ELEX ELEX RELEASE THREAD

[Gepeu]

So is this game worth playing? or is it shit? or both??

It's the best game since, like, Underrail. It's awesome, just rough around the edges.

 

[toro]

So is this game worth playing? or is it shit? or both??

It's the best game since, like, Underrail. It's awesome, just rough around the edges.

Really rough edges. Like something close to soil.

 

[Sjukob]

I wanted to save this until I was done with the game but I can't hold it for longer.

Why the fuck is there still no proper gothic I-II clone ?! Fucking shit, just look at this sorry parade: non-gothic 3, Risen, Risen 2 electric boogaloo, Risen 3 - the "fuck no" game and now Elex. How many more attempts will it take them to finaly not fuck it up ? More so, even after G3 turned out as an abysmal fucking disaster because of their will to create a huge and detailed open world they are still going for it ... If I could interview Piranha Bytes I would've asked them just one question : "What the fuck?"


Yeah I know that Risen and Elex are kind of ok, but eh ,whatever, still very underwhelming when you compare them to gothic which is more than a decade old at this point.

And yes I do know that publisher heavily contributed to fucking up the entire Risen series.

 

[Kyl Von Kull]

I wanted to save this until I was done with the game but I can't hold it for longer.

Why the fuck is there still no proper gothic I-II clone ?! Fucking shit, just look at this sorry parade: non-gothic 3, Risen, Risen 2 electric boogaloo, Risen 3 - the "fuck no" game and now Elex. How many more attempts will it take them to finaly not fuck it up ? More so, even after G3 turned out as an abysmal fucking disaster because of their will to create a huge and detailed open world they are still going for it ... If I could interview Piranha Bytes I would've asked them just one question : "What the fuck?"


Yeah I know that Risen and Elex are kind of ok, but eh ,whatever, still very underwhelming when you compare them to gothic which is more than a decade old at this point.

And yes I do know that publisher heavily contributed to fucking up the entire Risen series.

I blame the mass audience, which has been trained by Bethesda to expect gigantic open worlds, nevermind if they’re totally bereft of content. Gothic 1/2 could get away with small, tight worlds because the first person 3D ARPG thing was just getting started. I don’t think PB would be able to charge full price if the world was 50% smaller, even if it also made the game 50% better. Most newcomers would feel like they’d been taken advantage of.

I wish they’d just tell the mass audience to fuck off, but that’s not the best business plan.

It’s probably also because these guys were a lot younger when they made Gothic 2. Gothic 3 clearly burned them out and they haven’t been the same since. It’s like Chris Avellone: he peaked nearly 20 years ago. He still writes good content but I doubt we’ll ever see another PS:T style magnum opus.

 

[Junmarko]

Why the fuck is there still no proper gothic I-II clone ?!

Former Piranha Bytes and CDProjekt RED figureheads have been developing it privately this entire time.

Under project codename: "Spacetime".

 

[Sjukob]

Former Piranha Bytes and CDProjekt RED figureheads have been developing it privately this entire time.

Under project codename: "Spacetime".

I don't trust cd projekt after TW3. I honestly have no idea what can come out of such alliance, but I'm not pessimistic about it and your post got me interested. It's just that I feel like cd projekt will screw something or that their influnce might be harmful.

Spoiler

I'm tempted to say that despite all of it's flaws and even bugs Elex is still a more enjoyable and fun game than TW3, but DOS2 taught me to take time before making a coclusion, so we'll see.

 

[Gepeu]

So is this game worth playing? or is it shit? or both??

It's the best game since, like, Underrail. It's awesome, just rough around the edges.

Really rough edges. Like something close to soil.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Elex]

Why the fuck is there still no proper gothic I-II clone ?!

Former Piranha Bytes and CDProjekt RED figureheads have been developing it privately this entire time.

Under project codename: "Spacetime".

ah yes spacetime, they are still developing that?

 

[Junmarko]

I don't trust cd projekt after TW3. I honestly have no idea what can come out of such alliance, but I'm not pessimistic about it and your post got me interested. It's just that I feel like cd projekt will screw something or that their influnce might be harmful.

Haha, I wasn't serious - I was just reminded of that odd Piranha Bytes RED announcement back in 2015 - The logo is even colourised on the Polish flag Is "Spacetime" the codeword for a vault in Poland where Piranha Bytes ("Blue?") will run if they go bankrupt? Has Michael Hoge been waiting in there this whole time with ex-CDPR team members, bored - did they, in their boredom, start making this a Gothic mod, but forget to hide their studio-level of experience in it's presentation? Lol. https://thehistoryofkhorinis.com/ (seriously though, how impressive is that for a mod?)

Nah, to be honest, side-by-side each of them is a studio that has delivered cRPGS I consider equal parts flawed & great, but in different areas. I think they both understand rich C&C as a core focus in CRPGs, better than most - and their approach to strategy in action/real-time, has been high risk/reward, using tactile feedback (Gothic typically split it with RNG and made it like Poker). Witcher has a higher quality of storytelling & character development (a book series helps) but Gothic recaptured the Ultima 7 simulated world, with complex A.I routines & a crime system (killable NPCs, theft etc) based on common sense e.g: you can't wander through someones house without them calling for help etc. If you were to combine two teams with strengths & focus like this, you would get a brilliant game.

 

[Sjukob]

Well damn. I'm not giving up on Piranhas though, I'll be looking forward to their new releases.

Lol. https://thehistoryofkhorinis.com/ (seriously though, how impressive is that for a mod?)

Well look at team that made Returning. It might be of questionable quality or even a turd to some people but a lot of stuff has been made to create it. And even for a mod it has a lot of new content and features. I wouldn't mind studios creating mods for their games especially for something like gothic, if it happened it might've even breathed new life into game communities that were not as active.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news...und_in_the_apocalyptic_openworld_RPG_Elex.php

Dev Q&A: Jetpacking around in the apocalyptic open-world RPG Elex

In October, the unusual open-world RPG ELEX landed on Steam, PS4, and Xbox One, brought to us by developer Piranha Bytes. It's an old-school role-playing game updated for modern consoles, one that lets you jetpack around a harsh apocalyptic environment.

Piranha Bytes' previous role-playing series Gothic and Risen have found a special foothold in the United States and Europe. Curious about the company's move to a more science fiction-inspired setting, we decided to ask project director Björn Pankratz about the company's development process and how it makes these fascinating, if niche, RPGs. He was kind enough to join us for a Twitch conversation.

We've transcribed some of the more interesting passages of the conversation below.

You can watch the stream embedded above, or click here to see it. And for more developer insights, editor roundtables, and gameplay commentary, be sure to follow the Gamasutra Twitch channel.

STREAM PARTICIPANTS:

Bryant Francis, editor at Gamasutra

Björn Pankratz, project director of ELEX, at Piranha Bytes

Alex Wawro, editor at Gamasutra


On making niche games
"Why are we following our philosophy of making games as we are with such a small team?"

>Wawro: Piranha Bytes' games have a reputation for being "hidden gems," cult classics, they have a small but devoted fanbase. And they have, typically, when I look at critical consensus around your work, I see a lot of concern over buggyness, but I also see a lot of praise, for the creativity, the inventiveness and the scope of the world. I kind of wanted to get your read on that. Is it accurate, and if so, what is it that enables Piranha Bytes to make these sorts of games?

Pankrantz: Hmm. I don't think we have as many bugs as we're told that we have! (others laugh) The question is, why are we following our philosophy of making games as we are with such a small team?

Wawro: That is a fantastic drill-down to what I was getting at. What is it about Piranha Bytes that makes the studio capable of producing these expansive, rollicking, open-world games?

Pankrantz: There were many guys who said, "Here, take my money and make a bigger company!"

Wawro: (laughs) I can believe it!

"Many Germans believe that Americans want to have a very easy game. But I don't think so. Games like Dark Souls and such are very successful in America. "

Pankrantz: But we didn't want that, because when we become bigger the responsibilities will change, and we have not the control of gameplay and things like that. We know that we have many, many fans out there. They expect something from us, exactly that what we do, especially here in ELEX. And that's our philosophy, we've followed now for about twenty years or something. In Germany, it's not so easy to hold your position as a small developer company here. Many companies aren't around anymore, but we're still there. There are reasons for that, that we still exist. When you get bigger you have to make more business stuff, controlling and meetings and stuff like that,

Wawro: Busywork? Work for work's sake?

Pankrantz: Yeah. I don't find the word for it. There are too many minds that follow different visions of how a game should be. Many Germans tried to become successful in America. They believe that Americans want to have a very easy game. When you only hit the bottom, you (have to be told) "You're great! You're great!" But I don't think so, with games like, as you said, Dark Souls and such, are very successful in America. That's not the typical American, to want to have an easy game.

In the end it is the matter of the money you spent for it, cutscene quality, quality of animations, graphics and stuff like that. But what we want to do is to tell them a deep story, an interesting thing, a very cool pacing game and immerses you in the world. And when you want to explain our formula, our philosophy, you have to use more than two sentences to explain that. That was always our problem, what it is to sell about our games.

Making an interesting faction system
"We have no game where you can adjust and select your character class at the beginning, because you have to know them, learn about their intentions and such."

Pankrantz: It's very important to us to not look only on the weaponry they have, or armors, abilities or skills they have. It's very important to attach the player, they have to invite themselves, to say what their intentions are, their needs and their beliefs. We have no game where you can adjust and select your character class at the beginning of the game, because you have to know them, you have to go to them and learn about their intentions and such. We think that's a very special, cool experience in a game, to make them your friends or your foes. We think it's interesting gameplay and storytelling.

Francis: That is a different answer from what I was expecting, but I like that. Bethesda asks you at the start of every Bethesda game, what species are you? They give you an open-ended choice to pursue, they give you a lot of tools to say what kind of class you want to be, but I think that's a really interesting way of looking at it. (Alex's character gets immediately killed by a sudden, unseen dinosaur waiting in ambush.)

Francis: Oh god! (laughs) I think that's a really interesting thing going in, knowing that the player can't know who these people are until they've actually played the game.

What's it like making games in Germany?
"It's fun to make games. It's also very difficult, but we believe in ourselves."

Francis: My next question, we talk a lot, on this show, about how making games changes for developers all over the world. How has live as a German game developer been? How do you feel, have things gotten relatively better or worse in recent years? Have your colleagues in other companies been doing well? Do they have worries? It's a broad question but I've been curious what life is like for you as a German game maker?

Pankrantz: We are more like smaller companies and teams here in Germany. There are bigger ones of course but I can only talk for the mid-size developers. We are about 27 employees here in our company, and that is not so many for a game like this. We have a developing time of about three years or so, so we have all our attention on this title. We only make one title at a time, we work very different here than other teams, so it is very difficult to speak for the others. But it's not so easy, because when you make a game, it doesn't matter what, it seems to me there is always a bigger one that compares to you and your title, and that's not so easy to make it. But nevertheless it's cool to be a developer in Germany and make cool games. And someone in America at a company like Gamasutra is having an interview with me. So it is fun to make games, what is the word? It is very difficult, but we believe in ourselves.

Francis: I think that's a good answer. Alex! I have been steamrolling ahead on the question front while you have been steamrolling into death.

Jetpack development

Wawro: I want to talk about jetpacks. I just want to know what was the process of fine-tuning the jetpack's design, how did you zero in on exactly how much fuel to give the player, how much life, that kind of thing?

Pankrantz: Very early in development we made this feature and ensured it works. Then in the first year we finished the iteration and velocity stuff, all the adjustments in the movements. Then we built the world. All the level designers had to have this feature almost finished, so we could test all these things. To the level design, it was very important.

 

[Elex]

look like ‘murica consider germans like aliens


why no merkel gif?

 

[Junmarko]

Elex was Germany's cry for help regarding Merkel. The conclusion - need human hybrid A.I to deal with inc "external" threat, only shelter the ones who voluntarily opt out of emotions lol

"Ve vill give sequel, if Merkel is found dead within 1 year" - Piranha Bytes

 

[MrJohnson]

Can't decide if I liked Elex or not. I went from having fun beeing slaughtered like back in the gothic days and climbing my way to beeing a decent fighter slowly bit by bit to just YOLOing through everything after i found "the redeemer", didn't even loot the enemies anymore nor spent my points to level up, just killed everything so easy and the fun suddenly vanished. Quests became boring chores with a fad story where they give you a little illusion of choice with the cold-emotion system but you are rather forced to click the answer because of your current emotional alignment.
Exploration became boring after you finally realize you only find more fucking toilet paper and flares in those chests and nothing special anyway.

I really gave this game a chance and did almost every side quest I found but after 38 hours of playing I was glad it was finally over as it became rather a tedious taks than an exciting adventure.

Had enough Elex at the end and could have instantly deep-freeze myself (when I had a big amount of Elex they already patched in that using elex gave you cold value and didn't want to stray of my "warm" playthrough) and 5-shotted the final boss anyway without using any of it. And I played on ultra difficulty

You could argue that using plasma rifles is just broken - and you are right - but you have no other chance as an dex/int character on ultra difficulty, you just do zero melee damage with such a build.

 

[Gepeu]

I've just finished ELEX for the first time.

The game is great, kind of. It's the first game for years that's really "gamey" for me, i.e. I kept returning to it almost every single day for the past one month and a half to progress just a little further or to see what other options lie ahead of me in terms of character progression and equipment. It's extremely bold with sticking to the very first design choices and concepts that probably sprung before the game entered the early development stage. The devs had a complete control over the whole process and it shows throughout the game. The game throws you into the world without any kind of explanation how to play it, and that's great. You have to figure out things for yourself, you don't know what will await for you in the end, you can't sneak peek to the end-game abilities and play styles that's present in an every single game nowadays. You will make mistakes when progressing your character and you will have no option of easily getting rid of them (well, if you don't abuse elex, of course, but I think it's a design choice to railroad you into a specific ending and as such I think it's neat). The player character is also not a demi-god with access to things that enemies don't have. Even a lesser reaver can bring out a flame thrower and burn you to a crisp, just like you can. Enemies can riposte your attacks, just like you can and it works along the same rules. There is no slow motion scope aiming helpless mobs. Even though you could argue about jetpack, it's neatly balanced with most of enemies ranged attacks (even if it looks strange), so the jetpack doesn't really give an upper hand in fights.
It's the first real "gothic" game since Risen 1, although it's the worst of the bunch. This pure love to your own creation, no matter how perceived it is as long as it suits your own goals of making your dream game, is beautiful within itself. It really feels like a 2001 game thrown into 2017.
However, just like in Gothic 3, the overall experience is hampered by a sheer world's size. They tried to do too much, (probably) run out of time and wrapped things up for the release. The world design is neat, especially in Edan, Abessa and Tavar. But, Ignadon is completely irrelevant (still pretty good), and Xacor is an equivalent of PB end-game dungeon, like Irdorath (but much worse). The quality difference between Abessa and Xacor is just striking and it's obvious that the later in-game locations weren't finished. The same goes for the quest content. The Edan and Abessa parts are great, things slow down in Tavar, to come to an almost complete halt in Ignadon and the 3rd and the 4th story acts. Especially the faction and later main story stuff seem to be severely cut down and quickly patched up (the final assault and the Hybrid fight are the best examples) for the release. Some things really do go nowhere (the Rat in Fort) and faction hubs further into the game feel empty and irrelevant. The Ice Palace is clearly patched up for the release, with a few empty corridors and blocked entrances. The final chamber gives me a Sleeper/Titan vibes, but it went nowhere, replaced with a boring and quick Risen2/3 ending fight. The very end is also handicapped, end slides completely broke for me. Some quest chains didn't come to an end (Caja romance didn't come to its conclusion before ending all main story quests, although my player character and she already confessed their love to each other, eh).
The progression pacing is also off. While the beginning is great, though arguably overcharged with seemingly unbeatable HP bloats for early weapons (yeah, I know that the point is to avoid all fighting, but still it feels off that a green critter, that gives just a bit more xp than a normal rat, is literally a tank). Slowly you get better weapons, armor and resistances to kill more tough things (raptors, jackals, even solo out a mutated bug or a ripper), but suddenly in a blink of an eye you roll through everything with little to no effort. Sure, you can still die easily even to lesser beings (like a skex) on a 40th level, but it doesn't happen until you walk away from your desk and stand idle in-game. The same thing happens in Gothic of course, but much later into the game. It feels, again, wrapped up in a middle of making. Shared teachers among the factions, a lack of attribute teachers, and finally lack of blocked out features until you learn them (e.g. levels for using certain classes of weapons unblocking new move sets just like in Gothic, mining, etc.) doesn't really match the encounters you meet throughout the game. But my grips, aside of the obvious "the game is not finished", are mostly a quality of life ones. They should've added more teachers, blocked off some skills behind teachers, replace some monsters, remade teleporter system (do not activate them at the beginning, instead they should've tied them down with the story and block in acts 1/2). I really miss Gothic 2/Risen crafting's ways of conduct, you know what I'm talking about: take an iron ore, smelt it into an iron bar, then forge a sword. Instead, it's an instant product through a terrible UI. For me, it's the worst thing in this game, because rushing things is understandable, a terrible UI is not. It's a thing that must be redone in Elex 2, that's for sure.

Also

Spoiler

fucking space lizards

 

[SlamDunk]

Former Piranha Bytes and CDProjekt RED figureheads have been developing it privately this entire time.

Under project codename: "Spacetime".

Thanks for the reminder. Had forgotten this one.

Should be interesting and certainly better than whatever Pankratz Bytes will release.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

So is this game worth playing? or is it shit? or both??

No aweigh Spectacle
THis Elex hype is codex trolling meme bandwagon.

The combat is absolute shit. The hitboxes are like 10 times fatter than you.

The UI is shittier than the generic pay2win korean MMO. Inventory management is a nightmare

when you change areas, the lens flare/bloom whatever is pure eye rape.

Questing is broken; you tend to complete quests out of nowhere when you initiate dialogue for example.

The only saving grace is exploration; but everything else in the game from the clunky console controls to amateur hitboxes to phoned in UI is definitely not worth it

 

[Abu Antar]

It's my game of the year. 100% honest, no memes involved.

 

[Sjukob]

I finished it, it sucked even more than DOS2.

Yeah I know that Risen and Elex are kind of ok

I'm tempted to say that despite all of it's flaws and even bugs Elex is still a more enjoyable and fun game than TW3

I'm not giving up on Piranhas though, I'll be looking forward to their new releases

Forget it, game is trash, TW3 is better than this and I dislike TW3.

Pankratz Bytes

Can go fuck themselves, I will not be playing their games anymore. Good thing that unlike with DOS2 I didn't give them money for their shit.

 

[Darth Roxor]

 

[Sjukob]

You know what's interesting about it ? My hour counter on a saved game says 36 hours yet it felt like I was playing for 120. I've never experienced a game to be this much of a drAg for me before.

 

[imweasel]

It's my game of the year. 100% honest, no memes involved.

Quoted for truth.

:mrpresident:

 

[Sjukob]

However there is one thing I should've mentioned about Elex - it's "emotions vs logic" dilemma. Probably the only thing I liked about the game, it's natural for humans to be emotional and it really saddens me that usually emotions are looked down upon as plenty of people favour logic instead. Some of the most informative posts on the internet feel like they were written by a robot and sometimes a really educated person in a dialogue doesn't feel much different from an AI. And how people usually ask others to calm down when they become emotionally invested in something and start, for example, speaking louder or making chaotic gestures, let them do it, it makes communication more interesting. It's good to have things balanced not one sided.

 

[Iznaliu]

The UI is shittier than the generic pay2win korean MMO. Inventory management is a nightmare

when you change areas, the lens flare/bloom whatever is pure eye rape.

I never knew that UI and the presence of lens flares were some of the most important factors in determining whether an RPG is shit or not. Clearly I can apply this logic to any RPG:

• PoE: UI is good, no lens flares, so obviously it's 10/10 and the best game of all time.
• Grimoire: has a crappy UI, but doesn't have any lens flares, so it turns out to be 9/10, which is mediocre.
• ELEX: has a shitty UI, but has loads of lens flares and other post-processing effects, which makes it 8/10, which is obviously the lowest rating we can give it.