So, I finished the game. I think Elex was really fun and brought back some good PB times. I feel like it was a good return to PB games in many aspects I thought were just not at the right level in Risen.
I played as a Berserker, but in reality, I didn't. Like in Gothic 1, more than half the game is spent in Chapter 1 doing quests for all factions. I tended to do things in a more 'Berserker' way most of the time, but I still completed most Cleric quests to help them and many Outlaws quests too.
I also actually think that Elex has one of the better game economies I have played in a very, very long time. In many games, money is either too plentiful or not enough.
I tended to have just enough money for what I wanted to buy when I wanted to buy. I only went pickpocketing 1, lockpicking 2 and animal trophies 2 by the end of the game though, so I am sure you can abuse the system if you really want to.
As per usual in Gothic games, the starting combat skills are shit, but once you invest some points you tend to do a lot of damage rather quickly. One of the negatives for me was that due to being able to move up the ranks so quickly after having done all the quests essentially, I moved from no armour to Paladin armour in the space of a few hours. In Gothic 1 and 2, the armour was what gave me the real feeling of progression. In this game, it didn't as much.
On the other hand, I felt the weapons did make a significant difference in the damage output, which meant crafting was actually useful and done quite well.
I think another point is the Elex potions. I didn't use any as I wanted to be a full emotion Berserker. I managed to do that quite easily in the end on Normal, but I think that I would probably play on hard if I were to use those potions. They are probably too much of a game changer to be allowed to be used just with a change in Cold. I think it would have been good to add some kind of negative effects to it, such as losing HP or more lore-friendly would be to lose Mana.
Anyway, all in all a really fun game. I would certainly recommend it to anyone who likes PB style games and if you haven't played any before, I would recommend playing it anyway, but focusing on Combat skills first to be able to kill things.
Last thing, I think that they made all weapons work. It just seems like everything is viable, whether that's melee, ranged or magic. I think that's quite good for people who only like it one way.