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Elex |OT| Gothic 5: Risen From Jank

TardisLover

Neo Member
Loving it so far,

Graphics are fine (its actually really pretty in some paces), gameplay and combat are fine too.

Massive game world, I reckon it will be at least 150-200 hours judging by the map size, and the OCD must go everywhere, do everything attitude

So far has potential to be my favourite RPG in a long while

Brilliant

OV3nu
 

Moff

Member
How much of this games issues can be resolved with patching?

Is the stamina bar a drag on combat? Can it be enhanced with a patch?

I think both the stamina bar and the combo system is good. people just need to fight carefully here, it's part of the design. you are supposed to be afraid of the world even 10 hours in. you are not supposed to breeze through hordes of enemies. and you need a companion.

and well I absolutely fucked up the berserker faction, this is not as easy as simply solving all the quests, you need to do it right.
I got some people killed, half assed some assignments and the boss dude said I can forget about joining them, he even banned me from trading and wants me to pay a 2000 elexit fine, lmao. I didn't even commit a crime!
 

Eldon

Member
What's the stat to upgrade to get a bigger Stamina meter?
I'm at work can't check, yesteday i went 50/50 strength and constitution.
 

SilentRob

Member
PB used to make good games tho', Gothic 2 is a genuine masterpiece. They just haven't made a good videogame in like 10 years (I dunno about this Elex).

This weird narrative has to die, Risen has quite a few fans and was received quite well even by international media with a Metascore of 77. I'm not in love with Risen 2 & 3 but they are basically Risen in different scenarios and at worst, boring, always talking about the PC versions. Not having played Elex also doesn't help your argument.

They are a small, independent developer that has managed to not only stay in business for almost 20 years now, but also develop two successful role-playing franchises with a third now in the works, all based on their own engine and tech. These are good games. Just because they don't look like The Witcher 3 and are lacking on the technical side doesn't make them worse per se. A game like Fallout 4 can be released full of bugs, terrible animations, lifeless characters, but because ELEX is a european PB product every second comment you hear is "lol eurojank". It's pretty tiring to see how this very special breed of roleplaying game you don't get with bigger AAA productions gets dismissed at every corner.

Sorry for the tangent :p
 

TardisLover

Neo Member
This weird narrative has to die, Risen has quite a few fans and was received quite well even by international media with a Metascore of 77. I'm not in love with Risen 2 & 3 but they are basically Risen in different scenarios and at worst, boring, always talking about the PC versions. Not having played Elex also doesn't help your argument.

They are a small, independent developer that has managed to not only stay in business for almost 20 years now, but also develop two successful role-playing franchises with a third now in the works, all based on their own engine and tech. These are good games. Just because they don't look like The Witcher 3 and are lacking on the technical side doesn't make them worse per se. A game like Fallout 4 can be released full of bugs, terrible animations, lifeless characters, but because ELEX is a european PB product every second comment you hear is "lol eurojank". It's pretty tiring to see how this very special breed of roleplaying game you don't get with bigger AAA productions gets dismissed at every corner.

Sorry for the tangent :p

Agreed, they make great games ELEX is awesome, I loved Fallout 4 but this is better so far
 

Felensis

Banned
This weird narrative has to die, Risen has quite a few fans and was received quite well even by international media with a Metascore of 77. I'm not in love with Risen 2 & 3 but they are basically Risen in different scenarios and at worst, boring, always talking about the PC versions. Not having played Elex also doesn't help your argument.

They are a small, independent developer that has managed to not only stay in business for almost 20 years now, but also develop two successful role-playing franchises with a third now in the works, all based on their own engine and tech. These are good games. Just because they don't look like The Witcher 3 and are lacking on the technical side doesn't make them worse per se. A game like Fallout 4 can be released full of bugs, terrible animations, lifeless characters, but because ELEX is a european PB product every second comment you hear is "lol eurojank". It's pretty tiring to see how this very special breed of roleplaying game you don't get with bigger AAA productions gets dismissed at every corner.

Sorry for the tangent :p

+1
 
This weird narrative has to die, Risen has quite a few fans and was received quite well even by international media with a Metascore of 77. I'm not in love with Risen 2 & 3 but they are basically Risen in different scenarios and at worst, boring, always talking about the PC versions. Not having played Elex also doesn't help your argument.

They are a small, independent developer that has managed to not only stay in business for almost 20 years now, but also develop two successful role-playing franchises with a third now in the works, all based on their own engine and tech. These are good games. Just because they don't look like The Witcher 3 and are lacking on the technical side doesn't make them worse per se. A game like Fallout 4 can be released full of bugs, terrible animations, lifeless characters, but because ELEX is a european PB product every second comment you hear is "lol eurojank". It's pretty tiring to see how this very special breed of roleplaying game you don't get with bigger AAA productions gets dismissed at every corner.

Sorry for the tangent :p

Yep, I still loved Risen 3 too even with its problems.
 

Kyle549

Member
Eurogamer review:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-10-18-elex-review

One can't help but wonder what game might one day arise were Piranha Bytes ever given the development resources of Bethesda, because with less than a quarter of the numbers that worked full-time on making Fallout 4, Piranha Bytes have cobbled together an RPG that in some areas comes close to matching it. Yes, Elex is far, far scrappier overall, the lore is clumsy and unconvincing, and there's enough grit in the combat, presentation and parts of the narrative to have you running for the nearest GOTY Edition chart-topping RPG. But, if you give Elex the benefit of the doubt, it's many freedoms will start to win you over - to the point that on completion you may subsequently find yourself thumbing through this developer's undervalued back catalogue before cracking the seal on the Next Big Thing.
 

Anoxida

Member
Found him outside at the base of
The apartment building that Ragnar's throne is in

Thanks!

Edit. How many companions can you have at the same time? Thinking about grabbing two asap and invest in non combat stuff in the beginning and let my companions do the dirty work.
 

SaiyanRaoh

Member
I'm on vacation and I brought my old gaming MSI GT60 laptop. (i7-3610QM 12GB memory and a GTX 670M). Lol, this game is THE definition of unoptimized jank. How can I get a decent 30 FPS on something Like Evil Within 2 (especially with as many problems as it has) and Shadow of War but I can only get 15-20 on this game with every setting on low?, I am really liking it despite the problems but I'l have to wait until I return home to actually play it.
 
Really? That's strange to hear. I don't visit there frequently, but I remember they loved the first game and the second is an improvement in every way

They really like it, but just in a Codex kind of way. An outsider might easily think the game is shit based on those reactions.

This weird narrative has to die, Risen has quite a few fans and was received quite well even by international media with a Metascore of 77. I'm not in love with Risen 2 & 3 but they are basically Risen in different scenarios and at worst, boring, always talking about the PC versions. Not having played Elex also doesn't help your argument.

They are a small, independent developer that has managed to not only stay in business for almost 20 years now, but also develop two successful role-playing franchises with a third now in the works, all based on their own engine and tech. These are good games. Just because they don't look like The Witcher 3 and are lacking on the technical side doesn't make them worse per se. A game like Fallout 4 can be released full of bugs, terrible animations, lifeless characters, but because ELEX is a european PB product every second comment you hear is "lol eurojank". It's pretty tiring to see how this very special breed of roleplaying game you don't get with bigger AAA productions gets dismissed at every corner.

Sorry for the tangent :p

I absolutely love Risen 1 and its setting. The pirate setting of Risen 2 and 3 didn't really do much for me and the game felt too restricted and linear. ELEX looks like a return to form and a much more ambitious game than Fallout 4. But yeah, it seems like a lot of people cannot look past some muddy textures and AI issues.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
Agreed, they make great games ELEX is awesome, I loved Fallout 4 but this is better so far
I have played every single one of their games and I thought Gothic 1 was great for it's time, Gothic 2 + expansion were great, and Risen was alright. Gothic 3 was terrible. Risen 2 was quite bad and Risen 3 was mediocre.

I can't help but be cautious toward PB products. I will get the game at some point but I will allow a few patches to go through first.
 
This weird narrative has to die, Risen has quite a few fans and was received quite well even by international media with a Metascore of 77. I'm not in love with Risen 2 & 3 but they are basically Risen in different scenarios and at worst, boring, always talking about the PC versions. Not having played Elex also doesn't help your argument.

They are a small, independent developer that has managed to not only stay in business for almost 20 years now, but also develop two successful role-playing franchises with a third now in the works, all based on their own engine and tech. These are good games. Just because they don't look like The Witcher 3 and are lacking on the technical side doesn't make them worse per se. A game like Fallout 4 can be released full of bugs, terrible animations, lifeless characters, but because ELEX is a european PB product every second comment you hear is "lol eurojank". It's pretty tiring to see how this very special breed of roleplaying game you don't get with bigger AAA productions gets dismissed at every corner.

Sorry for the tangent :p

Just wanted to add that the 'eurojank' is really troubling to hear for someone completely unfamiliar with the term, the developer and it's previous work. Anecdotal yes, but that's basically what happened to me last night.

I launched Steam and saw an ad for what looked like a cool mashup of Fallout, Elder Scrolls and Mass Effect. It looked a little rough around the edges in terms of presentation, but I can get over that. I mean, I'd heard of Risen and Gothic but never in any great detail - I hadn't even heard that they were beloved series until I went to GAF to see what the hive mind here had to say. Which was mainly equal parts people being excited and people hyping eurojank.

Thankfully, I took the plunge as I've absolutely loved my first 2-3 hours with the game. And now I also get what that 'eurojank' *is* but it's hardly something that should be scaring people off. It is exactly the kind of weirdness I expect from open world games, particularly Bethesda games. It does have it's own flavor, which is why I get the euro part of the term. I'm just bummed that I almost passed this title up because of a bunch of jokey posts.

It's funny you should bring up the Witcher 3 too, because at least in the early goings, the game I'm most reminded of in terms of how Elex feels to play is the original Witcher. A classic game that had some weird UI issue, stiff characters, spotty voice acting and odd combat - but that was filled with great stories/quests, a fantastic world to explore, and a real sense of place. And as always, some of the charm of these games is the jank. As many posters went on about when Fallout 4 launched.

So yeah. TL;DR - for those not sure on if they should buy this based on all the talk of eurojank, just think about how you handled the jank in Bethesda games. If you can see past that kind of jank to enjoy those games, you'll find a good time here as well.
 

Krakn3Dfx

Member
I gotta say, this game kind of scratches that Horizon: Zero Dawn itch from a environmental and to a lesser extent combat perspective for me. Definitely not as polished, and the stamina system makes it a much more challenging experience, at least early on, but man, just roaming out and fighting animals or just hanging out and watching animals fight each other is pretty awesome. Aiming for a melee build early on, but I'm still in the first 3-4 hours of the game, so we'll see, I've been keeping some points in reserve in case I decide to go another way.

Hard to believe that I didn't even know this game existed until around 9am yesterday. Now I'm sitting at work wishing I was at home playing.
 

FlyinJ

Douchebag. Yes, me.
I have played every single one of their games and I thought Gothic 1 was great for it's time, Gothic 2 + expansion were great, and Risen was alright. Gothic 3 was terrible. Risen 2 was quite bad and Risen 3 was mediocre.

I can't help but be cautious toward PB products. I will get the game at some point but I will allow a few patches to go through first.

I feel exactly the same way about the PB games you mentioned, although I really liked Risen 1.

I would say you'll like this one. I've put about 7 hours in so far, and it's on level with Risen 1 if not slightly better so far.
 

Jag

Member
well I absolutely fucked up the berserker faction, this is not as easy as simply solving all the quests, you need to do it right.
I got some people killed, half assed some assignments and the boss dude said I can forget about joining them, he even banned me from trading and wants me to pay a 2000 elexit fine, lmao. I didn't even commit a crime!

Yep. I did the same thing. All the quests to build rep and all i did was piss him off. I actually got a kick out of it. I like that there are consequences and options in some quest completion. Better than "go fetch me 10x boar ribs" (although it has those too).
 

Artdayne

Member
I finally got a two handed sword and some decent gear it feels quite good to properly time your strikes and significantly speed up your animations. This sword also hits like a truck! I'm genuinely curious whether I can fully advance through the Berserkers now though because a few of my quest choices have come back to screw me over.
 
I just wanna go hoooooooooommmeeeeeee :(
Why does society want to stop me playing this game, why? I'm up to my neck in SCCM issues and all i can think about is getting some exploring done, lol. Luckily i've sorted my deployment woes so for the next hour or so until hometime i can daydream about Elex :)

So far It's exactly what i expected, wanted, and knew i needed. I suppose it helps that i loved Risen 2 & 3 The Pirate Editions, Vendetta RC, Two Worlds and Boiling Point so my tastes are definitely dodgy but i find it so easy to just slip into these games and lose hours at a time. Just what i need on a stormy autumn night.
 
Gothic 1 was legit ahead of its time. The closest thing to doing a huge 3D world like that with that level of interactivity was Ultima 9 which...yeah.

Gothic 2 was pretty much state of the art as well. It released the same year as Morrowind and they had their pros and cons relative to each other but both were absolutely taking the genre forward.

I think PB really wanted to take that next step with Gothic 3 but they clearly bit off more than they could chew with that one. Since then it seems like they are content to keep iterating on the Gothic formula but have clearly lost the desire to compete on the same playing field with other major RPG devs. Which is probably for the best. We need their niche now more than ever.
 

Ragona

Member
Gothic 1 was legit ahead of its time. The closest thing to doing a huge 3D world like that with that level of interactivity was Ultima 9 which...yeah.

Gothic 2 was pretty much state of the art as well. It released the same year as Morrowind and they had their pros and cons relative to each other but both were absolutely taking the genre forward.

I think PB really wanted to take that next step with Gothic 3 but they clearly bit off more than they could chew with that one. Since then it seems like they are content to keep iterating on the Gothic formula but have clearly lost the desire to compete on the same playing field with other major RPG devs. Which is probably for the best. We need their niche now more than ever.

yeah people tend to forget (or don't know), that at some point with jowood heavily investing, Piranha Bytes have been competing with the very best.
Anyhow...in a world, where 4-6 million copies of AAA singleplayer games arent enough anymore, Iam so happy a game on this scope can be created by 20-25 people with a budget of what...5 million euros?
 
It's pretty decent. It drops in certain areas, but nothing too egregious.
I’m assuming 30ish? I’ve got a decent PC with a 980ti but do find my PS4 slightly more convenient to play on. If I can get 60 FPS on my PC versus 30ish on PS4, I’m thinking I should probably get it on PC. I’ll be playing with controller either way, so m/kB doesn’t factor into my decision.
 

SilentRob

Member
I’m assuming 30ish? I’ve got a decent PC with a 980ti but do find my PS4 slightly more convenient to play on. If I can get 60 FPS on my PC versus 30ish on PS4, I’m thinking I should probably get it on PC. I’ll be playing with controller either way, so m/kB doesn’t factor into my decision.

Should be more than enough for 60fps, Had no Performance Problems with a 970.
 

Bod

Neo Member
Easily there best game since Risen, infact so far i am enjoying more than Risen.

The world is a joy to explore.
 

Alebelly

Member
Game is terrifying, sun goes down, I'm carefully choosing my encounters as I slowly make my way across the map, see a guy with some glowy bits on him, do I shoot or try and say hello, before I can finish the thought, dude turns around and starts running at me, I make it to high ground and ping him with an arrow, hes a Mutant and hes pretty much invincible, so I run, and he runs after me. I keep thinking I've lost him, then there he is, still running after me, like a damn terminator. Pretty fun, game doesn't fuck around, its a dangerous world.
 

loganclaws

Plane Escape Torment
They need a patch to resolve the following:

- allow rebinding all keys for all functions, don't lock any keys.

- slightly improve response time when trying to move with keyboard, it feels sluggish just like in the Witcher 3 before they released the alternate movement option.

- improve adjutor response time, especially when it is called up, takes forever.

- allow option to disable double tap dodging.

- allow option to permanently disable quest trackers on map or set them to off by default.

The above are what I see as critical issues that need to be fixed immediately.
 
They need a patch to resolve the following:

- allow rebinding all keys for all functions, don't lock any keys.

- slightly improve response time when trying to move with keyboard, it feels sluggish just like in the Witcher 3 before they released the alternate movement option.

- improve adjutor response time, especially when it is called up, takes forever.

- allow option to disable double tap dodging.

- allow option to permanently disable quest trackers on map or set them to off by default.

The above are what I see as critical issues that need to be fixed immediately.

Also I notice my the FPS when I pull my map up is very low for some reason. As I play with a controller, the rest of the issues dont really affect me too much.
 

loganclaws

Plane Escape Torment
I’m assuming 30ish? I’ve got a decent PC with a 980ti but do find my PS4 slightly more convenient to play on. If I can get 60 FPS on my PC versus 30ish on PS4, I’m thinking I should probably get it on PC. I’ll be playing with controller either way, so m/kB doesn’t factor into my decision.

On an i7700k with a GeForce 980 gtx, I get above 60 on max settings at 1080p.
 

Ragona

Member
Oh yeah one more tip for all the people new to PB games:
Once you have completed a quest - which usually happens at the target you get sent to - go back to the initial questgiving npc or the one prior to the last one in the chain. You usually get another small reward :)
 

Banzai

Member
...I just had the game crash after 1 hour of play. Not the greatest first impression. It won't deter me though.
 
Hopefully PB brings a patch soon that fixes these issues like terrible A.I. and that you sometimes just don't hit the enemy.

Wouldn't even really surprise me all that much if the A.I. stays this way though. And of course I wonder when they will bring the One X patch.
 
Watched a stream of this and it looks jank as hell (but in a good way, mostly). Something I would probably spend way too many hours on TBH, albeit I would wait for a deep discount price, the asking price is just too high for the amount of polish on this game.

There is one part of the jank I might have trouble dealing with, though, the inability to hit enemies when standing on a slope (but they seem to be able to hit you).
 

Moff

Member
- allow option to permanently disable quest trackers on map or set them to off by default.

quests need to be followed manually, right? so you can simply not do that.
I am a bit disappointed by the quest trackers as well, it would have been a lot cooler if they gave all the locations on the map actual names and guided you like that. but the way it is now, I don't think the game is playable without them, sadly.

my #1 wish for the game is still the ability to mark the map yourself, though.
 
Wow the game looks gorgeous on PC 1440/60 and I would imagine at 4K also (waiting on a HDR gsync 4K), really impressive for such a small studio

Controls seem a little laggy/imprecise using controller given that its 60 fps.

I would like an option to see damage numbers (defaulted to off since I realize not many people would like this) so its more obvious to me which melee is working out better eg the damage per combo hit. I'm fine without health or HP on the enemies

Is there a way to see my character's total health/HP? investing in constitution didnt grow the healthbar and I can see my stats but didnt see a health or stamina etc number (probably missed it)

Jetpack is fun
 

Ombra

Member
What's the stat to upgrade to get a bigger Stamina meter?
I'm at work can't check, yesteday i went 50/50 strength and constitution.
This, so much I am an hour and a half in and 4 level ups unspent because I am dumping it all in whatever increases stamina!
 
Wow the game looks gorgeous on PC 1440/60 and I would imagine at 4K also (waiting on a HDR gsync 4K), really impressive for such a small studio

Game is beautiful at ultrawide 3440x1440/100hz. I love these Eurojank games with proprietary engines so much. They always look so great and run well too.
 

Xater

Member
The more time I am spending with this game the less I am enjoying it. The combat is just atrocious. There is no other way to describe it. I am also still waiting for those great quests. All I am seeing with the Berserkers so far is cliches and sub par writing. I really don’t know if I want to continue this game.
 
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