ELEX - Gameplay Demo

[NewDArt]

No.

G3 was unfinished because JoWood shown no understanding of what that game is trying to be, didn't want to let a few more months prolonged development and didn't care if the game will ever get officially patched.
While PB still exists, where's JoWood today?

The same reasoning goes on Risen 2 cut outs. It was the publisher who wanted those retarded DLC being made as DLC, it's not PB not being big enough to handle development.

Sadly, there was no CDprojekt in form of a publisher back then. Luckily, there is now. So even if Elex suffers from the current publisher, Pluto13 can always switch to negotitate with Poland for some future game.

Yes, yes - let's always blame the publisher - even when the developer openly admits being at fault

 

[Deleted User]

Yes, yes - let's always blame the publisher - even when the developer openly admits being at fault

That was PB being honorable and falling on their sword.

 

[TomRon]

I think nostalgia is playing a few tricks here. Reason I dropped G2 recently was because of very poor progression/loot system.

To be honest I hardly remember exactly how it worked in G2, it's been a while, so I won't argue there, and agree with most of what you said in your post regarding different games scaling. My good examples of how to do it would probably be Arcanum, Fallout 1&2, MMVI-VII and Wizardry 8. Those games might have had scaling but if so I didn't notice it. Morrowind was alright too with it's limited scaling.

Both Risen and Risen 2 were also good.

 

[Deleted User]

Huh, I read that Hoge took time off and came back to work on ELEX. You 100% sure then?

Edit - Ah, I totally misread the article. It even says he started PB RED, but I took the sci-fi RPG/game he's working on to mean ELEX. My fault.

And as for the Gothic 2 talk, I just finished the game a week ago, 91 hours spent total, NotR version. I thought it was great, and had the best world-building, environment design + exploration, progression system and more of pretty much any RPGs like it. Morrowind is close, but had more noticeable scaling and didn't stay nearly as challenging like G2 did when playing as a Fire Mage (and also as someone who didn't know how to build a great character. )

Morrowind was obviously much wider, with the "go anywhere you want" open-world, for the most part, while G2 was tightly designed. But those are my 2 favorites I'd say in that open-world/action RPG realm.

 

[joxer]

Yes, yes - let's always blame the publisher - even when the developer openly admits being at fault

When it comes to business and potential job loss not many would saw the branch they're sitting at. Especially during times of uncertainty when one is unsure if they'll fall on a branch of better quality.

 

[NewDArt]

That was PB being honorable and falling on their sword.

How long does your manic period usually last?

 

[duerer]

Still don't know what to think about Elex.

If I want decent TPS action combat, Dark Souls / Bloodborne fits the bill nicely.
If I want cool 3D world building, Horizon:ZD is excellent.
If I want nonlinear exploration, no one does it better than Zelda:BoW
If I want nonlinear character interaction, PB's own Gothic3 is still unmatched.
If I want jetpack roaming, Xenoblade Chronicles X is supercool (and it has the BEST EVER alien landscape in a videogame)

... sooo, I'll just wait.
Let's hope for the best and who knows? A pleasant surprise may hit us (as it was with the very first Gothic!).

 

[Deleted User]

How long does your manic period usually last?

It's been 32 years so far.

Still don't know what to think about Elex.

If I want decent TPS action combat, Dark Souls / Bloodborne fits the bill nicely.
If I want cool 3D world building, Horizon:ZD is excellent.
If I want nonlinear exploration, no one does it better than Zelda:BoW
If I want nonlinear character interaction, PB's own Gothic3 is still unmatched.
If I want jetpack roaming, Xenoblade Chronicles X is supercool (and it has the BEST EVER alien landscape in a videogame)

If you want all of that and more in one RPG? Other than re-playing the Gothic games I would say ELEX is the best bet.

 

[duerer]

If you want all of that and more in one RPG? Other than re-playing the Gothic games I would say ELEX is the best bet.

I'm just sayin' that Elex feels very generic to me and nothing special so far.
Spoiled by the recent games (Zelda et al), I'm looking for the "complete package" nowadays

 

[Deleted User]

Spoiled by the recent games (Zelda et al), I'm looking for the "complete package" nowadays

Hmm, I'm not sure I follow, since you posted several games that did one thing you particularly liked, and ELEX has all of those elements and more. I would think that would be a good "complete package" if you like those elements.

 

[duerer]

Hmm, I'm not sure I follow, since you posted several games that did one thing you particularly liked, and ELEX has all of those elements and more. I would think that would be a good "complete package" if you like those elements.

Fair enough, let me elaborate.
By "complete package" I mean that I'm satisfied playing the game, and don't look after something more. All the right ingredients are there, all in the right amount.

Imagine this as fine dining: you have a starter, a main course and a dessert, plus a fitting drink. All serves complement each other, so the overall experience is complete -- so "completeness" does not mean your main course must have fish, beef, pork and poultry in one plate (yuck!).

Now on to Elex: that gameplay video did not convince met that the game is complete.
I think the game has some potential by its half-baked ideas but I want more.

 

[Deleted User]

Nice half-baked pun!

Personally, I like a meal that has all the seasonings that complement each other and make it delicious to me. If I'm eating a baked potato, I want bacon, chives, sour cream, red pepper, a little bit of butter and a splash of hot sauce on it. Then for a main course, maybe a nice parmesan crusted chicken breast, also with red pepper, and perhaps some cajun seasonings and a bit of sriracha. For dessert, a nice piece of layered chocolate cream pie with a graham cracker crust and whipped cream on top.

Wait, what were we talking about? I dunno, but I'm hungry.

 

[SpoonFULL]

Pankratz joined PB during the development of Gothic 1 as a regular dev but he was not one of the founders or "inventors".
He in particular does not seem to be a Gothic fan at all or to understand what made the franchise great. He always talks about it in fairly derogatory terms like -paraphrasing- "I have no idea what people liked about that crap and going by all the different opinions of the game on the internet it seems to me like the stupid fans do not really know either because if you ask two people you get at least three opinions".

Disturbing. It also looks from the interviews that the whole development of ELEX is following this man/woman team vision.

 

[joxer]

I'm just sayin' that Elex feels very generic to me and nothing special so far.
Spoiled by the recent games (Zelda et al), I'm looking for the "complete package" nowadays

New Zelda? You mean Ubisoft generic towers copycat? Sure, extreme weapons deterioration and extreme cooking is not generic simply by being extreme. I'd rather have something generic than something tedious.

There is definetly something generic in Elex presentation - lack of any hair or if it's there, it's plain horrible. Everything else, at least to me, yells "unique!".

 

[duerer]

New Zelda? You mean Ubisoft generic towers copycat?.

... aaaand our very own domestic troll has spoketh

 

[Deleted User]

Disturbing. It also looks from the interviews that the whole development of ELEX is following this man/women team vision.

I don't find that disturbing, really. For one he was probably joking. They also made the Risen series, which are all very good RPGs, if not quite as glorious as Gothic.

But, the reason I don't find it disturbing or having a negative impact on ELEX is because of the list I gave of confirmed features earlier. The things PB have already shown are incredibly positive, including "big" ones like:

Zero level-scaling.
Hand-placed everything, down to the smallest bit of loot.
More skills to learn via trainers than any PB game has ever had.
And so on.

So I'm ready for stuff like that in a giant open-world.

PB has also said the game will be more like Gothic and less like Risen. I know I'm repeating myself here but it seems some people missed that earlier in the thread.

A bit on the open-world design of ELEX:

https://youtu.be/CU8IUU9dsG8?t=206

I suggest checking out all 3 parts of his "Why You Should Be Excited For ELEX" series. Here's part 2:

 

[duerer]

A bit on the open-world design of ELEX:
https://youtu.be/CU8IUU9dsG8?t=206

Some unfair comparison:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb45yEoqc9U

Note: the video is a flyby, but you can land anywhere and continue your journey on foot.

 

[Deleted User]

Xenoblade Chronicles is great, I enjoyed the first game on Wii a whole bunch. But these are 2 very, very different games.

That said, that video makes the game look really cool. But in terms of verticality, while Xenoblade looks to have some of that, ELEX's is going to be intertwined more in the world as you explore it and have more of it. The Xenoblade game looks huge, larger than Skyrim + Witcher III + Oblivion combined, but the verticality seemed sparse in terms of having higher areas to actually reach.

In other words, even though you can fly in Xenoblade, the worlds looks mostly flat and on a single plane. I expect ELEX to have more vertical exploration, with staggered planes to explore.

 

[joxer]

… aaaand our very own domestic troll has spoketh

Yea, sorry about that but Ubi towers are something I don't want to see in any more games. Even Ubi is aware of it and removed the crap from WD2 (the upcoming AC game also won't have it).
But okay, if you never played any AC/FC game or WD1, perhaps it feels fresh to you. To me, it's "gimme a break already".

.

Some more sincere comments on your other "requirements":

If I want decent TPS action combat, Dark Souls / Bloodborne fits the bill nicely.

If grinder/dodger thing happens in Elex, I'm not buying. Not that it matters, one lost fan (for eternity as I don't respect sellsouls), another fan gained.

If I want cool 3D world building, Horizon:ZD is excellent.

Absolutely against any copypasting from other games, wether it's HZN or TES/TW3/Prey/DA3/ME4/etc. PB has it's own and unique openworld design, and IMO they need to stick with it.

If I want nonlinear exploration, no one does it better than Zelda:BoW

Same as above. They IMO need to use their own exploration schemes of locking content behind hard to lockpick doors or hard to kill minibosses etc. Due to pistol abuse hard trashmobs content "locks" didn't work in Risen 3, so I'd rather have them taking care of preventing similar stuff.
Whatever happens, one thing is sure. I don't want to see articles "Elex speedrun record: less than an hour!". Article titles I'm seeing about Zelda.

If I want nonlinear character interaction, PB's own Gothic3 is still unmatched.

You can't avoid some linearity. Whatever they do, I just don't want to see Lydia having only one new line "I'm married!" after everything we've been through. But I also don't want to see, after I killed someone then resurrected that one for example, then talking to NPC where they comment "you've killed xy shame on you!" just because it's the next scripted text in NPC's line not caring about a thing I did afterwards.

If I want jetpack roaming, Xenoblade Chronicles X is supercool (and it has the BEST EVER alien landscape in a videogame)

Never heard of it. IMO Beth made supercool vertical exploration in FO4 with power armor thrusters and I wouldn't mind to see something similar - especially in a world without any loadscreens. ME4 failed in that direction, it felt "platformery" and not as additional means of exploration. Exploration - yes. SuperMario/GreatGiannaSistas/JazzJackrabbit - no.

 

[johnnysd]

Not sure why "hand placed" loot only is so important to people. I think hand placed loot makes a lot of sense, but I think random loot adds a lot of fun and sometimes depth to a game. I think games should have both. Hand placed only is a negative for the game IMO but not a big one.

Looking forward to this. Gothic 2 NOTR is one of the great gaming experiences ever. To me it sort of felt open world but was really not, it just had different paths that funneled you through the game and many many trigger based quests to tailor the experience.