ELEX ELEX RELEASE THREAD

[Jinn]

My ELEX fervor is at its peak. I swore to myself I wouldn't replay it until we got a solid announcement for the sequel - something that I thought was going to happen at last year's Gamescom.

I was very surprised it didn't happen last year, and I'll be downright in awe if it doesn't happen this year. But something terrible tells me we won't hear a word about it yet again. I hope that something is wrong.

 

[Old One]

You have ELEX Fervor.

 

[Erikkolai]

My wettest dream for 2020 is to get ELEX 2 faction trailers. The thought of it alone...

 

[rusty_shackleford]

On a different note, I wonder if PB chose a canon ending for ELEX when they started writing ELEX 2. Hard to see how they'd continue the story independent of the Hybrid's fate.

they planned on having savegame imports before it was canceled

 

[Ismaul]

no ur mom is canceled


don't touch my precioussss elex

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

PB games are bad.

Volles Pfund aufs Maul!

 

[1451]

I think it's time they add coop to Elex. Imagine exploring this wonderful world and solving quests with your comrades in arms.

 

[Old One]

ELEX 2 will have pirates. Guaranteed.

 

[pOcHa]

SPACE PIRATES

 

[Bad Sector]

IMO they should also have Space Amazons, though that might be hard since they'd have to model a second female face.

Unless they are Space Amazon clones... yes, that sounds perfect. Especially if you get to use the cloning machine and make your own Space Amazon clones to follow you around.

The gameplay implications are endless.

 

[Cat Dude]

I wish the game had Dark Souls style combat.

 

[Cat Dude]

SPACE PIRATES

Bald Space Pirates

 

[Haplo]

I wish the game had Dark Souls style combat.

Or Surge style. Yeah, that'd be a thing of beauty.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I wish the game had Dark Souls style combat.

Or Surge style. Yeah, that'd be a thing of beauty.

Yeah Surge style visceral combat would be a big plus. Or Severance like combat if one allowed to dream.

 

[Cat Dude]

Is there any mod for Gothic 1-3 combat animation? I never finish all the 3 games due to horrible combat animation.

 

[Master Librarian]

Completed Elex for the first time like three days ago, stayed clear of it for the past few years due to a PC just slightly younger than PB's engine for these games.
I don't know what to make out of it, honestly. A part of me is flabbergasted that after 2 trilogies of identical games, they still can't nail down the correct formula and keep repeating the same exact, if not even worse mistakes.
This game needed more linearity and chapters, including properly gatekept content behind the said chapters. I mean, what's the point in having a faction if its interaction with the world is absolutely static as you progress throughout the main quest.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

I'm playing it right now and it's legitimately one of the best RPGs I've played recently, perhaps ever. Thanks for everyone who voted for it in the PRG Codex Top 100 because I'd probably never ever try it if it wasn't ranked so high.

 

[Elex]

Completed Elex for the first time like three days ago, stayed clear of it for the past few years due to a PC just slightly younger than PB's engine for these games.
I don't know what to make out of it, honestly. A part of me is flabbergasted that after 2 trilogies of identical games, they still can't nail down the correct formula and keep repeating the same exact, if not even worse mistakes.
This game needed more linearity and chapters, including properly gatekept content behind the said chapters. I mean, what's the point in having a faction if its interaction with the world is absolutely static as you progress throughout the main quest.

PB games contain a lot of mistakes but... linearity????????

 

[azimovhaas8 (Moth)]

Actually, completed ELEX couple of weeks ago - and why not to leave small report about this pretty good game?

ELEX is Piranha Bytes game at heart and by design choices - and along with Risen 1 and Gothic 1 (both are pretty BASED ARPG's of previous development cycles) - it is a very enjoyable game, and even with some parts of the game that i do not like, ELEX stands amongst other creations of recent years. I do not going to rate ELEX numerically, but will provide "points" going for ELEX and going against ELEX, conversly:

(+) Faction design is strong point, for sure - and this is strong point in all good PB games. I joined Outlaws and Fort, personally, during run where i completed game - but been tickling around with Berserks as well (completing some missions for them, but fucking up others, haha) and it been not a dissapointing at all. Exploration and item placement aspects in ELEX making things i really love in ARPG's and in immersive sims - searching dumpsters, abandoned buildings, hidden caches for goodies - both worth it and allowing to progress in game slightly faster. Relatively big, but not empty world is good thing as well, crafting system is optional and i been using it often (even if it is a slightly broken).
Enemy design and weapon design are not as good as in Risen 1, in my opinion, but it still satisfying to use most options and encounter enemies. Jetpack is awesome thing for exploration and encountering opponents, nothing much else to say.

(~) Combat System generally serves it's function and a lot of enemies can provide quick death to player, especially early-mid game, BUT combat system is slightly clunky, not as polished as it can be. Something similar to Dark Souls 1-2 / Surge can make combat more satisfying and visceral.
Companions and quests serve their function as well, but not too memorable.

(-) Not a very good balance between weapons, skills, secondary items - and most "charisma / social" skills are dissapointing, honestly. Worst thing in ELEX is character progression and sense of power level - it is almost broken, sadly. Most of the game Jax will be underpowered and player rarely can quickly kill enemies - but can be raped in seconds; later Jax rarely will feel any problems with combat. Here is my personal preference, but usually i prefer enemies that can be killed quickly, but can kill player just as quick - so here is both challenge and satisfaction. Again, this is my 50 cents.

P.S. After ELEX i actually want to replay Gothic 2 and try Risen 3.

 

[1451]

Piranha Bytes' game world design is unique to crpgs. Everything is hand crafted, no procedural generation took place during the making of this game.
Even the fir you see on that mountain was placed there by the loving hands of human designers.
Every item you find under a dried up well, was hidden to reward the inquisitive player who doesn't run from quest mark to quest mark.

I don't mind the lack of balance in single player games, finding what's broken and abusing it is what makes the game endearing. Balance is a problem in multiplayer games only.

 

[CaffeineConquistador]

I'm playing it right now and it's legitimately one of the best RPGs I've played recently, perhaps ever. Thanks for everyone who voted for it in the PRG Codex Top 100 because I'd probably never ever try it if it wasn't ranked so high.

I might give this one a go next. I’ve really gained a certain appreciation for PB, or maybe it’s just Gothic, but G1 was just great. I just beat Gothic 1 and, damn, I want some more. I’m just not ready for G2 yet and need a break.

 

[cretin]

the combat system is functional, and even enjoyable when mastered, but it obviously needs some polish like with odd hitboxes that seem to only appear when doing certain actions (for example, the lagging hitbox when you turn and run directly away from an enemy) enemy AI also needs a touch up, enemies often launch into charging attacks without even attempting to track you. As much as I dont think it is anywhere near as bad as the whingers made it out to be, I still think for ELEX 2 they need to bring in some new blood to handle the combat system and animations, because PB has always sucked at these. Seriously, they've been at this for damn near what, 2 decades? and they still cant get it right. A leopard cant change his spots, and a boomer blockheads cant learn new tricks. Let the old autistic germans handle the world design and everything else that makes a PB game special, and let someone else handle the shit they cant ever get right like everything to do with combat and animating.

 

[azimovhaas8 (Moth)]

Piranha Bytes' game world design is unique to crpgs. Everything is hand crafted, no procedural generation took place during the making of this game.
Even the fir you see on that mountain was placed there by the loving hands of human designers.
Every item you find under a dried up well, was hidden to reward the inquisitive player who doesn't run from quest mark to quest mark.

I don't mind the lack of balance in single player games, finding what's broken and abusing it is what makes the game endearing. Balance is a problem in multiplayer games only.

It is great to see hand-placed items and good world design / world building - especially all hidden crap all around the world (items around dangerous locations guarded by high-level creatures, for example) making exploration worth it, so i can completely agree.

Ehh, balance in single-player games is *kind of* important for me, but more in sense of that something broken must be fun to use [so player can finish tedious battles quickly] or requiring some preparations for broken stuff to work. But honestly, i myself like to abuse game mechanics to a extent - if it is fun and can make game less tedious why not?

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

please remind me how elex is this grandiose immortal masterpiece.
i remember it as a sort of almost decent game but with a combat system as unique as the demotivational's bent fork, some guns as overpowered as melee was underpowered, fights which were "i'm dead as soon as you blink", "you're dead as soon as i blink" or "i'm completely safe from any thing you might do but this will take hours of bombardments" and throngs of armies of thousands of bugs.

 

[Bad Sector]

Everything is hand crafted, no procedural generation took place during the making of this game.
Even the fir you see on that mountain was placed there by the loving hands of human designers.

If PB works like that then they're wasting precious time and resources, especially considering how small of a studio they are... fortunately for them, it looks like they are not wasting their time manually placing firs and other garbage that computers can do for them (and can do it more consistently based on high level data) and instead have proper vegetation systems in place, allowing their designers to spend their limited time in more important areas - you can read about their engine and tools development here where they mention that over time they added more and more tools to help automate their work.

As long as it is designer driven, procedural generation is perfectly fine. It is the completely or largely randomly generated worlds that have issues.