THIS is what is all wrong with the game (LIST)

[NikonovDESTROYER ✔]

tl;dr:

• Combat is so easy to break, especially with ranged weapons
  
• Factions don't matter at all; they are at war but you never see any engagements, even have to help factions you hate and want gone, all totally static
  
• Many different monsters use the same close/ranged attacks, similar models with different texture, etc.
  
• Loot is everywhere the same in any place, safe, chest, etc.
  
• 6. force you are building up doesn't do anything at all except killing maybe 10 Skyands at max in the final battle when you already killed hundreds on your own before
  
• After ACT II story falls apart, it's mainly just killing spawned-in enemy mobs
  
• Your son dies and noone cares, his mom goes on like nothing ever happened

Monsters/Enemies:

• Instantly replenish their health when out of view distance
  
  
• No additional headshot damage
  
  
• Too many indistinguishable monsters with very similar models, just other texture and name
  
  
• Many monsters share the same movement pattern and behaviour
  
  
• Completely different monster types use the exact same attack like acid arrow

Combat:

• Can’t abort fight animations to quickly dodge or block, always finishes action
  
  
• Certain skills (e.g. Alb) are combat-breaking, opponents get stunned and abort their combat animation like a weapon swing
  
  
• Walking backwards with ranged weapons break the combat system, enemies start acting weird, try to swing at you but always stop for a second when they do, so they won’t ever touch you. With endurance you can easily kill any enemy with the worst ranged weapon
  
  
• Ongoing fights get instantly interrupted when AI (e.g. companion) feels the need to engage in conversation and continue to bang on about something for ages

Characters/Companions:

• Can’t get rid of annoying companions who force-joined you like Bully
  
  
• A main story goal is to recruit many companions and a strong faction to build your force against the Skyands, but all you need them for is to literally kill 10 Skyands at best during the final battle when you already killed hundreds of them completely on your own before
  
  
• Highly developed Skyands don’t even have basic protection like shields but can teleport and communicate with a central AI. They give hand signs to each other when attacking in cutscenes
  
  
• Most skill teachers instantly offer to teach you regardless of faction affiliation or destruction meter state

Factions:

• Apparently they are at war but you never see them fighting each other
  
  
• You can’t wipe out factions, although most of them aren’t even story relevant
  
  
• Joining a faction doesn’t change a thing. You don’t feel any affiliation to them
  
  
• Only very few quests per faction although the play world offers a plethora of possibilities
  
  
• No roaming faction members in the world or any kind of interactions, it’s all completely static
  
  
• Why are there even factions at all when you are literally the only person in the world fighting against the Skyands
  
  
• Faction bosses keep sitting in their bases without any reaction or communication options when their base is surrounded by enemy forces

Story/Quests:

• Throughout rather weak, after Act II most of the missions are go to A, kill B, rinse and repeat. Kill 50 monsters, 50 robots, 50 Skyands and so on
  
  
• There are some nice side quests like the one with the flyers in Tavar, Skibor quest and so on but also some really silly low quality ones e.g. stealing tactical maps for Nyra
  
  
• Mission target areas aren’t described properly in dialogue, so most of the time you just open the map and run mindlessly to the marker on the map. Every single enemy target is meticulously marked on the map, even when there are 50 clustered-up
  
  
• Random Berserker guy no one has ever heard of or interacted with, suddenly becomes your number one warlord leading your whole 6. Force
  
  
• No real choices, apparently you are the savior of worlds but don’t have any real control of events, always Dawkin’s lackey, running after him like a naive schmuck although you can easily predict his development from quite early on already
  
  
• You can be the most possible destructive person but by donating a bit of food to a child or paying some Elex to a specific berserker you can become the innocence in person in absolutely no time
  
  
• Many contradictions: Jax doesn’t want Wardek and Dawkins to use his son Dex, but then uses Dex himself to establish connection with the Skyands
  
  
• You are forced into helping factions you don’t like at all, let alone want to entirely wipe out (Outlaws and Morkons when playing as Alb)
  
  
• Dex dies and Caja doesn't lose a word about it, even gives old answers as if he was still alive
  
  
• Lame arbitrary boss fight
  
  
• Ironically after choosing the “high destruction” end many monsters spawn in the world and previously static human AI gets forced to react so this is the first time there is really something happening

World:

• Many enemies are completely disconnected to their surrounding habitat, just randomly placed in the world, don’t have lairs/nests and so on (except Harpies), many different species right next to each other, don’t attack each other
  
  
• Potentially interesting places like abandoned factories, caves, towers have mostly the same random loot like anywhere else. If you are lucky there is a safe or a chest with again just some random junk. The only thing worth exploring are a few legendary weapons
  
  
• Item spawn is often very inauthentic in many regards, valuable items like Elex, jetpack fuel just randomly sits right next to highly frequented places or pathways right next to faction bases. Really credible that an Outlaw wouldn’t bother picking any of that up…
  
  
• Barely any roaming human AI in the world except travelling merchants
  
  
• Well-made sensational enviromental atmosphere in Tavar (the Fort), beautiful lighting and setting around faction bases and places of interest, but quite lackluster towards the edges of the map
  
  
• With the jetpack you can easily manoeuver through the most dangerous areas or monster gatherings without actually taking any damage which enables you to get access to almost any location/item really early on. In the Skyand-Formers you can even fly past all monsters with ease to get to their main CPU and deactivate it.

About Piranha Bytes (Personal thought):

It’s an absolute mystery to me how the most obvious, eye-catching, aforementioned issues this game has, remained absolutely unnoticed by PB and their respective alpha/beta testers, especially in relation to its extended development time. It’s doing my head in.

Elex is PB's new hobbyhorse and by all means a remarkable effort, especially when considering their small staff (~30ppl), but could just be so much more with some major adjustments. And I already accepted the fact, that their old Gothic team is gone.

At the beginning I really enjoyed the game but as all of these inconsistencies and annoyances started to emerge more and more, I was increasingly disappointed and it even changed into being funny towards the end.

What are your thoughts on this?

[Lord Herek]

It's completely ironic that 90% of these issues were already done right in the first game.

[Harris]

I already talked a lot about this, but generally speaking I see a lot of signs that the game was really rushed and was pushed out in a half-baked state.

Factions are half-baked. The Berserkers are only ones that got some love - both quest-related achievements come from the Fort, you get some immersion, you get every Berserker NPC commenting on you making Paladin. Even if that community is silly and comical and has its share of flaws - it is the most developed one. Second-best developed faction is Morkons - it seems PB really tried to sell the newcomers to us through giving them best weapons, best armor and a unique mechanics that is actually useful. Other factions were not so lucky. Albs are sad. Outlaws and Clerics are an afterthought.

Story is half-baked. Feels like it was only written up to Act II, it's a dumpster fire from that point onwards.

Companions are half-baked. I see some effort made in companions random banter - reacting to the world, to quests, to your decisions and even to each other; yet at the same time I see dozens of copy/paste quests "Scout Ignadon 65535" which are sad and generic filler content.

Same could be said for largely everything else. The game is ambitious, it has a soul, but the execution is very shallow.

Dear PB, please understand the following:
- we don't need 10 different ranged weapon classes, if there's no difference, nuance or balance to them and we'll end up using shotguns for the whole game anyway
- we don't need 3 romance options if their models are ugly as sin and their characters are shallow and binary (like every creative choice/dislike every destructive one)
- we don't need a dozen companions if their content is soulless copy/paste
- we don't need 5 factions if they fail to provide us with unique experience, gameplay and immersion
- we don't need a base if it's only good as a static decoration and gives us no way to build, design, manage and customize it
- we don't need a huge open world if it's dead, static and boring

[r3v4n]

In before "THIS IS A PB GAME, IT HAS TO BE THIS WAY! OTHERWISE IT WON'T A PB GAME (WHICH IS BAD) AND WE ALL WANT IT THAT WAY!!!!!111"
/e: "PB ONLY HAS LIKE 30 PEOPLE!!!!"
/e2: ah yes, the people arrived

[Ninjamestari]

I don't think there's anything to add, this sounds like PB in general, this is the direction they've been going for. To me all these issues sound like an utter lack of direction and vision. It's obvious that the company isn't being managed properly.

[Zaris]

Just a rushed, unfinished game. Not much else to say. Elex 1 was a masterpiece compared to this monstrosity.

[ItsOver9000]

Looks like a Elex 1 list "lol"

Agree with Main Quest Line though
-Add to your list "the missing of faction specific quests(we need more locked quest behind a faction choosing) and behaviour of certan npcs to your faction choosing"
=>For "re-play-ability"
Its bad design if i nearly can do all quest with my first playthrough of all factions. It feels like im factionless even if Im in a faction.

[Tekay]

Originally posted by NikonovDESTROYER ✔:

• No additional headshot damage
  
  
• Too many indistinguishable monsters with very similar models, just other texture and name
  
  
• Many monsters share the same movement pattern and behaviour
  
  
• Can’t abort fight animations to quickly dodge or block, always finishes action
  
  
• Certain skills are combat-breaking [...]
  
  
• Can’t get rid of annoying companions who force-joined you
  
  
• Most skill teachers instantly offer to teach you regardless of faction affiliation or destruction meter state
  
  
• Apparently they are at war but you never see them fighting each other
  
  
• Throughout rather weak, after Act II most of the missions are go to A, kill B, rinse and repeat.
  
  
• Lame arbitrary boss fight
  
  
• Many enemies are completely disconnected to their surrounding habitat, just randomly placed in the world, don’t have lairs/nests and so on (except Harpies), many different species right next to each other, don’t attack each other
  
  
• Barely any roaming human AI in the world except travelling merchants

Dont get me wrong, yes, these things can be done way better. But PB is very conservative in this way and wont change much. You know, what you will get. The good ones, as well as the bad ones.

All these things i qouted you could also say about Elex, hell, probably about most, if not even every single PB game. Doesnt make it better, right. But still, you know what you get.

[Grubbs008]

I guess that's why the game is $40 USD and not $60.

[N0B0DY]

There were always some things wrong witht PB games but they still had their charm and the atomsphere would fit great.
Ever really since they started getting the idea that larger worlds would make everything better, it started to get progressively worse and worse.
It can't be done good with such a small team and they HAVE to focus on smaller more detailed worlds where than can truly focus on quests and atmosphere. Which also makes it way easier to balance and create a more believable world.
But no, they decided that larger worlds sells better, thus sacrificing atmosphere, details, gameplay and coherent quests/factions. Elex 1 and Elex 2 both had horrible, horrible endings and trying to be more "epic" and "grand" and failing at every single point in doing so.
I disliked a lot of thing in Elex 1, but Elex 2 still managed to be even worse and annoying in my book.

If am am correctly informed, most of the better devs that worked at the company aren't there anymore. There are a few "old" dogs, clinging on their old ass engine and "their ways" of doing things, aswell as a few key decision makers who shouldn't be able to make decisions at all since they have obviously no idea what they are doing.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by NikonovDESTROYER ✔:

tl;dr:

Originally posted by NikonovDESTROYER ✔:

What are your thoughts on this?

Such a long list of complaints - and after years of playing games from this genre, I still don't know what games guys like you play and enjoy.

Clearly you don't belong to the target group of this genre, since you ignore even the most basic forms of abstraction a game applies for gameplay reasons.

[NikonovDESTROYER ✔]

Originally posted by Tekay:

Dont get me wrong, yes, these things can be done way better. But PB is very conservative in this way and wont change much. You know, what you will get. The good ones, as well as the bad ones.
[...]

I agree and believe that to some degree their conservativeness also contributed to stay true to their principles.

True, you know what you get when you are familiar with previous PB games and I personally appreciate them for investing much more time in building quests, story and an atmospheric, vivid world rather than polishing it and getting lost in details.

Just one mentioned example of many: Is it really too much to ask for having simple features like increased headshot damage? It's certainly not a game-breaking issue but it's just much more rewarding for thorough combat. Especially when looking at dead-accurate laser weapons?

Monsters: Completely different biomes using the same models just different names and textures. Personally less would have been much more in this case.

Originally posted by N0B0DY:

There were always some things wrong witht PB games but they still had their charm and the atomsphere would fit great.
Ever really since they started getting the idea that larger worlds would make everything better, it started to get progressively worse and worse.
It can't be done good with such a small team and they HAVE to focus on smaller more detailed worlds where than can truly focus on quests and atmosphere. Which also makes it way easier to balance and create a more believable world.
But no, they decided that larger worlds sells better, thus sacrificing atmosphere, details, gameplay and coherent quests/factions. Elex 1 and Elex 2 both had horrible, horrible endings and trying to be more "epic" and "grand" and failing at every single point in doing so.
I disliked a lot of thing in Elex 1, but Elex 2 still managed to be even worse and annoying in my book.

If am am correctly informed, most of the better devs that worked at the company aren't there anymore. There are a few "old" dogs, clinging on their old ass engine and "their ways" of doing things, aswell as a few key decision makers who shouldn't be able to make decisions at all since they have obviously no idea what they are doing.

I really couldn't agree more.
Yes, after watching some PB interviews I also had to realize that their original Gothic-team (who directly worked on it) is gone with some few exceptions.

I don't mind a new team at all as long as they handle fine and I'm certainly not telling them their business, but after observing what was completely off for me personally it leaves me with disappointment and is driving me further away as a day-one fan. Even a small team isn’t an excuse for not evolving with at least many obvious issues.

Originally posted by D'amarr from Darshiva:

Such a long list of complaints - and after years of playing games from this genre, I still don't know what games guys like you play and enjoy.

Clearly you don't belong to the target group of this genre, since you ignore even the most basic forms of abstraction a game applies for gameplay reasons.

I never stated that I didn't enjoy the game at all (with 70+hours hard to believe). There were quite some well-executed and fun elements like the jetpack for example.

You should be really grateful that you are easily pleased with much less apparently.
I'm not, especially not after knowing their older games and I don't think I invented all of this out of the blue either.

[Shook Ones]

"After ACT II story falls apart, it's mainly just killing spawned-in enemy mobs"

This

[LukanGamer]

To many of this was just your horrendous takes and complete misunderstanding of company + game and why they are loved and successful to enough people.

Otherwise some of it would been decent, but you have clearly 0 interest in this type/company so ya.

(O and I dislike most the companies games personally, but just because I am mostly about characters including especially companions - many which either didnt have or were barely actual companions and story).

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Shook Ones:

"After ACT II story falls apart, it's mainly just killing spawned-in enemy mobs"

This

What would be your rationale? Wardek, Cassandra, Calaan, Infinity Skies, Dex.

It seems to me some guys click through all sorts of conversation and don't pay attention to any story-telling at all. And conversation in ELEX II is more lengthy as in ELEX.

Likely, one reason for those larger groups of enemies is that players have asked for more enemy activity in feedback about ELEX, but not with NPCs taking out those groups alone - that would not make any sense at all. If a group of allies fought enemies themselves, that creates a standard gameplay problem. Could the enemies win and defeat all NPCs? How to balance such battles then? Could player help and save NPCs? Afterall, in games like these most if not all events wait for player character triggering story progression - so, allied factions don't attack the Skyands or themselves in any significant way, because it simply doesn't matter. Such actions are left to role-player's imagination.

[upuaut2]

i just uninstalled the game. was playing it with my husband and he couldent stop laughing on how bad everything was.

not to mention the horrible character models.