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[SlasherJPC]

I think most streamers and reviewers, including Karak already had this patch applied when they were playing right?

PS4 patch went up sometime a week or so ago, the Xbox One version only went up on Oct 14th.

Also where the hell is the first companion. This game is really tough trying to go anywhere to do quests and getting slaughtered and leveling up to learn skills with trainers is def a bit weird. I'm like 6 hours in and still trying to find a way for the first town to approve of me and I can't seem find any more quests in town aside from ones that want me moving WAYYYY far away and ultimately in areas with deadly creatures. Am I supposed to run. Game is def a bit frustrating overall but still promising.

 

[Karak]

PS4 patch went up sometime a week or so ago, the Xbox One version only went up on Oct 14th.

Also where the hell is the first companion. This game is really tough trying to go anywhere to do quests and getting slaughtered and leveling up to learn skills with trainers is def a bit weird. I'm like 6 hours in and still trying to find a way for the first town to approve of me and I can't seem find any more quests in town aside from ones that want me moving WAYYYY far away and ultimately in areas with deadly creatures. Am I supposed to run. Game is def a bit frustrating overall but still promising.

Well you can technically get them out of order, so you may find someone else randomly But if you mean the Berserker dude he should be in the main town(starting city). Go to the top lords area(in the old building with him on the throne) if I remember right the dude is right there at the bottom of the steps to the entrance.
And ya I just knew this was going to be an issue. Because of the way he is handled. He comes then goes and it doesn't really say GO HERE to get him.

Hope you like it! Took me a couple hours for sure. Longer than any PB game I think

 

[Deleted member 471617]

Some people really do not like this game
PSU: 3/10

Upgrading Jax is just as painful as combat. When you level up you can distribute points across various attributes like strength, dexterity, and intelligence. This is all fine and well until you get to the meat of upgrades, your abilities. If you want to learn any sort of abilities you first have to earn the favor of the leader of whatever town you’re in. You do this by doing a bunch of side quests for the citizens. This already is a hassle because a lot of these quests mean you have to venture to the opposite side of the map where everything is doubly powerful.

That's just the first problem, the second problem comes in finding Trainers. These Trainers are the only ones that can teach you specific abilities. The problem is the restrictions placed on these abilities. First, you have to win approval, then you have to have enough points placed into specific categories. In order to learn how to use magic with the Berserkers you need triple the points in specific categories just to be able to learn to use magic. When you level up you get about ten points to spend on your attributes and most skills require you to have around forty to fifty points in multiple attributes to learn skills. It took almost twenty hours just to learn my first skill. The hurdles placed in the game are just insane.

WOW!!! Watched a 30 minute opening walkthrough and thought, not bad, I'll buy this when it hits $20 and I don't have anything to play for a month or so but jeez, this just ended my interest completely. Sorry but im not spending twenty hours (give or take) doing all of that just to upgrade a single skill. smh.

 

[SlasherJPC]

Well you can technically get them out of order, so you may find someone else randomly But if you mean the Berserker dude he should be in the main town(starting city). Go to the top lords area(in the old building with him on the throne) if I remember right the dude is right there at the bottom of the steps to the entrance.
And ya I just knew this was going to be an issue. Because of the way he is handled. He comes then goes and it doesn't really say GO HERE to get him.

Hope you like it! Took me a couple hours for sure. Longer than any PB game I think

The guy you meet at the start after getting to the open world? If so he jusy stands therd and had a mission I think he might want me to do. Guess I'll take a gander there. The openinh hours are super tough though.

 

[FlyinJ]

Can I join multiple factions?

If not, can I still get trained by the guys in the first town if I don't join them?

 

[Banzai]

I'm a bit worried I got screwed by instant-gaming .com. It's my first time ordering from there but I had just assumend they'd send me my steam code immediately. Or can they not do that because the game doesn'T have preload anyway?

 

[120v]

hrm... i'll go ahead and bite. i don't feel like waiting around the $20 bargain bin.

 

[Corleth the Fey]

Can I join multiple factions?

If not, can I still get trained by the guys in the first town if I don't join them?

I'm still right at the start, but I know you can't join multiple factions. The trainers might offer some generic training for those outside of the faction. But faction only skills certainly won't be available.

Best thing to do is keep a save where you don't join any factions and then on that save at least go visit the others to see who takes your fancy. You could also use that save to return to if you wanted to go full completionist and play all the factions. You could then go back to that save instead of starting over from the very beginning again.

Anyway my thoughts one hour in? I love it already. I am a massive PB fan boy though. Seems way better and much more old school PB than Risen 2 and 3 already. And that adventurous PB feel is in full flow too. I've talked to one guy, got my jetpack and immediately turned around and explored the starting area again and already found cool loot.

 

[gossi]

It’s on Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/elex

 

[Durante]

Some people really do not like this game
PSU: 3/10

But that quote sounds awesome...? Like old school Gothic 1 + 2 style!

Yeah, that's what I thought when I read it. It sounds like the classic PB character advancement system.

 

[SilentRob]

WOW!!! Watched a 30 minute opening walkthrough and thought, not bad, I'll buy this when it hits $20 and I don't have anything to play for a month or so but jeez, this just ended my interest completely. Sorry but im not spending twenty hours (give or take) doing all of that just to upgrade a single skill. smh.

I'm not quite sure what the reviewer is talking about. You can chose between dozens of skills and every time you level up, you get one ability point to get a new one. You find the trainers just by exploring the cities naturally and sometimes you can do a sidequest for them, but not everytime. They aren't hidden at all. I have no idea what he means when he says it takes "20 hours to get the first skill"? Maybe he means magic specifically?

Well, Magic for the Berserkers or Psi for the Clerics are systems you only get access to when you join one of the factions. That takes quite some time and is one of the main parts of the game - those systems are thus only unlocked later in the game, but there are still dozens of other skills and abilities, upgrading your crafting, lockpickingm dialogue options, endurance, attack power, combo finishers, strength against certain enemies etc. etc. Every time I leveled up I was struggling to pick one ability because there are so many quite useful ones. Even before you get access to these skills via the factions you can find one-time items everywhere in the world with which you can use quite a few Psi abilities though.

 

[xrnzaaas]

This game handles many things right and many things (very) wrong. I like how the character is super weak at the start and you have to pick the battles carefully not to get your ass kicked (and also search for good quests to earn some reasonably easy xp). The world is also beautiful, I love how they combined magic with technology and I'm never bored while exploring it. On the other side we have dreadful combat mechanics. I actually had to disable auto lock on, because it wasn't working for me. Also it's pretty crazy how much combat becomes easier when you have a companion with you, it's almost like cheating. So that's that and also the main story isn't really interesting. It's told via boring flashbacks and the game assumes in most cases that you already know some things or that you'll learn the history of the world in your own time.
Still it's a fun to play game, much more enjoyable than some higher budget RPG's I've played in the recent years.

 

[Valdega]

Yeah, that's what I thought when I read it. It sounds like the classic PB character advancement system.

I don't think the classic PB progression system appeals to most modern players. They want to level up once an hour and unlock everything they want within 10 hours.

From what I've seen and read thus far, Elex seems like Another PB Game. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since I've enjoyed all of their previous games (except Gothic 3). However, I've already played those games and without any significant improvements on either the technical or gameplay fronts, Elex is just more of the same. I'll inevitably pick it up eventually but with the glut of games being released at this time of the year, Elex is pretty low priority.

It's a shame that PB hasn't evolved as much as CDPR. The original Witcher was pretty janky but each sequel was a significant leap over its predecessor. I would love to see PB make that leap one day.

 

[MrCinos]

Some people really do not like this game
PSU: 3/10

"Upgrading Jax is just as painful as combat. When you level up you can distribute points across various attributes like strength, dexterity, and intelligence. This is all fine and well until you get to the meat of upgrades, your abilities. If you want to learn any sort of abilities you first have to earn the favor of the leader of whatever town you're in. You do this by doing a bunch of side quests for the citizens. This already is a hassle because a lot of these quests mean you have to venture to the opposite side of the map where everything is doubly powerful.

That's just the first problem, the second problem comes in finding Trainers. These Trainers are the only ones that can teach you specific abilities. The problem is the restrictions placed on these abilities. First, you have to win approval, then you have to have enough points placed into specific categories. In order to learn how to use magic with the Berserkers you need triple the points in specific categories just to be able to learn to use magic. When you level up you get about ten points to spend on your attributes and most skills require you to have around forty to fifty points in multiple attributes to learn skills. It took almost twenty hours just to learn my first skill. The hurdles placed in the game are just insane."

I'm actually loving what's written in the quote. Sounds much better than just clicking + button on the character sheet and instantly getting (significant) power ups. The early parts of RPGs where you scraping by to survive and advance despite all the frustrations (sometimes being forced to cheese too) is always my favorite part of almost any RPG and the longer it is, the better experience I have. Pretty sure you'd end a (demi-)god by the end anyway so if it doesn't happen for a longer time than in most other RPGs then it'd be great.

 

[theSlacker]

WOW!!! Watched a 30 minute opening walkthrough and thought, not bad, I'll buy this when it hits $20 and I don't have anything to play for a month or so but jeez, this just ended my interest completely. Sorry but im not spending twenty hours (give or take) doing all of that just to upgrade a single skill. smh.

Stuff like that is actually one of the main appeals of Piranha Bytes games. Immersive stuff like training being actual training from another character in game that knows the skills you are looking to learn and may not be willing to teach just anyone, and how it's not just picking things from menus.

 

[His Majesty]

Some people really do not like this game
PSU: 3/10

That quote is selling me more on the game that not tbh. Just like in the old Gothic games.

I don't think the classic PB progression system appeals to most modern players. They want to level up once an hour and unlock everything they want within 10 hours.

From what I've seen and read thus far, Elex seems like Another PB Game. That's not necessarily a bad thing, since I've enjoyed all of their previous games (except Gothic 3). However, I've already played those games and without any significant improvements on either the technical or gameplay fronts, Elex is just more of the same. I'll inevitably pick it up eventually but with the glut of games being released at this time of the year, Elex is pretty low priority.

It's a shame that PB hasn't evolved as much as CDPR. The original Witcher was pretty janky but each sequel was a significant leap over its predecessor. I would love to see PB make that leap one day.

I have seen a lot of reviews that praise the open world of the game which makes me hopeful that ELEX is a return to the same quality of Risen. Of course a lot of reviewers don't want to put up with the game's jank, performance issues, bugs and other idiosyncracies but I usually don't mind that much.

all part of the experience lol

 

[Un4]

Damn, it seems the physical release is botched in parts of Europe. My pre-order wasn't dispatched and the release date shifted to Oct 20.

FML

 

[Soulblighter31]

Yeah, that's what I thought when I read it. It sounds like the classic PB character advancement system.

Their games were hard to understand by reviewers even back then, when game journos actually knew what they were doing. For todays journos on the other hand you get something like the quoted article. He points out all the cool stuff then interprets them negativelly

 

[Alexander DeLarge]

How does Bethesda get away with jank but PB gets crucified for it every release? Shouldn't the fact that their worlds feel more alive and their tech allows the game to live up to its concept override serviceable combat at best?

Also, are people so conditioned to level scaling nonsense that they'll complain when they can't jump straight to the "end game areas" without an issue?

 

[texhnolyze]

How does Bethesda get away with jank but PB gets crucified for it every release? Shouldn't the fact that their worlds feel more alive and their tech allows the game to live up to its concept override serviceable combat at best?

Also, are people so conditioned to level scaling nonsense that they'll complain when they can't jump straight to the "end game areas" without an issue?

I think the jank being discussed here is more than just animation, but also the system.

Also, Bethesda at least has streamlined their RPGs to cater more to the mass audience.

PB is doing the opposite, they stick with what they believe is best for the genre and the game they're making.

 

[Sentenza]

It’s on Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/elex

It's also on Metacritic on the best platform: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/elex

 

[Gala]

Time for some Eurojank! The clerics sound like a nice bunch!

 

[Mivey]

How does Bethesda get away with jank but PB gets crucified for it every release? Shouldn't the fact that their worlds feel more alive and their tech allows the game to live up to its concept override serviceable combat at best?

Also, are people so conditioned to level scaling nonsense that they'll complain when they can't jump straight to the "end game areas" without an issue?

Compare just the Perk system, say in Skyrim, with PB style abilities. Every level you get a few points, and can spent them on whatever. Never explained why your character suddenly got good at smithing, lockpicking or sneaking around by killing a few rats. PB games on the other hand actually simulate the process of learning stuff, from other people.
Fundamentally different philosophies, one is just removing all hurdles and makes everything as simple as can be, the other has a design principle that it won't dilute.

 

[Dueck]

I had fun with Two Worlds II, think I’d have fun with this? I’ve never tried a PB game...

 

[Sentenza]

I had fun with Two Worlds II, think I’d have fun with this? I’ve never tried a PB game...

It depends on what you liked about that, but if you could endure Two Worlds I and II, chances are you could end up loving most Piranha Bytes RPG.

While the former is an example of "people doing more or less what Bethesda does on shoestring budget", Piranha Bytes actually nails many of the core concepts in RPG far better. The challenge, the scale, the subsystems, the distribution of content, the difficulty curve, the complete lack of scaling, etc, etc.

Too bad they have always ranged from mediocre to dreadful on the technical side.

 

[DPB]

Damn, it seems the physical release is botched in parts of Europe. My pre-order wasn't dispatched and the release date shifted to Oct 20.

FML

Yeah, I'm not even sure that the PC physical version is going to be available here now (UK). Lots of sites had it up for pre-order, but my order is "awaiting stock from supplier" and nowhere else has it in stock either, apart from the extremely expensive collector's edition at Amazon.

Exactly the same thing happened with Risen 3 even though it was from a different publisher, and I ended up having to get it digitally.

 

[Alexander DeLarge]

Just checked my CE pre-order ETA on Amazon (USA).... November 29th. What a fuck up.

 

[Lucifon]

Jumped on for about 15 mins this morning on Xbox, seems fairly solid with some tasty jank thrown in for good measure. Hoping it gets an update for the Xbox One X close to launch, I'll probably dip in and out of it until then.

Looking forward to playing more later on.

 

[Shengar]

Some people really do not like this game
PSU: 3/10

This is actually beautiful.

 

[120v]

Damn, it seems the physical release is botched in parts of Europe. My pre-order wasn't dispatched and the release date shifted to Oct 20.

FML

damn. went with physical at the last minute to save a few bucks. i don't mind getting it "late" but not weeks later or something. hope the US side of things is sorted out

 

[JustSomeone]

Just checked my CE pre-order ETA on Amazon (USA).... November 29th. What a fuck up.

I also ordered the CE from amazon usa and Idon't even have an ETA yet

 

[Steez]

This is actually beautiful.

lmao, yeah. Most of the "bad" impressions are actually encouraging and highlight some personal positives as negatives.
European small stuido RPGs are seemingly just super alien to North American reviewers. Even Gothic 2 has a 79 on metacritic, which is like the craziest thing to me.

 

[Durante]

Computerbase wrote a rather positive review. The short version is that it's really good and worth it, but unpolished.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

Just got my GOG pre-order in and have 10 hours to wait now. Some of these reviews are just making me want the game more! There again i enjoyed Risen 2 & 3 but that is because Pirate themes always make games better. I even enjoy Vendetta Raven's Cry, like actually enjoy playing it and exploring so i'm well up for some PB goodness in spite of or even because of the rough edges.

 

[haveheart]

Computerbase wrote a rather positive review. The short version is that it's really good and worth it, but unpolished.

Which was the case for almost all PB releases. The good thing is that they'll patch it and that there'll be community patches sooner or later.
And I honestly think that the pricing is fair regarding the effort this small team put into this game over the past years. This is something we should support.

 

[stoff]

So when does it unlock on Steam?
Can I play it this evening in UTC+1?

 

[Accoun]

So when does it unlock on Steam?
Can I play it this evening in UTC+1?

Around 6 hours.

 

[Cosmic_Guru]

SE has just turned up (UK). Pretty decent as these things go - art book, cloth map (not very detailed), making of DVD, soundtrack, pendant and a figurine I haven't inspected closely yet. All nicely assembled in a box. Looking forward to getting my jank on with this.

 

[loganclaws]

1pm est.

 

[Corleth the Fey]

SE has just turned up (UK). Pretty decent as these things go - art book, cloth map (not very detailed), making of DVD, soundtrack, pendant and a figurine I haven't inspected closely yet. All nicely assembled in a box. Looking forward to getting my jank on with this.

Hey Cosmic Guru. Hope you are well. I'm really liking this so far. Enjoy the game my old partner in jank.

 

[Audioboxer]

lmao, yeah. Most of the "bad" impressions are actually encouraging and highlight some personal positives as negatives.
European small stuido RPGs are seemingly just super alien to North American reviewers. Even Gothic 2 has a 79 on metacritic, which is like the craziest thing to me.

Europeans understand the fine art of Jank. It's legacy and sophistication can only be appreciated with those who are connoisseurs in the ways. Americans scramble around praising the jank in Mass Effect Andromeda. Europeans look on and hang their head in shame. The 7/10 handed to ME whilst Elex gets a 3/10 shows how far our brothers and sisters in America have to come to appreciate the fine arts of Jank. Let us teach them in the ways.

 

[Soren01]

I'm not quite sure what the reviewer is talking about. You can chose between dozens of skills and every time you level up, you get one ability point to get a new one. You find the trainers just by exploring the cities naturally and sometimes you can do a sidequest for them, but not everytime. They aren't hidden at all. I have no idea what he means when he says it takes "20 hours to get the first skill"? Maybe he means magic specifically?

Well, Magic for the Berserkers or Psi for the Clerics are systems you only get access to when you join one of the factions. That takes quite some time and is one of the main parts of the game - those systems are thus only unlocked later in the game, but there are still dozens of other skills and abilities, upgrading your crafting, lockpickingm dialogue options, endurance, attack power, combo finishers, strength against certain enemies etc. etc. Every time I leveled up I was struggling to pick one ability because there are so many quite useful ones. Even before you get access to these skills via the factions you can find one-time items everywhere in the world with which you can use quite a few Psi abilities though.

Another trainer will solve my problem. PC trainer cheat.

 

[dragn]

any word on ultrawide support?

 

[Durante]

any word on ultrawide support?

Yes, actually:

it supports ultra wide so everyones aware, something most pb games never have in past

 

[arts&crafts]

Where is my key GMG? I know I know it doesnt unlock for 6 hours, but they have me worried.

 

[Soren01]

Any way to automatically spend skill points?

 

[Corleth the Fey]

Any way to automatically spend skill points?

Yes, just close your eyes and randomly hit a button.

If you are looking for the game to think for you then this isn't the game for you. It's fine to enjoy a different experience than this game offers. Horses for courses.

Specifically crafting your character toward a goal is the game here and the game expects you to do that for yourself.

 

[Steez]

Europeans understand the fine art of Jank. It's legacy and sophistication can only be appreciated with those who are connoisseurs in the ways. Americans scramble around praising the jank in Mass Effect Andromeda. Europeans look on and hang their head in shame. The 7/10 handed to ME whilst Elex gets a 3/10 shows how far our brothers and sisters in America have to come to appreciate the fine arts of Jank. Let us teach them in the ways.

This is not even on some MUH JANK superiority complex. The design sensibilities are just so different at this point.

RPG releases are polished to hell, slick menus, accesibility, difficulty that scales along the critical path so that the player is always strong enough to clear anything in sight and so on. Even Andromeda, which is janky by golbal standards, is a much more polished game than Elex or any other PB title ever will be.

But while big studios seem to invest most of their time and resources to create a well-rounded user friendly experience, small devs like PB use their resources to create something that, while incredibly rough around the edges, delivers a hopefully unique and unforgiving experience without any compromises. And to be fair, a lot of the time they fail horribly at it. Risen 2 and 3 are pretty bad, but sometimes taking chances pays off.

 

[Audioboxer]

This is not even on some MUH JANK superiority complex. The design sensibilities are just so different at this point.

RPG releases are polished to hell, slick menus, accesibility, difficulty that scales along the critical path so that the player is always strong enough to clear anything in sight and so on. Even Andromeda, which is janky by golbal standards, is a much more polished game than Elex or any other PB title ever will be.

But while big studios seem to invest most of their time and resources to create a well-rounded user friendly experience, small devs like PB use their resources to create something that, while incredibly rough around the edges, delivers a hopefully unique and unforgiving experience without any compromises. And to be fair, a lot of the time they fail horribly at it. Risen 2 and 3 are pretty bad, but sometimes taking chances pays off.

Sure, that's the real reasons, I said as much earlier. That post is just /superiorgamers satire. Even games like Alpha Protocol which have good writing and take some risks get hammered hard for not having flashy graphics/menus/animations/polish. Something like Mass Effect is probably always going to score higher than Alpha Protocol, no matter how rough ME gets.

PB games probably deserve 5~7 out of 10, but there's some good old school belief inside of trying to do your own thing without being the next-in-line for the "blockbuster AAA flashy slick menus experience". As I said earlier I do hope PB can maybe one day try and take a few steps further down the road of the likes of Obsidian, but sure, studio expansion is always something to plan carefully. You cannot just balloon and try and seek stupid amounts of investment or you can risk bankruptcy/studio closure and the pressures of having to turn yourselves into another "AAA production line".

In an era where Bioware and Bethesda seem to be losing the heart and soul of their writing to generic WRPG 101, it's good seeing smaller devs like PB still trying to put out their own content unafraid.

Speaking of Risen 2/3, I did give my thoughts earlier, Risen 1 is the best of the bunch, but 2 and 3 still have a decent pirate theme, and some of the writing is intact. As mentioned a few times Jaffar is a brilliant character you'd expect to find in a PB game. Devs having fun.

 

[Big_Al]

Got a long weekend coming this week so I shall dedicate myself to the glorious jank.

This is not even on some MUH JANK superiority complex. The design sensibilities are just so different at this point.

RPG releases are polished to hell, slick menus, accesibility, difficulty that scales along the critical path so that the player is always strong enough to clear anything in sight and so on. Even Andromeda, which is janky by golbal standards, is a much more polished game than Elex or any other PB title ever will be.

But while big studios seem to invest most of their time and resources to create a well-rounded user friendly experience, small devs like PB use their resources to create something that, while incredibly rough around the edges, delivers a hopefully unique and unforgiving experience without any compromises. And to be fair, a lot of the time they fail horribly at it. Risen 2 and 3 are pretty bad, but sometimes taking chances pays off.

I thought Risen 3 was pretty great tbh and I enjoyed that almost as much as 1, was only 2 I was really disappointed in.