ELEX ELEX II - Jax is back

[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.

 

[Ryzer]

Archery was satisfying in Risen 1 as well.

Gothic 3 has the best archery.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

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.

I think it was actually very good when fighting 1:1, particularly against other humans. Group fights were p shit tbh.

 

[Alienman]

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.

Didn't have sliding. Bane of my existence.

 

[JBro]

If you've read my posts I think I had been more than forgiving, but this business of waiting 6-7 months for a patch just for it to be half-assed in such a manner really soured me. No, the game was never very good. Yes, it sucks worse than Elex 1 and many other PB games. There are some redeeming qualities, and I like it in some respects but it is a very baffling game.

Also it still runs like ass. Better, but still ass. I hope PB continues to make games, and I hope the next one is better.

Btw, does anyone have a fix for Risen 2 and 3's controller support? The analog sticks in those games have some kind of issue where pushing them in opposite directions causes some kind of stutter.

 

[Cryomancer]

Archery was satisfying in Risen 1 as well.

Gothic 3 has the best archery.

And best magic, but sadly the WORST melee combat in the series.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Archery was satisfying in Risen 1 as well.

Gothic 3 has the best archery.

And best magic, but sadly the WORST melee combat in the series.

Best magic and game is playable thanks to that. Otherwise it would be really boring to finish. (and kill everything on map, as is tradition)

 

[hello friend]

For another cool magic system, playing a mage in Two Worlds 2 is very fun.

 

[Cyberarmy]

Todays patch (I think the real DX12 patch) made the game decent at least. A lot smoother and looks a bit better.

 

[Roguey]

Todays patch (I think the real DX12 patch) made the game decent at least. A lot smoother and looks a bit better.

Changed files in this update

ELEX2 Content
Depot 900041

Modified – data/packed/c_1_na.pak (+4.00 KiB)
Manifest ID changed – 1340294138483638672 › 785451204234905762

ELEX2 Binaries
Depot 900042

Removed – system/D3D12AgilitySDK/d3d12SDKLayers.dll (8.81 MiB)
Removed – system/D3D12AgilitySDK/D3D12Core.dll (4.95 MiB)
Modified – system/ELEX2.exe (+512 B)
Manifest ID changed – 1817173782337155632 › 968835866830202434

Removing DX12 is one way to fix it I guess....

 

[Child of Malkav]

They removed dx12? So I can play it now?

 

[GhostCow]

They removed dx12? So I can play it now?

You could have played anyway. Both versions were in the folder

 

[soulburner]

DX12 was not removed, that would be preposterous. Here's the changelog:

1. Fixed a bug where Non-DX12 Graphics Cards tried to initialize the DX12 mode (via Microsoft Reference Adapter)
2. Fixed a bug where the Fullscreen Toggle could lead to a crash
3. Added an error message when a user tries to start the DX12 version on a very old Windows10 version that doesn’t yet support the Agility SDK
4. Fixed a bug that occurred when the graphics card didn’t support the requested Depth Stencil Format by adding fall back formats.
5. Fixed a bug where the moon is too bright in the DX12 version.

 

[Cyberarmy]

After doing missions for Berserkers and Morkons, other factions fel really shallow. Especially Cleric missions were a joke, they probaly run out of money and/or ideas at later stages. I assume they don't have many special missions after you joining them.
Kinda middleground about Morkons myself, one second they are bloodthirsty,chaotic stupid bastards but then their lawful, prestigious face hits you hard. Until you equip their really edgy armors....
Game is a lot more easy than first game. Ranged still OP at start but melee rolling attack and parry trivialized most of the content right from the start. Flying missile units are really problematic but easy after getting jetpack upgrade.
Game is too big for it's own good. Cut half of the land and %90 of the thrash loot, noone would even notice.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

I think by far the biggest shortcoming of Elex II is that exploration is no longer rewarding in the same way as the prequel. Part of that has to do with there no longer being a sense of wonder since there aren't significant changes to the game worlds of the two games in terms of aesthetic, but also I think this might be the laziest map PB has designed in a while.

 

[lukaszek]

elex2 exploration is about upgrading your backpack to reach taller and taller buildings to find
*surprise*
unique weapon

 

[Baldanders]

I think by far the biggest shortcoming of Elex II is that exploration is no longer rewarding in the same way as the prequel. Part of that has to do with there no longer being a sense of wonder since there aren't significant changes to the game worlds of the two games in terms of aesthetic, but also I think this might be the laziest map PB has designed in a while.

It also seemed to go from difficult to chees-able much quicker but maybe that's just my experience from the first game.