Quick Look: Elex

Watched the first few minutes to check it was worth downloading. Yep, but not for good reasons.

This looks like a bit of a mess, which is definitely a shame. They seem to be pushing it pretty hard.

I was this close to buying the CE for this game.

Yep. Definitely seems like eurojank.

The game is not bad IF you liked gothic back in the days... also it’s impressive that 30 people did build this..

Tho - if you never played a PB game it will most certainly feel like an old shitty game - with a interesting world if you stick to it long enough..

OMG yes bugging out right away. You know it's piranha bytes

Of course it's a broken buggy mess, Germany's signature is ambitious, broken games. Well, that and city building games.

Oh yeah, Vinny's on vacation. Totally expected this to be a GBeast QL.

Save yourself the headache and buy something actually worth $60.

I can see the argument for supporting developers like this if the game is at a discounted rate, but alas, this one is not. There's just so many amazing games out right now and Elex is... yeah, it's kinda just there.

Oh and I really wasn't a fan of the Gothic game either so don't listen to me if you did.

@infestedandy: @kdr_11k: @solh0und: @karlbright: @spoodie: I'm not sure why the comments are down on this game when both Ben and Jeff seem to think it's cool?

I love Risen and this is like Techno Risen. Incredibly deep questing and open ended world, full of the most incredible and charming jank. Sign me up.

Also I can only dream of what Vinny would do to this game.

@jonny_anonymous: Mess might be a little harsh, but from what I had seen of this game previously, I was not expecting it to look as janky. I wouldn't write it off completely, but first impressions count.

I'm just doing my due service and direct the fine readers at Giant Bomb to the great wiki entry of Gothic.

Also I just put it out there and say that Gothic 2 is an excellent game actually. People should at least try it, its available for like a dollar if its on discount.

@infestedandy: I agree, Piranha Bytes really seemed to lost their magic. At least with Gothic they stepped in with ideas nobody really ever tried before, while this...yeah. Not to mention that Risen/ELEX has bugs where it almost looks like that they never really learned from the mistakes while developing the Gothic series. Especially what has happened with Gothic 3 and how it was saved basically.

But to be fair, that in the end, PB fixed a lot of games by themselves and almost all of their games turn out to be almost bug free in the end. I'm sure that they will fix all the issues with ELEX, too. At any case, gonna pick up the game when its cheaper since right now I'm not that into the genre but from what I've seen, it does look ok apart from the bugs we've seen in this QL.

After playing for a couple hours, world exploration is the only thing this has going for it. Everything else is typical Piranha Bytes for better or worse (usually worse).

Coming from someone who enjoyed the Gothic series and Risen 1.

Oh no. It looks like Gothic. Now i want to play it.

While this might be our first impression it isn't Bens as he said that was the first bug he had seen

@jonny_anonymous: Fair question. Sometimes I think it's just their professionalism and not absolutely tearing a game to pieces. They just provide a quick look into it, give some base opinions and, unless their crazy passionate about it, just let it drift off. They're never going to put huge hours into it so they're letting it get a chance out there from the people.

I mean, a lot of people look to these guys for their opinions so they have to look at it in a different way. It's pretty easy for someone like me to say that a game is 'trash' or a complete waste of time. What does it matter what I say, you know?

My personal first impression is still valid though, no? I'll be checking out more of the game either way.

Pirahna Bytes game? Definitely buying this.

Even through all the jank and bugs, there is always something interesting underneath it all.

"Ugh" in description, immediately knew it was posted by Ben.

This looks like it could be neat. Not £45's (current price on XBL) worth of neat though.

I second this. Give this game to Vinny, point one camera at him and one at the screen, and let's all enjoy the subsequent couple of hours

@jeff I may be the only one offended by this, but making fun of a guy for shattering his ankle and possibly ruining what could have been a great career is pretty damn uncool. I've always respected you, but mocking a dude who suffered a gruesome injury should be below you

Risen was may be the fastest I ever dropped a game. This don't look much better.

This game seems kind of cool!

I'm playing this right now and I'm finding it strangely addicting. The writing is bad, the voice acting is terrible, the combat is a messy and frustrating whole lot of jank. But the open world is fun to explore, and leveling up and finding good armor/weapons and items feels rewarding because those things are not just scattered everywhere. It's no Gothic but it has the similar feel of a really handcrafted open world RPG that is fun and rewarding to explore. And damn if it isn't challenging. I might just be terrible at this game but I've probably died 100 times already.

If you liked Gothic 1 or 2, I would highly suggest this game. You know what you're getting into.

If you haven't played them, I would skip the game at full price, and get it down the road if you're into deep and difficult RPG's, while being able to withstand jank.

Through and through, it's a Piranha Bytes game.

Although he probably meant it very tongue in cheek, I also thought it was pretty damn tasteless.

And props to @benpack for covering with the wish for a speedy recovery. Its not going to ruin my day or anything, but I love this website and as stupid as it sounds, consider the crew friends of mine even though I have never and will never meet any of them. I just come to expect more than "shock jock," Skip Bayless tactics and jokes, so its just diapointing.

Ok, I'm happy I passed on this one.

Ten seconds into the QL: Holy shit that was awesome, I'm sold.

A minute in: Oh. Unsold. :(

I should not want to be this guy, and I should not want to use this description, but the graphics do look a little bit 'Last Gen'. There, I said it.

Those faces, say using that one guy by the world heart, could have used more development with the face model. The waterfall looked scuzzy, with the white portion in clumps.

Every time I hear of this company (Risen, Risen 2, some vague memory of Gothic) I root for them. But I never have bought their games, yet.

On the other hand, I can't get Talion to run either when I start a game in Shadow of War. Video Games must be hard to make....

Jank is strong in this one. To celebrate it, straight from Germany,

Well said, not a big deal, but as you said expected better tbh.

I love Ben and I love Jeff...... this should have been a Vinny QL

"Ugh, it seems like the only games coming out anymore are high-fantasy future tech apocalypse RPGs from Germany."

Got around 11 hours into this game, and it's really just started opening up in the last few. It's definitely been a little bit of a slog to get to the meat of the game, but I've been loving it since it's ramped up. I'm actually kind of surprised this is getting any sort of visibility on the site, but glad it is, one way or the other.

This is from the people who make Gothic and Risen. I fucking love Gothic.

This looks like one of those games that I might enjoy despite the jank, but will probably wait for some deep sale on.

When Bethesda's Fallout is a open world buggy mess it's 'cool', when it's anyone else it's 'jank'.

I tried the Gothic games but they were just too buggy for me. I enjoyed Risen though. I'll probably play this at some point, not in any rush though.

I'm not too deep into this, but I'm really liking it so far. Having said that, I have a deep soft spot for PB, so take it with a grain of salt (I played the Risen CONSOLE VERSION for like, 120 hours).

Also, I am so tired of crafting systems.

This looks like a B ass B tier game. Good on em'.

I'm not the pickiest guy when it comes to the technical proficiency of games, but I've bought a couple of games from Piranha Bytes and regretted it both times. Looks like they aren't trying to improve their track record.