Elex

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odrzut

Elex

Post by odrzut »

So, I've bought Elex, and it's getting bad reviews everywhere but I quite like it. I think it's the only real RPG (where attributes and skills of the character matter more than that of the player) that came out in last 10 years and wasn't indie.

Anybody played it? How's impressions?

And yeah - it's imbalanced (very difficult at the start, 95% of the map is going to kill you if you stay there for more than 5 seconds), unpolished in many ways. But it's also very addictive (played 30 hours since it came out), and very reactive. You can kill any NPC and the plot reacts to that. Small things have consequences (like using technology in front of technophobic people). Quests have lots of possible solutions, and you can easily go wrong if you aren't careful (questgivers often lie , and you have to seek for additional information without quest compass indicating you that you should).

The combat is weird, if you haven't played Gothic 1 or 2. It's very janky (hitboxes are absurdly inconsistent). At first your character seem slugish, but wheny ou level up it becomes moroe responsive and fun, new skills appear. But still it's not very polished. And somehow it's still fun to play.

You can pull enemies to nearest monster, or vice versa, and look from the roof top as they kill each other. You can even murder whole faction cities if you pull some Trolls to them.

Also you have a jetpack (with very small fuel tank that fills up slowly), and it makes exploration great. There's lots of verticality in the map design - huge mountains, ruins. And the exploration is the best part of the game, precisely because combat is so hard. The danger makes it exciting, and a new weapon is huge improvement, so it's worth to spend a few hours searching for it.

I'm at level 20, and still haven't seen a quarter of the map, but from what I've heard the end of the game is rushed, so I'm probably 90% plotwise.

If you like oldshoool RPGs - give it a go maybe. Just be prepared for questioning you assumptions from modern RPGs. The fact that the path between starting area and first quest hub is full of monsters that one-hit you for example :) Or the fact that blindly following the quest compass will be bad for you, usually. Also there's lots of unpolished stuff. Inventory is very bad. Combat becomes fun after 15th level (possibly earlier if you make more optimized build, but not much earlier). Before that I abused monster AI and my companions to finish quests, because I was too weak to finish most quests the usual way.
nickturner13

Re: Elex

Post by nickturner13 »

I read about this the other day after seeing an advert for it somewhere.

It definitely looks interesting... though not sure I'm interested enough to pay full price for it.

My only experience with Piranha Bytes games is Gothic 3, which I downloaded a demo for at some point on an earlier PC, the graphics blew my card at the time!

Looks like the kind of game I'll probably pick up on a steam sale once it gets below a tenner, then forget about it completely :)
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Stanshall
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Re: Elex

Post by Stanshall »

Very intriguing write up. I'm always interested in these slightly wonky near-misses. I'll be keep an eye out for a sale.
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Sean
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Re: Elex

Post by Sean »

I'm curious to check it out. Part of me misses those janky mid-tier games from the previous generations, so, if this is at least a kind of nostalgia trip, I can appreciate that.
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Chopper
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Re: Elex

Post by Chopper »

Off topic a little but if the janky mid-tier niche appeals to you, you should check out The Technmancer on current gen. It appears janky at first glance but is actually a very decent RPG in the Eurojank mould, and should be cheap now too.
nickturner13

Re: Elex

Post by nickturner13 »

Chopper wrote: October 25th, 2017, 4:43 pm Off topic a little but if the janky mid-tier niche appeals to you, you should check out The Technmancer on current gen. It appears janky at first glance but is actually a very decent RPG in the Eurojank mould, and should be cheap now too.
Thats exactly the game I was thinking of when I saw this tbh. Also looks interesting without being a typical AAA game.
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Sean
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Re: Elex

Post by Sean »

I keep seeing Technomancer on sale, but, never really looked into it. Thanks for the recommendation!
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macstat
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Re: Elex

Post by macstat »

I never liked Gothic series, and this one have some iffy reviews .. at best ill wait for major sale.
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