ELEX - Review @ RPG Site

HiddenX

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RPG Site has reviewed ELEX:

Elex Review

October of 2017 was a pretty hectic month for video games. Assassin’s Creed returned from its yearlong sabbatical in the form of Assassin’s Creed Origins, Super Mario Odyssey gave fans the freeform platforming they had been longing for since 2002’s Super Mario Sunshine, and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus gave us all a reason to fight back against tyranny. All on the same day!

Piranha Byte’s Elex had come out the week before. It was understandably a bit of an afterthought.

I had heard all sorts of various scuttlebutt before diving into Elex earlier this year. That it was unforgivingly buggy and frustratingly difficult. That it comprised mostly of awkward and stilted dialogue, generic world design, and an overall bland aesthetic. In private chats with friends I would show off my “Skyrim reject” character and laugh at obnoxiously overt bugs. But I kept wanting to play more of the game anyways. I’m not sure if the desire stemmed from me wanting to give the game a fair shake, a sort of morbid curiosity, or something else.

While I somewhat expected to be ironically entertained by aggressive mediocrity, I ended up finding some of the best quest design in a video game since Fallout: New Vegas.

[...]

Score: 7/10
More information.
 
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And only 7 out of 10? lol!

Oh dear… I don't agree with this ->

It's a shame that the rest of the gameplay just simply doesn't stand up next to this strength of the game. World exploration is pretty dull (though occasionally pretty) with the jetpack-mechanic feeling more like a way to avoid awkward fall deaths rather than actually being an interesting traversal mechanic on its own. Combat is incredibly awkward and stiff, with engaging in large fights usually being more of a chore rather than something fun or interesting to overcome. I found the game incredibly difficult at first, and while setting the difficulty down to easy and setting the stamina to infinite did alleviate the frustrations, it didn't really make combat fun either.
 
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How does he give it a 7 but then not recommend it? What kind of scale is that?

I'd hate to see what a 3 looks like.

Yup. I can completely see the case of somebody saying that a 7/10 wasn't worthy of someone's time if this person had a giant backlog, but c'mon, 7/10 is at least "somewhat good" to me.
 
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I enjoyed Elex a great deal more than I thought I would when I initially started playing it. I'd forgotten how weak characters tend to be in a PB game, when I got a grasp on that mentally and started ranging and kiting more than I usually would, it became rather simplistic.

I'd also disagree about flying around via the jet belt, I found all kinds of interesting treasure by either flying up or dropping down in various environments. To me, a seven is a meaningless number unless I know the grades that they'd give other games so that I could make a comparison. Personally, since Elex has nothing comparable to the V.A.T.S. system in Fallout games, that would be a franchise I wouldn't stack it up against.
 
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I enjoyed Elex a great deal more than I thought I would when I initially started playing it. I'd forgotten how weak characters tend to be in a PB game, when I got a grasp on that mentally and started ranging and kiting more than I usually would, it became rather simplistic.

I'd also disagree about flying around via the jet belt, I found all kinds of interesting treasure by either flying up or dropping down in various environments. To me, a seven is a meaningless number unless I know the grades that they'd give other games so that I could make a comparison. Personally, since Elex has nothing comparable to the V.A.T.S. system in Fallout games, that would be a franchise I wouldn't stack it up against.

I agree; number ratings are too subjective to mean much. It's much more interesting and informative to read a narrative about a game. You'll miss out on a lot if you rely on other people's opinions for information about anything.
 
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Just reading about the "Skyrim reject" thing prevents me from taking that guy seriously. I don't know about you but the moment I start feeling like I could punch a so called reviewer in the nuts is the moment I stop reading their drivel.
 
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Elex is a hard game to genuinely recommend, it does so many important things to only an acceptable level or worse.
Yeah that doesn't sound like a 7/10 score to me either.
I found the review interesting though. Given the mixed reception this had I'm waiting for a sale, but I do intend to give it a go at some point.
 
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Let's see patched-up, fan modded ELEX in 2019 January, then I'll compare it with quite fun Risen 3.
 
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