ELEX ELEX II - Jax is back

[Ismaul]

at least I played to the end and can say it has little redeeming qualities

Are you sure playing it once is enough to judge it?

Here at the Codex we pride ourselves in being thorough. 7 times is the approved consensus on the sufficient number of playthroughs needed to be able to judge properly.

 

[VonMiskov]

Are you sure playing it once is enough to judge it?

Here at the Codex we pride ourselves in being thorough. 7 times is the approved consensus on the sufficient number of playthroughs needed to be able to judge properly.

Nah I will leave it for the Elite Codexers. I will just remain a lowly novice and read about my lack of taste and how I don't get the "game" or spirit of PB productions or other studio.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Ok, to prove yet again my objectivity, now that I am deeper into ELEX 2, I now have legitimate gripes with the combat system. Specifically with enemy animations.

Now that the combat system is more reactive (as an aRPG system should be), and you have all sorts of timed moves (timed parry, timed dodge/sidestep, timed shield block), in order to use those effectively, enemies have to have predictable animations or tells in other words, so you know when you should react. Unfortunately, this is all over the place in ELEX 2 (in ELEX also I guess, but there it didn't matter since you just held up shield/weapon to block).

Many animals/monsters have literally no tells or terrible hard to discern ones. Some will just launch into attack without any warning, and the attack animation is retardedly quick, creature goes from rest state to full attack in 2-3 frames. Some will have a hard to read tell, like some critters open their mouth immediately before attack, but their mouth is low to the ground and partially obscured by Jax's body, so good luck with that. Some have attacks animations that are very similar to their regular movement animations. So it's a complete shitfest reading them and reacting.

Humanoids generally have slower attacks and more animations for them, but with them, many animations are very difficult to read. For instance humanoids with a sword will have this power attack where they first do what looks like a side attack and then transition into a power overhead attack. So for those you need to wait until the overhead portion. But they have similar looking side attacks where you need to block right away. And then they have some attacks which immediately strike for damage at ridiculous speeds.

So if you are trying to parry them for example, if you wait to "read" the attack, you will always get hit by the immediate attack. If you parry right away, you will block too soon for the slow developing attack. There is no way that I can see that you can possible become good at parrying or dodging all these attacks, you just have to kinda try whatever and hope the RNG helps you. Not a good approach.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

He has a point, you can tell the game is only going to continue getting worse before you finish chapter 1 and quit playing then.

 

[Angelo85]

Just finished the game. All in all it was a fun ride, but the negative points raised ITT by a few bros are accurate. I was mainly bothered my the amount of trash combat in the last chapters and that the story showed quite a few logic issues/problems towards the end. Still I enjoyed my time with the game.

68/100 trolls from me

 

[Cryomancer]

Is the late game story better than the first one?

 

[Darth Roxor]

I'd like to meet the asshole who came up with the bright idea of adding the random pitfalls of deff to alb buildings.

Also, some funny bugs:

Bandit lady's sword fell through the floor, many such cases.

Commander Irissa sperging out about complications in the investigation :D She started flailing her arms wildly during a conversation, must be due to the physics engine being dependent on FPS (?) because Jax also gets extreme arm shakes for me when the framerate tanks:

Spoiler

That said, I laffed when she assigned a cop to watch my every step in the depot because I'm suspicious. Good that I'd already palmed everything that wasn't nailed to the ground there!

 

[lukaszek]

your screens are even uglier than I remember this game

That said, I laffed when she assigned a cop to watch my every step in the depot because I'm suspicious. Good that I'd already palmed everything that wasn't nailed to the ground there!

while having them following me arround alb companion cutscene triggered. From the road, across at least 1 wall. In confusion, on autopilot I agreed to help her. Which teleported me outside of the base with guards around. They were not happy

 

[Nikanuur]

Piranha Bytes should hire #The Chronicles Of Myrtana Team

 

[JDR13]

Why do I get the feeling though that I'm going to enjoy The Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos even more?

You're in for a TREAT! Archolos has left me impressed several times. Totally unexpected. Its attention to the little things and C&C is pretty rare these days. Hope you can enjoy polish voices though. Playing without just feels dead.

I tried the game for a few hours when it was released. The Polish VO sounded good even though I can't understand a single word, and having to read subtitles didn't bother me at all.

I would have played it by now, but I wanted to wait for a few patches first. It will most likely be the next game I play after I finish Elex II and give Elden Ring a shot.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

Ok, uninstalled after about 20 hours. I used to be a huge Piranha Bytes fan, but ELEX 2 broke me.

The lack of tells and proper animations in combat is just too egregious for an action RPG. The final fight that drove me to uninstall was a duel against Jaegun in Morkon grotto. I cannot imagine anyone who is not overdosed on cocaine creating Jaegun's animations. One of his attacks is an instantaneous double kick that does massive damage, and comes literally out of nowhere, and is barely animated at all. So it just looks like he hip thrusts you to death. Another attack is an overhead swing that cannot be parried because it deals damage about a second after the animation lands. You can't make this shit up.

But that's just the icing on the cake. All enemies are animated like utter shit. If you have timed defensive moves in an aRPG, then the enemy has to have an animation tell when they are about to attack/attacking. This is aRPG combat 101. In this shitfest, there are either no tells at all or tells so bad they just confuse you.

I really don't get this. Everyone knew ELEX had shit combat, they had 5 years to fix it, making the game in the same exact engine, reusing a lot of assets. I know they have a tiny team for open world RPGs, but 5 years, you can't get a halfway decent animator/combat designer? They have stuffed a ridiculous amount of content (quests, NPCs, c&C) into these games, I would gladly trade some of it for a workable combat system.

At this point, I just can't take PB seriously anymore.

 

[Cryomancer]

Use ranged combat, so the janky melee combat will not be a problem

 

[soulburner]

I subconsciously focused on ranged weapons. Bows and shotguns.

When you get used to it, the combat in Elex 1 is actually pretty good and the animations give proper feedback - when to block, when to strong attack, when to roll away etc.
Melee combat in Elex 2 seems unfinished or neglected. I rarely recognize any kind of feedback from enemies and can rarely, if ever, expect an attack and react accordingly. When my hits land, there is also no feedback, because the enemies/monsters usually don't have "pain" animations and in overall, the combat feels "floaty".

 

[Darth Roxor]

Ok, uninstalled after about 20 hours. I used to be a huge Piranha Bytes fan, but ELEX 2 broke me.

The lack of tells and proper animations in combat is just too egregious for an action RPG. The final fight that drove me to uninstall was a duel against Jaegun in Morkon grotto. I cannot imagine anyone who is not overdosed on cocaine creating Jaegun's animations. One of his attacks is an instantaneous double kick that does massive damage, and comes literally out of nowhere, and is barely animated at all. So it just looks like he hip thrusts you to death. Another attack is an overhead swing that cannot be parried because it deals damage about a second after the animation lands. You can't make this shit up.

But that's just the icing on the cake. All enemies are animated like utter shit. If you have timed defensive moves in an aRPG, then the enemy has to have an animation tell when they are about to attack/attacking. This is aRPG combat 101. In this shitfest, there are either no tells at all or tells so bad they just confuse you.

I really don't get this. Everyone knew ELEX had shit combat, they had 5 years to fix it, making the game in the same exact engine, reusing a lot of assets. I know they have a tiny team for open world RPGs, but 5 years, you can't get a halfway decent animator/combat designer? They have stuffed a ridiculous amount of content (quests, NPCs, c&C) into these games, I would gladly trade some of it for a workable combat system.

At this point, I just can't take PB seriously anymore.

the ratman always gets the last laugh

 

[Darth Roxor]

Also another bit of weirdness about the combat is that the way attacks connect seems to be at least to some degree dependent on performance, and I don't mean shit like input lag for initiating attacks.

Yesterday I was witness to a brawl at the depot gate where three brave guards took on a bunch of aliums, which needless to say wasn't particularly good for my framerate. While the guards were zapping the aliums I just stood around whacking them for dat last hit xp - and the funny thing is that like half of the hits would simply not register, even when I was mashing LMB like stupid at point blank. It was as if the weapon was just passing through air, and it wasn't the first time that happened either.

Also, town guards are immortal which is

 

[Modron]

The overhand from the right swing's hitbox actually follows the animation so it's really easy to miss things just slightly to your right as you swing over their head, it actually has to be lined up properly. Reminds me of action films where you can tell the dude swinging a sword is trying not to connect.

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

Despite my beatching about E2 above, that I got for free in the raffle, mind you, I finished the game and liked it enough to buy Risen 1 and 3 this week at the GoG sale. (I already played R2).

 

[razvedchiki]

risen 1 is the best of the 3 (havent played 3 though), its basically a copy of gothic 2.

 

[Darth Roxor]

In today's episode of "Darth Roxor finds something new to bitch about with the combat", it's blatant retardery to me that humanoid enemies CAN ACTUALLY PARRY CONTINUOUSLY with one-handed weapons while you are ONLY stuck with that stupid fucking riposte.

That said, I have to mention that the Alb entry quest is very well done. It's really top quality material, though I'm not fully done with it yet, so I hope it doesn't drop the ball at the end.

 

[Wulfric Pinewood]

I'd like to meet the asshole who came up with the bright idea of adding the random pitfalls of deff to alb buildings.

Also, some funny bugs:

Bandit lady's sword fell through the floor, many such cases.

Commander Irissa sperging out about complications in the investigation :D She started flailing her arms wildly during a conversation, must be due to the physics engine being dependent on FPS (?) because Jax also gets extreme arm shakes for me when the framerate tanks:

Spoiler

That said, I laffed when she assigned a cop to watch my every step in the depot because I'm suspicious. Good that I'd already palmed everything that wasn't nailed to the ground there!

That German subtitles makes me play Wolfenstein once again.

 

[Sykar]

Official modern German version:

 

[notpl]

This ready to go yet, or does it need a few more patches? This is a separate question from whether or not it sucks - I'm going to play it either way, unfortunately.

 

[coldcrow]

This ready to go yet, or does it need a few more patches? This is a separate question from whether or not it sucks - I'm going to play it either way, unfortunately.

I'd wait until they drop the DX12 update which will most likely fix the performance issues. Either by being the much better API, or they also reduce the stupid amount of drawcalls the engine apparently does in certain areas. It won't fix the apparent creative decay of PB, though.

 

[lukaszek]

elex3 - jax is black when

 

[soulburner]

This ready to go yet, or does it need a few more patches? This is a separate question from whether or not it sucks - I'm going to play it either way, unfortunately.

I would also suggest waiting a few weeks. There is some chance they might actually release the DX12 renderer and it may fix the performance issues. Otherwise, unless you have an RTX 3080+ (game seems to be pretty much unplayable on Radeons) and nothing less than an i5 11400 or Ryzen 5600X with 3200 MHz+ memory, expect huge framerate drops near and at settlements at 1080p. Everything else you can kind of get used to, as is the tradition with PB games.

edit - my Ryzen 3600, 3600 MHz memory and an RTX 3060 manages near a 100 fps when traveling outside, around 50 - 60 when near a few buildings and 30 - 42 fps in faction settlements. When the framerate drops below 60, there is a significant amount of frame pacing issues, so the game feels more stuttery than the framerate itself would suggest. Changing the level of detail has little effect, giving me up to 3 fps more on low. Changing the resolution to 720p helps a lot, but you won't see shit, even with NIS or RSR.

Additionally, there is sometimes an issue when if you have low fps, the game may not register your left mouse clicks which is a matter of life and death if any combat occurs.