Elex 2 - Early Review GameStar - no final score

[Nerun]

Review - GameStar.de (German/Paywall)

German PC magazine GameStar played and finished Elex 2 with a nearly finished build of the game.

Some notes out of the early review:

• Time to finish around 60 hours
• Two very different parts, the first half of the game is more about avoiding enemies, exploration, and the second half is more about fighting
• Elex 2 is set as part 2 of a trilogy and you can clearly make that out, by the open ending for several parts of the storylines
• First half plays like a survival game, probably with a lot of quick saves / load and you try to avoid battles where possible (sounds exactly like Elex 1)
• Four difficulty settings
• More than 80 skills
• (Very) good skill tree (system)
• Made for fans of Gothic and Elex
• Five factions to choose from (but you don't have to choose one, though it is recommended - also for the story)
• The Main story only picks up in the second half of the game
• It is recommended to have played Elex 1 (to get all the story details in Elex 2)
• Faces of the characters are a huge weakness in most cases (looking like wax figures in many cases)
• Quests, cities, and the world, in general, are highlights again
• Game world is pretty much the same size as in Elex 1
• Choices by the player have real consequences
• A ton of dialogues, especially if you first enter a city/camp from one of the factions (lots of talking)
• Companions in Elex 2 as well, complete with their own quest lines
• Controls/Combat and animations still feel a bit clunky, but improved compared to Elex 1 (don't expect a AAA modern combat system and animations/graphics in general)
• Grenades and rocket launchers are mostly of use to "push back enemies" rather than weapons to actually fight/kill them
• Flying feels better/improved and is a lot more fun, but is limited in time (jetpack can be upgraded several times) and one point I won't mention here
• Only very minor quest and tech issues in this near-final build, which should be fixed for the release version

Final score prediction around 80-82/100, worst part being the graphics with 3/5


Update: Added some screenshots, as they are public and not only available behind the paywall (source for all screenshots is GameStar.de). You can find all screenshots here: https://www.gamestar.de/spiele/elex-2,bilder,15005.html

 

[Yuntu]

Sounds like my kinda Eurojank

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Seems pretty much in range with the expectations.

if nothing else PB is consistent, even if their lack of improvement over the years gets a bit grating over time, it's almost like they are unable to learn from their mistakes (and they have yet to match their peak with Gothic 2, anyway).

I'm a bit worried about the fact that an already not-exactly-flawless combat system (giant euphemism) may be made even worse by the dreadful introduction of a de-centered third person camera, so it's surprising to see this reviewer thinking the combat is better now. Admittedly that's not the impression I got from trailers and stuff.

 

[xMM4nsonx]

Embargo has been broken?

 

[elPolloDiablo]

Sounds good, need to finish my Elex 1 playthrough. excited for this

 

[His Majesty]

Seems pretty much in range with the expectations.

if nothing else PB is consistent, even if their lack of improvement over the years gets a bit grating over time, it's almost like they are unable to learn from their mistakes (and they have yet to match their peak with Gothic 2, anyway).

I'm a bit worried about the fact that an already not-exactly-flawless combat system (giant euphemism) may be made even worse by the dreadful introduction of a de-centered third person camera, so it's surprising to see this reviewer thinking the combat is better now. Admittedly that's not the impression I got from trailers and stuff.

Click to shrink...

I would argue that they did learn from their mistakes - Risen 2 and 3 - seeing how ELEX turned out. Returning to an open world with proper progression mechanics, factions and choices and consequences was definitely the right move. And while an overhaul of the combat system would be nice and long overdue, it's very much of secondary importance to me compared to those other aspects.

 

[Mivey]

Yep, that's Pirahna Bytes game.

 

[Fadewise]

I just don't understand how the whole "for the first half of the game you're so weak that you just need to avoid most enemies" thing is considered a valid design choice. I mean, I know that's PB's whole thing thing of uncompromising non-scaling open world difficulty, but it's one thing to have areas of the map that are too difficult at first, but they go overboard with it. I'm playing the first Elex right now, and it's silly that the quests you get in the first hours of the game lead you to areas with nothing but skull icon enemies. They're just not good at balance or creating a reasonable difficulty curve.

 

[misho8723]

Sounds great..

.. and yeah, these are definitely Piranha Bytes faces :D

 

[Dralos]

Faces look better than in some of the previews from last year. I guess i can live with that.
shame that the main story picks up in the second half of the game.

Edit: it seems they are still improving stuff. Gamestar mentioned that since their last preview they improved some faces and that you can pick up stuff now with one mouse click (like it should be!) and not with a mouse hold anymore.

 

[Ravio-li]

I just don't understand how the whole "for the first half of the game you're so weak that you just need to avoid most enemies" thing is considered a valid design choice. I mean, I know that's PB's whole thing thing of uncompromising non-scaling open world difficulty, but it's one thing to have areas of the map that are too difficult at first, but they go overboard with it. I'm playing the first Elex right now, and it's silly that the quests you get in the first hours of the game lead you to areas with nothing but skull icon enemies. They're just not good at balance or creating a reasonable difficulty curve.

Click to shrink...

Can't speak too much for Elex, but I thought this was one of the core aspects that made Gothic 1 (and 2 to a bit lesser extent) so special. The world felt uncompromisingly dangerous in the first few hours - until you start go get enough knowledge what areas to avoid and save for later until you are strong enough.

If I think about it - this kind of unreasonable difficulty cuve is always really exiting. Still puts the world of Dark Souls 1 over the others. Moments like getting stuck cursed in the sewers or taking the wrong way at the beginning from Firelink Shrine.

But I do agree that PB is a bit excessive with that. Gothic 1 is in my opinion the only game where they nailed it. The world of 2 always felt a bit too populated with monsters, considering the setting. No idea how any of the farmers manage the ways from and to the city.

 

[Deleted member 51848]

Elex always reminds me of Elonex which was a brand of computer when I was growing up. Bring on the jank!

 

[Sidebuster]

I just don't understand how the whole "for the first half of the game you're so weak that you just need to avoid most enemies" thing is considered a valid design choice. I mean, I know that's PB's whole thing thing of uncompromising non-scaling open world difficulty, but it's one thing to have areas of the map that are too difficult at first, but they go overboard with it. I'm playing the first Elex right now, and it's silly that the quests you get in the first hours of the game lead you to areas with nothing but skull icon enemies. They're just not good at balance or creating a reasonable difficulty curve.

Click to shrink...

It's been this way since Gothic (which I had been playing again recently) and it is a terrible design. It really make you feel like the open world part is fake as you have no choice but to be laser focused on the path they give you or else you'll be instantly killed. There's never been a single foot step of leeway given to the player. Not only that, some of the quests (at least in Gothic and Elex) will point you into a direction you can't go until way later, but they force you to find that out for yourself. It sucks.

 

[Kalor]

That all sounds good so far.

 

[Vintage]

Sounds like Elex. Can't wait.

 

[Fadewise]

Can't speak too much for Elex, but I thought this was one of the core aspects that made Gothic 1 (and 2 to a bit lesser extent) so special. The world felt uncompromisingly dangerous in the first few hours - until you start go get enough knowledge what areas to avoid and save for later until you are strong enough.

If I think about it - this kind of unreasonable difficulty cuve is always really exiting. Still puts the world of Dark Souls 1 over the others. Moments like getting stuck cursed in the sewers or taking the wrong way at the beginning from Firelink Shrine.

But I do agree that PB is a bit excessive with that. Gothic 1 is in my opinion the only game where they nailed it. The world of 2 always felt a bit too populated with monsters, considering the setting. No idea how any of the farmers manage the ways from and to the city.

Click to shrink...

I get it, but like you said, they go overboard with it. Dark Souls is a good implimentation of this, Elex is a bad one.

 

[TheRyzzl]

Smart of Elden Ring and Horizon to get their games out right before this banger drops.

But seriously though I'm looking forward to picking this up sometime down the road as I had a pretty good time with the first one despite its terrible combat.

 

[His Majesty]

I personally love the fact that you run into high level enemies right at the start of the game as it provides you a clear sense of progression when you come back to that same area dozens of hours later. It also grounds your character right at the start of the game as an unskilled nobody. This is how good open world games like Gothic 2 and Morrowind nudge you in the right direction. There should be a feeling of danger lurking around every corner.

I am personally not a fan of modern open world games where stronger enemies are grouped together in the same area. Or downscaled to your level.

 

[Nameless]

Smart of Elden Ring and Horizon to get their games out right before this banger drops.

But seriously though I'm looking forward to picking this up sometime down the road as I had a pretty good time with the first one despite its terrible combat.

Click to shrink...

For me Horizon 2 is the low man on the totem pole underneath Elden Ring and ELEX 2, and will be put on the back burner until I'm done with both.

ELEX 1 >> Horizon HZD especially where it counts (exploration, progression, quest design, RPG Systems, player choice)

 

[GiantEnemyCrab]

Is the release really so close to Elden Ring? That seems like suicide.

 

[Xater]

There is no way I am giving them another chance with their shitty combat again. It doesn't sound like it improved much. People complain about Witcher 3 combat but oh boy this is way worse. I just can't do it anymore. Piranha Bytes needs to completely overhaul how they do combat.

 

[Artdayne]

It's been this way since Gothic (which I had been playing again recently) and it is a terrible design. It really make you feel like the open world part is fake as you have no choice but to be laser focused on the path they give you or else you'll be instantly killed. There's never been a single foot step of leeway given to the player. Not only that, some of the quests (at least in Gothic and Elex) will point you into a direction you can't go until way later, but they force you to find that out for yourself. It sucks.

Click to shrink...

You want Gothic to play like Skyrim or something where you can just go anywhere and everywhere you want. Gothic says you can't go wherever you want because the enemies will kill you, the restriction is at least grounded in the world building and personally I far prefer that method and think level scaling is awful. Anyway, it's not entirely true what you're saying though, like you can get a lot better at the game and enter some areas quicker than you may have otherwise. But anyway it's an RPG and they are fully committed to the idea that you start out weak and become super powerful later on, seems pretty consistent with what an RPG should be.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

CONCEPTUALLY I prefer the Gothic/ELEX approach of "most of what's around in the beginning is deadly", but I think ELEX, even among other PB games, had a particularly poor implementation of the principle in practical term.
It doesn't help that the game has arguably the WORST combat system PB ever made since Gothic 3. And it's not like they were ever particularly good at it to begin with...

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

I just don't understand how the whole "for the first half of the game you're so weak that you just need to avoid most enemies" thing is considered a valid design choice. I mean, I know that's PB's whole thing thing of uncompromising non-scaling open world difficulty, but it's one thing to have areas of the map that are too difficult at first, but they go overboard with it. I'm playing the first Elex right now, and it's silly that the quests you get in the first hours of the game lead you to areas with nothing but skull icon enemies. They're just not good at balance or creating a reasonable difficulty curve.

Click to shrink...

It's been this way since Gothic (which I had been playing again recently) and it is a terrible design. It really make you feel like the open world part is fake as you have no choice but to be laser focused on the path they give you or else you'll be instantly killed. There's never been a single foot step of leeway given to the player. Not only that, some of the quests (at least in Gothic and Elex) will point you into a direction you can't go until way later, but they force you to find that out for yourself. It sucks.

Click to shrink...

I'd actually say Elex encourages going off the beaten path and risk getting beaten. Unguarded mid-game or even best in class weaponry and armor just laying there. An XP structure that promotes going down questlines and factions rather than killing everything that steps to you (or REALLY signals that its That One Beastie You Dont Mess With Till Late Game like 95% of open worlds)...or just kite them to town guards and enjoy the profitable carnage!

Power scaling is a delicate thing, and Elex does it well.

 

[Fadewise]

I'd actually say Elex encourages going off the beaten path and risk getting beaten. Unguarded mid-game or even best in class weaponry and armor just laying there. An XP structure that promotes going down questlines and factions rather than killing everything that steps to you (or REALLY signals that its That One Beastie You Dont Mess With Till Late Game like 95% of open worlds)...or just kite them to town guards and enjoy the profitable carnage!

Power scaling is a delicate thing, and Elex does it well.

Click to shrink...

Conceptually, I agree with you, and I think that some PB games have done that well. Elex decidedly DID NOT though. There's no power curve, it's all just a series of cliffs.

 

[RankFTW]

Had this on pre order (i know) for months, getting excited now :)

 

[Bardeh]

If PB could just polish their controls and combat their games would be so good. But the jank isn't endearing any more, they should be doing better after all this time.

 

[Odesu]

Conceptually, I agree with you, and I think that some PB games have done that well. Elex decidedly DID NOT though. There's no power curve, it's all just a series of cliffs.

Click to shrink...

I can't agree with that at all. I had less problems in Elex difficulty wise than I did in Gothic 2 for example and never felt discouraged in my exploration. I found it pretty easy to get out of situations I needed to flee from thanks to the higher mobility and was constantly rewarded with great side content or gear or experience.

Also, I really dislike the term "Eurojank". These games release and american press especially treats it like these cute almost-games, while a Bethesda release with combat that consists of wildly swinging your swords around with much impact, scaling mountains by glitching up them with your horse and bugs, bugs, bugs from beginning to end are hailed as the top of the RPG genre. It's a weird rejection of everything that isnt or doesn't at least look and feel like a US-production - see also Witcher 1 & 2.

 

[Sidebuster]

You want Gothic to play like Skyrim or something where you can just go anywhere and everywhere you want. Gothic says you can't go wherever you want because the enemies will kill you, the restriction is at least grounded in the world building and personally I far prefer that method and think level scaling is awful. Anyway, it's not entirely true what you're saying though, like you can get a lot better at the game and enter some areas quicker than you may have otherwise. But anyway it's an RPG and they are fully committed to the idea that you start out weak and become super powerful later on, seems pretty consistent with what an RPG should be.

Click to shrink...

I'd actually say Elex encourages going off the beaten path and risk getting beaten. Unguarded mid-game or even best in class weaponry and armor just laying there. An XP structure that promotes going down questlines and factions rather than killing everything that steps to you (or REALLY signals that its That One Beastie You Dont Mess With Till Late Game like 95% of open worlds)...or just kite them to town guards and enjoy the profitable carnage!

Power scaling is a delicate thing, and Elex does it well.

Click to shrink...

There was a really good youtube video I watched a while back that did a better job explaining my issues with the games and I'll try to find it. But it had to do with how exact enemies are placed including being placed for intentional progress blocking. I think one was a specific path blocked by a wolf or something like that. I do say this having played and owned a bunch of if not all of the piranha bytes games, and still ultimately enjoying all of them although having beaten none.. I actually dig how different the control scheme is in gothic 1. It's just a minor frustration with how I imagine myself playing the games which happens a lot with me. "This game is amazing, but ughh if only the mechanics allowed for X" kind of thing.

 

[Skulldead]

Did you make me discover everything i like about Open world RPG in a single tread(no level scaling, hard preset item, etc), never play the first game but bought new for like 5$ couple month ago and just discover that it run super well on Ps5 on 60fps without need of any patch.....

Sometimes i really love this forum.

 

[Zaro]

I have no problem with their difficulty.
I play back to back Elex, Risen and now i'm into Risen 2 (a bit easier) and i like how they do that.
I just came back to an Island to kill a giant spider i left behind and it feel good to kill it now.

The combat was good enough in Elex, it is supposed to be a bit better this time, for me it's ok.

Anyway the combat is just one aspect of these games, choice are so interesting.
And i like games that reward you for exploring.

Many AAA RPG feel bad compare to these games.

 

[Nooblet]

Why can't they get the footstep sounds better. It's very distracting when your footsteps are so loud and make the same 3-4 sounds regardless of what surface you're on, just make it quite if you don't have the resources to do different sounds for it. Elex 1 had the same problem.

 

[Fadewise]

I can't agree with that at all. I had less problems in Elex difficulty wise than I did in Gothic 2 for example and never felt discouraged in my exploration. I found it pretty easy to get out of situations I needed to flee from thanks to the higher mobility and was constantly rewarded with great side content or gear or experience.

Also, I really dislike the term "Eurojank". These games release and american press especially treats it like these cute almost-games, while a Bethesda release with combat that consists of wildly swinging your swords around with much impact, scaling mountains by glitching up them with your horse and bugs, bugs, bugs from beginning to end are hailed as the top of the RPG genre. It's a weird rejection of everything that isnt or doesn't at least look and feel like a US-production - see also Witcher 1 & 2.

Click to shrink...

I mean, yeah, the enemies are easy enough to avoid. but is it really good design where your early-game quests require to you to run a gauntlet of enemies that you have no chance of defeating? I'm not talking about scenarios where you strike out across the map to explore on your own, mind you. I'm talking about side quests that you get from the Berserkers within the first hour of the game that you need to complete to rank up and actually start to build your combat effectiveness that immediately send you into areas with overpowered enemies.

Again, that type of design is fine for a open world, but when they overlay the actual quest progression on top of it it's just wildly incongruous.

Also, i'm completely on board with classifying Bethesda games as Eurojank. FromSoft as well...

 

[Ales34]

Sounds good. I'm way more hyped for this than for HFW and Elden Ring.

 

[DPB]

I've bought every PB game since Risen on release, but I'm going to have to wait for impressions as I'm not sure it'll run on my below minimum spec PC. Supposedly it needs 12 GB RAM (I only have 8), even though it has PS4 and Xbox One versions.

 

[Deleted member 17210]

The first game was way less than 60 hours to get to the end but I'm guessing they're including side quests with that amount (I don't want it to be that long).

 

[Nerun]

The first game was way less than 60 hours to get to the end but I'm guessing they're including side quests with that amount (I don't want it to be that long).

Click to shrink...

They mentioned, that they discovered like 99% of the map with those 60 hours, so I guess you can finish it in 50 hours or a bit less.

 

[Thrill_house]

Nice. I really enjoyed the first one. I'll pick it up some day

 

[Moff]

sounds good, but they really shot themselves in the foot with the release date, Elex 1 was their most succesful game, and while I really liked it, undeservedly so, it just had a great release date after a long drought of open world RPGs.

releasing elex II a week after Elden Ring is an enormous mistake, might kill the studio

 

[His Majesty]

sounds good, but they really shot themselves in the foot with the release date, Elex 1 was their most succesful game, and while I really liked it, undeservedly so, it just had a great release date after a long drought of open world RPGs.

releasing elex II a week after Elden Ring is an enormous mistake, might kill the studio

Click to shrink...

Elex II will kill FromSoft. Have some faith.

 

[Mudo]

Exactly how I thought this would be!
Yup can always count on PB to release PB-ass games lol (in a good way for me).

I don't like the story only picking up halfway through, but everything else sounds right up my alley. Day 1 for me :)

 

[lightchris]

Yeah, that sounds like a PB game. Which I like.
Will wait for the first reviews, and if there are no negative surprises, I will buy this game and likely enjoy it quite a bit.

I've bought every PB game since Risen on release, but I'm going to have to wait for impressions as I'm not sure it'll run on my below minimum spec PC. Supposedly it needs 12 GB RAM (I only have 8), even though it has PS4 and Xbox One versions.

Click to shrink...

I wouldn't be too concerned. Official system requirements are seldom very useful in that regard. If it runs on PS4/Xbox One, you should be fine (as long as you're willing to decrease graphics settings as needed).

 

[NCR Ranger]

Sounds good. I for one am a big fan of making the world utterly dangerous at the start. I am also a fan of giving the players quests that might be too much for them, but can agree that they could have communicated it better for some of them. Good old fashion recommended level/color coding might have helped. Then again dodging baddies to get your quest item isn't an invalid design choice, imo.

Also eurojank is a term of endearment, anyone using it otherwise is misusing it. It has mainly, in my experience, been used to describe games that tried to be RPG ambitious as fuck, but without a budget to pull it all off. In contrast to North American and Japanese RPGs, with massive budgets, but scaled back ambitions in terms of what the traditional CRPG crowed was looking for in their RPGs. For a while these kind of games were only getting made in Europe hence the name.

 

[Man Called Aerodynamics]

It's been this way since Gothic (which I had been playing again recently) and it is a terrible design. It really make you feel like the open world part is fake as you have no choice but to be laser focused on the path they give you or else you'll be instantly killed. There's never been a single foot step of leeway given to the player. Not only that, some of the quests (at least in Gothic and Elex) will point you into a direction you can't go until way later, but they force you to find that out for yourself. It sucks.

Click to shrink...

I'd love for them to add a "Narrative" difficulty setting for people who just want to enjoy the world/story/factions and play it as a hack-and-slash. People who like the style of these games as-is can play them that way, but the other option could exist too. But it is what it is.

 

[CorpseLight]

I bought the first Elex used for Xbox and it runs great at 4k/60 on Series X. I played for about an hour but it didn't hook me but I've meant to get back to it.

 

[ShinUltramanJ]

If this is a trilogy, then why am I starting off as a chump stain again?

What's the reasoning?

 

[Moff]

If this is a trilogy, then why am I starting off as a chump stain again?

What's the reasoning?

Click to shrink...

Because starting as a god is boring.

 

[NCR Ranger]

I am still sad that most games don't let your progress carry over. Was one of my favorite parts of the Quest for Glory series. Of course their solutions to being a god problem was to make the baddies meaner, raise the skill cap 100, and call it a day

I'd love for them to add a "Narrative" difficulty setting for people who just want to enjoy the world/story/factions and play it as a hack-and-slash. People who like the style of these games as-is can play them that way, but the other option could exist too. But it is what it is.

Click to shrink...

If on the PC than cheats are always an option.

 

[Zephy]

Wait, you can fly? That's my kind of game.

 

[flyinj]

Gamestar also gave Gothic 3 an 85%. Just to put things a bit into perspective