ELEX Pre-Release Thread

[ZagorTeNej]

you piranha bytes fags never change do you? was gothic3,risen2, risen3 not shitty enough for you? this studio is fucking done and haven't released anything worthwhile since August 2003 ┌∩┐(◣_◢)┌∩┐

Actually they released Risen in 2009 which was excellent, one of the best Action RPGs I've ever played and up there with the first two Gothics as far as I'm concerned.

That said, yes I'm a PB fag for life that will probably at the very least try every game they release. Can't help it.

 

[Zombra]

I like the jetpack because having a jetpack allows for vertical exploration.

This change in the formula is the only thing that interests me so far. Kinda wondering how they will make it fun, though. 2D exploration means that the devs can make paths and set some pacing as to how you encounter the content. If you can just fly over everything, I don't know, it seems like exploration will be meh. Fly up, look down, go straight to whatever you want. I'm thinking of the Arkham games in which map layout is utterly meaningless. You're just flying from quest marker to quest marker.

you piranha bytes fags never change do you? was gothic3,risen2, risen3 not shitty enough for you? this studio is fucking done and haven't released anything worthwhile since August 2003 ┌∩┐(◣_◢)┌∩┐

Actually they released Risen in 2009 which was excellent, one of the best Action RPGs I've ever played and up there with the first two Gothics as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah. The first 2/3 of Risen was surprisingly good. I'm not expecting much from ELEX but it won't kill me to keep an eye on it, and try the demo if they're not too stupid to release one, as they failed to do with Risen 3. I would never have bought Risen without the demo, but it left me hungry for more.

 

[JarlFrank]

Well, they could limit the flying by having fuel, or it only working in short bursts.

 

[Immortal]

Actually they released Risen in 2009 which was excellent, one of the best Action RPGs I've ever played and up there with the first two Gothics as far as I'm concerned.

That said, yes I'm a PB fag for life that will probably at the very least try every game they release. Can't help it.

why do people love Risen 1 so much.. The dialogue and story was shit.. There was one fucking village.. the exploration is crap. The combat is serviceable but just as buggy as Gothic 3.

Why is this game heralded as a golden cow whereas IE games are considered shit? I played Risen 1 like 3 times.. it's good for what it is.. but every time I say anything bad about PB I get a pile of fanboys dog piling about how amazing Risen 1 was. If your company's greatest accomplishment in the last 15 years was Risen 1 then you need to go bankrupt already.

EDIT: I am not trying to edgelord here - I seriously want to know the merits of which make this game "best Action RPG Ever".. It's a shallow turd.. Was I playing the same Risen everyone else was?

 

[Darth Roxor]

why do people love Risen 1 so much..

Because fuck you, that's why.

 

[Immortal]

Because fuck you, that's why.

I’m aware some people might hate Risen after chapter two, some will probably hate it completely

I read your review.. I just don't get it. Gothic was superior to this game in every way.

Risen 1 should of been a single island in a larger world if it's trying to be a Gothic 2 / 3 style game where exploration is basically the main focus - cause It sure ain't the fucking writing.

I admit the game was enjoyable going from the beach to the first city..Then the minute you escape the city you realize "Oh.. that was it.."

 

[subotaiy]

Because it had atmosphere, mostly due to KayRo's soundtrack.

 

[ZagorTeNej]

The dialogue and story was shit..

Plot was nothing special (it never was PB forte), writing and dialogue however I enjoyed very much. People often make the mistake thinking that only good writing is the PST/KOTOR2 type philosophical stuff (written by MCA) but Risen had good minimalistic writing, the protagonist is a sarcastic asshole (staple of PB games), Bandits are a rough crowd that requires you to carry your own weight and prove yourself, The Order are fanatics that believe the end (the dire situation the whole island is in that people aren't aware of) justify the means, the Harbour City quest conflict between them is excellent (Scordo is one of my favourite PB characters, gives a great speech if you work for the Order) etc. the character are believable, they act and talk the way you expect them which is not an easily accomplished feat in the world of video games, nerds usually fail when writing dialogue for rough convict type characters but PB does it well.

There was one fucking village..

Two villages, one city, all with well designed quests (that usually have multiple approaches), C&C and interesting characters (especially Harbour City, Bandit Camp has some fetch quest crap) .

the exploration is crap.

I found the exploration excellent, PB has a real knack for crafting believable worlds/environments unlike the Bethesda theme parks. Lots of goodies to find (including one of the best swords in the game which you can get early), no level-scaling, a good variety of enemy types (with Ghouls being my absolute favourites, love to fight those guys) great atmosphere (thanks to music, sound effects and visual design) etc.

I even enjoyed the lizard infested dungeons, had some nice (although rudimentary) puzzles as well.

The combat is serviceable but just as buggy as Gothic 3.

My experience is completely different, combat is miles ahead of Gothic 3 and bug-free. It's also quite fluid with a well designed advancement system (atleast when it comes to melee weapons, you unlock moves and feats instead of +10% damage usual ARPG crap), dodge instead of roll, nice hit-feedback animation, decently intelligent enemies.

Why is this game heralded as a golden cow whereas IE games are considered shit?

Well, for what it's worth, I love IE games (yes, even BG1 and to a lesser extent IWD2) so not in that group.

EDIT: I am not trying to edgelord here - I seriously want to know the merits of which make this game "best Action RPG Ever".. It's a shallow turd.. Was I playing the same Risen everyone else was?

Different strokes for different folks I guess? I think Roxor's review might be closest to getting into the crux of the matter of why some people really like Risen.

 

[Karwelas]

CUT

I would brofirst you twice if I only had one year alt could.

 

[Immortal]

Plot was nothing special (it never was PB forte), writing and dialogue however I enjoyed very much. People often make the mistake thinking that only good writing is the PST/KOTOR2 type philosophical stuff (written by MCA) but Risen had good minimalistic writing, the protagonist is a sarcastic asshole (staple of PB games), Bandits are a rough crowd that requires you to carry your own weight and prove yourself, The Order are fanatics that believe the end (the dire situation the whole island is in that people aren't aware of) justify the means, the Harbour City quest conflict between them is excellent (Scordo is one of my favourite PB characters, gives a great speech if you work for the Order) etc. the character are believable, they act and talk the way you expect them which is not an easily accomplished feat in the world of video games, nerds usually fail when writing dialogue for rough convict type characters but PB does it well.

Two villages, one city, all with well designed quests (that usually have multiple approaches), C&C and interesting characters (especially Harbour City, Bandit Camp has some fetch quest crap) .

I found the exploration excellent, PB has a real knack for crafting believable worlds/environments unlike the Bethesda theme parks. Lots of goodies to find (including one of the best swords in the game which you can get early), no level-scaling, a good variety of enemy types (with Ghouls being my absolute favourites, love to fight those guys) great atmosphere (thanks to music, sound effects and visual design) etc.

I even enjoyed the lizard infested dungeons, had some nice (although rudimentary) puzzles as well.

My experience is completely different, combat is miles ahead of Gothic 3 and bug-free. It's also quite fluid with a well designed advancement system (atleast when it comes to melee weapons, you unlock moves and feats instead of +10% damage usual ARPG crap), dodge instead of roll, nice hit-feedback animation, decently intelligent enemies.

Well, for what it's worth, I love IE games (yes, even BG1 and to a lesser extent IWD2) so not in that group.

Different strokes for different folks I guess? I think Roxor's review might be closest to getting into the crux of the matter of why some people really like Risen.

I wish the game was as good as you say it is. In a post it sounds great.. Deep Immersive Locations, Loot That isn't Level Scaled, Dynamic Comat, Large cities with Deep CnC and Brisk but Effective dialogue / writing (I am not a huge fan of quasi philosophical written masturbating either)

Except when I load the game that's not what I get.

• The quests are almost all fetch with shit dialogue.. (you are giving way too much credit to the quests in harbour)
  • Help Prostitute with mean customer (Scare Him or Beat Him Up)
    
  • Help Pirate by finding his wine and hat (Fetch With Some Sneaking)
    
  • Help Blacksmith by getting x (Fetch)
    
  • Help this guy finding y (More Fetching)
  • Help the Wizard Make Soup (Talk to some butcher.. more fetch questing)
    
  • Help Dons men by Stealing x, Sneaking through y, scaring z (5 fetch quests with some sneaking)
    
  • Beat up the inn keepers body guard so the pleb gets good rates
    
  • Save the farmers pig by scaring off x
  • On and On and On
• The only meaningful CnC I found was "do you get caught by the templars or not?".
  
• Exploration (The Games Main Feature)
  • Do you count the farm where you hide from the templar as a village or the temple as villages? That's pretty fucking generous..
    
  • The only village I found besides the main city was where the Don's hide out was.. and it's basically a cave.. and the quests still suck
    
  • Many places I explored lead to nothing, I never found a legendary sword but I found plenty of caves filled with wolves and crates of bread...
  • Cooking and Alchemy make Skyrim look deep and immersive
  • The game is very short if you play it head on
  • The island is very claustrophobic as Roxor mentions.. You have Vultures stacked on wolves stacked on NPC Settlements and none of them feel exciting to find
  • What kind of Gothic game has a single city.. Gothic 3 you have an entire world to explore and can capture garrisons and turn the tide of battle between factions.. Now THAT's Exploration.

EDIT:
ZagorTeNej - Are you polish? I am starting to see a pattern.. The minute you write that post..

Spoiler

: wspaniały!! All Potato Fist For You!

 

[Zombra]

Why is this game heralded as a golden cow whereas IE games are considered shit? I played Risen 1 like 3 times.. it's good for what it is.. but every time I say anything bad about PB I get a pile of fanboys dog piling about how amazing Risen 1 was. I am not trying to edgelord here - I seriously want to know the merits of which make this game "best Action RPG Ever". I just don't get it. Gothic was superior to this game in every way.

If you really want to understand, maybe you should start by not making up shit no one ever said. No one said it's better than Gothic. No one said it's better than IE games. No one said it's the #1 best ARPG ever.

 

[Immortal]

If you really want to understand, maybe you should start by not making up shit no one ever said. No one said it's better than Gothic. No one said it's better than IE games. No one said it's the #1 best ARPG ever.

Actually they released Risen in 2009 which was excellent, one of the best Action RPGs I've ever played

The reason I say people like it more then IE is because in another thread people are shitting on it like it's the most hacky game to ever be made.. but in this thread I can't call PB a bad company without getting spammed about how great Risen was.

So Either, Risen 1 must be a superior game or people are being hypocritical.

One second let me find the other quote - Someone said it was better then Gothic 3
Never mind it was Addded or whatever.

 

[Zombra]

one of the best
the best

Hmmm. I wonder what those two extra words in that first phrase mean. Ahhhh, probably nothing. I breathe when I sleep, I sleep when I breathe, same thing.

Come on dude - just stop being disingenuous about this and address what people actually said. If you really believe what you're saying, and I hate this cliche, but your reading comprehension needs work.

 

[Immortal]

one of the best
the best

Hmmm. I wonder what those two extra words in that first phrase mean. Ahhhh, probably nothing. I breathe when I sleep, I sleep when I breathe, same thing.

Come on dude - just stop being disingenuous about this and address what people actually said. If you really believe what you're saying, and I hate this cliche, but your reading comprehension needs work.

That is grabbing for straws.. Calling it one of the best action RPG's means it's better then most action RPG's. Unless you think every action RPG is one of the best. I understand there's a slight difference but it's not exactly apples and oranges here.

I think Dark Souls is the best Action RPG.. I also think it's one of the best.. I could also say Dark Souls 2 is one of the best because it's up there.. but maybe not my favourite. I wouldn't then say Mass Effect 3 is one of the best.

Your argument is weak son

 

[Zombra]

That is grabbing for straws.. Calling it one of the best action RPG's means it's better then most action RPG's. Unless you think every action RPG is one of the best. I understand there's a slight difference but it's not exactly apples and oranges here.

So you don't think it's in, say, the top 10 ARPGs?

As for Gothic 3, now you're bringing in stuff that wasn't mentioned before. Isn't the general consensus that G3 was fairly crappy? If you want to have a G3 vs R1 battle, that's fine, but start the conversation on that basis and don't pretend it's the same as a G1 vs R1 battle.

All I really ask is that you be honest when you start a conversation about "Why do you people think such-and-such?" and not make shit up.

 

[vonAchdorf]

German only interview: Piranha Bytes and Mr. Pankratz:

 

[Immortal]

So you don't think it's in, say, the top 10 ARPGs?

As for Gothic 3, now you're bringing in stuff that wasn't mentioned before. Isn't the general consensus that G3 was fairly crappy? If you want to have a G3 vs R1 battle, that's fine, but don't pretend it's the same as a G1 vs R1 battle.

All I really ask is that you be honest when you start a conversation about "Why do you people think such-and-such?" and not make shit up.

See now your making shit up. My post was slightly exaggerated maybe. However there are people who think Risen 1 is one of the best ARPG's to ever release. I wouldn't even rank it in my top 50.
I am curious what makes this game good. The depiction I get from Roxxor and Zagor is not what I felt when playing it..

And I've tried to play it trust me. I want to like it but I don't see where this praise comes from.

 

[Eirikur]

The only meaningful CnC I found was "do you get caught by the templars or not?".

If you avoid capture and gain the confidence of the mage in Harbour City you're given a letter of recommendation which you can present if choosing to volunteer for the Inquisition. It opens the mage path.

If you support the bandits you can influence the world significantly; first by taking control of the nearby ruins controlled by the Inquisition (minor), and then by capturing the Harbor City. When doing so, all Inquisition NPCs leave, and many of the Don's men (including himself) move in. All the key characters in the city will give their opinion on the regime change.

The only village I found besides the main city was where the Don's hide out was.. and it's basically a cave.. and the quests still suck.

Not sure if serious... but if so I think it's been a while since you've played it, since the swamp camp is much larger than that. At least 90% of it is outside the cave. There's a decent hub right outside it, and smaller 'units' in the surrounding areas.

Many places I explored lead to nothing, I never found a legendary sword but I found plenty of caves filled with wolves and crates of bread...

I enjoy exploration for the sake of exploration, finding atmospheric locations and so forth. The chance of uncovering secret things is more than enough; discovering treasure everywhere I go would detract from the experience. There's only three legendary swords in the game IIRC (they need to be forged using pieces you find throughout the game world), which seems sufficient to me. Wish they weren't all swords, though.

The game is very short if you play it head on

If you play the hardest difficulty and skip content to finish quickly, you'd have to be extremely skilled to beat those large mobs of lizardmen and ghouls.

What kind of Gothic game has a single city.. Gothic 3 you have an entire world to explore and can capture garrisons and turn the tide of battle between factions.. Now THAT's Exploration.

In Gothic 3 there's only minor settlements which are all dwarfed by Khorinis and the Harbour City, despite Myrtana supposedly being the center of human civilization. When you liberate the settlements from the orcs, they're replace by unnamed generic NPCs that never interact with you. Liberating the Harbour City from the Inquisition was handled significantly better.

 

[Zombra]

See now your making shit up.

Eh? What did I make up?

My post was slightly exaggerated maybe.

No, it was made up from beginning to end. Nothing you attributed was actually said by anyone. Call it exaggeration, call it "just kind of lying", call it whatever you want; it doesn't matter. It's not a great way to start a conversation. As I originally said, you will do better understanding other points of view if you don't start by warping them into imaginary demonic shapes. I'm hostile about it because I hate when people do that, but the advice is genuine.

However there are people who think Risen 1 is one of the best ARPG's to ever release. I wouldn't even rank it in my top 50.
I am curious what makes this game good. The depiction I get from Roxxor and Zagor is not what I felt when playing it..
And I've tried to play it trust me. I want to like it but I don't see where this praise comes from.

That's reasonable. Not in your top 50 though? I don't know if I could even name 50 ARPGs at all, much less 50 that are better than Risen. Didn't you say you played it 4 times? Am I thinking of someone else? I can't find that quote now but I could have sworn. Edited out maybe?

 

[Caconym]

I seriously want to know the merits of which make this game "best Action RPG Ever"

Point is, you're never gonna get explanations as to why is Risen the "best Action RPG Ever" because in actuality nobody thinks it's the alpha and omega and second coming and be-all end-all ARPG of all time and of them all. You want the fans to defend a position they've never claimed, to give merits of a game that doesn't exist in perception the way you think it does. If you look at Risen expecting the single best Action RPG Ever made and then demand its fans to explain why it is the single best Action RPG ever made after your inevitable disappointment, man, you're the one doing it wrong. It's so fucking not the best.

 

[Immortal]

Point is, you're never gonna get explanations as to why is Risen the "best Action RPG Ever" because in actuality nobody thinks it's the alpha and omega and second coming and be-all end-all ARPG of all time and of them all. You want the fans to defend a position they've never claimed, to give merits of a game that doesn't exist in perception the way you think it does. If you look at Risen expecting the single best Action RPG Ever made and then demand its fans to explain why it is the single best Action RPG ever made after your inevitable disappointment, man, you're the one doing it wrong. It's so fucking not the best.

Like you've taken one embellished statement (we are arguing "one of the best" vs "the best" at this point.. seriously?) Then used it to hand wave away all other merits of my post.
I just want to know why the game is so well received without having some pedantic spergmaster nitpick the post to death.

Zangor made a good attempt but I disagree with several of his points.
I will probably edit this later after I think about Erikur's response more too. I think he oversells the bandit camp but maybe I'll go back and play it so I don't recount the game with crap-tinted goggles.

 

[made]

German only interview: Piranha Bytes and Mr. Pankratz:

Didn't watch the whole thing but seems like a decent interview. Everyone's pretty chill and down-to-earth in contrast to the hyperexcited retards you normally see in these things. Maybe game won't suck after all.

 

[vonAchdorf]

tl:dw summary from the video I linked a couple of posts above

• both piranha bytes guys would like to see Fallout 4 at Gamescom
• the interviewer took 1 week off for the Fallout 4 release
• ELEX users lose their emotions and become more rational and cold
  • which means their moral system isn't based on good vs. evil, but "human / emotional" vs. "machine-like / cold"
  • even a serial killer hobo can save the world and will be celebrated (getting the "good end")
• fantasy (?) guild can use ELEX without the side effects ("mana")
• one big continent (no islands, no loading screens)
• no level scaling for enemies (taking the wrong turn may kill the player)
• leveling is in, XP is in, learning points can used at teachers to get / increase skills
• ELEX causes mutations (animals, plants, humans)
• screenshots start at 12:30
• desert, swamp, forest areas
• vertical exploration (e.g. with a (ELEX fueled) jetpack)
• other than in the article mentioned above, they'll only have 3 factions
  • Clerics (technological advanced, don't use ELEX as a drug, only as fuel to keep their bodies and minds pure)
  • Outlaws (Mad Max like anarchistic bandits which collect the "old" technology for makeshift improvisations like chainsaw swards and harpoons)
  • didn't talk about the 3rd
• one-handed swords, two-handed swords, sword shield combat
• romances are in
• home base confirmed
• You start as an emotion-less ELEX consuming walk(war?) commander of one of the high tech factions who's glider gets shot down and lands in the middle of nowhere, where he lies for three weeks, ELEX withdrawal causing him to tan and feel emotions for the first time in his life. The free people hate you, because you waged war against them, your own faction hates you as well.
• crafting
• combat system will be more complicated and less causal friendly than R2/3
• few boss battles, less than R3's because boss battles are a QTE which they want to avoid and it impacts player freedom (artificially locked "boss arenas")
• they like power-lines
• team is mostly R3's
• theft and murder has consequences
• NPCs have a daily routine
• stealth is in
• no classes, pick your own skills based
• release planned for Q4 2016

 

[Immortal]

tl:dw summary from the video I linked a couple of posts above

• both piranha bytes guys would like to see Fallout 4 at Gamescom
• the interviewer took 1 week off for the Fallout 4 release
• ELEX users lose their emotions and become more rational and cold
  • which means their moral system isn't based on good vs. evil, but "human / emotional" vs. "machine-like / cold"
  • even a serial killer hobo can save the world and will be celebrated (getting the "good end")
• fantasy (?) guild can use ELEX without the side effects ("mana")
• one big continent (no islands, no loading screens)
• no level scaling for enemies (taking the wrong turn may kill the player)
• leveling is in, XP is in, learning points can used at teachers to get / increase skills
• ELEX causes mutations (animals, plants, humans)
• screenshots start at 12:30
• desert, swamp, forest areas
• vertical exploration (e.g. with a (ELEX fueled) jetpack)
• other than in the article mentioned above, they'll only have 3 factions
  • Clerics (technological advanced, don't use ELEX as a drug, only as fuel to keep their bodies and minds pure)
  • Outlaws (Mad Max like anarchistic bandits which collect the "old" technology for makeshift improvisations like chainsaw swards and harpoons)
  • didn't talk about the 3rd
• one-handed swords, two-handed swords, sword shield combat
• romances are in
• home base confirmed
• You start as an emotion-less ELEX consuming walk(war?) commander of one of the high tech factions who's glider gets shot down and lands in the middle of nowhere, where he lies for three weeks, ELEX withdrawal causing him to tan and feel emotions for the first time in his life. The free people hate you, because you waged war against them, your own faction hates you as well.
• crafting
• combat system will be more complicated and less causal friendly than R2/3
• few boss battles, less than R3's because boss battles are a QTE which they want to avoid and it impacts player freedom (artificially locked "boss arenas")
• they like power-lines
• team is mostly R3's
• theft and murder has consequences
• NPCs have a daily routine
• stealth is in
• no classes, pick your own skills based
• release planned for Q4 2016

All of this sounds good.. If they hadn't just released Risen 3 I would be pretty hyped.

(Thanks for writing that - Didn't wanna watch the video)

 

[Eirikur]

tl:dw summary from the video I linked a couple of posts above

• ELEX users lose their emotions and become more rational and cold
  • which means their moral system isn't based on good vs. evil, but "human / emotional" vs. "machine-like / cold"
  • even a serial killer hobo can save the world and will be celebrated (getting the "good end")
• one big continent (no islands, no loading screens)
• no level scaling for enemies (taking the wrong turn may kill the player)
• other than in the article mentioned above, they'll only have 3 factions
  • Clerics (technological advanced, don't use ELEX as a drug, only as fuel to keep their bodies and minds pure)
  • Outlaws (Mad Max like anarchistic bandits which collect the "old" technology for makeshift improvisations like chainsaw swards and harpoons)
• home base confirmed
• You start as an emotion-less ELEX consuming walk(war?) commander of one of the high tech factions who's glider gets shot down and lands in the middle of nowhere, where he lies for three weeks, ELEX withdrawal causing him to tan and feel emotions for the first time in his life. The free people hate you, because you waged war against them, your own faction hates you as well.
• few boss battles, less than R3's because boss battles are a QTE which they want to avoid and it impacts player freedom (artificially locked "boss arenas")
• theft and murder has consequences

Thanks! Those points are particularly promising to me, and I like the concept as presented so far.