Elex 2 VS Elden Ring

[rusty_shackleford]

Equipment actually doing something is far more than you can say for ELEX/2 where the only item that matters is your weapon. Your entire "build" is your weapon, that's it.
There's no reason to even explore once you have a decent weapon. Explore for what?

 

[Lyre Mors]

Equipment actually doing something is far more than you can say for ELEX/2 where the only item that matters is your weapon. Your entire "build" is your weapon, that's it.

I've fought the same enemies with the most basic armor and then come back with a substantial upgrade and noticed a big difference in how much damage I was taking, if you're referring to armor.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Equipment actually doing something is far more than you can say for ELEX/2 where the only item that matters is your weapon. Your entire "build" is your weapon, that's it.

I've fought the same enemies with basic armor and a substantial upgrade and noticed a big difference, if you're referring to armor.

Avoiding attacks is trivial in both games, but even still, armor only has one stat: armor. All the armor of the same tier is identical in what it does. And you're buying that armor from a vendor so it's effectively just a money sink.
Vendors are also level-scaled, something nobody seems to mind when PB does it.

 

[just]

Equipment actually doing something is far more than you can say for ELEX/2 where the only item that matters is your weapon. Your entire "build" is your weapon, that's it.
There's no reason to even explore once you have a decent weapon. Explore for what?

poultry

 

[General Disarray]

Yeah I'm forced to agree with Rusty on this one. If the equipment is not worthwhile finding, never mind that armour need to be bought and are levelgated, than they don't have a good equipment progression, than Outwards wins on that point, they have interesting weapons and armour that have loads of different modifiers ( like boosting some elemental dmg, elemental resistance, speed and stamina regen modifiers). Elden Ring has good equipment progression as well. ELEX 1 was good because the finely built world was fun to explore despite that.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

How would you rank it amongst the other Soulslike games?

There may be minor things where I rank the previous titles higher, but as an overall product it feels like a no-contest. Elden Ring dwarfs them.
What's crazy is that my opinion of it keeps improving as the hours go, despise some of the flaws becoming apparent as well.

Like, just this morning, playing a bit just to kill some time but with no real goal to progress toward, I realized beating a certain boss the other day opened the access to a new area in another part of the world. I dived in to see what kind of easter egg I was setting myself for )"will it be an arena with a boss?") and it turns out to be an entire new subterranean region, that forks in more than one way, opening access to ANOTHER region far away and connecting to previous subterranean areas I visited before.
I've never seen anything like this in years of gaming.

 

[Mortmal]

The same could be said of any PB game.

Yes, and?
The moment they don't have regular PB quest design to back them up how bsb they are becomes INCREDIBLY apparent.
ELEX 2 doesn't even have shit like the cleric mind trick anymore.

Is it possible to design more boring shit than this?

There's more customization in dying light 2 even...

 

[Falksi]

How would you rank it amongst the other Soulslike games?

There may be minor things where I rank the previous titles higher, but as an overall product it feels like a no-contest. Elden Ring dwarfs them.
What's crazy is that my opinion of it keeps improving as the hours go, despise some of the flaws becoming apparent as well.

Like, just this morning, playing a bit just to kill some time but with no real goal to progress toward, I realized beating a certain boss the other day opened the access to a new area in another part of the world. I dived in to see what kind of easter egg I was setting myself for )"will it be an arena with a boss?") and it turns out to be an entire new subterranean region, that forks in more than one way, opening access to ANOTHER region far away and connecting to previous subterranean areas I visited before.
I've never seen anything like this in years of gaming.

Sounds like open world gaming done right.

Are you a fan of open-world games in general? Not old-school ones such as Morrowind, but the modern action ones in a similar vein (Horizon Zero Dawn, Witcher 3 etc.)

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Are you a fan of open-world games in general? Not old-school ones such as Morrowind, but the modern action ones in a similar vein (Horizon Zero Dawn, Witcher 3 etc.)

I'm a fan of open world/non-linear design done right.
The old Ultima games, Ultima Underworld 1 and 2, Gothic 1 and 2, that sort of stuff.

Generally speaking I absolutely loathe the modern "Ubisoft template" for open world games like Assassin's Creed, Horizon, etc.
I'm happy to report that despise its almost complete focus on action and combat ER has a very different feeling from that and knows how to make exploration both intriguing and rewarding.

 

[Brickfrog]

Lmao at the 50/50 split in the poll

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Lmao at the 50/50 split in the poll

no "both are shit" option

 

[Mortmal]

Are you a fan of open-world games in general? Not old-school ones such as Morrowind, but the modern action ones in a similar vein (Horizon Zero Dawn, Witcher 3 etc.)

I'm a fan of open world/non-linear design done right.
The old Ultima games, Ultima Underworld 1 and 2, Gothic 1 and 2, that sort of stuff.

Generally speaking I absolutely loathe the modern "Ubisoft template" for open world games like Assassin's Creed, Horizon, etc.
I'm happy to report that despise its almost complete focus on action and combat ER has a very different feeling from that and knows how to make exploration both intriguing and rewarding.

Elden ring if made by ubisoft:

 

[Morenatsu.]

I still don't know what Elex is but seeing how all western games made after a certain date are shit, while weeb games are still at least somewhat enjoyable, it's gotta be Dark Souls Online 2: Elden Genesis.

 

[Peachcurl]

I still don't know what Elex is but seeing how all western games made after a certain date are shit, while weeb games are still at least somewhat enjoyable, it's gotta be Dark Souls Online 2: Elden Genesis.

*enters scene*

WHY YOU LITTLE

*close up shot: hook impales upper lip*

 

[Drowed]

Elden Ring if made by Ubisoft:

Spoiler

Whoever made that forgot to look into the implications of what they deem laugh-worthy. Not only can the UI bloat be disabled in Ubi games, but imagine treating valuable stuff such as numerical HP meters, an actual journal, and a full numkey shortcut bar as negatives.

Here's the thing: sometimes these are not actually negative points. Being fair about the numerical value of HP/MP, I really can't think of any downside, but a game can be made intentionally, by design, without the use of a hotbar. Easy and quick access to 8-10 items might be something the game designer doesn't want you to have for reasons of both game balance and mechanics: for example, it might not make sense for you to have access to more than 1 or 2 potions in addition to the ones in your pocket/belt, or in the game setting there might be a justification for why you can't use more than 2 spells/skills at the same time. It is perfectly valid that you don't like games that follow this design idea, but it is equally valid that other people like a game that is intentionally created and balanced in this way.

The same thing can be said for a journal, or even a map. Outward has a map that does not show your current position and only vaguely shows certain general points in the scenario and you need to deduce your location. Underrail, when it was released, had no map and the cave maze was even more confusing than it is nowadays. I won't deny that I was one of the people who complained (yeah I was butthurt) about the lack of map at the time, but at the same time, I can recognize that it is a valid design idea and that a game can be created with this as a principle. The same applies to a journal. Yes, it is less convenient for the player to not have all the quests noted down in something on the interface, but does the idea of a journal even make sense in the first place? Would your character take a journal out of his pocket and write down the conversations he had?

Yes, of course games are abstractions and various compromises are made and you have access to precise information that your character would have no way of knowing, thanks to the game's interface. The point is to realize that "more information" does not necessarily mean "better game." Something can be created intentionally to hide (or just don't show) information from the player, and this is not necessarily a defect.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Whoever made that forgot to look into the implications of what they deem laugh-worthy. Not only can the UI bloat be disabled in Ubi games, but imagine treating valuable stuff such as numerical HP meters, an actual journal, and a full numkey shortcut bar as negatives.

Overbearing UI that goes out of its way to handhold the players out of any fear that they MAY miss things can DEFINITELY become a negative and a detrimental point to a game.

But of course, with all that bitching going on about"accessibility" and how everything needs to be absolutely sperg-proof this is something almost dangerous to argue publicly in certain environments.

 

[Drowed]

Not to mention that it goes beyond handholding, often the game is not even designed to work without these elements. Sometimes you 'can' turn off certain UI elements, but it often breaks the game because it was not meant to be played that way.

Say you can turn off quest markers, but then, the NPCs often don't give information that a person would normally give about the quest (such as the location, landmarks or how to get there) and the journal itself also doesn't say anything about it, it just shows the marked region. So, if you wanted to find out where the area of your goal is on your own... Tough luck, the game does not offer this possibility.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Well, that PB has been a on a steady path toward decline for years shouldn't really surprise many people at this point.
Aside for the resident rabid Germans, I guess.

 

[JDR13]

Well, that PB has been a on a steady path toward decline for years shouldn't really surprise many people at this point.

Eh? Did you play Risen 2 or 3? Elex was way better than either of those games.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Well, that PB has been a on a steady path toward decline for years shouldn't really surprise many people at this point.

Eh? Did you play Risen 2 or 3? Elex was way better than either of those games.

Barely, and only in some ways. AND still a far cry for their peak with Gothic 2. Hell, arguably even with Risen 1.

 

[JDR13]

Well, that PB has been a on a steady path toward decline for years shouldn't really surprise many people at this point.

Eh? Did you play Risen 2 or 3? Elex was way better than either of those games.

Barely, and only in some ways. AND still a far cry for their peak with Gothic 2. Hell, arguably even with Risen 1.

Not hardly. Something tells me you didn't like the setting. It was easily their best game since Gothic 2 in terms of worldbuilding and exploration. The only aspect where Risen was superior was melee combat.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Not hardly. Something tells me you didn't like the setting. It was easily their best game since Gothic 2 in terms of worldbuilding and exploration. The only aspect where Risen was superior was melee combat.

Exploration is almost intrinsically tied to loot/reward distribution and progression curve. And the itemization in ELEX was one of the weakest PB ever did. Incidentally I'm hearing things about how ELEX II is even worse than the first one in this area, which is pretty damning.
It's almost like they are giving up on their strong points one by one in an attempt to become more "mainstream" without improving significantly in other areas (so pretty much failing on both fronts).

Also, no, I didn't like the setting. In fact I think that conceptually speaking the setting with its mish-mash of medieval fantasy and sci-fi is a fucking joke. But if that's your worry I never particularly care about "teh setting" to begin with if everything else is enjoyable enough, so I didn't count it as a detrimental point for ELEX.
What I did count as a minor detrimental points were some of the dullest shit-brown landscapes they ever did, on the other hand.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

TheImplodingVoice instead of spamming your retarded reactions like a mentally challenged kid with a concussion try to argue an actual point in words.

 

[JDR13]

Not hardly. Something tells me you didn't like the setting. It was easily their best game since Gothic 2 in terms of worldbuilding and exploration. The only aspect where Risen was superior was melee combat.

Exploration is almost intrinsically tied to loot/reward distribution and progression curve. And the itemization in ELEX was one of the weakest PB ever did. Incidentally I'm hearing things about how ELEX is even worse than the first one in this area, which is pretty damning.
It's almost like they are giving up on their strong points one by one in an attempt to become more "mainstream" without improving significantly in other areas (so pretty much failing on both fronts).

If exploration was mainly about loot and progression, we'd be hailing Diablo clones as having great exploration.

For me, exploration is about having interesting locations and things to find. Elex had tons of places to discover that told their own stories whether it was through notes or audio tapes or just the way bodies and objects were arranged. I've no idea if the second game holds up in that way as I've only played a few hours so far.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

PB could release a game that just closes upon launching it and half this forum would still defend it.