ELEX ELEX II - Jax is back

[rusty_shackleford]

the lip sync might be decent, but the facial animations are really bad, so bad it becomes funny

 

[ADULF HITLOR FAN KLUB]

ELEX 2 uses FaceWare middleware for lip syncing and facial animations.

Apparently they had to redo all of the face models, but something went terribly wrong during the process. Particularly the eyes are peak uncanny valley.

 

[vota DC]

Seems like Albs moved from full Bolshevism to full Nazism in one game to another. In the first game, trade is prohibited, everyone is a salve to the "hybrid" which doesn't care about human lives, the will of the great leader(hybrid) is above everyone and now, they are all about eugenics and other stuff like that.

From the first Elex the only people that did make some sense were Clerics, their religion focused on science, with some psionic brainwashing for non-believers, Albs were almost mindless automatons, Berserks were hippie vibes connected with autocracy based in caste system, with some idiotic code to which all were equal, but some were more equal than the others.
And if you were low in the food chain, any small transgression yeeted you out into exile, or you got outright killed for treason.
Outlaws... well, at least you won't be having a problem with stagnation there, and they have drugs and hookers, hence outlaws had what all the other factions didn't, which is fun.

Unlike non futurustic piranha bytes games here all factions seems to give in the skill tree different magics except outlaws that give better buff when you take drugs. In Risen 1 you could have swamp bandit for fighter path without using mana or choose inquisition monastery, in Risen 2 you had inquisition with the gunpowder or the voodoo path.
It Is feasible to ignore faction upgrades and do only the regular one?

 

[Peachcurl]

Seems like Albs moved from full Bolshevism to full Nazism in one game to another. In the first game, trade is prohibited, everyone is a salve to the "hybrid" which doesn't care about human lives, the will of the great leader(hybrid) is above everyone and now, they are all about eugenics and other stuff like that.

From the first Elex the only people that did make some sense were Clerics, their religion focused on science, with some psionic brainwashing for non-believers, Albs were almost mindless automatons, Berserks were hippie vibes connected with autocracy based in caste system, with some idiotic code to which all were equal, but some were more equal than the others.
And if you were low in the food chain, any small transgression yeeted you out into exile, or you got outright killed for treason.
Outlaws... well, at least you won't be having a problem with stagnation there, and they have drugs and hookers, hence outlaws had what all the other factions didn't, which is fun.

Unlike non futurustic piranha bytes games here all factions seems to give in the skill tree different magics except outlaws that give better buff when you take drugs. In Risen 1 you could have swamp bandit for fighter path without using mana or choose inquisition monastery, in Risen 2 you had inquisition with the gunpowder or the voodoo path.
It Is feasible to ignore faction upgrades and do only the regular one?

Yes, that should be feasible, considering you can go through the game without joining a faction.

 

[Junmarko]

 

[Cpt. Dallas]

The Outlaw skill tree in E2 is pretty weaksauce, even compared to the other secondary faction (clerics) since they are on top of whatever you get in the primary faction. Does joining the Outlaws at least remove the 50% xp gimp when using chems?

 

[Cryomancer]

So far, why so few spells? For example, compare the Alb ice magic in this Elex 2. Only ice first, chain lightning, blizzard and charge. Only NoTR allows you to cast dozens of water magic based spells for G2. That so far seems like the greatest con of this game.

 

[Grotesque]

companion loyalty has any importance in the game?

 

[Ismaul]

I have a different theory about Piranha Bytes. That they're not really a "professional" studio anymore but basically a bunch of folks working on games in their own time when they feel like it.

Still doesn't explain why they didn't just reuse the better models of ELEX 1, for example Jax's face. His eyes aren't even the same color lol

This is mainly because of the lip sync program they use. Iirc its incompatible with the old models skeleton.


Although, the lip sync are technically impressive, the tradeoff it cost us is not worth it, you just have weird model with really good lipsync that drill into the uncanny valley

That would be a good reason to change models.

But the result is obviously a bad tradeoff. Good faces are more important than good lip syncing. I wasn't really annoyed at the lip syncing state in ELEX 1, par for the jank, but I haven't even run the second and I'm annoyed at the faces already. Jax went from badass to wimp lol, and all the other faces look prosperous.

Given how faces interact with lip syncing, I expect no mod will fix it.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

mod

:fabulously optimistic:

no mod tools are released, relies entirely upon modder reverse engineering and not enough people care about the game. At best it will get some small tweaks like ELEX got.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

The combat is actually better than in ELEX, if only because of things like weapon timed blocking (that actually works and against pretty much everything) and sidestep. I fought a skulled forlorn on Ultra difficulty at level 2 and won with a one handed sword, because if you time your block right, you stagger it, and can knock it off its feet with the next attack and follow up with a power attack while its getting off the ground. So it actually feels more like an action RPG combat, with player skill playing a role. In ELEX, timed parry only worked against one handed humanoid weapons AND had minimum effects. Also, the fact that shields start off with limited damage reduction is great, they were completely OP in ELEX and made combat pointless.

Now, on the bad side, ELEX had too much dialogue for a PB game, and ELEX 2 continues this, and perhaps makes it even worse. The great thing about early PB games (Gothics, Risens) was that dialogue was really terse and to the point. In ELEX 2, fucking traders just wont stfu. They will engage you in lines and lines and lines of pointless dialogue before allowing you to trade. I don't know why anyone would think this is entertaining.

 

[Junmarko]

Would honestly just rather they return to the tank controls from Gothic 1 + 2. Can't stomach any of of this shite.

 

[Jinn]

So after traveling with Ivan from the Berserker fort to the Morkon Grotto, I actually kind of find them to be a much more interesting faction than I had originally thought. So much so that I'll probably join them for my second playthrough someday. A death cult born out of a society of vault dwellers that enslaves and brainwashes people to join them? Cool concept for a faction, honestly. On top of that, they're not all just edgelord retards. There's a lot of kind and reasonable character around their base. I ended up liking Ivan a lot too in our cross-country hike. It was a good old "follow the NPC a far distance to discover a new faction base," with a number of cool little details.

Oh, and out of curiosity I was trying the circle-strafe method of fighting you have been mentioning, Roxor, and it certainly wasn't successful. Whether I was walking or running, the enemy would always close with me and lay the smack down. Makes me wonder if there's even more fucked up with your game than just the performance issues.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Whether I was walking or running, the enemy would always close with me and lay the smack down.

the enemy should come close, you are supposed to circle strafe around it at point blank

It doesn't work against everything, some niggas are more clever than others, even within those using the same models, so they must differ in AI routines somehow, but for example all raptor-types and all rat-types are completely powerless to circle strafing.

 

[Cat Dude]

Boring typical bald space marine character

 

[Mikeal]

Still better than hermaphrodites from JRPGs.

 

[lukaszek]

companion loyalty has any importance in the game?

i expect that some of them will kill you, other will not join the final fight. Not that it makes any difference

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Boring typical bad space marine character

nooo you can't just make your character a white guy with a typical military haircut!!!!

 

[Alienman]

I miss white guys with military haircuts.

 

[Steezus]

So what's the quick and dirty? Worse than glorious ELEX?

 

[Abu Antar]

I always play bald white males.

Anyway. I've been exploring off the beaten path, and found a few weapons that I am not remotely close to have the stats for.

I had a really funny "Gothic" moment. I was fighting one of those fireborn or whatstheirname. Way above my level, still cheese it with jetpack. Just as I defeat it, some other monster with a skull over its head appears. Run like a coward, end up in reavers nest. They are too many, and too strong. Run back and lure it to the camp. It kills all of them, I get the finishing blow on the beast, collect all the loot.

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

So what's the quick and dirty? Worse than glorious ELEX?

I am in too early to give a definitive evaluation so far, but quick summary after few hours playing:

1. Combat is better. It's more aRPG-like, player skill and timing play a role, you can fight harder enemies if you master it.

2. NPCs kinda talk too much.

3. Faces, models, and environment look worse than in ELEX for some reason, there is a discussion earlier in the thread on why that might be, but they do. But unless you are a graphics whore, I don't think it's such a big deal. Graphics whores probably wouldn't be playing PB games anyway.

 

[Abu Antar]

The thing about environments is that at times, it is butt ugly, and at times, it looks really impressive. And these places can be right next to each other.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Combat is better.

imagine being this wrong

oh wait its just porky

 

[rusty_shackleford]

how come nobody is mentioning the fact that there's just cooked food sitting around everywhere
is this a normal occurrence in germany?

"ah I'm out for my morning stroll in the forest. Wait, what's that I spot? A fresh, just-made bowl of Chili con Carne with nobody else around?! Delicious!"