ELEX - Some Thoughts

CDP was not accused of mistreating their employees. They are accused of not being a great place to work. There is a huge difference.

Originally Posted by Arkadia7
You are referring to CDP Red, and it wasn't their customers they were accused of mistreating, but their employees. Their customers, by and large, think they are solid gold as a rpg developer.

And yes, I support CDP Red, and if a few unhappy, disgruntled ex-employees are pissed off because the working conditions aren't to their liking, because CDP Red is all about a high pressure working environment to produce great games, then they are free to leave the company (as they did) and find another job more to their liking for employment.

I stand by my position, completely.

@zahratustra, Here's a review from a first-time player of PB games. I generally agree with it.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Mirosla…mended/411300/

Oh, I'll be getting Elex at some point, to be certain. I just have a decent line of games to go through first, and then Elex will most likely pop up on my radar.

Originally Posted by Fluent
Me too! And Risen 2 for that matter. But I did feel Risen 3 needed a larger scale. It felt too cramped IMO.

For me a major failure of the whole series, don't know how G1&2 achieve this miracle with their tiny worlds but the point is they never feel cramped, unlike whole Risen series. G3 alas failed on many aspects.

Originally Posted by Dasale
For me a major failure of the whole series, don't know how G1&2 achieve this miracle with their tiny worlds but the point is they never feel cramped, unlike whole Risen series. G3 alas failed on many aspects.

I agree but I wonder if the reason is that, by the time of Risen series, we got used to the bigger game worlds?

Originally Posted by zahratustra
I agree but I wonder if the reason is that, by the time of Risen series, we got used to the bigger game worlds?

Yeah..and it seemed like maybe the graphical fidelity increase caused the engine to only be able to handle smaller areas and worlds. Who knows. That's just a blind guess really.

ELEX is more like Gothic 3, which an even larger world yet still a high attention to detail, things to find and interesting locations to check out.

Originally Posted by Dasale
don't know how G1&2 achieve this miracle with their tiny worlds but the point is they never feel cramped, unlike whole Risen series.

G1 & G2 make excellent use of every square inch. Combined with the overall slow-pace of the game, they really maximized the terrain to feel much larger than it was. The heavily gated areas at some spots helped too.

I remember a part in Risen 3 when you get to the Calador island, a fisherman wants to take you to his village and says follow him. About 5 steps later you're there. That game really just needed to be spread out more or something. Needed more NPCs too.

Originally Posted by Fluent
G1 & G2 make excellent use of every square inch.

I agree but there's more to it. Just recently played G2NotR so I have the experience fresh in my mind. As G2's story progresses, so do the circumstances all over the game world. So you find yourself revisiting Korinis, or any of the farms as the game goes on and tasks and storyline keep changing. It's what makes the game feel like a "world" and it's what makes what you did in hour 10 seem soooo long ago in hour 20. Not because you're traversing huge landscapes, but you're traversing through "time" in the game and like real life, things keep changing.

This is more of what I want in the Original Sin games. The feeling of a world. Where you revisit areas and things change, sometimes small, sometimes big. Not just once or twice during the game, but continuously throughout the game.

Originally Posted by TheMadGamer
I agree but there's more to it. Just recently played G2NotR so I have the experience fresh in my mind. As G2's story progresses, so do the circumstances all over the game world. So you find yourself revisiting Korinis, or any of the farms as the game goes on and tasks and storyline keep changing. It's what makes the game feel like a "world" and it's what makes what you did in hour 10 seem soooo long ago in hour 20. Not because you're traversing huge landscapes, but you're traversing through "time" in the game and like real life, things keep changing.

This is more of what I want in the Original Sin games. The feeling of a world. Where you revisit areas and things change, sometimes small, sometimes big. Not just once or twice during the game, but continuously throughout the game.

Yup, totally forgot about the changing circumstances from chapter to chapter! Great point.

I just played it recently too. Beat it as a Fire Mage at about 100 hours, put the whole Let's Play on YouTube. Really great game. Started Gothic 3 for the first time but now playing ELEX (will return to G3 in the future though.)

I commented in the LP a lot about what you just posted. Couldn't believe from chapter to chapter how they'd introduce so many new elements really, in the same world, same faces, but new events and changing circumstances. Brilliant design IMO.

If G2 took you 100 hours, you should leave G3 for retirement

Originally Posted by Alistair
If G2 took you 100 hours, you should leave G3 for retirement

It was actually surprising how it was more expansive than I thought it would be. I do tend to play RPGs slowly too.

As for G3, well, you're probably right.

Originally Posted by TheMadGamer
I agree but there's more to it. Just recently played G2NotR so I have the experience fresh in my mind. As G2's story progresses, so do the circumstances all over the game world. So you find yourself revisiting Korinis, or any of the farms as the game goes on and tasks and storyline keep changing. It's what makes the game feel like a "world" and it's what makes what you did in hour 10 seem soooo long ago in hour 20. Not because you're traversing huge landscapes, but you're traversing through "time" in the game and like real life, things keep changing.

This is more of what I want in the Original Sin games. The feeling of a world. Where you revisit areas and things change, sometimes small, sometimes big. Not just once or twice during the game, but continuously throughout the game.

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.

Originally Posted by TheMadGamer
I agree but there's more to it. Just recently played G2NotR so I have the experience fresh in my mind. As G2's story progresses, so do the circumstances all over the game world. So you find yourself revisiting Korinis, or any of the farms as the game goes on and tasks and storyline keep changing. It's what makes the game feel like a "world" and it's what makes what you did in hour 10 seem soooo long ago in hour 20. Not because you're traversing huge landscapes, but you're traversing through "time" in the game and like real life, things keep changing.

This is more of what I want in the Original Sin games. The feeling of a world. Where you revisit areas and things change, sometimes small, sometimes big. Not just once or twice during the game, but continuously throughout the game.

And that is something Bethesda games lack completely.

Watching ELEX didn't get me to get it, but it did get me to install Skyrim LE again and mod it with UI and graphics mods. Lets see if it is better after all these years.

Originally Posted by Archangel
Watching ELEX didn't get me to get it, but it did get me to install Skyrim LE again and mod it with UI and graphics mods. Lets see if it is better after all these years.

Share your functiong mod list with me when done I want to play the game again I just dread the mod searching.

Originally Posted by Wisdom
Share your functiong mod list with me when done I want to play the game again I just dread the mod searching.

Probably not the best person to ask, I hate modding games that ask you to install 100 different mods so my plan is to install as little number of mods as possible while also seeing some improvements.

Something like Long War mod for Xcom games is a dream mod for me as it is one in all package (or Co8 for ToEE)

Originally Posted by Alistair
If G2 took you 100 hours, you should leave G3 for retirement

My recent play through of G2NotR clocked in at 120ish hours.

I have to say this game is highly addictive. I quite like the combat system, exploration is awesome. And I enjoy the frequent references to Fallout.

With respect to being unpolished, well, sometimes that works in your favor (i.e. exploits, hence the spoiler):




Anyways, they should try to improve the user interface here and there. Some more info on abbilities and status would be nice (in fact, I suspect that at least some abilities are broken, but who knows). Some easier way to change numbers when selling/buying parts of large stacks would also be good.

Originally Posted by Cacheperl
Some easier way to change numbers when selling/buying parts of large stacks would also be good.

Yeah, I hate the console interface for buying and selling. It assumes you want the whole stack of everything. Of course I want to buy Grog 65 beers instead of the single one he asked for….Idiots!

Originally Posted by Cacheperl
Some easier way to change numbers when selling/buying parts of large stacks would also be good.

This! Is there any way to do it besides hitting the arrow keys to lower the number one by one?