more like 180 degree hairpin curve.

The first 10 hours I found it pretty much impossible to kill most things. Not really hard as thing we’re easy enough to dodge but it would have taken very very long to nibble at enemies health bars and I found the best strategy was just to run away.

Past the 10 hour or so mark to the 20 hours I played in one play through I had no problem killing things. It felt like a very abrupt change. Maybe I didn’t venture out far enough to find more difficult enemies but the abrupt change felt weird to me.

Hopefully I’ll get back to it and get a full play through in. There wasn’t anything one thing that I didn’t really like about the game I just slowly lost interest and started it up less and less over the weeks until not at all.

Yes, that's very common with Piranha games. They use very simplistic numerical formulas for damage/protection - so it's a relatively simple matter of reaching a stage where you can comfortably survive a few hits - and actually do some real damage.

You need a weapon with X amount of damage and an armor with X amount of protection. There's not a lot nuance or added mechanics that you need to worry about. All weapons and armor are very similar in terms of functionality - where other games tend to have more elaborate magical effects or ways to support your playstyle.

Their approach is a great advantage for open world balancing - but it does have some negative consequences, depending on your point of view.

The game has a very short period of play where you're both challenged but able to compensate with skill and smart character building.

To me, that's very unfortunate in a game that's so long.

While all big open world CRPGs suffer from balance issues in one way or the other - I prefer games that add a lot of complexity and toys to the mix, so you at least have more fun experimenting and reasons to become efficient.

In PB games, it's mostly a matter of waiting it out - and the difficulty setting is the key here.

They should consider calling it the "how long do you want to wait before combat no longer being a matter of running away" setting

Yeah, I think only NotR managed to keep things interesting, but that was only after the 2nd pass (they re-balanced the entire game in the expansion), and it's only for experienced players.

I don't mind though, as I'd rather have too much progression than none at all. Too many games end up feeling the same from start to finish for my taste.

Actually, ELEX stays challenging for most of the game if you side with the Berserkers. The Clerics are terribly unbalanced due to some overpowered skills. Not sure about the Outlaws.

Funny that a spammer kickstarted this thread.