ELEX - Preview @ RGM

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RGM checked out ELEX at the E3:

E3 2017 Impressions: ELEX shows a full world with rough promise

Another of the games I got to see behind closed doors at E3 2017 was ELEX, an upcoming science-fiction/fantasy RPG being developed by Piranha Bytes and published by THQ Nordic. It’s an interesting concept that attempts to fuse conventional science-fiction with high fantasy through the power of choice.

The story of ELEX is fairly vague right now however there are some set details. The titular ELEX is a powerful substance that has fallen on the planet Magalan. When consumed by humans, it induces magical powers. It’s also an incredible source of energy that can be used to power advanced technology and war machines. Different factions have different ideas about what to do with it and so the central conflict of the game is born.

The presentation for ELEX showed an absolutely massive world, the largest Piranha Bytes has ever built. There’s a wide range of locations, from icy mountains to vast deserts, lush valleys and more. Each location has its own various wildlife and factions who are vying for control. Countless NPCs roam the wilderness and cities alike. This can be exploited by luring tougher enemies near towns where heavily armed characters may do your job for you, as was shown in the presentation.

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More information.
 
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ELEX release date is 17 Oct, 2017. So see you in Oct, 2018 then, when the game is super-patched DLC-ed, modded, fan-patched, etc... for maximum quality.
 
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ELEX release date is 17 Oct, 2017. So see you in Oct, 2018 then, when the game is super-patched DLC-ed, modded, fan-patched, etc… for maximum quality.

Eh is this a Bethesda game? :D
 
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largest PB has ever built? That's saying a lot. Gothic 3 was absolutely hugemungous. Bugs aside, it's what kept me from finishing the game
 
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largest PB has ever built? That's saying a lot. Gothic 3 was absolutely hugemungous. Bugs aside, it's what kept me from finishing the game

Quest burnout is what kept me from finishing G3. There are far too many "Find X amount of these" and "kill X amount of those" type quests. That and the fact that exploration wasn't as rewarding as it was in Gothic 1&2.
 
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I'm playing G3 now, and it definitely is ginormous. I actually like the questing in the game. Since the progression is still very much Gothic-style, it makes all of those simple quests much more rewarding when you use them to get the gold/LP to slowly but steadily upgrade your dude. I just finally unlocked permanent potion brewing last episode and it was one of the sweetest victories so far in my 40 hours or so of gametime. :D
 
Quest burnout is what kept me from finishing G3. There are far too many "Find X amount of these" and "kill X amount of those" type quests. That and the fact that exploration wasn't as rewarding as it was in Gothic 1&2.

The same happened to me the last time I tried to replay it, which is very rare for me. It really is too big. They should have skipped Nordmar or some such thing and focused on increasing the quality of Myrtana and Varant.
 
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I hope they don't focus on making a massive world at the expense of interesting quests.
 
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Well, I personally hope gameplay is first and foremost in ELEX like it is in Gothic 3. Gothic 3 delivers a very gameplay-focused experience, which is what I like as I'm not a fan of interactive movies. G3 is actually quite Morrowind/Skyrim-esque, but much better in some ways.
 
So many things wrong with that post.
 
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The hunting mechanics alone are miles ahead of any other open-world RPG. The large amount of simplistic quests is an approach used to create a game where gameplay and character development is numero uno. In other words, quests aren't there to display a movie sequence and tell an amazing story (although some tell cool stories and all add a bit to the lore.) They are there primarily so you can earn resources to continue leveling up and getting stronger.

It's particularly engrossing with Alternative AI/Alternative Balancing turned on. Makes the game very tightly balanced and more difficult where resource management is of utmost importance. In other words, my kind of stuff.

Choices & Consequences gameplay.

To see what I'm saying, look at the contrasting style of the other 2006 open-world RPG from Bethesda, Oblivion. The quests there are primarily to tell fun and interesting stories. Which is cool, it's a different approach and there's room for that. But the character development in that game is much less impacting than G3. There are also less quests overall and less opportunities to earn resources (and resources aren't really that necessary to begin with since the game scales anyway.) Two totally different approaches.
 
The hunting mechanics alone are miles ahead of any other open-world RPG. The large amount of simplistic quests is an approach used to create a game where gameplay and character development is numero uno. In other words, quests aren't there to display a movie sequence and tell an amazing story (although some tell cool stories and all add a bit to the lore.) They are there primarily so you can earn resources to continue leveling up and getting stronger.

It's particularly engrossing with Alternative AI/Alternative Balancing turned on. Makes the game very tightly balanced and more difficult where resource management is of utmost importance. In other words, my kind of stuff.

Seriously Fluent, you really need to play more open world games to judge on this.
Far Cry's ( especially Primal), RDR, Witcher, hell even AC III, do a lot better job at this.

Back to this...never could finish G3. The game failed to provide any investment into anything. Only improvement over second was archery and world design ( in visuals).

This is a great take on it:



Also on previous Gothics.
 
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I played some of those and still prefer G3. It's a total package for me as it's very much an RPG with no non-rpg compromises. The design itself lends to a large investment in RPG gameplay, not so much the story.

A comparison to modern games from a game in 2006 makes me smile, though. PB were way ahead of the times.
 
I'm with you and on the movie scene thing - I find the overuse of cut-scenes boring. But I wouldn't want the game just to be about fetch quests and resource management, wrapped up as "faction quests" to make it sound more interesting than it is.
I guess we'll see.
 
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I can adapt to whatever they do. I like every game they've made so far, and I don't expect ELEX to be some unforeseen letdown for me. I'll be thrilled if it's closer to Gothic 3, especially considering there are no modern open-world RPGs like that that I can see.

I just expect the game to be more about RPG gameplay (exploring, questing, developing your character and making impacting decisions that affect the game/gameplay in a large way). "Simulation style" in some ways, and less about super scripted and flashy story elements. In other words, a typical PB game (a bit closer to Gothic than Risen, though. Their words.)
 
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The problem with Gothic 3 was about utterly broken balance and a profound lack of meaningful content when you take the size of the world into account.

The majority of the quests were ultra-repetitive and not at all the "cared for" interactions of Gothic and Gothic 2. This was especially evident with the town liberation mechanic.

It's nothing at all like Skyrim in that way, because Skyrim is all about providing meaningful content in abundance. G3 would be like Skyrim if Skyrim consisted exclusively of those generated Inn quests - which only represents a tiny part of the questing experience.

Personally, I liked the three regions - though I never got to explore Nordmar much at all. I gave up after losing my savegame after around 50 hours. Never played it much since then, except a few dozen hours with the CP. Didn't change the core issues about the game, so I don't see why I should play it.

I completely agree about dialogue simulators like Witcher 3. The problem is compounded by weak exploration and pushover gameplay - because that really makes it feel like you're just going through the motions in-between dialogues.

I estimate that ELEX will be better than Gothic 3 in terms of content - but I fear that's more about a mature use of recycling and clever design rather than a ton of meaningfully unique content.

It's really a matter of team size. You simply can't fill a huge open world with unique content without a very large and dedicated content team or near-infinite time.

I can't see that happening with PB.
 
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