ELEX ELEX II - Jax is back

[ERYFKRAD]

Because Elex 2 is more Gothic 2 than Risen 2

This aged like milk...

Bro it aged like the Bogdanoff twins

 

[HoboForEternity]

weeeeeel it does run better but at this point i forgot everything about the game, and if i wanna play it i'll restart. but for now eeeeh

 

[JBro]

What the fuck is wrong with them? lmao

 

[coldcrow]

My best guess is that they did absolutely nothing after dropping the DX12 beta several months ago, then released said beta as default game (while keeping a dx11 dir, thus doubling the install size). Backlash ensued, so they stitched some quick fixes together (hacking minigame, partial AA - works only on near textures and you basically see no difference in the different modes) and called that a day. For example this is still in:

In case you are wondering, this is midnight.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Yeah there is something horrible about night, lightning wise.
TBH can't say anything positive about game right now, ELEX had lots of junk and shortcomings but ELEX 2 is really something else. Only exploration is giving me Pyranha Games vibes sadly.

 

[moleman]

In case you are wondering, this is midnight.

 

[cvv]

Goddamit I have to make some time to finally play this.

After all this negative feedback I simply can't believe this game can be so much worse than the first.

I'm reading all the complaints about facials, VO, jank, combat, balance, difficulty curve and and technical issues I go.....BUT ALL THAT WAS E1 IN A NUTSHELL! And people loved E1!

Yeah, I'll give it a spin as soon as Christmas rolls around.

 

[Cyberarmy]

I'm reading all the complaints about facials, VO, jank, combat, balance, difficulty curve and and technical issues I go.....BUT ALL THAT WAS E1 IN A NUTSHELL!

Those are still in but multiplied by 5-6 (I'm being generous here as a fanboy)

 

[Dodo1610]

PB clearly listened to their fan's suggestions and then just did the complete opposite. Now, how did this happen?


May 22, 2019

Piranha Bytes acquired by THQ Nordic​

Piranha Bytes will become a 100% subsidiary of THQ Nordic GmbH in Vienna, Austria

All Piranha Bytes Masterpieces – Gothic®, Risen® and ELEX® - are now part of the THQ Nordic Group Portfolio.

When a corporation buys your studio you no longer have to care about your fans because even if your game utterly fails you will just get another project to work on.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I'm reading all the complaints about facials, VO, jank, combat, balance, difficulty curve and and technical issues I go.....BUT ALL THAT WAS E1 IN A NUTSHELL! And people loved E1!

The problem is that, as Cyberarmy put it, these issues are multiplied by 5-6, especially the combat which personally I thought was okay in E1, and now is absolute garbage.

However, the greatest issue that puts this game in the trash tier is the exploration. It looks fine for the first 10 or so hours, but then you start noticing that the loot placement is total shit, going anywhere results in finding the same supply crate (but with a different texture) holding a cabbage, a teddy bear and three cigs, some places from E1 that should be fucking interesting hold absolutely nothing (and this is not an exaggeration - there are two derelict converters that you can revisit, but they can't even be entered), while all the time you have to struggle with the simply unbearable combat and shitty performance that only makes it worse.

Elex 2 is shit and there's no other way to put it. Whatever positives it might have (I thought the quest design was p. good for instance) is just irrelevant when sunk into the mound of crap that is everything else.

 

[Junmarko]

I felt it was a bit obvious that Elex, despite all it's flaws, had a lot of passion behind it. Elex 2 for the most part just seems like a low effort cut + paste job.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

However, the greatest issue that puts this game in the trash tier is the exploration. It looks fine for the first 10 or so hours, but then you start noticing that the loot placement is total shit, going anywhere results in finding the same supply crate (but with a different texture) holding a cabbage, a teddy bear and three cigs, some places from E1 that should be fucking interesting hold absolutely nothing (and this is not an exaggeration - there are two derelict converters that you can revisit, but they can't even be entered), while all the time you have to struggle with the simply unbearable combat and shitty performance that only makes it worse.

Not quite sure what to call it, but the platform in the southwest, you can climb all the way up it but there's.... nothing. They just imported it from Elex and left it completely empty. When you get to the top you get the standard toxic damage/out of bounds shit. Entire platform just has nothing.
I quit shortly after that because the game felt unfinished.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Canceled, eh rusty_shackleford? WRONG!

Translated excerpt from the Gamestar preview:

Because Elex 2 is more Gothic 2 than Risen 2 . In concrete terms: It primarily continues the strengths of its predecessor instead of breaking with them. It expands instead of revolutionizing. You get a comparable open world, comparable fights, a comparable narrative style and - you guessed it - comparable open-mouth moments.

But before you confuse "conservative" with "boring": Elex 2 has cool new ideas, an exciting story starting point, new open world areas - and you can now fly with the jetpack! So don't float, just fly properly. Like Iron Man.

The rough outline: what is Elex 2?
The absolutely most important information first: Yes, there is a chainsaw broadsword again in Elex 2, yikes! Elex 2 plays a few years after its predecessor - and what is bad news for the inhabitants of the game world should again please fans. The world of Magalan still doesn't get the hang of leaving its own post-apocalyptic devastation behind. So a mix of dense fantasy forests, weathered skyscrapers and science fiction innovations is waiting for you. Here are the basic facts:

Story and quests

• You play again as Ex-Alb Jax, but there will be no savegame import from Elex 1. As in Gothic 2, you lose your skills and can decide again which path your non-nameless hero should take.
• Anyone who has played Elex 1 will know: A new threat hangs over the world. But nobody wants to believe Jax, which is why he fell out with the old factions and went into exile. In Elex 2, he returns from oblivion to convince people of his cause.
• According to Piranha Bytes, none of their games have had as many dialogues and storylines as Elex 2. By the end of the credits you are busy an average of 60 hours, 100 percent natures naturally need significantly longer - and the factions mean that there is always a high replay value.
• There will be more than three factions, but the parties still represent certain character classes or weapon types.
• It is still unclear how many factions are completely new. But we speculate that at least berserkers and outlaws will return.
• The companion system returns: Jax hires familiar and new companions to accompany him through the rugged wilderness. As part of the quest, there should be significantly more decisions and hard consequences.

Open world

• Elex 2 offers a new open world that consists partly of old and partly of new regions. The old areas have been changed drastically over the years and by the hearts of the world, but you also travel to completely new areas. So overall like in Gothic 2.
• Your jetpack not only allows you to float, but you can also jet through the landscape like Boba Fett. But only after a few upgrades.
• Children are now a part of the play world.
• The nights in Elex 2 are significantly darker than in the predecessor. But hey, now you've got a flashlight for that.

Further gameplay adjustments

• Little changes in the classes: You can play as a ranged fighter, magician, thug or a mishmash.
• Because you are now more agile in the air, there is also pure air combat against other flying opponents. So Jax can fight gargoyles at a height of 20 meters.
• The moral system has been revised: Instead of a cold value for Jax's emotional state, there is now "creation" and "destruction". Whoever kills defenseless sheep, for example, increases the destruction value. This new moral system is closely interlinked with the parliamentary groups - more on this below in the article.

Technically, you can see Elex 2's leap forward, even if you still can't expect the smoothness of a 1,500-person Ubisoft production, for example, in the animation.

bet you guys wish it was canceled now

don't say I didn't warn you

the higher you guys get your hopes, the worse it will be

 

[cruel]

Too much hate in this thread, but I need to remember this is Codex after all. The game has a lot of flaws, but it's far from shit IMO, I had a lot of fun for the first 80h, which is like first 3/4 of the game. End game sucks, of course. Don't agree with exploration being shit to be honest - yes, you will find a lot of teddy bears, cigarettes and cups, but the game has enough good stuff to keep it rewarding (medium / large elex potions, unique weapons, stat boost potions, damaged weapons etc.). Finding 'Razor' unique sword made me very happy when I was struggling to get a better weapon. I got Savior crafted pretty early only because I found 3x damaged version during exploration. Some of the quests are also pretty good (Skibor, Ivan, children detectives, berserker entrance etc.). Far from 'shit', especially knowing how the gaming market looks like nowadays.

TL;DR - don't trust Codex, play the game yourself and judge it.

 

[adddeed]

Agreed. If i listened to retards like rusty_shackleshit i'd have missed a lot of fun games.

 

[Cyberarmy]

TL;DR - don't trust Codex, play the game yourself and judge it.

I played it and I agree with the hive mind. This is probably PBs worst game, after Gothic 3
Whole game feels a step back from first game on every front. Still amazed that they did a worse job at melee combat than ELEX...

 

[soulburner]

It's not a terrible game on its own. It could be even considered quite good. As a sequel to Elex, which was kind of a return to form for PB, it's inferior in many aspects.

Elex 2 shows every sign of being rushed and then abandoned. It feels really good one moment (many quests, non-boring dialogs, good voice acting, firearms may be overpowered, but are much more fun to use, more responsive controls) and on the verge of being funny-bad (performance issues, melee hits not connecting on low framerate, very bad looking areas with no shadows and ugly sprites, erratic enemy behaviour, "click-the-enemy-to-death" combat system).

While the end game quests would probably stay similarly poor, I believe delaying the game for 6 months would be the wise choice to tweak and bugfix stuff properly. We do not know if it was PB's decision ("let's just stick to the date and forget about it") or the publisher's ("release now or we don't give you any more money") and it's no longer important. What is important is if PB can make Elex 3 - or whatever they are working on now - better.

 

[Ryzer]

Well, if Elex 2 sells poorly, considering the lukewarm reception of the title, the answer will obviously be no.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Well, we got ELEX after Risen 2 and 3 so anything can happen I guess?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Well, we got ELEX after Risen 2 and 3 so anything can happen I guess?

a shitty ELEX 3 followed by a good new game

 

[Cyberarmy]

That's the PB tradition I guess...

 

[Ryzer]

That is if THQ nordic don't fire them before.

 

[thesheeep]

Still amazed that they did a worse job at melee combat than ELEX...

The problem with this is that they are still trying to go for that mainstream action-RPG combat.
Which would be fine, if they had anyone in the team capable of doing the programming, animation and game design for that.
They don't. They really, really, really don't. All parts of the combat implementation are bad.

They shouldn't even try to make anything but the basic clunky Gothic/Risen combat - that one was functional, at least.
Let the casual crowd complain, who cares? They will never be into these games, anyway.
In trying to go for something they just don't have the talent/knowledge for, they made the result extra terrible. It's not even functional anymore.

Hit boxes that have absolutely nothing to do with what you see (enemy attacks will hit you when you are standing meters away), enemies just gliding around like this is the original Everquest beta, mechanics that make no sense whatsoever (like shields), and so much more...

The general advice for any kind of project is to focus on your strengths. PB - at least for Elex 2 - seems to have focused on their weaknesses, which is just baffling.

 

[coldcrow]

Risen 1 combat is pretty good. Needed a bit more tweaking (remove power of permablocking vs opponents who can't break blocks), but is certainly the best iteration of PB combat.

 

[Modron]

Archery was satisfying in Risen 1 as well.