General Gaming Elex II - Information Thread, update: reviews from OpenCritic posted

[Bacon]

- please note there are prolly tons of grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors in this wall of text and I don't feel like fixing them - 

 

So, gog emailed me the other day saying I can get this game I had never heard of called Elex for 10 bucks. I saw it was an open world RPG and couldn't believe I hadn't heard of it. I looked up some videos, and saw the poor review score, but the videos I watched did interest me in this game I hadn't heard anything of. And you know, what, that 60/100 critic score really is pretty accurate and that is a damn shame. 

 

The best way I can describe this game is that someone tried to make a human, but only with meat and bones. Like, from the outside, this thing that was constructed looks exactly like a real life human being, but it is missing several organs and literally all of the connective tissue. No veins, no ligaments, no nothin. 

 

 Everything feels so disconnected. It feels like the games just refuses to give you a reason to play it. Like, it constantly feels like I am sequence breaking the game. Like I am experience things before they should happen. Like, there is this guy name Falk who is a companion and I just picked him up. Like, there wasn't any real reason to this shit. They just put this guy there and now you're besties. Like, I feel like I missed all this exposition on who this guy is. Like I missed the quest that tells me who and why this guy is there. 

 

Then there is no reason to join any faction and the game doesn't really do any kind of job to lead you away from the very first faction you come across. It really feels like the main story is joining the "Berserkers" and doing their quests, instead of whatever the main story actually is. It feels like I am literally forcing my way into the other factions to to their quests as there is nothing that is leading me to them. Like, you just have to decide to join this faction over the others. In a way, it is kinda cool the game has no story reason to join a faction. But the issue is, it is not viable to not join a faction. The games makes being factionless feels so natural that I don't want to join any faction, but literally all of the powers are locked behind joining a faction. It would be like playing WoW with put any class. Being classes for as long as I have been feels like dogshit, but it also feels like dogshit to join a faction, especially when I don't like of them. All of their ideals are off putting. If the religion aspect was removed from the Science Clerics then I am pretty sure it would hands down be the most fitting faction for the MC. 

 

And wholly shit the MC is literally the worst MC of all time. Ugly and Bland as fuck. It feels like a character from the 90s. There is nothing to like about this character. It honestly would have been better if he was a silent and faceless protagonist. This game really needs character customization, but even then, all the characters have this god awful generic look. The game actually looks kinda good visually, but also has that asset flip generic look. Like, it reminds me of the many generic looking Battle Royal games. It looks realistic, but also generic and game lacks style.

 

They also have this hold and cold emotion system. It is meant to make you character feel more human or more robotic/militarily, but it really feels like all the "human" or hot options are just being an asshole who gets mad all the time, and the cold options make you an asshole who doesn't care about anything and everything is just another mission. Your character is either Denis Leary or Generic Murder Bot. Those are your only options and I am not a fan. 

 

The combat is also just shit. This game has 3 factions and they feel like they are from 3 different games and they don't mesh with the world. There is your Skyrim faction which is the introduction faction, the mad max faction which I have yet to be introduced to, and the Religious Jedi Brotherhood of Steel Outcast faction. The MC was formally part of the Sith-Enclave-FF7 SOLDIER faction until he gets betrayed. Now, these factions could work well together I'm sure. They Fantasy and Science aspect work pretty decently, but they did not do a good job at blending the factions. The Factionless MC could have blended the factions together to make them work, but since you have to pick the unblendedness becomes ever worse. Despite the Religious aspect, I am going with the Clerics. The MC has done nothing to make him feel like he should join the mad maxers or the Godless Mage-Warrior-Vikings. Like, in the game there is no dialogue to support the MC suddenly want to join these factions that are complete opposite of his previous lifestyle. The MC is a character with his own opinions, but you play choice just seems to override that when it comes to the factions. The MC has yet to do anything to show that he is willing to adapt to the alternative life styles that the Berserkers or Outlaws(mad max) provide. It is all about what the player wants, and nothing about what the character wants. The Clerics are the non drugged up version of the Albs(Sith-Enclave-FF& SOLDIER), but instead of drugs they use religion. The MC doesn't come across as religious at all, but everything else about the Clerics fits perfectly. It really is some Sith vs Jedi shit with the Albs and the Clerics. The Albs and the Clerics use to the just the Clerics, but then some people turned to the dark side and thus the Albs came to be.  

 

I believe that if this game was made by any other dev it would have been an instant classic. Both ranged and melee options are viable(and shit but ranged less so), and it seems like you never really have to decide between being melee only or ranged only. The overall setting is good. It takes place it a world that is earth like but not earth so the game can get away with more shit if it wanted. That was always a positive about Gears of War too. That your class is faction based is pretty cool, I just feel that this game does a bad job at getting your class. Another dev could totally make it work, where you start off factionless and classless and then join a faction where you get your class. Another dev could make it so the factions actually feel like they are part the same world. You have a fucking jetpack at all times which is fucking awesome. The world is pretty neat as a whole and fun to explore. It really is a mix of Mad Max + Skyrim + Fallout + a little bit of starwars, but as I said, the devs, imo, failed at making the feel like they should all be in the same world, but I am sure it could be don't. Like, there is so much potential cool shit, but the devs just dropped the ball imo. The game also levels you up slowly which is cool because there is no scaling and the enemies can fuck you up. The issue that brings is the feeling of never getting your class. Like, god I hate how this game incentivizes you not exploring the other factions, and instead just makes you want to look up a guide and beeline it the faction with the class you want to play. Because of the slow leveling everything can kill you really fast, but you want to save your stat points and shit until you have your class. You also don't get your class until you do the majority of that factions side quests. So if you did want to do all the side quests for each faction and then decide you will be high leveled and factionless and the only missions you could do would be story quests as your class. Side quests are nearly all tied to factions. You don't have to be in a faction to do all of that factions quests, but it is fucking weird that by the time you finally join your faction all of that faction's quests are over, and now you do the other factions side quests as an agent for you faction instead of being a free agent which makes the most fucking sense. 

 

And there is just more shit I could bitch about, like the god awful ui and you literally can't remap the hotbar. You have to use the numbers and numbers only. You can't even select a secondary option. The controller UI is so much better than this giant fucking bar. Like, I am pretty sure this is a console game first because of how shit that hotbar is. You can't even hide it or show only in combat. You can only make the entire UI smaller, not just the stupid hotbar. 

 

Just man. Playing this game makes me wish this game was made by literally any other AAA dev. I could have been great. 

[Fizzzzle]

You are right. Their version of the paragon/renegade system didn't work. It's hard to roleplay. If you want to unlock abilities that only come from certain amounts of cold levels or whatever, you have to break character to reach them.

 

I liked the game enough to do one playthrough, but I really don't plan on playing it ever again.

[Keyser_Soze]

I remember the name of the game but couldn't tell you anything beyond that.

[Mr.Vic20]

I've played through the whole game twice! Broken but for me loads of fun to be had! I played first as the Cleric faction and then again as a Berserker. I suppose I could do an outlaw faction run, but I feel I got from it what there was to offer. Elex 2 might be coming before the end of this year if not early 2022 and for that I am grateful. I can't really argue with to many of Bob's points, I'll just say that the game still gave me fun exploration and because your character is an absolute weakling for the first 50%, a real sense of accomplishment and progress when you start becoming a killing machine in late game! 

[Bacon]

44 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

Bob's points

[Keyser_Soze]

3 minutes ago, Bacon said:

 

Your post was @Xbob42 quality and @Mr.Vic20 was unable to tell it was actually a @Bacon post.

[Bacon]

I mean, I am still totally gonna beat the game. Cuz like, the game makes me want to play it. I can't even really tell you what exactly is good about it, but this game has something that makes me want to play it. 

[Mr.Vic20]

12 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Your post was @Xbob42 quality and @Mr.Vic20 was unable to tell it was actually a @Bacon post.

This man understands my heart and what little is left of my head! 

[Mr.Vic20]

1 minute ago, Bacon said:

I mean, I am still totally gonna beat the game. Cuz like, the game makes me want to play it. I can't even really tell you what exactly is good about it, but this game has something that makes me want to play it. 

The jank compels you!

 

[Bacon]

2 minutes ago, Mr.Vic20 said:

The jank compels you!

 

I think it might be what you said earlier. I am a weak baby and I, the player, really really want to get fucking strong and blast these fools. I can't wait to be Mr. High Cleric McMurderface

[Mr.Vic20]

37 minutes ago, Bacon said:

I think it might be what you said earlier. I am a weak baby and I, the player, really really want to get fucking strong and blast these fools. I can't wait to be Mr. High Cleric McMurderface

The secret later will be the ability to make Elex potions. You’ll be able to really boost your character without your cold level going too high.

[Bacon]

What the game needs is a 3 hour prologue where your character has amnesia and you are discovered by a band of Beserkers. For the first hour you spend "days" with them in the wilds and finally head home with Duras where you get ambushed by clerics who then indoctrinate you. You then serve the clerics and eventually end up on the bad side of some outlaws. You get kocked out and wind up in outlaw town where you recover your memory. Then the rest of them game plays out pretty much the same but are properly introduced to the factions and the MC has a valid reason to join any of them and everything feels right.

 

#HeadcannonBetterThanCannon

[Phaseknox]

I’ve had this game sitting in my backlog for a while now, it was developed by Piranha Bytes who made the Gothic and Risen games which I like so I expect to like it as well. But it’s a little surprising that an RPG that came out in 2017 doesn’t offer the option to choose your character’s gender, or customize their look. The Technomancer (2016) didn’t allow you to choose your character’s gender either, so you were forced to play as a generic dude that I didn’t like and I quit playing it for that reason despite the game being decent. I might have the same problem with Elex as well, because I don’t like playing as generic dudes in games especially RPGs.

[Bacon]

This is a really good review of the game. 

 

I'm sad there aren't any 1-3 hour videos critiquing this game. 

[Fizzzzle]

I think if you're just jonesing for an open world RPG and you've already played everything else, give it a whirl.

[Xbob42]

Great post, Bob!

[Bacon]

So, I got some mods before I even started the game. Better reload sounds, Pre-patch nights, and, the reason I am posting this, a fog remover. And man I feel like that is a big mistake to remove the fog. Like, I probably my experience lesser, because the fog as so much lighting. 

This is what the mod shows, and I thought that looked pretty bad so I thought I should just pre-install the mod. 

Kinda hard to tell, but the fog blocks and blurs so much distance. It is almost like a fog of war. Now here is an image in my game with the fog off. 

I mean, hey it looks pretty alright. But then I turned the fog back on and man I just fucked up.

Like Bro, that totally looks way better. The issue tho, and why I can decide to leave it off is because of these next two images. 

 

Fog off

 

Fog on

 

Like, god fucking damnit. WTF IS THAT FOG?! Can't see SHIT!

 

So now I am torn between visual clarity at a distance or really good close up lighting and god rays. 

[Bacon]

Also, the name "ELEX" is bad. Like, Elex is said like Elix, which makes it clear the name of the game comes from elixir and that Elex is Elixer. I know the devs have a thing of one word titles (Gothic, Risen) but surely there was something better. 

[Phaseknox]

16 hours ago, Bacon said:

 

WTF IS THAT FOG?! Can't see SHIT!

That looks like an N64 game. 

 

11 hours ago, Bacon said:

Also, the name "ELEX" is bad. Like, Elex is said like Elix, which makes it clear the name of the game comes from elixir and that Elex is Elixer. I know the devs have a thing of one word titles (Gothic, Risen) but surely there was something better. 

I agree.

[Bacon]

[Bacon]

So this is the shit about Elex that really pisses me off. Open spoilers btw. No this isn't endgame shit. 

 

So first, I was complaining about how the game doesn't really give you direction to do quests and that it feels like there is no reason for you to be here and be doing this. Well, it turns out, my issue would have been solved if I had just bee lined it to the Separatists for the story quest. Because the stupid leader Sestak basically gives you a list of all the things you need to do to advance the game to chapter 2. It was literally the only story quest I hadn't done. I don't know why but I didn't feel it was very important. It feels like the game barely mentions it. So by the time I make there, literally all of the tasks Sestak gave me had already been finished and it just felt like total shit. Like, maybe if the game acknowledged that I had done all that shit already it wouldn't have felt so bad. Something like the leader going "Oh wow look at all you have accomplished before coming to see me. Why are you even here, really?" Instead, I have to go through conversations where Sestak is telling Jax to do this shit I already did, and then as soon as that convo is over Jax is all like, "I HAVE RETURNED AND FINISHED THIS TASK". It feels so fucking bad man. And to make everything worse, I DID IT AGAIN. Chapter 2 starts you off with needing to go talk to Zardom or whatever and I ignored it. When I finally got to him he only had like 2 tasks for me cuz I already did his 6 other tasks. Like, finding the not-nuke in Outlaw town would have felt far more natural if I had spoken with Zardom first. Cuz I thought it was really fucking weird that I just picked up this main task out of nowhere. Like, It should not be possible to just pick up a Main Story quest without having any direction towards it. What I mean is, I was thinking the whole time I was doing that nuke quest is that it was really weird that this isn't labeled as a side quest. Like, how does this nuke and outlaw shit have anything to do with the main story. Turns out it is because it is a task of Zardom's. 

 

Second, I will admit, is SOMEWHAT my fault, but, IMO not really. So, I was at the Hort trying to become a cleric when I get a quest to go south and find out how drugs are getting into the hort. So, I go south tho this Cleric outpost and do the quest, but I notice this elevator. And I saw no reason to not go down the elevator so I went down. I ended up in this giant underground bunker with two giant doors. I also thought the entire room was bugged as it was totally devoid of NPCs/Enemies. In any case, I went to the giant door on my right and it was locked with a numpad. I tried to brute force it a few times as I always do in games where you enter passcodes. It didn't work so I went over to the other giant door. And I am not sure exactly how it happened, but I wasn't paying attention to where I was going, and not only walked into the other door, but I walked through it like it wasn't even there. I did look around the room and there were a lot of notes, but I didn't pick anything up as I didn't want to break a quest. But my curiosity got the best of me and instead of reloading, I tried to walk through the door again to get back out. I found out how to get through the door, and then thought, "huh I bet I could glitch through the other giant door as well." So, I did, but I already planned to just reload should it start to bring up a quest. Well, I glitched through and there wasn't anything but a path to follow and I wanted to see where it led. Well jesus fucking christ that was the biggest mistake ever. I found myself over looking some giant metal looking turd when all of a sudden an achievement popped up. Calaan. That was the name of the Achievement. I had somehow stumbled upon the god of the Clerics. It was a giant metal turd that I eventually realized was a rocket ship. My heart fucking sank, man. Sure, it was my fault I glitched through the door, but I didn't think anything would happen. It was just locked with a passcode. I just thought it was treasure on the other side. And even then, I still thought the entire area was bugged because it was so empty. But at the end of the day, it is total bullshit for the game to give me that achievement. I didn't have the quest at that time which was supposed to send me all over the game world to find clues to the location of Calaan. There was no in-game reason for my character to know that rocket ship was Calaan. That should not even be possible. You should have to have the quest to know what that is because that is literally the only way. And imagine if you did just brute force the code. Its BS that the game would pop that achievement. You character has no way of knowing about that thing being Calaan. I feel robbed of a cool revelation. 

 

Which leads me to number 3 because that kind of thing happened again. I had Ray, literally the worst companion in any game ever and it makes no sense for him to be your companion, with me and I was exploring the area just north of that southern Cleric outpost where I found Calaan. There is a quest for Ray where you need to remove 10 contracts on his life from the hands of bounty hunters. These contracts were issued by a guy who went by W. I already had 5 of them, and I was waiting for him to bring up the location of the 6th contract. Being the smart guy that I am, I had already figured out that William, one of the Outlaw faction leaders was the guy who issued the hit. I mean, his name starts with W, it almost seems like the game goes out of the way to purposefully not mention the possibility of William being the guy who issued the hit, and I figured it would be another Outlaw to issue the hit as it was other outlaws who were hunting Ray. Anyway like I was saying, I was exploring this area, and I notice a lone cleric named something like Walter or Walker near the teleporter I had just unlocked. I walk up to him and he says some shit I can't remember, but then the Cleric turns stupid, and says "Ah no he found me." The guy runs away and I turn around expecting there to be some guy about to kill this Walter guy, but there is no one there. Jax then says, talking to himself, "He's running away, I should chase him down." Now, I have no idea why this fucking cleric is running away from me. I mean, I am also a cleric, but just higher ranked than him. Well, I do agree with Jax, in that some random guy running away from you for literally no reason as you two have just met is a good reason to chase him down, so I do. Can you see where this is going? I chase down Walter and when he finally stops I talk to him. First thing Jax say, "WHY DID YOU PUT OUT THE CONTRACTS ON RAY?!?!?!?!" Like what the fucking fuck. How in the fuck is something like this even possible. Jax literally has no idea who Walter is. I have no idea who Walter is. I looked it up and simply because I had Ray as my companion when I talked to him it cause Walter to run away and start the final part of Ray's quest. Like, this actually could have been a really cool way to accidently finish Ray's quest. Walter sees Ray, he runs, and Jax wants to know why he is running. That is when Walter lets it slip that he knows we are chasing him down because of the contracts on Ray's life. That is when Jax would say, actually say, "Wow, Ray nor I had any idea that you were behind this. Thanks for giving yourself up. Ray, let's blast'em." Instead, Jax just knows Walter is the one who did it even though I didn't discover any clues that it could be him and Ray has never mentioned Cleric Walter. Not when I first talked to Walter, nor even during the chase does Ray bring up the fact he ran into Walter in the past. It isn't until the quest is over and you talk to Ray that he tell you how he knows of Walter and how the Clerics were trying to steal his hunt, and so he booby trapped it killing every cleric but Walter. None of that is mention until the Quest is already over. That is such total bullshit. I reloaded and I am still waiting for Ray to give me the quest to find Walter, but... like... man, dude....COME THE FUCK ON GAME

 

And while not as big of a deal, I was hunting mutants for money for my Paladin level Cleric Armor east of Outlaw town and I kill this big ugly mother fucker and it give me an item for the final mission for Arx's final companion mission. Like, fucking Christ. Shit like this shouldn't be possible. There would be no reason for my guy to loot that item unless told to do so by Arx but the game doesn't care. 

 

This shit is the real downside of Elex. 

 

[best3444]

Holy shit that was quite the post!

[Bacon]

Really what it is, is that game intentionally lets you do things out of order, but then the world does not react to you doing so. 

 

As an example, when you enter outlaw town, the Front Gateman won't let you in without paying a fee. There are ways to get out of it, and I used suggestion aka jedi mind tricks to enter. However, when was leaving out of the back entrance to outlaw town, that Gateman reacted like I had yet to enter Outlaw town and even Jax acted like he had yet to enter Outlaw town despite me being on the inner side of the gate while taking to the Back Gateman. Meaning I was in Outlaw town talking to the Back Gateman about how I have yet to enter because the Front Gateman wasn't letting me in unless I paid. The game, the world, and the characters are fully out of sync of the player's actions. The game lets you have it your way, but the script remains their way. 

[Bacon]

Another time shit like that fucked me over was when talking to Mad Bob. There was an option to ask why people call him mad bob. And Mad Bob ask who called him that. There were two non answers, and the other two answers were William and Chloe. Well, I hadn't yet talked to Chloe, but William DID call Mad Bob, Mad Bob while telling the player to not call him Mad Bob. So, I mean, William did call him mad bob. But as it turns out, that counts as a lie to mad bob and didn't pay me because that made us even for lying to him. But I didn't fucking lie. William literally called him mad bob. Everyone does. I don't get how Chloe was the right answer. 

[Fizzzzle]

10 hours ago, Bacon said:

Really what it is, is that game intentionally lets you do things out of order, but then the world does not react to you doing so. 

 

As an example, when you enter outlaw town, the Front Gateman won't let you in without paying a fee. There are ways to get out of it, and I used suggestion aka jedi mind tricks to enter. However, when was leaving out of the back entrance to outlaw town, that Gateman reacted like I had yet to enter Outlaw town and even Jax acted like he had yet to enter Outlaw town despite me being on the inner side of the gate while taking to the Back Gateman. Meaning I was in Outlaw town talking to the Back Gateman about how I have yet to enter because the Front Gateman wasn't letting me in unless I paid. The game, the world, and the characters are fully out of sync of the player's actions. The game lets you have it your way, but the script remains their way. 

I felt the same way. It kind of bucks the "finish every side quest before the main quest" trend that most RPGs do. You get conditioned to that. Or sometimes there's a time element to quests and it won't tell you.

[Bacon]

I beat it. Got the "good end" for having low cold. Yay and everybody lived. So, after looking it up, I sold all of my gear except for my weapon and ammo, I spent over 100,000 Elexit on Natural Elex, crafted over 200 bottles of Elex Potions and drank all of them to get my Cold level to a Neutral level, and then re-beat the game(final boss) to get the "true ending" all so I would be put on the bad side of the outlaws so I could kill that entire faction. Best part is, Nasty is who I had Jax become involved with and now she loves Jax even tho everyone she had ever known is dead. Glory to Calaan, baby. 

 

I will say, the ending really kinda sucked cuz, I mean, it really isn't an ending. It is like Season Finale with a Cliffhanger. I'm not even mad the boss was a joke. Boss didn't even have time to move. The Redeemer plus, one with the gun, plus one man army, plus 30% ranged damage, just made the boss weaker than a Mountain Troll. Boss was shredded. It was amazing. 

 

Still, gotta say, game really does suck a lot of the time, but damn is the game addictive. Can't wait for Elex 2. Or maybe I will wait for it a bit. Might wanna see how many patches it needs. 

[Bacon]

ELEX is a 5/10 master piece. On one hand, fuck is it bad. On the other hand, fuck, this shit is great.

[best3444]

Maybe the sequel will squash your negative points and you'll get an amazing RPG out of it. I read everything you posted in this thread, BTW. That was a lot of reading and I learned a lot about the game.

[Bacon]

God, I put an insane amount of hours into this game in such a short time. Literally sleep deprived playing this game. 

 

So, I have been thinking about it, but I really can't tell you what is good about this game. I already have a hard time listing positives of games that are near flawless, but this is next level of difficulty. Thread has already had open spoilers, but spoiler warning for the rest of this post lol.

 

There are some things about this game that don't work for me. This is a complaint you sometimes see in other games, but there are no children in the game, I am not sure when I noticed it, but when I did the world seemed less real. Of course you really don't want to see children in a place like The Fort, home of the Outlaws. But when there are only a bunch of 35-65-year-old people in Goliet, home of the Berserkers, it feels a lot less like a village and more like a military encampment. This is true of all the cities. None of them feel like a city. Like, not even a Skyrim city, just a place where soldiers eat, drink, pray, and fuck. No place feels like a home, just a hub of people. I think this is an issue of the devs taking the Gothic formula and putting it in a world that is far too large for that formula. We aren't in a prison colony surrounded by a magic bubble. We are in an actual world now. 

 

Another issue brought by this is that there are only cities in this game. There, Goliet, The Domed City, The Hort, and The Fort. Oh, real quick, the fact that there are two cities with nearly the same fucking name is ridiculous. Even more so when the super military Clerics live in the Hort instead of the Fort, and the Outlaws life in the Fort. Shit is stupid. I know it is because of the German translation, but fuck is that bad. Hort is a purely German word and they really should have used an English equivalent. There isn't even an English definition for Hort. Anyway, getting back to it, there are only cities in this game and that is it. There are no towns or villages like there are in a game like Skyrim or The Witcher 3. No one lives in the actual world. In Skyrim the first place you visit is RIverwood. In The Witcher 3 you visit White Orchard village first. There is nothing like this in ELEX.  ELEX only has places like Whiterun and Markarth or Novigrad. There is nothing lesser than that.  I mean, there are kinda, but not really. There are the Berserkers' Exiles, who kinda have a village, and there are two or three buildings out in the wild that are occupied by non-hostile NPCs, but a "cabin in the woods" is not a village or town. The only things in the greater world are enemies and ruins. Again, it is one of things that make the world less lived in. Less believable. The world lacks realism in the context of that world's reality. 

 

Which brings me to the Berserkers. They feel horribly out of place in the world. They just don't fit. They are too medieval. If this world was only the Albs, the super futuristic bad guy faction, and the Berserkers, the literal fantasy faction ripped straight out of Skyrim, then they could make that work. Instead there are two more factions that just make the Berserkers feel like they don't belong. The Clerics and Albs are very similar to Jedi and Sith or Brotherhood of Steel and the Enclave from fallout. They are made to be similar, but enemies. And then in fallout and even star wars, there is the third faction knows as literally everyone else. In ELEX, the Outlaws can be seen as both Raiders and the normal people of the world(because there really aren't factionless people in the world). They aren't really friends or enemies of greater factions, but more often than not they are not really friendly towards the bad guy faction. And then there are the Berserkers. They aren't normal people. They have no friends in either of the other factions. They don't work around the other factions like an underground thieves faction who have no loyalties. Just by existing they throw of the faction balance, and then they aren't even a counterpart to another faction. All the factions belong to a world of science and industry, destruction and ruin. The Berserkers do not. They belong to a world of nature, magic, healing, and godless paganism. They are just the odd man out. And it is all made far worse by them being the default faction and, big spoilers, Jax being born a Berserker who was kidnapped and turned into an Alb. They are the Green Ending to Mass Effects RGB endings. 

 

All of that is made worse by guns. I really don't understand why melee is even a thing. There is no reason for the other factions to have Sword and Board warriors. The only reason they exist is so the Berserkers can exist. I don't care it Mana makes it so leather and plate works against plasma and energy. Your face still isn't bullet proof. Melee combat should have been a side thing like in Fallout. The Berserkers should have been a faction of mages and hunters, not WoW warriors. Melee just doesn't make any sense in the context of this worlds reality. Ranged Combat should have been the main focus. Instead it is almost treated like an afterthought despite it being literally the most effective form of combat in the game. The Combat Skill tree has only one Skill that focuses of Range and all the skill does is boost ranged damage. Ranged combat has no thought put into it and it is by far the most effective way to play the game. I get the roleplay aspect of using melee but then I don't feel Berserkers fit into the role of the game. Like, even if you role Berserkers, you are far better off getting a grenade launcher or plasma rifle stun locking enemies to death. 

 

Part 2 later. lol. Lost my train of thought. 

[Mr.Vic20]

11 hours ago, Bacon said:

ELEX is a 5/10 master piece. On one hand, fuck is it bad. On the other hand, fuck, this shit is great.

Yeeesssss, see you in Elex 2!

 

[Bacon]

And man this game deserves so much more coverage. I wanna watch 3 hour long videos about this game. So little of this game is documented.

[Mr.Vic20]

5 minutes ago, Bacon said:

And man this game deserves so much more coverage. I wanna watch 3 hour long videos about this game. So little of this game is documented.

And even less of what is available is in English! 

[Bacon]

Well, there isn't going to be a part 2 exactly, but I am prolly gonna keeps posting when I have things to say. Such as what I am about to talk about... spoilers

 

Three points first. 

1. I know this game is made by Germans

2. Humor is subjective.

3. Games don't need humor. 

 

Man, it bugs be how there is no funny quests or characters. There is nothing ridiculous happening in this game at all. Like, I get that you don't have to put funny or light hearted shit into your game, but this game is basically 100% serious. The most ridiculous thing in this game is that a bad guy turned Tom, brother of Ray, one of your companions, into a Jackal. A doggish bearish monster beast. You turn Tom back into a human simply by saying the code word you found at the bad guy's base. But like, it really wasn't funny. They kinda had Jax react to in in a humorous way, but in reality Zardom, the bad guy, was making Ray work for him by holding Jackal Tom hostage and not turning him back into a human. Like, Ray wasn't laughing. He was basically crying tears of relief that he got his brother back. But that is really it. 

 

There was no, I won the lottery, fuck you written on a wall behind a door that leads to nowhere, no punching a bitch in the face for making disingenuous assertions, no classic hangover quest that is in many games, no wise crackin companions as companions in the game really don't say shit, nothing like a Sheogorath or well idk. Maybe that is an American thing that I just so use to that it feels weird to not have it. But I feel like other EU games, like the witcher, just have the right amount of ridiculousness without being out of place or silly. You know, something to spice up the quests, Every quests is so serious and samey. 

 

Speaking of quests, no of the quest or Zones have an actual story element to them. Each Zone/Faction/City/Howeveryouwanttolabelit has a series of related quests, but almost none of them have a story to tell and none of them come together to piece a massive Zone wide story either. I use the Outlaws overall story to talk about this as it is the one I remember the most. When walking into The Fort you are tasked with talking to the Faction Rep William. Willy gives you the main story quest for the Zone called Fragile Power, which has a series of Sub-Quests of working with the other faction leaders.

 

The first one is interacting with Blake. Blake has you get(steal) some grenades from the Duke(main faction leader). You can say no, or do the quest. And that is it. Nothing comes from it.

 

Next is Big Jim. Big Jim is getting too big for his britches and Willy wants you to knock him down a peg. Big Jim runs an arena. So, you challenge crony 1 and crony 2 so you can fight Big Jim. Big Jim goes down and says, "wow I suck I can never overthrow the duke now."  And that's that.

 

Next is the scrap king aka Mad Bob. Mad Bob's crony isn't delivering scrap. You go to the crony and find out the Clerics are taking that scrap. You go to the Clerics and either lie for them to Mad Bob or Kill them of Mad Bob. Mad Bob gives you another quest, Gambler 1 beat Mad Bob in gambling so Mad Bob gives Jax 1k money and a wrapped gift to pay off the debt Mad Bob owes to Gambler 1. You got to Gambler 1 and give him the money, but he asks you to take the gift to the house where Gambler 1 and Gambler 2 live. You take the gift to the House, return to Mad Bob, and Mad Bob says wait for it and an explosion goes off. The gift was a bomb. The quest ends. Although if you go back later you find out only Gambler 2 opened the box so Gambler 1 is still alive and now wants to kill you. You kill Gambler 1.

 

Next is you go to the leader of the Entertainment District, Chloe. Willy wants he to pay off her Leader Debts. She doesn't have the money and tasks you with going to Rat who owes her a debt. Rat goes, ok I don't want to pay so how about we steal this secret stash Chloe has of jewels. You can say no, but you pretty much need to say yes to actually have the quest be a quest. So you do. You get caught because Rat Rat's on you, and either beat her up(which I did and then she later puts out a hit on Jax), pay your way out, or talk your way out. You then go to Rat and beat him up(optionally) and continue working together. You find out Blake, the first guy I helped with the grenades is Blackmailing Chloe for a reason I can't remember. For various reasons, Blake keeps having his guards die on him when they go Jackal hunting and is looking for a new guard. Rat tasks you with stealing a list of guard candidates that Blake had so Rat can put his name at the top of the list. Or rather under Ryan. So after stealing that list, you need to Kill Ryan, Rat takes his armor, Blake hires Rat as a Guard, Rat kills Blake while out Jackal Hunting and takes Blakes place as a faction leader. Somehow Chloe's debt get paid off here. So, you know, that part actually had some story, but it doesn't go any further.

 

You return to Willy and inform him all of your assigned tasks are complete. He is happy with all of the outcomes, including Rat taking Blakes place. This is where Willy would invite Jax to become an outlaw, but I was already a cleric. And this is where the story end for this zone. I mean, can you see how I think these Zones and Factions have no actual story? What I mean is that sure there is some plot with Rat becoming a faction leader, but nothing really come from finishing all of these quests except for being able to join a faction. The only real change is Blake is dead, but the game does not change because of your actions. These aren't quest for you, but tasks, chores even. The faction doesn't become stronger or weaker. It doesn't result in them advancing some greater plan or anything like that. And the quests you get from a faction after joining them are much more of the same. Like the faction quests DO show you the inner workings of a faction I suppose, but getting lore dumped isn't an actual story. 

 

Like, none of these quests can ever lead you to the point where an entire faction is decimated or they attack you on sight. A faction's success changes nothing with the main plot either. It is all literally optional except for you do have to join a faction to get their armor as getting faction armor is part of the main story in making you strong enough to take on the main bad guys. The factions do not have a story to tell or a plot to unravel. it is such a let down when compared to something like the Dark Brotherhood or Thieves guild. There is no red vs blue war to join either. There is no greater picture or nothing. I just wish there was more to the factions. 

[Bacon]

And Zardom kidnapping Caja for LITERALLY NO REASON??????!?!?!?!?!?!?!? What a dumb pointless thing to happen. Nothing happens to her and you kill Zardom at the end anyway. I just don't get it. 

[Bacon]

I guess it is time to be a Berserker.