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ELEX Preview

by Joost "Myrthos" Mans, 2017-09-07

What is there to tell about ELEX that most of you don't already know. This is the third Gamescom article on the game since 2015 and in the meantime there have been a lot of videos and other information made available. To be honest there isn't much new in this article either. If you feel the same, there are still some screenshots to enjoy or videos to watch at the end of the article. More details about ELEX can also be found in one of the previous articles. Anyway here is a brief recap of the game.

Magalan, the world of ELEX, is one big continent with no loading zones and different landscapes, such as forests, a desert, ice covered mountains and a volcanic region. Elex is the material that was released on the world after a meteor crashed on the planet, which changed the world forever. That meteor carried the substance Elex with it and Elex started to integrate with everything on the planet. There are a total of four factions in ELEX and each of them use Elex in a different way.  There are the Berserkers who live in the forests and who are able to convert Elex into mana to use that as a source of magic. Then there are the Outlaws, who live in the desert and use Elex as a drug. They are an anarchistic bunch and steal and plunder what they can. The Clerics reside in a volcanic environment and they use Elex as a power source for their machines. And finally there are the Albs in the icy mountains, who use Elex for weapons and also consume it, which has turned them into emotionless beings. Neither of the factions like each other much as each of them wants to have Elex for their own.

The world of Magalan is post-apocalyptic after the meteor crashed into it, but you do get to see cars, gas stations and other partially destroyed objects that look very much like objects in our world. They have done this to make the world recognizable, without it being Earth in the future. As in that case they would have been limited, because they needed to make sure that the regions are actually regions on Earth. So, they are seeing it more like a parallel world to Earth.
You are an Alb, but at the start of the game you crashed and because of that you were out for a long time and did not consume any Elex anymore. Now that you are awake again you don't need it either. This allows you to venture on and choose the path that suits you best. You can also join one of the factions, with the exception of the Albs. About half-way  in the game, if you haven't selected a faction yet, you are forced to select one of the three factions to join. It would have been possible to be able to make the player able to join more factions as well, but as it is a lot of work to have a joinable faction and they felt it was too much work and would be too expensive, they decided to leave it at three. So, now you are chased by the Albs and as the story is now, it also makes no sense anymore to have the Albs as a joinable faction.

 

 

Like in the Gothic series you get learning points and you need to find a teacher to spent those learning points on, in order to learn a specific skill.
The game also features a punishment system. If you do something that is not allowed, like stealing stuff, people will react to it. If they are brave they will attack you and if they are not that brave, they will call the guards. If you run away and come back later, they might have told it to the leader of the town you were in and if you meet that leader you will need to pay for your crimes or you cannot trade in the city anymore, depending on what you did. In case you actually murdered someone you are not welcome anymore and the leader could even sent bounty hunters after you. Also drawing your weapon in a city will have a negative effect and guards could attack you because of that.
It is important to be aware of what you do, but also what you say to NPCs. They will remember what you say to them and how you acted, which might have an effect on how that NPC reacts to you during and after the conversion and it might even mean that the NPC gives you a quest or not depending on what you've said.

The world of ELEX is very much alive. NPCs have a day-night cycle. In the evenings they are in their houses to eat and sleep and during the day they are off doing their work. This also applies to animals. The ones that are active during the day will sleep in the evening. If an animal encounters another animal it doesn't like, it will start to fight it. They have done their best to make the world alive. The game world also doesn't stop, unless you quit the game. If you open up your inventory, the game will not pause. This means you can be attacked while you are going through your inventory or do something else in your UI.

Unfortunately I have not been able to play the game and check out how combat works myself. I am aware that there have been some concerns on our forum, but there is nothing I can say about that at the moment. To me it doesn't look too bad though for a Piranha Bytes game.

As the console version is now made by Piranha Bytes and not another studio. They feel confident that you get the same experience if you play the game on a PC or on a console, besides that as a PC player you can also play with a controller. The UI will be different depending on whether or not you use a controller or a keyboard with mouse. This will change immediately. If you are on a PC and use the controller, you get the console UI. If you move your mouse, it will change instantaneously to the keyboard and mouse UI.

There will be no DLCs for ELEX. As to ELEX 2 and the rumors that are floating around, there was a bit of "yes, well..", some mumbling and that they officially have no comment about that. OK, so I guess that is in the works.

With all that is known about the game this is definitely a game that I look forward to playing, like probably many of our visitors. we only have to wait a short while until the 17th of October to be able to do that.

Here is the cinematic trailer.

And here is a B-roll of what was shown at Gamescom.

Box Art

Information about

ELEX

Developer: Piranha Bytes

SP/MP: Single-player
Setting: Post-Apoc
Genre: Action-RPG
Combat: Real-time
Play-time: Over 60 hours
Voice-acting: Unknown

Regions & platforms
World
· Platform: Xbox One
· Released: 2017-10-17
· Publisher: THQ Nordic

World
· Platform: PS4
· Released: 2017-10-17
· Publisher: THQ Nordic

World
· Platform: PS4
· Released: 2017-10-17
· Publisher: THQ Nordic

More information


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