ELEX Reviews

super dope rpg.

I loved Risen but this one ... not so much.

Love this game. I hope we can see more. Thank you Developers.

I really wanted to like this game. It's got some interesting elements, but the fact that it basically throws you in the deep end immediately, combined with absolutely crap controls meant that I lost interest after the 10th time I died to a basic normal enemy because I did jack all damage to it, while it was taking 20-25% of my health in a single attack. Not to mention that I could clearly be out of melee range, and somehow magically the enemy would manage to still land an attack. It's just... not fun.

I think I am roughly 50-60% through this game at writing this examination, I can confidently say that if you can forgive the "Eurojank" of Piranhabytes' games, you'll enjoy this RPG. I am a huge fan of the original Gothic from the same studio. I got partway through Gothic 2 before I discovered their spiritual successor, Risen. It was while playing Risen 1 that I learned about Elex 1. I got Elex 1 around launch of the game, tried the opening hours of the game, and proceeded to uninstall the game. This game is frustratingly difficult, in similar ways to modern day Fromsoftware games. While the movement in those games is more refined, most of the late game bosses in their games become absolutely stupid difficult, depending on the boss. I would say the difficult in Elex stems more from the janky combat. It is leaps and bounds better than how it worked in Gothic 1, same with the controls, but there are still some questionable decisions made in this entry. 38 hours in, I am finally feeling confident taking on the "weaker" enemies without a companion to distract them. I will say if you are a fan of the older Piranhabytes (PB) series, you will thoroughly enjoy this game. If you are not familiar with this developer, I would recommend watching or reading one tutorial guide to help you get started. Don't watch much more than that or you will spoil a lot of the great world building that PB has created for this game. The immersive open world and Old World documents and audio logs you find in the world while exploring, as well as the monsters, mutants, and hostile factions you run into really make the world feel alive. As far as I know, there are three main factions you can join (you can only commit to one in a single playthrough as far as I know.) This review is getting a bit all over the place, so I think I will wrap it up. I'm enjoying my time in this game. It is a game that I recommend taking your time in, because you are going to die a lot, especially in the first hours of the game if you don't accept help from the first companion offered to you. This is a game, like previous games by this developer where if you see a skull by an enemy's health bar, you best head around it or in a different direction. All in all I give this game, so far, a 4/5.

I played Gothic 2, Gothic 3, Risen 1-3 and this is by far the worse Bytes game I've ever played. And I am a Sci-fi junkie. The game-play, pacing and atmosphere are the worst in this game. If it didn't sit in my backlog for months I would have returned it. I will give another chance, but when it comes to first impressions it is the worse. The main reason is you can't damage anything unless you level up boring lifeless quests. Horrible game design. And there is no cheating console in this one to overcome such game design shortcomings.

I played the entire game on my steam deck and I honestly loved the game, it will definitely go down as one of my all time favorite games. I honestly couldn’t stop playing this game. If you like open world rpg games those is a must try.

Elex is such a messy affair. It's hugely ambitious but janky as all hell. Overall I like it quite a bit, but some people would absolutely hate it. What it has going for it is: -Big open world with fantastic exploration -Fully voice acted -Lots of items, skills, and abilities -It feels dangerous -Post apocalyptic atmosphere -Impactful decisions And where it suffers is -Janky/clunky combat -Extremely slow leveling--I'm 67 hours in and only like level 22 -Uncompelling main character -Obtuse/difficult to learn systems/progression Do I recommend it? I'm going to say yes, but only to patient gamers.

[h1]Review[/h1] To get this out of the way, this is the first piranha bytes game since risen 1 that is actually decent. But there is a reason why piranha bytes studios closed. They keep making the same mistake over and over again which is proven in this game again. [u]Gameplay[/u] Instead of going back to any type of combat system like in gothic 1-2 or risen 1, they went ahead and improved the combat from risen 3. It changed that its now serviceable. You have many options to choose but more is not always better. If you have two different magic systems, three factions and their unique ranged and melee weapons you are bound to have balancing issues. First the melee combat which initially feels very sluggish. Sluggish does not equal for me as being bad, but just being more punishing for failing. The problem is the stamina meter and combat flow which makes the melee combat atrocious. You deplete stamina but it does not constantly regenerate if you stop doing any movements. You need to wait 2-3 seconds until it starts to regenerate. If you get hit this stops. If you try to block or dodge, it drains. You can dash out a single combo and a special attack but then you are screwed as you dont have any stamina left to dodge. Not to mention that later, if you fight multiple enemies, some will stand afar and shoot at you with laser weapons or weapons that stun. Therefore in melee combat, any weapon that has long animations is awful. Also enemies and yourself move like you are on magnets. Its slow combat plus movement of the batman games combined. Second is the ranged and magic combat. The ranged combat initially works decently. You later get very strong bows or guns which is become way too powerful. Reminds me of the flintlock from risen 2 and 3 on crack. Makes most fights trivial, aside when enemies have ranged weapons too. The magic works in the same way, although I only used the clerics psy powers. They had a weapon that throws small black holes at enemy. I literally only used this weapon as soon as i got it for the entirety of the game. This just speaks volumes that the combat is absolutely not balanced. There is a reason this game offers difficulty selections which I solely see as a failure from the developers to balance the game on their own. This time you have stat points that do nothing except to enable you to be able to wield specific weapons or train skills. Skill check is not based not on a specific ability but their overarching topic. For example, if you try to threaten someone with your combat experience you can either have enough abilities in ranged or melee combat category. Many of the early game weapons have incredible high requirements. If you go to the first village and try to buy a weapon that is better than the one you are using, you atleast need to gain 3-4 levels and focus solely on the requirements. Weapons have two of those. Meaning if you want to use bows you not only need dexterity but also strength, same with melee weapons. I need to give credit that this type of RPG is rare to see. There are not many that have that many options, albeit with subpar balancing. What is absolutely great about this game are the quests. Not only are there many of those, most of them have unique premises and many different outcomes. The game encourages you to fail quests to receive different ones or different rewards. They often involve different outcomes and often you are surprised by the outcome. The factions feel distinct from each other and are very credible. This is probably the most quest heavy piranha bytes rpg that also delivers a high quality of quests at the same time. The game offers therefore a high replay value as you not only have three different endings depending on your morale stat but also different questlines and outcomes depending on your factions and decisions. This is the aspect for me that made the game very enjoyable. Combat was there and serviceable, but the quests where fun to accomplish. They felt valuable due to their high xp gain and storylines. Without the map markers you would feel lost, again its due to the world that is too big for this kind of developer to design. [u]Story[/u] The post apocalyptic premise is nothing new, aside the fact that the meteor which destroyed earth also delivered a resource that has magical properties but also creates mutations and other side effects. It deals how the people of the planet use the properties with their unique twist. Your character is actually this time part of one of the more villainous factions. You lost your power and need to regain power, either back to your old self or for revenge. The story is also expanded by old audio logs which offer a truly immersive experience. Additionally, followers you recruit will also comment on the situation or place, often even butting into conversations which also even has smaller effects and reactions from the person you are speaking with. The main character is a though guy, not being very sarcastic but never a dislikeable person like in risen 2 and 3. [u]Sound[/u] While not as good as risen 1, the soundtrack is absolutely serviceable or even good at times. Its not that memorable but very immersive. Sound effects are just okay. [u]Graphics[/u] Huge improvement, despite being the same engine as risen 3. No bloom or lens flares. Flora and fauna looks great, handcrafted open world game. Long highways have cracks in them, broken to pieces over time like used rubber. Characters don’t make exaggerated movements during dialogues anymore. Every faction has their distinct region and style. Hard to see that this is actually not from a very big developer. [u]Conclusion/TL;DR[/u] Piranha Bytes showed time and time again that they are unwilling to go back to their good combat systems and improve them. What we got is a game that again tried everything and failed. Less miserable than in risen 3, which is quite impressive as the content in this game is huge without feeling boring. The reason why this game is still good is that while the combat is serviceable at best and unbalanced and broken at worst, the high-quality quests are really fun to solve. Exploring is daunting at first but due to map markers and constant strings of quest that lead you to new places who in turn have new quests to offer leads to a good rpg experience.

It is literally Gothic with plasma rifles. The game is hard AF, however, once you become masterful with the combat engine, the game gets a bit easier. It is also pretty damn funny in parts. Best single player game I have played in a while.