Game News ELEX II gets a combat trailer, now available for preorder

[Ryzer]

Brings back this flashback

Even the devs struggle to play their own game
.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Oh wow, even Spiders' games had better combat for years now.

Comparing this trailer to Spiders is an insult to Spiders, their trailers are usually pretty good.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

But let's address the elephant in the room that will make this sequel implicitly worse, anyway...
With ELEX 2 PB is committing the ultimate capital sin in third person games: the fucking awful de-centered camera.
A fucking low point they never reached before.

 

[covr]

But Spiders games are usually shit while ELEX is great!

 

[Falksi]

Oh no...the combat is janky!

Show us on the doll where PB touched you.

That's a really bad use of the "touched you" piss take.

Suggesting that posters have been hurt by PB because they're calling out janky combat which is quite obviously uber-janky, and which features in a trailer which should be designed to sell the combat, is as fair a call as you get.

"There are no words for how janky this trailer looks"

"How appropriate, you fight like a cow"

 

[HoboForEternity]

Are you all really saying spiders combat and games are better than PB? Those repetitive hallways, "magnet" lock combat, backtracking?
I like spiders game, but compared to risen 2 and 3 even PB is still superior in almost every way.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm all for not wasting budget on flashy trailers unrelated to the game, but all they did here was make a cheap trailer unrelated to the game.
They could have, idk, used actual gameplay and made it a gameplay footage trailer??

Maybe they could have even used their rpgcodex shill budget on improving the game

 

[Daedalos]

looks like dogshit jank, just like elex 1.

Pass.

 

[Roguey]

Excommunicator I don't understand the request for a citation, it's a problem easily observed and often-complained about https://steamcommunity.com/app/411300/discussions/0/1483233503859841157/?ctp=31

I can't believe no-one said this yet but, where the FUCK is muh jetpack??

No jetpack - no buy. Like what's the point of even living if you can't buzz around your enemies' heads like a particularly stubborn fly?

There are videos with the jetpack. You can now properly fly horizontally and they did the obvious and allow for upgrading this time around. The downside of the upgrade system is that it starts out nerfed compared to what it was in the first one (and it no longer slowly regenerates when you're up in the air and not using it), but as compensation for that, you can now grab on to ledges from the jetpack.

 

[Black Angel]

With ELEX 2 PB is committing the ultimate capital sin in third person games: the fucking awful de-centered camera.

Wait a minute, I thought the first one also has de-centered camera? Or am I remembering it wrong?

(not trying to justify it or anything, I also agree de-centered camera, in a 3rd person action game is a cardinal sin)

 

[Van-d-all]

Are you all really saying spiders combat and games are better than PB? Those repetitive hallways, "magnet" lock combat, backtracking?
I like spiders game, but compared to risen 2 and 3 even PB is still superior in almost every way.

Combat. As if in mechanics, fluidity, animations. Take few common encounters from both, compare. Overabundance of copy paste content and backtracking are shit game design Spiders always had trouble with. Playtime cult's fault mostly. Combat itself however, they've gotten servicabely fine a long time ago.

Comparing this trailer to Spiders is an insult to Spiders, their trailers are usually pretty good.

Again, no, I wrote "combat". I don't compare trailers per se. It's bullshit cherry-picked media content which time and again has proven to be non-representative of final product. I skip them to watch major aspects - character screen, inventory, dialogues, combat etc. As such, a semi-random video of a single fight in a semi-modern Spiders game simply looks better than PB chose to show in their trailer.

Plus, I've finished most PB & Spiders games, so I know the latter's combat also plays better, and I'll die on that hill. In fact, IMO for PB to be in the business for years now and have combat look as janky as here seems as if it's dev has been keeping his job only for some crazy German disabled worker quota. Either that or jank nostalgia. In any case, it's professionally shameful at this point.

 

[Excommunicator]

Excommunicator I don't understand the request for a citation, it's a problem easily observed and often-complained about https://steamcommunity.com/app/411300/discussions/0/1483233503859841157/?ctp=31

It sounded like you had info to suggest they'd fixed the hitboxes (which I agree were infuriating) although the video didn't appear to show any improvement

 

[Roguey]

It sounded like you had info to suggest they'd fixed the hitboxes (which I agree were infuriating) although the video didn't appear to show any improvement

Oh, those were just my hopes. I watched a video of someone who played the beta who claimed the hitboxes were improved this time, but I dunno.

 

[Joyvankek]

It's Gothic but with lasers and I like it.
A proper RPG with factions therefore some choices and consequences. It's german/euro jank and while I would like them to improve on combat animations. If I have to chose between shiny but soulless garbage, and janky, ugly game but made with some passion. I will always chose the later option.
Of course I won't pre-order. Who knows, maybe this time they fucked it up completely, I sure as hell cannot tell from the trailer that they did provided.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Oh wow, even Spiders' games had better combat for years now.

Comparing this trailer to Spiders is an insult to Spiders, their trailers are usually pretty good.

Spiders? Generic Giant Spider get a part in that?

 

[Zeriel]

It's Gothic but with lasers and I like it.
A proper RPG with factions therefore some choices and consequences. It's german/euro jank and while I would like them to improve on combat animations. If I have to chose between shiny but soulless garbage, and janky, ugly game but made with some passion. I will always chose the later option.
Of course I won't pre-order. Who knows, maybe this time they fucked it up completely, I sure as hell cannot tell from the trailer that they did provided.

Eh, in Elex 1 the factions actually had almost no impact on the story. It was very linear and on-rails. Only C&C was really the ending, and that was just binary based on your cold level. If you popped 1,000 raw elex as the most aggro emotional lad in the galaxy 1 second before the ending you suddenly were a slave to the hybrid and fully autistic, and vice versa.

Personally I'm hoping the faction/story relationship returns to more of a Gothic 2 model here because I really didn't like how the ending in Elex made everything before it feel useless, but cynically we should expect more of the same of Elex 1 approach.

 

[baud]

Oh wow, even Spiders' games had better combat for years now.

Comparing this trailer to Spiders is an insult to Spiders, their trailers are usually pretty good.

Spiders? Generic Giant Spider get a part in that?

nah, Spider's a French eurojank game dev. Recently did Greedfall

 

[catfood]

 

[Cunt Dickula!?]

Personally I'm hoping the faction/story relationship returns to more of a Gothic 2 model here because I really didn't like how the ending in Elex made everything before it feel useless, but cynically we should expect more of the same of Elex 1 approach.

Wait. Weren't the factions pretty useless in the ending Gothic 2 also!?

 

[Zeriel]

Personally I'm hoping the faction/story relationship returns to more of a Gothic 2 model here because I really didn't like how the ending in Elex made everything before it feel useless, but cynically we should expect more of the same of Elex 1 approach.

Wait. Weren't the factions pretty useless in the ending Gothic 2 also!?

Yes, but they were integrated into the main story up until that point. Depending on which faction you chose, a lot of the earlier chapters played out differently with different quests and map changes. In Elex the factions and the rest of the game are completely segregated. You can (technically) do every faction quest in the first chapter and shoot up the ranks instantly. While it is implied there are consequences to the faction stuff, there really isn't.

I don't prize the multiple endings much in Piranha Bytes games personally. Elex was first time they really did it (that I'm aware of?) and I don't like any of the endings, so it might as well have been linear to me and have more branching or effects in the rest of the game, like G2 had with factions.

I treat the last stage in PB games as a victory lap, I don't really care about it much, whereas the rest of the game which is the meat of the experience suffering does matter to me.

 

[Zeriel]

Hated the melee combat in the first game, still won't bother with it this time, though ideally the hitboxes are fixed enough so that I don't sometimes inexplicably miss when using guns.

I think the biggest issue is everything used actual projectiles but even the fastest speed was relatively slow, so even the fastest guns could miss just based on the slightest movement from when you pulled the trigger and it actually hit.

 

[Outlander]

Archolos release changed everything. I don't know if people looking for a Gothic fix will be so forgiving with ELEX 2 now...

 

[Zeriel]

Archolos literally matters to no one except 50~ Gothic 2 enthusiasts on the internet and the Pols. It would be different if it had an english version, but to pretend it will have any impact on Elex 2 sales is weapons grade copium.

 

[Cunt Dickula!?]

Archolos release changed everything. I don't know if people looking for a Gothic fix will be so forgiving with ELEX 2 now...

Dunno. Seems to me like the most people who despise glorious ELEX stopped playing PB games after Risen 1.

 

[Zibniyat]

Maybe you all need to get your T levels checked.

Yes yes, you need to be very high-T to get hyped up at the prospect of fighting purple aliens with purple weapons ...