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About ELEX...

user

Savant
Joined
Jan 22, 2019
Messages
835
Gothic 1 and especially 2 are in my top favorite games of all time, but I played Elex when it came out and I didn't like it. Sure, it has one of the most impressive, stunning fantasy worlds I have ever seen, factions are great etc etc.

Very vague summary of what I did in the game (its been years):
Started off doing quests in the hippie viking town (don't remember names, sorry), then left them and went at the dome town did some quests there, then went to the desert did a quest about a bomb and some others and finally went into an imposing but empty mountain futuristic base, to which a quest from the dome(?) town had sent me, and was looting everything my heart desired until I quit.

Now, the reasons I didn't like it:
-I felt combat was too weird, I could stun lock anything, the AI sucked and consequently it got boring.
-I was looting stuff mostly unhindered and in the end got a bunch of godly items I didn't know what to do with.
-Perks in their majority felt bland and almost nothing made me look forward to them. Spells were kind of a disappointment and I never had to use most of them.

Ran out of games to play and thought if I should I give it another chance. Was it patched or did it improve since then (played the very first version)? Are there any good mods for it (I like difficulty and survival in such games)?
 

lukaszek

the determinator
Patron
Joined
Jan 15, 2015
Messages
12,618
deterministic system > RNG
 
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agris

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 16, 2004
Messages
6,760
What I didn’t understand about the ELEX hype train was the loot. I played it a bit and the loot seemed mediocre MMO-tier crap.

For the people who loved ELEX, do you just not know how good itemization can contribute to a game? Or do you think WoW represents a pinnacle? I would love to know since it isn’t clear to me.
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
I liked ELEX, but it's not a 'good' game. It's a case where a ton of janky shit mashed together ends up providing a fun overall experience.

The AI was indeed braindead, and it was too easy to accidentally arrive at completely gamebreaking builds (e.g. pick up that grav spell, spam). PB's very particular combat system I always thought works best in tightly controlled, sparse-resource situations; the moment you can start chugging a lot of consumables and throw a wide array of different abilities around, it breaks.

Loot I don't really remember at all, wasn't it just unremarkable generic itemisation with a few interesting things thrown in? Again, I think the wider array of available objects didn't necessarily help
 

thesecret1

Arcane
Joined
Jun 30, 2019
Messages
5,675
all I remember from ELEX is chugging like a thousand elex potions, then telling everone about how I am totally "clean", and then finding out I can one hit kill literally anything, since drinking enough Alb Gatorade turns you into a demigod.
 

Edija

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 17, 2017
Messages
670
Location
The Dead City
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
The combat is a strange mix of going back to G2 days and Dark Souls, stamina+roll influences. It stops mattering later on since you start steamrolling, as in every other PB game. I played on release and there were a shitton of exploity weapons like the Flamethrower knocking down dudes, and Black hole if you're a Cleric. I still liked the game, it was better than G3, especially on release and delivered everything you'd expect from a PB game. I feel like many people destroyed the game for themselves by abusing the Elex potion exploits and shit. At least I didn't do that and I enjoyed my mad max on drugs Outlaw run. The thing I disliked is that no PB game ever had such a sharp and illogical transition between getting raped by random chicken and killing everybody, everywhere demigod style. It almost felt like it just happens at a certain level.

Is there a hardcore option/mod/difficulty setting nowadays? Something like NoTR for G2?
 

Bruma Hobo

Lurker
Joined
Dec 29, 2011
Messages
2,409
A 50€ mediocre console RPG that would have been shat on and torched under normal conditions (if not for the post-Renaissance drought).
What drought? We're still getting many interesting titles each year, to the point that we can even be picky and ignore isometric and turn-based RPGs if they don't look very interesting. I mean, if there really is a drought and people's really starving for old-school RPGs like in the late 00's/early 10's, titles like Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones, ATOM RPG or Expeditions: Viking would never be ignored, they would become instant GOTYs.

ELEX got released mid-Renaissance.
 

Jimmious

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 18, 2015
Messages
5,132
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I think you need to like very VERY VERY specific things in your games to actually like ELEX.
It was absolutely not for me - it's very janky, it's popamoly and the characters are ... kinda laughable to be honest.

I guess though that if you enjoy exploring etc, it has a specific appeal.
 

overly excitable young man

Guest
It has the typical pb exploration in a hostile enviroment.
Mystic_Quest
Did you join one of the factions?
If you did all the quests in the camps and didn't like the game to this point ---> It doesn't get any better.
Story is very trashy. If you can't laugh about complete garbage i wouldn't recommend playing it.
Play Risen instead.
 
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user

Savant
Joined
Jan 22, 2019
Messages
835
It has the typical pb exploration in a hostile enviroment.
Mystic_Quest
Did you join one of the factions?
If you did all the quests in the camps and didn't like the game to this point ---> It doesn't get any better.
Story is very trashy. If you can't laugh about complete garbage i wouldn't recommend playing it.
Play Risen instead.

Yep, open the spoiler tag in the OP, had played for quite a while.
Love exploration and the world is great, but the other things that I mentioned didn't help at actually making me want to explore.
I've played all Risens, only enjoyed Risen 1 a lot though.
 

overly excitable young man

Guest
You have played the best Elex has to over.
The main quest becomes an annoying slog like in Risen 1.
 

King Crispy

Too bad I have no queen.
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2008
Messages
1,876,560
Location
Future Wasteland
Strap Yourselves In
I'm glad I don't possess the same intrinsic ability to apparently somehow break RPGs like most of you do.

It allows me to play games like ELEX with great joy; I was constantly challenged in the game, I never felt like I was a god-like being (although it definitely became more satisfying to play once I began mastering certain skills), and the feeling of accomplishment made all the exploration and the overall experience worth it.

Pro Tip: try sucking at video games like I do.
 

Gord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
7,049
Well, I liked it despite its shortcomings.
First game in a long time I had played without any interruptions by other games from start to finish.
Probably because something of the old PB (pre-Risen 2) shines up occasionally, and because it manages to play and feel different enough from all that boring AAA-stuff that it felt somewhat fresh.
 
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Jinn

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2007
Messages
4,930
The game managed to capture the essence of Gothic 1 and 2 and place it in an interesting and well-built setting after we all thought Piranha Bytes was nothing but a shambling corpse of a studio. It was like a miraculous gift from the past. This is ELEX and this is why it is loved.
 
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Jasede

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
24,793
Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
Elex is the closest we have gotten to a 'game like Gothic 2.'
Still inferior to Gothic 2, of course, but the closest we have gotten - far less boring than Risen, etc.

I would recommend it to Gothic-lovers. I had a great time with it.

Big drawback: there's less attention to detail to areas than in G1/2.
 

Berekän

A life wasted
Patron
Joined
Sep 2, 2009
Messages
3,097
The weirdest part for me was the difficulty curve. Unlike on the first two Gothics were you're slowly going up the food chain, being able to defeat more kinds of enemies as you progress on the game, here I was being crushed by every fucking living thing for 3/4 of the game, having to cheese most fights (which on the other hand is PB tradition) then suddenly I became a demigod able to destroy anything on my way.
 

Emily

Arcane
Joined
Mar 21, 2012
Messages
3,068
Are you sure OP we played the same game?

Stun locking in ELEX?

The stamina bar is VERY harsh to the point you are only able to do 2-3 attacks at the start and have to rest.

ELEX is pretty much Gothic 4 for me, it is a bit too large for its own good and rough around the edges but its still a Gothic game.
 

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