• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Elex |OT| Gothic 5: Risen From Jank

Drazgul

Member
You can buy natural elex from vendors, who restock their inventory. The elex can be used to make XP/attribute/skill boosting potions, the only real limit being your funds of elexit. Fitting how you have to give up everything in the endless pursuit for more power.
 

ZOONAMI

Junior Member
Heard about this on the radio video games weekly with game informer. Sort of tempted to check it out, but generally frustrating games aren’t my thing.
 

Artdayne

Member
Better than DOS2? Interesting.

I mean, if you were to compile a list of things that each game does DOS 2 might come out ahead because it's a more polished experience, higher presentation values, better music, better voice acting. I feel Elex approaches gear/loot far better than DOS 2 does though, it's not even close. Getting weapon upgrades feels like a huge reward in this game and its all hand placed loot. The choice and consequence feels quite a bit better too from my experience so far. The combat is definitely not as good, DOS 2 has better presentation values like I said but I guess it depends on what you value the most.
 
You can buy natural elex from vendors, who restock their inventory. The elex can be used to make XP/attribute/skill boosting potions, the only real limit being your funds of elexit. Fitting how you have to give up everything in the endless pursuit for more power.

I need an alchemy guide. If its anything like Risen 3, you need to not use attribute potions until a certain level to get the most of it.
 

OmegaDL50

Member
Doing some research online in regards to character planning.

I'm not sure how accurate this information may be, It probably can be verified using cheat engine or something though.

Attributes apparently have a cap of 100, so theoretically getting to level 50 would give you enough attribute points (490 at 50) to max out all 5 Attributes to 100.

Also most your damage is derived from Skills you learn and the timing based combo system and not so much character stats.

Using the Personality skills Attribute which lets you earn 1 extra attribute point per level and Attribute Points which you can get 10 Attribute points for each point invested (maxed out at 3 for 30 points total) and the Elex Drink you should be able to get to this stat cap sooner.

So I wonder what the most optimal path would be for those that like to min max. I suppose finding those Elex Drinks and Large Elex Drinks would help.

There is a confirmed list of locations of them too.

https://guides.gamepressure.com/elex/guide.asp?ID=41996

The game has only been out for a few days but this guide is very comprehensive. I'd avoid using it for those that want their first run to be full of surprises on their own.
 

Ragona

Member
Doing some research online in regards to character planning.


Attributes apparently have a cap of 100, so theoretically getting to level 50 would give you enough attribute points (490 at 50) to max out all 5 Attributes to 100.

Attributes sadly require 2 points per lvl after 30, not sure if it gets even more expensive later on.
 
Doing some research online in regards to character planning.

I'm not sure how accurate this information may be, It probably can be verified using cheat engine or something though.

Attributes apparently have a cap of 100, so theoretically getting to level 50 would give you enough attribute points (490 at 50) to max out all 5 Attributes to 100.

Also most your damage is derived from Skills you learn and the timing based combo system and not so much character stats.

Using the Personality skills Attribute which lets you earn 1 extra attribute point per level and Attribute Points which you can get 10 Attribute points for each point invested (maxed out at 3 for 30 points total) and the Elex Drink you should be able to get to this stat cap sooner.

So I wonder what the most optimal path would be for those that like to min max. I suppose finding those Elex Drinks and Large Elex Drinks would help.

There is a confirmed list of locations of them too.

https://guides.gamepressure.com/elex/guide.asp?ID=41996

The game has only been out for a few days but this guide is very comprehensive. I'd avoid using it for those that want their first run to be full of surprises on their own.

It takes 2 attribute points from 30-31(up to 60) and 5 attribute points to go from 60-61 in an attribute (up to 100) so it would take 280 attribute points to level up one attribute to 100.
 

Ragona

Member
When you do the mission to meet the albs right at the beginning, go into the converter right of them. In the corner is a chest, which contains a ring that gives you +20hp and +10 stamina.
Only just found it after 15 hours, would have made my life so much easier early on.

Once you got the stat requirements to carry a decent damage weapon (40+) you start to hit pretty decently with your combo to kill most of the monsters. Just the really big and strong ones need more power.
 

OmegaDL50

Member
So then that would mean tons of reliance of Alchemy and making Elex Potions then.

The guide I linked to has the locations of the recipes to learn them at least.

While the guide itself is useful, I was hoping there would be a PDF version, which would make it convenient to use on my tablet (it loads web pages slow, so using a PDF is a bit quicker)
 

loganclaws

Plane Escape Torment
It's really stupid that you can't see numerical values for your stats, how are we supposed to evaluate if a +10 hp ring is significant or not without actually buying it and equipping it...
 
Hold on, are these loading times really this short? Crazy difference compared to their previous games and I just have to mention Witcher 3 that has insane loading times on console once you enter Velen. I'm impressed!
 
Hold on, are these loading times really this short? Crazy difference compared to their previous games and I just have to mention Witcher 3 that has insane loading times on console once you enter Velen. I'm impressed!

There are literally no load times that I can recall. It takes about 5 seconds to load the game and then no load times forever. Even teleporting is essentially instant with no load time.
 

Moff

Member
It's really stupid that you can't see numerical values for your stats, how are we supposed to evaluate if a +10 hp ring is significant or not without actually buying it and equipping it...

oh it gets worse, there are even perks where it is unclear what they actually do. there are like 3 or 4 perks which simply increase damage or attack value or whatever, but there is no way you can know what that actually means.
definitely a flaw of the game and it's not comprehensible why they chose to do it that way.
 
There are literally no load times that I can recall. It takes about 5 seconds to load the game and then no load times forever. Even teleporting is essentially instant with no load time.

But I'm assuming you play on PC? I'm on Xbox One and right in the beginning after meeting Duras I died because I was going into a direction I shouldn't have gone into and it took a out 10 seconds I think to load the save game. But compared to Risen 1 on 360,even though it's a crazy improvement. PB has really improved when it comes to developing games for console.

I love how everything is so lively too, like the trees and foliage swaying in the wind. I love that kinda stuff and I didn't expect it from this dev.
 
But I'm assuming you play on PC? I'm on Xbox One and right in the beginning after meeting Duras I died because I was going into a direction I shouldn't have gone into and it took a out 10 seconds I think to load the save game.

Ah true, dying. Yea I am on PC on a SSD but still it is surprising how few loads there are.
 
I mean, if you were to compile a list of things that each game does DOS 2 might come out ahead because it's a more polished experience, higher presentation values, better music, better voice acting. I feel Elex approaches gear/loot far better than DOS 2 does though, it's not even close. Getting weapon upgrades feels like a huge reward in this game and its all hand placed loot. The choice and consequence feels quite a bit better too from my experience so far. The combat is definitely not as good, DOS 2 has better presentation values like I said but I guess it depends on what you value the most.

Yeah, according to what I've seen so far, this game has the potential to be something great. However, it's hampered with the lack of polish and budget. Especially budget as I could see that they were all out in some aspects of the game while the other aspects seem very lacking. Also, I feel that the game needs some quality of life patches.

Hold on, are these loading times really this short? Crazy difference compared to their previous games and I just have to mention Witcher 3 that has insane loading times on console once you enter Velen. I'm impressed!

There are literally no load times that I can recall. It takes about 5 seconds to load the game and then no load times forever. Even teleporting is essentially instant with no load time.

Yeah, it's impressive that you can jump straight to the game in a matter of seconds from desktop (I did the skip intro trick).

oh it gets worse, there are even perks where it is unclear what they actually do. there are like 3 or 4 perks which simply increase damage or attack value or whatever, but there is no way you can know what that actually means.
definitely a flaw of the game and it's not comprehensible why they chose to do it that way.

Yeah, I've seen the skills and perks and most of them are very vague.

Like, 'Give extra damage from physical attacks'. How much extra damage, exactly?
 

FlyinJ

Douchebag. Yes, me.
Anyone else noticing on the Pro that the longer you play a session, the longer it takes to bring up your PDA/Menu thing? It starts out popping up in .5 seconds and eventually takes 2-3 seconds to come up.

Quitting the game and restarting fixes it.
 
There are bugs on Xbox One though, one very annoying.

Right now the pause screen is stuck. I can navigate around but not select anything. I have to quit the game completely now.

Also multitasking doesn't go all that well at times. It ruined the party chat for a minute and then came back and sometimes it just hangs.
 

MrCinos

Member
The worst is "+1 to combat rating"...what is combat rating? Is this literally just a +1 to combat for dialogue checks?

It's +10 (ten) for dialogue checks, same with charisma/survival/crafting skills (the ones in Personality tree). I'm focused on getting them now. +1 you'd have for getting any ability in the tree.
 

Buckle

Member
Anyone know where the recipe for small elex drinks are?

I have recipes for the other two but not that. Can it not be crafted and only found in the world?
 
Ya they aint bad tall

Yup, so the critique by some (myself included) that PB just doesn't learn is true to an extend. Man I remember the abysmal loading times of Risen on 360.

Wish CDPR could improve those loading times somehow some way in Witcher 3. One X should at least improve them a little if those reports are right.
 

Surfside

Banned
Watching some youtube reviews of the game from PB fans, many sounding very positive. Seems that they finally got ambitious again. I was very doubtful that they had it in them anymore, to make a game as good as Gothic 1&2 again. But, i'm pleased to be wrong.

Don't know when i will be able to play it. But i'm very much looking forward to it.
 
Reading all those game press reviews

tJ8smuY.jpg
 

unrealist

Member
Saw CohhCarnage play .. and it's seems like an underrated gem (25-man team!) .. other than the restriction to a bald main character, everything seems fun.
 
Sure. From the teleporter, turn around towards North-West: You should see some stone stairscases. Follow them, and you should see a couple of small/incomplete wood tents. One of them has a wood ramp and at the top there is a chest with those glasses. It's in the area before the cliff, where there are a couple of tombs. (In your screen, t's basically at north of the mouse pointer)

Don't recall if you need Lockpick lvl 1 or not (I believe not, but I had the Adventurer's Amulet that you find in the area where the game starts, so either way, didn't have any problem to open it).

I had totally explored that area, but missed the chest as it was technically on the 'roof' of one of those little wooden structures. I didn't see the ramp leading up to it and had completely ignored looking on top of the structure. FYI - there was no lockpicking needed. Was just a regular chest.

Which reminds me - one of my favorite weird quirks is when you try to open a locked chest you don't have the skills for, Jax gruffly says "I'm not good enough for that."

Which, I get what they are going for, but it just sounds like Jax thinks he isn't worthy of whatever is in that chest and is pouting.

Bit the bullet on that Bertram quest too. I got lucky later on with
being able to kill him alone without being labeled a murderer, but the game still registered it as a 'fight'. I was instructed to go talk to Ragnar to clear my name, but since Bertram was part of the quest it wouldn't let me do so. I could properly turn in all the other quests associated with killing him, but everyone around Bertram's body wouldn't talk to me since I was 'picking fights'. This sucked cause the Personality trainer was one of those people. The quest was truly bugged though because even after killing Bertram, I could still speak to Rajika and have her smuggle him out. The best part - talking to Ragnar on my Berserker pledge progress had him deliver both lines for this quest. One about how I found the Cleric and dealt with him, immediately followed by one on how I helped a Cleric escape. My only option was to reload and just have Rajika smuggle him out. That cleared all the quests associated with it properly, and kept all the vendors happy. Shame about Ragnar but I'm not really looking to join the Berserkers anyways.

Finally starting to push out from Goliet though. My hot tip is to work on getting a companion as soon as possible. It's really opened up the way I can play having someone else work with me in combat. Things can still kill me if I play reckless or try and fight Skull enemies - but theres a bit more room for error in letting the companion take a few shots while I heal up, or get some stamina back.

It's totally not polished, but I am just loving my time with this game.
 

Ragona

Member
I need to repat myself and hope this game sells enough for them to make Elex 2 a jump in quality akin Gothic -> Gothic 2.
THQ Nordic seems to give them enough trust and freedom to be ambitious again (which the Risen games lacked /everything to be set in relation ofc.) and the game seems to be selling enough to make the game profitable enough for everyone involved.

After 25 hours Iam 100% sure, that the game will end up in my top 10 list.
And thats with like a hundred complaints:

- Difficulty balance is way off compared to even Gothic 2
- The menu and interface is lackluster
- the game is way too intransparent about character stats and skills

Playing this on Pc in 1440p all I can say is the graphics are fine as they are to me, but abit more polish in the gameplay experience (especially menus and balance) and combat system and Elex 2 could be a smash hit.
 

vesirott

Neo Member
Having put in 5+ hours of serious game time I can say with confidence that this game is fucking brilliant even with all its flaws. True jank. Obviously I am not that far in but the exploration is something I have not seen for ages. Designer placed items and encounters >> RNG crap. Yes the UI is crap and melee combat needs getting used to (unless you have played G2) but the quest design and world design are top notch. Its a better fallout game than bethesda has ever put out.
 

Banzai

Member
Has anyone tried using a DS4 to play on PC? When I try I can't sprint and the map is all messed up (slow; teleports are not selectable).
Too bad, it really feels great on a controller apart from that.
 
Gotta love that jetpack. Was this guy guarding a area and he didn't let me past him. So I just jetpack onto the roof and down again into that area where I found a U4 robot. Cool stuff, this kind of freedom.
 

stuminus3

Member
I'm gonna go there - this is easily the best PB game since Gothic 2.

It's a lot like Gothic 1 & 2. But with a cool jet pack.
 
LOL Gamespot gave the game a 4/10, what a fucking joke.

I haven't played nearly as much as you guys yet but a 4? I'm pretty damn sure that's just absolutely pathetic really.

Usually I always find reviews a decent way to find out if a game is worth it but there are exceptions and a PB is definitely that. I expected low ratings here and there but a 4 is just sad.
 

Elven_Star

Member
Can't find anything satisfying to play after Divinity: Original Sin 2. Can't really enjoy anything anymore =( Shadow of War, Tyranny, and Grim Dawn went down the drain one after another. Can this game prevail? Those reviews are really really worrying, though.
 
*insert comment about video game media not knowing shit about how to evalute RPGs*

That actually seems to be the case here. It is very telling that there is a massive difference in reception between mainstream outlets such as IGN, Gamespot and sites like RPGcodex and RPGwatch. IGN and Gamespot seem to focus on technical issues, bugs and the rough combat, which is understandable and worth addressing. But they don't seem to get the concept of the game. They don't know what to do with the freedom being offered. Two very similar excerpts from both reviews which clearly indicate that they really don't understand games like ELEX or Gothic.

Gamespot said:
Starting on the 2nd hardest of the four difficulty levels, it didn’t take me long to wind it back to normal, and then to easy. But regardless of difficulty level I felt hopelessly underpowered, even against enemies that appear early on, so much so that the only way I felt I could make significant progress was to run from as many encounters as I could.

IGN said:
Certain quests in ELEX, on the other hand, made me feel like I had to break or circumvent its core systems to win. Some required me to snipe a couple enemies from a large group with fireballs at a distance, run several hundred yards to a shack with a bed, take a quick nap to regain my health and mana, and return to repeat this process four or five times. That’s a tedious way to fight. One boss took me almost two hours to slay because I had to keep trying until I got lucky enough not to trigger his unblockable, nearly undodgeable rock-throw attack (which he could somehow hit me with even when I was standing directly behind him) too many times.

There are difficult enemies walking around in the beginning area? That must be bad game design. The game could not possible want me to return later to kill this particular enemy and avoid it for the time being. Neither is there any mention of the wealth of choice and consequence on display here, possibly one of the most important aspects in an RPG.
 
It seems there is no carry weight in this? Which would be fiiiiiiine with me really. Also, is there no junk to sell in stores? In some RPGs there's one button to sell all unusable stuff.

Can't find anything satisfying to play after Divinity: Original Sin 2. Can't really enjoy anything anymore =( Shadow of War, Tyranny, and Grim Dawn went down the drain one after another. Can this game prevail? Those reviews are really really worrying, though.

I wouldn't put too much stock into reviews. The only review I watched was ACG's and that was enough for me. I know what to expect from PB and they actually managed to surprise me with a few things.

Combat is definitely more janky and different than most other RPGs, same goes for animations but I honestly don't even find it that bad. Facial expressions are crap, no denying that but this world so far (and I'm only at the start) is awesome to explore, thanks to the jetpack you have all the freedom you need. From what I've heard lots of great quests with multiple things to choose from.

Try to buy it at a place where they accept returns if you just can't get into it.
 

Moff

Member
Can't find anything satisfying to play after Divinity: Original Sin 2. Can't really enjoy anything anymore =( Shadow of War, Tyranny, and Grim Dawn went down the drain one after another. Can this game prevail? Those reviews are really really worrying, though.

I enjoy it a lot more than Divinity 2, they are very different RPGs, though, obviously.
To enjoy Elex, you might need to be familiar with Piranha Bytes RPG design and most certainly need to be ready to be underpowered for at least a dozen hours because that's how the character/gear progression is built.

Both the IGN and Gamespot reviewers have been very frustrated with that and did not understand what the game was trying to achieve. They did not understand why they could not defeat every enemy they encounter so they blamed the combat system and wrote the game off.

I am curious and also a bit afraid to see how PB will react to the catastrophic reception of the game, in Risen 3 they put out a balancing patch rather quickly, I really hope they don't ruin Elex with that now.

Can't wait for the Angry joe review btw.
 

Buckle

Member
I enjoy it a lot more than Divinity 2, they are very different RPGs, though, obviously.
To enjoy Elex, you might need to be familiar with Piranha Bytes RPG design and most certainly need to be ready to be underpowered for at least a dozen hours because that's how the character/gear progression is built.

Both the IGN and Gamespot reviewers have been very frustrated with that and did not understand what the game was trying to achieve. They did not understand why they could not defeat every enemy they encounter so they blamed the combat system and wrote the game off.

I am curious and also a bit afraid to see how PB will react to the catastrophic reception of the game, in Risen 3 they put out a balancing patch rather quickly, I really hope they don't ruin Elex with that now.

Can't wait for the Angry joe review btw.
Is it really catastrophic aside from professional reviewrs with weird complaints?

Most of the people that actually seem to be giving it a chance seem to love it.
 
Top Bottom