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Elex |OT| Gothic 5: Risen From Jank

Moff

Member
How is the magic in the game?
Does it take forever to unlock like in previous PB games?

no you can join a faction pretty soon and will have access to their special abilities.
however, magic is pretty weak in this game. there is really only 1 good spell, but that one at least is devastating and a lot of fun to use.

I also think the magic abilities look really, really bad. embarrassing actually. Which is odd because Magic in risen 3 was awesome and looked great. I don't think there is a game where magic was more fun than Risen 3.
So I don't know why PB didn't put much effort into magic in Elex.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
You'll find a usable bow in the first 5 minutes.
Guns depends a lot on how fast you progress and with what attributes. I'd say at least 10 hours before you can use a gun.

Maybe it was because I was building my character more as a warrior, but the cultivator's bow felt worthless to me at the start of the game. You just barely scratch enemies and you can do a lot more damage even with a basic axe. I returned to ranged weapons only in late game when I got access to a plasma rifle and a flamethrower, but even then they weren't my primary weapons, because you can run out of ammo very quickly.
 

Moff

Member
Maybe it was because I was building my character more as a warrior, but the cultivator's bow felt worthless to me at the start of the game. You just barely scratch enemies and you can do a lot more damage even with a basic axe. I returned to ranged weapons only in late game when I got access to a plasma rifle and a flamethrower, but even then they weren't my primary weapons, because you can run out of ammo very quickly.

no that is my impression as well. Ranged weapons get very strong in the late game but there is no way around melee for early and midgame in Elex in my opinion.
 

Jenenser

Member
Steamspy numbers
Owners: 99,476 ± 9,667

BOOM. :D

clogged 60 hours into this beast. love it.
can't wait for the next PB.

fist day im back to the living, didnt even get the fallout here. (for the better i guess)

that said, i wouldve loved to see half a year more time in developement.
 

Honome

Member
Sorry to ask it here but Arcania The Complete Tale is on sale on PSN for only 4 bucks. Does it worth it for that price on the PS4? Does it have many bugs? Is the campain and story interesting? Is it a good game for people that love exploring?

I was interested in Elex but the price is too high for me at the moment and i may probabky wait for a sale.
 
Sorry to ask it here but Arcania The Complete Tale is on sale on PSN for only 4 bucks. Does it worth it for that price on the PS4? Does it have many bugs? Is the campain and story interesting? Is it a good game for people that love exploring?

I was interested in Elex but the price is too high for me at the moment and i may probabky wait for a sale.

To answer your questions:
- No
- Yes
- No
- No

It was not developed by Piranha Bytes and frankly has no place in the Gothic series. It is uniformly terrible and its name should remain forgotten.
 

Honome

Member
To answer your questions:
- No
- Yes
- No
- No

It was not developed by Piranha Bytes and frankly has no place in the Gothic series. It is uniformly terrible and its name should remain forgotten.

Thanks for the quick answer, mate. I didn't know it was not made by PB. Gonna avoid it and wait for an Elex sale.
 

barit

Member
Before I lost the chance to post here because we're in the darkest timeline ever I just wanna say this game is everything I hoped it would be. It's straight Gothic style mixed with post-apocalyptical Sci-Fi elements and I love it. Probably the best PB game so far for me. It has everything you'd wish in a PB game with snarky humor, lovely junky animation and one hell of difficult spike. Good job developers.
 

Moff

Member
I agree, Elex is what Gothic 3 was supposed to be. A massive, ambitious open world RPG with the Gothic 2 core values.

They need to patch plenty of flaws, though.
 

Ombra

Member
I agree, Elex is what Gothic 3 was supposed to be. A massive, ambitious open world RPG with the Gothic 2 core values.

They need to patch plenty of flaws, though.
If the combat( and horrible gear based stat leveling) was worth a damn for me, I would have never stop playing this game..


a lot of things I find do work well despite the jank but after realizing I was not having fun, I went to return Elex to the gamestop I frequent. the manager basically told me I was number 4 that week and the majority lamented the combat/difficuly. Kudos to those who stick with it and can overlook that aspect because much of everything else looked like it would be a treat..still hoping for a patch I'd buy it again in a heart beat if it fixed things.
 

Ombra

Member
I hope they don't "fix" the difficulty, that would really be a shame and a bad sign for the sequel.
You are fighting against the controls more than you are fighting the enemy. The gifs from earlier in the thread prove they had combat down pat in older games and somehow ended up fudging this up.

This isn't a dark souls situation where the difficulty is fair and balanced. This is jank game design that is causing people to give up on what may have been a great experience for them.

Are you so selfish in your lust for jank that you would not want them to fine tune their craft and make it, I don't know, "fun" to fight a high level enemy without cheesing?
 

Moff

Member
The controls are not the problem. The problem is that the progression is 100% gear based and many players simply try to kill everything they encounter before they have the needed gear. Which is like 80% of enemies in the starting location.

When you have that gear, which might be 20 hours in or more, you'll realize the combat is fun. No Bloodborne perfection but more than servicable.

I would not be opposed if they added a story mode. But please don't ruin this gem by destroying the balance.
 
Damn, I won't have my PC the next weeks or I would probably pick it up, but the impressions here make it seem pretty good all things considered. Looking forward to it when I can spend time on it
 

MrCinos

Member
You are fighting against the controls more than you are fighting the enemy.

Definitely not in my experience. I had been punished in The Witcher 3 for example, when Geralt starts doing a long animation attack instead of a shorter one and it was hard to distinguish if it'd be either one at first, while in ELEX I noticed a clear pattern to the animations and turn rates during a first couple of encounters. I did fail a lot with striking/combo-ing the enemy afterwards, but that was entirely on me as I've been shutting down my brain sometimes thanks to being used to less punishing and easier combat systems.

As long as I kept concentration the melee combat in ELEX felt pretty smooth and entirely in my control. At least in 1 vs 1 situations.

P.S. I finally had enough strength to change from Rusty hatchet after 25 hours of gameplay, lol. Within next 5 hours my power level, thanks to incredibly generous quest line (went from 13 to almost 18th level during attack on Converter with Clerics where I didn't do much, just followed them in the rear since I had no damage yet and watched them rip through Albs) and crafting a lot of Elex potions. With 30-40 strength I felt confident in most encounters afterwards. I don't think I've played a game with more satisfying character progression since older D&D games.
 

Artdayne

Member
You are fighting against the controls more than you are fighting the enemy. The gifs from earlier in the thread prove they had combat down pat in older games and somehow ended up fudging this up.

This isn't a dark souls situation where the difficulty is fair and balanced. This is jank game design that is causing people to give up on what may have been a great experience for them.

Are you so selfish in your lust for jank that you would not want them to fine tune their craft and make it, I don't know, "fun" to fight a high level enemy without cheesing?

The difficulty has very little to do with "jank". Part of the issue is they don't explain the combat system well. Then again, Demon Souls didn't explain shit either. I only bring up that reference because you mentioned Dark Souls.

People who find the game difficult misunderstand the way this game is designed, which I don't entirely blame them because most RPGs today are designed to be more accessible and simplified. This game doesn't have scaling enemies, nor should it. You're not expected to kill most of the monsters when you first start. You have the ability to level outside of combat and you have the ability to sneak for a reason. You can also run away and get help from NPCs. PB games lean more towards character progression and as a result progression feels a lot more satisfying when you start getting high level gear and abilities.
 

Lucumo

Member
Steamspy numbers


BOOM. :D

Not nearly enough. I would have bought the collector's edition but for some reason, the physical version requires Steam which I don't have and won't get. Yet, you can buy it on GoG without problems and it's single-player only anyway.

I also watched a bit of CohhCarnage in the last 2-3 days and I have to say that his general attitude is pretty refreshing...unlike what you saw from gaming outlets which just trashed everything.
 

Moff

Member
You guys are making it real hard holding off for a sale on this...

it's not a full price game anyway, at least in my region it's like 70% of the standard price and cdkeys has it for 36 bucks in my region.
I think it will be a better experience after 1 or 2 patches but I loved it already in the launch version.
 
The controls are not the problem. The problem is that the progression is 100% gear based and many players simply try to kill everything they encounter before they have the needed gear. Which is like 80% of enemies in the starting location.

When you have that gear, which might be 20 hours in or more, you'll realize the combat is fun. No Bloodborne perfection but more than servicable.

I would not be opposed if they added a story mode. But please don't ruin this gem by destroying the balance.

I agree with this. I hit ~24 hours last night and gained enough stats to get into the next "tier" of weapons. I feel much more comfortable exploring, knowing that I can take on most enemies 1v1, skull enemies aren't as scary anymore.

Multiple enemies are still problematic and take much more strategy but that is a fun part of the gameplay in itself.

Outlaws are completely underrated. I don't think people are taking advantage of the chems and related perks, they can make a huge difference.
 

Banzai

Member
I finally joined a faction after 20ish hours played and reaching LV23. Turns out that's not enough to become a rank 3 cleric though.
 

Lucifon

Junior Member
How's playing as an Outlaw? Their abilities look pretty terrible from the upgrades screen, just a bunch of chem recipes. I'm never one to really use consumables outside of health potions. Beserker magic looks terrible to use and Cleric's seem ultra cheesy but possibly the strongest?
 

Jenenser

Member
got a small complaint. infinite elex.
they should rebalance it to a finite amount.

Broken at the moment and plz dont abuse for your own gamefun (might have already been stated here.):

crafting energy paks low to mid.

How's playing as an Outlaw? Their abilities look pretty terrible from the upgrades screen, just a bunch of chem recipes. I'm never one to really use consumables outside of health potions. Beserker magic looks terrible to use and Cleric's seem ultra cheesy but possibly the strongest?

from what i've seen, the outlaw stims can be pretty badass (in theory :DDD) .

thers one, that gives you 30% attackspeed for example. didn't find any other way to increase attackspeed knowingly

didnt use it.
on a harder playtrough i will probably take them tough.
 

Moff

Member
How's playing as an Outlaw? Their abilities look pretty terrible from the upgrades screen, just a bunch of chem recipes. I'm never one to really use consumables outside of health potions. Beserker magic looks terrible to use and Cleric's seem ultra cheesy but possibly the strongest?

everything you write is spot on

Outlaw skills are a joke, before they game released I imagined their stims could be abilities like Max Payne bullet time or other fun features. Now they are just simple buffs.

However the truth is that all the faction skills are incredibly lackluster, they did not put much effort into this.
Magic in general looks embarrassing, really bad, feels weak, lacks punch and damage. Risen 3 did this a million times better so it's weird how this came to happen.
The only exception here is one ability in of the cleric faction weapons, the spell "Black Hole", which looks decent, is fun to use and incredibly devastating.

But apart from that all the spells look and feel bad. The Chain lightning for instance is a tiny ugly white ball, very hard to hit enemies with it and when you do they get a very cheap "electric" skin. As I said, embarrassing. The fire spells looks really bad. I don't know what happened here, as I said, Risen 3 had really fun (and admittedly very overpowered) Magic that looked and felt just great.

Weapons have similar balancing issue that do not make sense, but at least some of the high weapons are a lot of fun to use and do a lot of damage. The best weapons in this game are Plasma Rifles. They do more damage than rocket launchers and flame throwers but still get all the mobility, while the mentioned heavy weapons restrict rolling and the jet pack.

My final Character is cleric, has a legendary Plasma Rifle for single target, the Black Hole for groups and the second best 1hand sword in the game just for fun and style, and it's very very fun to play. If you choose other options I am not sure you'll have the same experience. On my second playthrough I choose Berserker because I want to see more how their magic works.
 
How's playing as an Outlaw? Their abilities look pretty terrible from the upgrades screen, just a bunch of chem recipes. I'm never one to really use consumables outside of health potions. Beserker magic looks terrible to use and Cleric's seem ultra cheesy but possibly the strongest?

I'm enjoying it, it is a buff heavy type play style, some pretty good weapons like the sawed off shotgun. If you're role-playing interest is in the mad-max type category then it'll be worthwhile. The NPC's also have a lot of personality and its just kinda fun, they're a bunch of anarchist drug users that just back stab each other and steal everything.

The quests in the fort are pretty entertaining too, at the very least I'd suggest going through that progression before deciding on a faction.
 

Anoxida

Member
How's playing as an Outlaw? Their abilities look pretty terrible from the upgrades screen, just a bunch of chem recipes. I'm never one to really use consumables outside of health potions. Beserker magic looks terrible to use and Cleric's seem ultra cheesy but possibly the strongest?

Skills kinda suck. From a story perspective looks like the best faction to me. All the characters in Hort are incredibly dull.
 

Lucifon

Junior Member
Thanks for all the feedback on the factions! I'll go explore the quests before deciding. Haven't come across the Outlaw space yet at all. Done most of the Beserker stuff but not yet got inside the Cleric city.


Anything said about a patch yet?

Also wondering this! I'm hoping they support the X close to launch.
 
Only that they are working on it

That's always good news. It's at least something. No details though? Probably a bug fix patch, not yet for Pro and One X?

Also wondering this! I'm hoping they support the X close to launch.

In a interview earlier this year they said they were gonna support Pro and One X. They said Pro would be 4K. So One X should at least be on par. But it's a very small team, could take a while.
 

Moff

Member
Game seems to sell very well, a lot better than Risen 3. Happy for PB, I think some of the streamers really helped bringing attention to this game despite the poor reviews. I also think one factor might be that we really didn't have a good Open World RPG in quite some time, so some people need to scratch that itch.

This thread also has already almost twice as many pages a the Risen 3 thread had in it's whole span.
 
I started the game on og ps4 then treated myself to a birthday present and bought a pro. A pro patch would definitely be welcome but as is with boost mode there is a noticeable improvement over the OG ps4 with framerate.

So tempting to leave work and go jump back in to magalan, ugh...
 

Jag

Member
This game is so terrible in so many ways. Horrible voice acting, shitty UI, map that doesn't let you mark spots, horrible inventory, no understanding of character mechanics, dumb as shit AI and companions. Ability to cheese everything from encounters to money.

But yet I haven't stopped playing it since release and I'm totally loving it.

This game is a perfect example of why fun gameplay usually tops everything else.
 
I noticed something odd. When I rotate the camera so that it's behind my character it looks fine. But if I go backwards and I rotate the camera behind my character again it looks darker/dimmed. Why does this happen? Definitely looks off.
 
Had a quick session on Elex last night... 3.5 hours later and i realise it's 22:00 and i'm hungry! :)

I've been on a wander-spree and have some great weapons for when i'm leveled enough and i'm wandering around some ruins with frikkin' plasma frikkin' spitting beasties... my level 4 ass has no chance :D Sod it, i'm getting my butt back to Goliet tonight and level up a bit.

Damn, i love this game. Cheers, PB!
 

blubb

Neo Member
This game is so terrible in so many ways. Horrible voice acting, shitty UI, map that doesn't let you mark spots, horrible inventory, no understanding of character mechanics, dumb as shit AI and companions. Ability to cheese everything from encounters to money.

But yet I haven't stopped playing it since release and I'm totally loving it.

This game is a perfect example of why fun gameplay usually tops everything else.

Well, you only describe bad and unfun aspects. What is then the fun gameplay you're mentioning?
 

Jag

Member
Well, you only describe bad and unfun aspects. What is then the fun gameplay you're mentioning?

It's the similar formula for many PB RPG games. You start out pathetically underpowered and are not coddled or hand held. It's survive or die. You aren't dropped into a nursery environment, allowed to build up a bit before you are shuttled off to the next zone that is appropriate for your level.

There is real danger and stakes. Maybe you can kill that level 20 beast at level 1 if you want to give it a shot or more likely spend the early levels running for your life. Eventually you grow in power through questing and exploring until you can go back and kill everything that ever scared you.

That's fun gameplay.

It's also great looking environment, crash free, fast load times and a decent fast travel system. There are enough good things to overcome the bad.
 

Jag

Member
Double post but new patch is out.

http://store.steampowered.com/news/?appids=411300

Engine

Crash fix for systems with more than 16 logical CPU cores.
If savegame limit is reached, “Create new savegame” is hidden. (limit is 99)
Fixed saving for all Windows user.
Fixed some freezes in tutorials. The tutorial won't be shown if >the corresponding key bindings are not valid.
Fixed saving after the Big Bang fight was not possible.
Fixed pink water on some older AMD/ATI graphic devices.
Fixed game freeze when you try to interact during an evade roll.

Quests

Fixed permanently angry NPCs.
Kral has now a quest marker for the Mana shrine quest.
Jax gets the correct award from Reinhold when joining the Clerics.
Bullet and Lucy don't die immediately when they encounter an enemy.
Fixed quest targets when fighting in the arena.
Trevor now gives Jax the correct reward, depending on his actions.
Mad Bob’s dialogue is now in the correct order, taking the Jax’s actions into account.
Jack will change his daily routine if Jax killed Hopkins and his bandits. Furthermore, the dialogue regarding Volkmar’s weapon now works properly.
The quest involving Riley, Darrel and Paige is closed correctly now. (Might be necessary to sleep in a bed to trigger this fix.)
Fixed a plot killer for a certain ending of the game. Talk to Logan twice, in case of having this issue in your save game.
Bill will now return to his hut after the player killed Vance and talked to him about the situation.
Martha will now not quit the dialogue, after Jax buys food from/trades with her - therefore she will now update the Legate situation if the player choses the ENDE/END dialogue option.
If the player has joined the Clerics and talks with Darrell, he will now offer a quest for the player. If the player already spoke to Darrell and had only his standard sentence to say, he only must talk to Darrell again and then Darrell will offer the quest for the player.
Nasty will no longer interfere in the battle between Player and Kid.
Map Target Ethan/Volkmar will now be removed correctly during the mission: Scrap Delivery.
Jack has now Volkmar’s Weapon in his inventory.
If you ask Jora if it's lawful to take the laser rifle, while he has a Smalltalk with Stormson, both should continue their Smalltalk. If this situation already happened, Jax must talk to Stormson again until he has nothing to say anymore and Jora will return on his Smalltalk routine.
Now Angrim at waterfall is teleported back to his current daily routine point.
Sometimes Stormson, Eli, Wolf and Oswald were at wrong positions. Now they are teleported back to their daily routine points.
Fixed a bug that prevented Jax from joining the Berserkers.
Fixed Crony U5 mission. Now he won't get lost in certain locations.
Kallax gives additional main plot background information at showdown with him.
Fixed some time related quests.

World

Removed wrong weather zone in the Hort.
Corrected some items that were stuck in the ground.
Fixed some minor graphical issues with some of the Berserker armor.

Game

Now party members will be more helpful during combat.
Enemies now have better targeting. They shouldn't shoot at walls or objects anymore.
Now there is an option to deactivate the double-click evade roll. To enable this option, you must assign a key to the evade option in the key bindings.
Human enemies can attack with low stamina now. This should prevent some issues with enemies doing nothing while they have low stamina.
Now you can transfer chunks of tens in the trade menu.
Fix for haggler perk. You can buy every item now.
Fixed helmets being in front of the camera while looting a chest.
Exploit fix with crafting energy reserve.
Fixed equipped weapons. They weren't destroyed when you salvage them.
Fix where you get an 2h Hammer instead of an 2h Sword at the crafting table.
Fixed duplicated key binding page.
Fixed the needed skill to upgrade the chain saber.
Fixed evade tutorial. It has caused a slow-motion effect for 10 seconds.
Elex and Elex Potions now show a message that your Cold has increased.
Fixed Perk Bookworm. Now you get XPs for reading letters and books. Reading Letters without the Perk will also give Jax some XP now.
Party members don't move around when the player is in a dialog.
Fix for some wrong loading hints.

Achievements

"Honorary Citizen" is now given after 80h of playtime, not after 1h
 
Nice, just in time for a Friday afternoon session after work.

Time to go get splattered silly again by enemies while looking for mo' money.
 
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