ELEX ELEX II - Jax is back

[ERYFKRAD]

Combat is "a bit" different, my ass. It's completely different and a whole lot worse. Parrying is unreliable due to stupid enemy animations. Basing the combat on stamina draining is cute as hell when you then fill up the bestiary with shit that is immune to stamina damage or have humanoids be able to keep bashing you even when their stamina reaches zero. That enemy humanoid enemies have different attack animations to Jax is completely retarded too. If you don't want to play the riposte roulette you are left mashing LMB until you win. Enemies with guns can just keep shooting you in the face at point blank while you're powerless to do anything against it. There's no special ammo or firing modes. Enemies generally don't play by the rules, you can pickpocket some guy's power sword and he'll immediately draw a lead pipe and clobber you to death with the same damage as with the sword. The combat is distilled garbo with nothing positive that could be said about it other than that aerial melee is surprisingly non-clunky for what you'd expect it to be.

"Elex 2 is just more of Elex 1" yeah how about no. They absolutely dropped the ball on exploration here and forgot to fill all the places they recycled with actual cool shit. Instead you just keep walking around empty spaces strewn with crates holding lettuce and teddy bears. In Elex 1 finding a random house in the wilderness felt exciting, here they couldn't even be bothered to MAKE THE DERELICT CONVERTERS INTERESTING, I MEAN WHAT THE FUCK EVEN?

Elex 2 is just an utter shit game. No amount of 'zumg kodex konsensus edgy wrong agayn' reality bending is ever going to change this.

I also disagree with this post, its definitely not a shit game and you exaggerating. Are you sure you didnt play Gothic 4 by mistake and thought it was Elex 2, thats probably what you did?

What a nuanced and substantial rebuttal.

 

[BruceVC]

Combat is "a bit" different, my ass. It's completely different and a whole lot worse. Parrying is unreliable due to stupid enemy animations. Basing the combat on stamina draining is cute as hell when you then fill up the bestiary with shit that is immune to stamina damage or have humanoids be able to keep bashing you even when their stamina reaches zero. That enemy humanoid enemies have different attack animations to Jax is completely retarded too. If you don't want to play the riposte roulette you are left mashing LMB until you win. Enemies with guns can just keep shooting you in the face at point blank while you're powerless to do anything against it. There's no special ammo or firing modes. Enemies generally don't play by the rules, you can pickpocket some guy's power sword and he'll immediately draw a lead pipe and clobber you to death with the same damage as with the sword. The combat is distilled garbo with nothing positive that could be said about it other than that aerial melee is surprisingly non-clunky for what you'd expect it to be.

"Elex 2 is just more of Elex 1" yeah how about no. They absolutely dropped the ball on exploration here and forgot to fill all the places they recycled with actual cool shit. Instead you just keep walking around empty spaces strewn with crates holding lettuce and teddy bears. In Elex 1 finding a random house in the wilderness felt exciting, here they couldn't even be bothered to MAKE THE DERELICT CONVERTERS INTERESTING, I MEAN WHAT THE FUCK EVEN?

Elex 2 is just an utter shit game. No amount of 'zumg kodex konsensus edgy wrong agayn' reality bending is ever going to change this.

I also disagree with this post, its definitely not a shit game and you exaggerating. Are you sure you didnt play Gothic 4 by mistake and thought it was Elex 2, thats probably what you did?

What a nuanced and substantial rebuttal.

Read my review of the game in this thread if you want an objective post

 

[Zarniwoop]

Fuck this gaym.

It has all the shit of the first one but none of the good stuff.

Oh, you're starting out with a Shitty Sword of Suckitude? No problem, there's 20 better weapons lying around. But oh wait, you need 69 strength and 78 constitution to use the slightly better one, and each level gives you 10 attribute points. LUL.

Oh but guns are good? Sure, here's a shotgun. Oh fuck this one needs 50 something DEX, too bad you spent everything from your last 8 levels trying to pump STR so you can use the slightly less sucky sword

It's gonna be the same as Eelix 1, I just might be able to upgrade to a slightly better weapon before the final boss fight.

 

[GrafvonMoltke]

Decided to give it a go. Playing it right now.

My God what the fuck. Why is Jax's new voice actor so terrible? Why does Jax look even worse than the first game?

 

[GrafvonMoltke]

WHO IS THIS IMPOSTER AND WHAT HAVE THEY DONE WITH THE REAL JAX?!?!

 

[Alienman]

Decided to give it a go. Playing it right now.

My God what the fuck. Why is Jax's new voice actor so terrible? Why does Jax look even worse than the first game?

Sadly he got stage 4 cancer. He ate the purple stuff when he was told not to.

 

[ELEXmakesMeHard]

WHO IS THIS IMPOSTER AND WHAT HAVE THEY DONE WITH THE REAL JAX?!?!

If only you knew how bad things really are.

 

[Mikeal]

Decided to give it a go. Playing it right now.

My God what the fuck. Why is Jax's new voice actor so terrible? Why does Jax look even worse than the first game?

He got married between games.

 

[Ryzer]

Decided to give it a go. Playing it right now.

My God what the fuck. Why is Jax's new voice actor so terrible? Why does Jax look even worse than the first game?

He got married between games.

But worst of all, he's got a child.

 

[Paul_cz]

Finished this couple weeks ago.

At first, I could not get into it. I played about an hour a month for six months. Then I got to a larger settlement, got some quests going and it finally clicked. And for the next 50 hours or so, I was convinced I would give Elex 2 at least 7 or possibly 8/10, because I was having a blast, despite some annoyances. The handcrafted world was there, fun questing, great exploration with a jetpack, fun character progression. Good times!

But then chapter 3 and chapter 4 came, and…yeah. Piranha Bytes have always sucked at latter half of their games - always, even going back to Gothic 1 with its stupid boring dungeon - but Elex 2 takes the shit cake.
Basically all the companion missions are copy pasted laziness, and most of the ending quests are “go to X and kill 50 enemies”.

I expect this kind of trash in JRPGs. I do not expect it, nor want it, in WRPGs.

The only saving grace of the last two chapters is that with difficulty set to “story”, enemies can be dispatched fairly quickly and those two chapters combined took me some 15 hours. But it was still 15 hours too many, given their absence of quality.

Then there is the utterly bizzare writing, where I felt like half the dialogue flat out made no sense.
In the end…I am still glad I played it, and 50 hours of good fun is nothing to scoff at, but Elex 2 IS Piranha’s weakest game ever made.

Archolos: Chronicles of Myrtana team thoroughly schooled Piranha Bytes on how to make their own type of game.

 

[cvv]

Elex 2 IS Piranha’s weakest game ever made

Sorry but not even close. Risen 2 and 3 are worse, especially 3, and although Gothic 3 shows the potential of a Top 10 RPG of all times the final product is what it is - a broken, unfinished mess beyond fixing.

G2 > G1 > R1 > E1 > E2 > R2 > G3 > R3

(I really believe G3 is still better than R3, even in its tragic, half-finished state).

 

[Paul_cz]

Sorry but not even close. Risen 2 and 3 are worse, especially 3,

Well, agree to disagree. Risen 2 and 3 are no masterpieces but I found them generally competent and fun to play from start to end. Not the case with Elex 2.

 

[adddeed]

It goes Risen > Gothic > Risen 2 = Elex > Gothic 2 > Rise 3 > Gothic 3

 

[fantadomat]

It goes Risen > Gothic > Risen 2 = Elex > Gothic 2 > Rise 3 > Gothic 3

 

[JDR13]

Anyone claiming Elex II is PB's worst game obviously hasn't played Gothic 3.

As far as Elex II vs Risen 2 & 3, I'd say it's a toss-up. That probably comes down to which setting you like more. Elex II and Risen 3 are similar in that the last 20% or so of the game is an immensely boring slog.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Sorry but not even close. Risen 2 and 3 are worse, especially 3,

Well, agree to disagree. Risen 2 and 3 are no masterpieces but I found them generally competent and fun to play from start to end. Not the case with Elex 2.

No way man. EEEEEELIX 2 is at least mostly bug free in that you don't fall through the floor half the time. And it's almost recognisable as an RPG. Risen 3 is just a steaming pile of dumbed down, streamlined shit.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

As far as Elex II vs Risen 2 & 3, I'd say it's a toss-up.

Eh, dunno.
Say what you want about Risen 2 and 3, but at least it was a time where PB was sparing us the retarded de-centered third person camera.
Fuck that shit into the abysses of hell.

But yeah, I'd be incline to agree that Gothic 3 was their fucking worse by a landslide.
It's still terrible years later and after all the updating and modding, but at launch in particular it was a borderline fraud. Basically unplayable on any computer, awfully designed from top to end and freaking HIDEOUS in terms of art direction.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Elex II and Risen 3 are similar in that the last 20% or so of the game is an immensely boring slog.

They are also similar in that Elex 2 shamelessly recycles the latter's story.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Also, LOL@ any faggets who complained about areas of ELEX 1 that were "not properly fleshed out"

In 2, where the Hort is supposed to be, is like it never existed. Sure, it's supposed to be consumed by the alien tower but where's the ruins, the wreckage? It's just virgin unspoilt land that's never been touched, with a giant tower in the middle. Not a single piece of metal lying around from what was the biggest settlement in the game. The bridge just stops midway like an unfinished highway.

 

[Darth Roxor]

The absence of the Hort might just be the most insulting part of this game, yes.

 

[Ryzer]

So what are the sales figures? Was Elex II a loss or a benefit?

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

So what are the sales figures? Was Elex II a loss or a benefit?

I'd be surprised if the game wasn't a net loss.
There was hardly any talk about the game anywhere, even compared to the first one.

And what little was out there wasn't exactly flattering, anyway.

I used to think PB was often treated unfairly by critics and a more casual audience, but as the time goes I'm starting to lean more and more on the "Eh, fuck them" side of thing.
They are clearly not putting much effort in learning from past mistakes or improving their output over time.

 

[cvv]

So what are the sales figures? Was Elex II a loss or a benefit?

I'd be surprised if the game wasn't a net loss.

Might not have been. Game is a naked asset flip of E1, just like Risen 3 was cobbled together from Risen 2 assets. It even uses huge chunks of the original map. All that cuts down costs a lot.

Plus there are still armies of PB fans out there, especially in Germany and Eastern Yuros.

 

[Ryzer]

Plus there are still armies of PB fans out there, especially in Germany and Eastern Yuros.

Yes but Elex is not Gothic, far from it.

 

[Konjad]

Elex 3 when

 

[razvedchiki]

its an ok game for 10 bucks.