Elex - Xbox One

Like many reviewers, I first came across a Piranha Bytes game with this Gothic series. Gothic 2 still strikes me years later as one of the great fantasy RPG experiences of my life. What was most notable about the game is that it was extremely difficult at first, as a low level character you are subject to being whipped by absolutely every creature that moves and in order to gain experience you had to take a much more tactical approach to improving your character. Of course by the end of the game you're quite up to the task, largely because your combat experience improves once you get used to the rhythms of it.Gothic 3 followed, vastly different to 2 and quite a bit more inferior (I remember not being able to finish the game because of a bug) and then the three games in the Risen series. What these showed is a smaller company putting out second or third tier games, certainly well worth playing for the positives, but Risen 1 was particularly buggy and while each game improved in certain ways, I don't remember any of them in the same way I do Gothic 2. They were basically games to keep me busy in between A game releases. But I always hoped the company might release another Gothic 2 some day.Elex is the company's newest game. I won't get into the discussion too much about the graphics other than to say that a lot of gamers really grade severely on them. To me they did an incredibly beautiful job with the tools they had, there's diversity, great verticality and the world is absolutely gigantic, probably a bit larger than anyone may have the patience for. The story has its missions, there are three factions with a number of specific missions both before and after you might choose one, missions related to companions and scattered side quests as well, more than enough to play for hours and hours. On top of this there are plenty of places to explore on the map that aren't mission related and are usually worth canvassing in order to dig up unique weapons. The missions are actually quite notable in that they are rarely black and white in the way they conclude and they all often have repercussions that affect the game later. At first I was impressed with this, later on as the game started to wind its way to its end I wasn't always left satisfied by the way things were going. I played to maximize the number of quests from all the different factions before I joined, but this made it harder in certain places to really know which factions you wanted to support vs the others.The combat, quite frankly, is absolutely terrible. With Gothic 2 the combat was very difficult at first but by the end you had the hang of it enough to feel like your character had really grown. By the end of Elex you're certainly hitting harder with more damage, but I felt there were frequent examples of the character in motion hacking 180 degrees away from the target, too many times where a gigantic creature was coming up behind you while your target was locked on a lesser creature, with a lot of instances where it was really hard to break and run when you needed to when jetpacking isn't really an option. And no matter what your armor or skill level it was, it never really felt, until extremely late in the game (like when you're in the late 20s/30s levels) that you could absorb more than a few hits from anything (you spend the whole game guzzling health potions after almost every fight). I was really shocked about this when I joined a Faction and suited up at the very late levels, it didn't feel like it made that much of a difference. One wonders what kind of incredible game Elex could have been with a better combat system. This honestly should be the biggest focus of Piranha Bytes with the inevitable sequel. If they ever put together a great combat system with the rest of their skills they could make a new classic.Finally (I don't think this will qualify as a spoiler exactly, but I'd skip this paragraph if you're extremely anti-spoiler), the company makes one of the biggest mistakes I've ever seen with the final battle. You can save anywhere you want in the entire game, but in this last fight you can't save and if you die you have to go through an incredible long conversation tree again over and over. I found this extremely frustrating even though after a few tries I ended up closing it, but if you go into it with a weaker kit I think this could have been absolutely maddening.Overall if you're fantasy RPG fan this will be a game you'll want to check out but it won't be for everyone. It is very hard at first, I know there was a long stretch early on where I was having huge trouble levelling up. Like another reviewer said, make sure you grab a companion as soon as possible, it makes it much easier if only to take some of the heat off you. Don't worry about exploring at first, just run a lot if things are too difficult. Once you get away from the faction areas into the wilderness the game really shows its strengths with all sorts of places your curiosity will lead you to. You will see enemies you can't even imagine defeating but later in the game every enemy can be overcome. I still thing this excessive difficulty at the beginning makes the later game feel a lot more rewarding and it's one of the reasons I will always come back to Piranha Bytes RPGs.Also it should be noted that this game has massive conversations with characters. It can also make the opening of the game extremely tedious if you're just hoping to get out and loot. It does give the characters a lot of depth and some realistic interaction, but by the end of the game I was getting so tired of taking 10 minutes per character I started skipping through the conversations. But also by that point I had gotten a little weary of the story. For all the care taken in specific missions, many of which have been well thought through, I felt the overall story was perhaps a bit too familiar. I would guess it's very difficult to eke out new territory in fantasy or science fantasy, so I wouldn't grade it too hard, but part of this is that not all of the voice acting is very good, it actually varies widely in talent. Also the lack of diversity in character races here should really be an embarrassment, but the character models are also all too similar. I remember at first thinking that most of the male characters looked like Bruce Campbell.But overall I would say the brilliant aspects of the game outweigh the frustrating 60 to 40. I'll be in for the sequel. This is a wonderfully creative team overall and have done such great work on this game. I absolutely cringe when people fire games up for an hour only to come over to Amazon to rip on them, somehow ignoring the absolutely incredible creativity on display, as if the thousands of hours people put in on these things aren't worth acknowledging. Not me, with the caveats expressed I still had a wonderful time and found this was well worth the price.

I absolutely LOVE open world scifi / fantasy games and this game checks all the right boxes ( for me ) that are needed to make a great game.Graphics & Art : This game does not look as impressive graphically as Battlefield One or Battlefront 2, but what you get here is a huge lush open world with many different environments, a Day/Night cycle and is still an absolutely stunning game. The games mentioned above are very very good looking games but they are hardly on the scale of Elex those games are a very linear type of game and Elex is HUGE and sprawling RPG. It is an absolute joy to just get off the beaten path of your current mission and just explore the Environment/World. I just can't say enough about the art style and graphics, while not the absolute best they are still STUNNING to look at and even more fun to just explore this beautiful world that the developers have created for us to lose ourselves in.Gameplay : If you are familiar with open world RPG games of this type you will be at home here. The fighting is similar to Skyrim/Oblivion, the Gothic series and Risen. Strike, block, roll, dodge and strike again or sometimes just run away because you may be dealing with an enemy that is overpowered for your current power level. There are other ways to fight as well, unlike some of the previously mentioned games, Elex will allow you to use swords, guns and magic, or a combination of all, and this is one factor that makes this game special and stand out from the rest. You will be told you need to join a faction at the beginning of the game, but in reality you can wait, level up and decide later which one fits your play style the best. This game can be brutal at times, it simply does not hold your hand and leaves it up to the player to figure some things out. There are times your enemy will two hit you and kill you just that fast, and others where you can just pummel them. You need to be tactical about the way you approach a fight, think about ranged attacks, sneaking or even close combat, but be prepared for the fight you are getting yourself into. Make sure you are equipped with enough health regeneration materials, mana regeneration resources or any other consumables you may need, Also make sure you use your skill upgrades wisely.Voice acting & Sound : The Voice acting in this game is over all well done, the main character ( You ) can seem dry at times but is over all acted well enough. The NPC's in the game are also voice acted well and are most times better than the character you control, but like I said before the voice for your character is just fine and adequate. I've played many RPG's where your character is voiceless, so I really can't find any fault here at all.Now on to the sounds within the game. It's very, very well done, from the sounds of you running through the grass, asphalt, snow, sand or anything else, it seems authentic and real, to the wind or rain pattering on the ground, it all just seems right on target.Conclusion : This is over all an amazing game. It's absolutely huge with vast amounts of things to do and places to explore. It can be challenging at times so remember to save your game frequently, and in doing so when you die ( And you will ) you won't get set back to far at all. As a matter of fact the game lets you save at absolutely any point in the game you want, even during a fight ( Although I don't recommend it ). This game is just full of wonder and beautiful sights to see along with and interesting story line and characters it makes for a must play game.Solid 5 out of 5

First off yes, the game looks and feels like an upresed 360 era game. That being said it runs great on one x or series x.This is an old school rpg for sure, starting out you can't kill anything and will need to run a lot. Once you join a faction and get into the teens you'll start to be able to hold your own in a fight but it'll still be tough. If you want an easy experience this isn't for you but if you put in the time you'll be rewarded with an amazing world, a decent story, and a lot of great role-playing opportunities.

I would rate the game as a solid 4 + out of 5 for General sharp graphics, engaging game play and quests for this post apocalyptic storyline.It reminds me of Morrowind as you can go where ever you can see and it can be challenging to survive but encourages exploration and creative quest/enemy resolution encounters.Because the game launched w/ missed bugs (that have, as far as I can tell, been corrected) it quickly sent the wrong message to gamers causing it to quickly lose popularity but it offers a challenging and rewarding gameplay experience w/ factions and classes (of a sort).As far as I know there will be no DLC because of the poor initial rep but I have greatly enjoyed gameplay on my 1X having sunk in 70+ hours in exploration and side quests.It is a great value for the cost and there is a basic wiki for help and quest progression.

Th8 is a very under appreciated game. The open world element, the fact that it’s not a hack and slash, and the depth of the story it quite outstanding. A glitch or two that they need to sort out, but nothing game breaking. If you fall through the map walking off a teleporter, just quit and reload the save at the teleporter.

I think it's a bit pricey for an average game, it takes about 10-15 hours to get into it which may throw some other rpg-gamers off and it comes with a necessary time investment. Turn off is the price, this should be a 30$ game at the most.

ce jeux il es tres bien fait il est en englait soutitre an Français tres bonne histoire

Feels low budget but good story lots to do.

No probs