I definitely don't want a bigger - and most likely as a consequence empty world. I'd like a new protagonist who wasn't an alb commander and what not... Fantastic video.
its not like they are assholes desperately trying to not make their games good. they just dont know what their success recipe is, even though elex was a lot stronger than anything they had come up with since G2. Risen was kinda on par with elex, for me at least, but G3, R2, R3 were absolute disasters. so i bet they are watching, they are reading the forums and they will try to make it as good as possible.
I really liked Elex, I feel like its a good step away from the Risen 2/3 simpler gameplay and back to something more complex. Honestly all I want is a modern Piranha Bytes game closer to Risen 1.
Although I enjoyed R1, the only thing I found disappointing about it was its weak second half and copy-pasted dungeons and open areas. I realize that R1 was the game PB tried to play safe with since they were simply trying to rework the core formula they came up with in G1 and G2. I would really love a fully-baked risen game, but I guess this is wishful thinking right now. The big fat open map has become a staple in RPGs and I doubt PB are going to abandon the trope.
I just don't understand why they can't replicate Gothic 1 and 2. Just have AT LEAST all the features these games had and you are almost there. It's the little things like NPC's being able to take half your gold/ore, their routines and the death stab that allow for much better RPing and for your own little stories to happen. It eludes me, how they didn't see that and haven't included those in a single game, not only PB, but NOONE. I was so hopeful for RPGs after G1/2 and 20 years later, nothing has come even close, it's embarrassing.
Right? The fact that 20 years later ppl still didn't manage to get these things right is so annoying, that it almost makes me wanna get into game development...
Great points (as well as those raised in the video). However, I am afraid we will never again get the lightning in the bottle that was Gothic 1 & 2, simply due to the fact that it was never an intended design by PB. Gothic was originally intended to be a classic RPG with classes an only due to troubled development, issues with publisher, last minute changes, etc. it came out in the form we all know (and love). However PB do not understand what made these games so unique and special and move farther and farther away from it (look at Risen series, how it degenerated with each sequel). Even Elex, while arguably fun and unique in aesthetic and setting still feels and plays like a cheap knock-off (having all of Gothic’s jankiness and very little of its charms). Reminds me of pre-Disney StarWars - New Hope was originally a disaster that was saved in editing by Lucas’s wife and a team of talented people, Empire repeated the success, but once Lucas got money and replaced those talents with yes-men, we got Ewoks and... prequels... So while I share your hopes and dreams for Elex 2, I would not hold my breath for it ever reaching the heights of original Gothic 1 & 2.
There's two reasons for that. Modern developers think they're smarter than the ones back then due to education and hindsight. You can study game design in an academic environment now and a lot of the popular techniques and systems have been formalizied. That makes developers both lazy and narrow-minded, relying on what they're been taught instead of thinking critically and creatively. Often they just copy what's popular without really understanding when and how to properly implement it. The other is that they're not developing for you. They're looking at a broader market, so the game has to be accessible and streamlined. The time of niché products made by passionate enthusiasts is long gone, outside of the indie scene. These two factors are the main reason for why so many games these days are identical, unambitious and overly safe. Thankfully every now and then there are some pleasant exceptions to that. Most recently Kingdom Come Deliverance and Disco Elysium.
i am still searching without any result (currently playing gothic 1 again) and out of desperation started writing on my own gothic clone concept and story line xD
I simply cannot wait for Elex 2. At least once every two weeks I google "Elex 2 news" ever since I first played it almost 2 years ago. The game despite some flaws has something that just keeps me at it with multiple playthroughs (although I tend not to do to that). The analysis is really great, personally I wouldn't mind seeing Jax again. Great channel, have been watching lots of your videos lately. Keep it up! :)
The combat system was the worst of all PB games ever, which broke it for me. I am especially talking about balancing here, the melee combat system itself was well ok at max. I mean in the end I just spammed grenades, because they where the best weapon and all other weapons (especially range weapons) where pretty much crap. The whole crafting is broke and the progression is way to slow, which makes it pretty boring. The design/graphics of the game is horrifying, compared to their older games and so much more. The only thing that makes this worth playing are the quests, which actually were good. By the way, what they hell have they done with the Cutsceens? They are insanely horrible. And the music wtf. We can just pray they don't let Björn do the music for Elex 2, and don't outsource their design stuff to india again.
@@SimplyPhoenix yeah same! I love pretty much every Gothic even 3 but I never made it passt 3hours in elex cause the Combat System is so bad. I was really excited about elex in the first place. I'm not sure if I would play elex 2 even if they improved the combat heavily just because I don't know the story of elex 1.
@@mannohneschuh I played it maybe around 20 hours but didn't finish it. The Main story gets pretty interesting in the end, from what I have heard, but I guess you could still play Elex 2. For me it feels PB traded the soul their games had to reach a larger market, which seemed to work for them. In the end they get more players with that but also create a less dedicated community.
@@TheRmm1976 It is not for sure, but it seems pretty obvious they will do Elex 2, for several reasons. Elex went very well and they also always made triologies.
1. Not being able to do 99% of all quests in the first chapter 2. New quests in new chapters :^) Jokes aside, Elex is probably the biggest offender of "front loading" I have ever seen in my life
Elex Open would should be a example for every single developer (Especially for Bethesda and they empty paper worlds) how to built it. Big, things to found and explore in EVERY single place, living place. No "Cave > Emptiness > Cave > Emptiness" like in 95% open worlds.
I tried to play Elex a second time but after some hours i stoped playing it. while for Gothic and Gothic 2 i played them each more than 7 times and each year i play them again and again ^^
I think that a big point for that is ... the music. You just enjoy being in the world of Gothic because even if you just talk to people or smith or beat up Fellan every day you allways have good music. In Elex I think there are 2 songs tops! that are "good".
Its weird how much i love Piranha Bytes Games, for me they are on the same level as Witcher 3 even tho they are obviously nowhere near technically and for most not even story wise and so on.. but Gothic 1 was my first rpg back then in 2000 or something around that and since then im in love with their games.. cant wait for Elex 2 or whatever they are up to.
I generally agree with what you said in this and your previous Elex video. Here is a list of things I wish made their way into sequel: 1. Completely reworked hit registration. Instead of this wacky system using some sort of "lock-onto" they have been using since Risen, it should as simple as: if my weapon/projectile hits the model = hit. 2. Reworked combat system more tied with progression in certain fighting style. This basically cover everything you said about more skills for example for jet pack and magic, plus advancing animations and moves. 3. Better audio. It's quite a lot to cover here: First, the walking and running sounds are so irritatingly disproportionately louder than anything else in game. This needs to be addressed. Second, almost all the sound effects are pretty bad. They just sound... cheap? All the sounds: consuming, UI select, picking up objects, weapon hitting and firing etc. They just sond like low budget placeholders. Third, the music score is just mediocre at best. And there is no mian theme? Come on! This pretty weird in light of the fact that Piranha's last two games (Risen 3 and 2) had pretty good music scores. Fourth, the voice acting. Same as music score, it is mediocre at it's best. And again, their last games had pretty fine and memorable voices, while in Elex there in not a single memorable conversation or voice acting performance. 4. Full commitment to one style. Here is were I disagree with you the most. Even though the genre mashup was appealing at first, it very quickly falls flat. I wish Piranha ether made full fantasy-medieval style game or full on sci-fi/post-apo. I'm fine with either-or, but not both at once. 5. Improved visuals. I'm not the guy who cares much about the graphics but it seems like Elex took a step back in some areas comparing to Piranha previous games. Starting at some low textures and low detail character models (especially faces). The most obnoxious for me is how bad Elex vegetation, water and fire effects looks in comparison to even Risen 2 which wasn't visual marvel itself in any shape or form. Also, what's up with those obnoxious blinding flair effects while indoors when looking outside. 6. Better map. And I mean the map itself not the world. The map is not very detailed and is not clear to read. All road types looks the same, all building types look the same, you don't know whether you see a random complex of abandoned buildings or a settlement. Also the elevation levels are not clear to discern. 7. Ability to see full statistics. This is what you covered in this video. 8. Ditch the cold factor. Many modern RPG studios learned long time ago that all types of karma or, good-evil meters is bad design for RPGs and it is better to focus on not restricting player dialogue options by this arbitrary system and instead focus on designing meaningful consequences for player decisions. I wish Piranha to take that approach as well.
1. This is already in first elex. You just need to mess with settings. 2,3,4,5,6,7. I agree about it. 8. It's not bad but again. Game have said consquences already in. This is more meter that helps you determine if you are closer to being alb again or not. Also it prevents people from acting like one whenever they feel like it. Game shows story about alb Commander that started to feel emotions after some mishaps behind his back. I don't think this would help with narration if you had those dialogue options already unlocked. This can make narration incosistent (idk how to write this word, sorry).
Absolutely agree. I think the music and the voice acting of Risen 1 were the best in the series. The character models need more variations and the waterfalls in Risen 2 were better than in ELEX.
I finally finished my Elex play through yesterday, and was looking forward to watching this video. I’m glad you mentioned the bad UI; it highlighted a lot of Elex’s unfinished and unpolished features. Among the myriad of things Elex 2 should do I’d like to include more interaction between character NPCs. All the recruitable companions just seem to live in a vacuum apart from one another. I liked your list though, so here’s hoping for a better sequel!
Honestly, I wouldn't mind playing as kallax in the sequel and they could honestly make it work. For example if you killed him, he would somehow mange to survive and because he lost the chip he also lost his powers and he fled away to another region because he was afraid jax would finish the job. If he is alive the similar thing can be done that he got rid of his chip and thusly has started to loose his power and is starting to become more human and he went to another region to do a mission for jax. It would be interesting to see his perspective on a lot of things and potential wise he can be as strong as jax and he is also quite relevant to the alien invasion
One of the sure ways they can improve the game is to give good support for mods. I mean look at what happened to Skyrim, people legit made that game better then Bethesda ever could
I wouldn't say Bethesda CAN'T do that. They just don't do it ;) and mods also offer that everyone can pick the mods/adjustments he likes best. Thats what makes it so great. It is basically "make your own game".
The problem with the movement is that the movement is based on the available animations, and not the animations following the movement. This makes animations play and interconnect more fluidly, but also makes the movement less responsive. AAA studios solve this either by having way more animations and transitions, or a much better dynamic animation system to follow the base movement.
The most important thing is probably a semi decent immersive combat. I can‘t believe how bad the combat is in elex. Possibly the worst implementation of a stamina bar in any RPG ever. It‘s just so clunky and feels terrible and unfair
Put aside what is already mentioned here. :-) 1. PB, please just look at the Elex overhaul mod and do exactly that in your new game.. 2. have a return of visual / animated skill progression like last seen in Gothic 1 + 2 (after doing all the called for gameplay fixes of course) The ingenious, sublime idea to add unlockable movements and animations has never been taken up again outside of beat'em up games and would surely give your game more recognition value in the endless sea of RPGs..
About Jax returning as a main character, but not protagonist, there was such a case in Risen 3, where you meet the nameless hero from the first two games :)
To add to your list I'd say the companion AI needs to be more responsive to the presence of hostile NPCs. Many a time I've found my companions either doing nothing or waiting for an enemy to attack me first before responding to them. In spite of the overall AI being quite good, the lack of companion responsiveness to combat scenarios looks so frustrating and lazy. Both Gothic and Gothic 2 had allied companions who would respond better to hostile NPCs around the player. I still remember how Lares would escort us to the dark forest and take care of high tier monsters who were too hard for us at that time. Or how Mordrag and the other sect camp member would guide us to their respective camps and clear hostile NPCs without much of a fuss. In Elex it's pretty much like a hostile NPC is really hostile for a companion if they hit us first which is downright insane. It doesn't happen everytime but I've had my fair share of these glitches in the game
It's possible that the dumb companion AI isn't actually a "bug" but a "feature." The examples you mention from G1 and G2 are all instances where those characters are specifically leading you to a location, and you're meant to follow them more passively. They're aggressive by design because that's their entire prerogative in those instances -- go from Point A to Point B killing anything that gets within a certain distance of them. They're following a specific script with specific parameters laid out by that specific situation, acting almost completely independently of you, except to wait until you're close by before continuing forward on their preset path. There's also an element in both games where those characters are deliberately meant to be much stronger and more experienced than you, as surviving veterans of a brutally harsh and dangerous world, so there's an immersive context in which they would have the confidence to pick fights with random enemies because they know they can handle it. In Elex, it's the other way around -- companions passively follow YOU, and the game has to guess at your intentions before they take action. For example, when you encounter an enemy, they don't know if you're going to ignore it and run past it, or stop and fight it, or try and lure it to another location, so it's possible that the game makes them much less aggressive by default so that they don't rush into fights and cause potentially more problems than you intended. With Elex's much bigger and more open world design, combined with having more mechanical gameplay systems in effect, that's probably a reasonable design choice for them to wait until you commit to a fight before jumping into action. The game's leveling system also makes the companions much weaker than a lot of enemies, and they feel more like ordinary people who're just tagging along with you on your adventure, so it feels somewhat appropriate that they're not always looking to start a fight. Granted, when Diego is following you out of the VoM in Gothic 2, he's similarly as aggressive as the other guiding NPCs, but that's probably because they gave him the same behavior set as the other characters, except to stay within a certain distance of you instead of following a set path. And granted, companions' responsiveness in Elex isn't as consistent or predictable to work the way you'd expect or want them to all the time, which does lead to some frustration. There's room for improvement, certainly -- possibly by allowing the player to issue behavior commands like "wait here" or "follow me" or "be aggressive" or "be more cautious" -- but it could also backfire by making them have the same consistent level of aggressiveness as the NPCs in Gothic 1+2.
@@TheNocturnalRambler Thanks for that insightful answer. You've gone the extra mile in discerning the intent behind game design decisions in these games. I daresay that I've never seen an RPG reviewer possess the kind of technical depth and solid knowledge of not just RPG mechanics but also important elements like design and music like your content does. Your channel is indeed a gem in a sea of mainstream mediocrity. Thanks
I would like to have more than one companion come with me on journeys and also customize them letting me give them better weapons and armor it kinda bugged me to see caja barefooted with a basic sword while I have the best armor with a flaming battle-axe.
I would like to have more alive world like it was in the first and second gothic. More nps animations, better night day cycle, trainers that say something when they train you,
You should check it out now, at least the preliminary parts of Elex 2, which came out 8 days after this video of yours. Hope it checks most of your boxes; though Jax is still the main protagonist here, so strike one for that. But still, look into it.
Bring back the skill system from Gothic 2 or similar. The skills system with the attributes in Elex felt convoluted for the sake of being convoluted. Make the world smaller but more full of interesting encounters and quests.
14:00 I totally agree, just a minor point about this also being a problem in Gothic 2 (not so much gothic1 where you could essentially max out all skills). Bow is simply the best weapon in G2. It 1 scales directly with the same stat that uses it (unlike crossbow which scales with agi, but requires strength) 2. agility also grants you bonuses for acrobatics, lockpicking and pickpocketing (which grants you up to 3 additional levels). Strength does not give you any bonuses 3. Is ranged so you can kill enemies before they can even get to you (especially good against dragons. Late game you can kill them in 5-10 shots). 4. Is very strong straight out of the box: you can play as archer pretty much from begining and only sometimes need to run away (just as with melee), contrary to magic, which is super weak at the begining, and only very very late becomes super strong. (circle 5 is basically when fun begins as mage).
I completely agree on game balancing. The game mechanics were poorly worked out, as some skills are completely useless. For instance this HP boost that grants you 10 hp for ONE TIME. Whats also funny is that in all gothic games stats like strength, dexterity would increase dmg, but in elex they do not. They shouldve revisited this game balancing after release. I like this game, but the missing mechanics made me leave it.
I tried Elex the day it was released but stopped after an hour because it felt too clunky and just average and could not connect with it while when I heard about gothic games and how great they are just like old fallout games, I went fast to try it but stopped in a short time twice due to its weird controls. but since gothic felt immersive and somehow there was something magical about it that kept bringing me back, I forced myself to learn the controls by searching google and youtube then in a second I was disconnected from real world and did not wake up until I finished it. I might still play Elex in future but it will always be in low priority list since there are ( /will be ) plenty good/better games to play before it.
I would like more involved quests in general I played both Gothic and Elex but the solutions were very simplistic and laid out for the player I would like branching quest completion parts
I don't really think the quests in Elex were simplistic or laid out for the player, though. I mean, yes, Elex has the quest markers explicitly telling you where to go to find an objective, which I don't like, but that's the only issue I feel. Otherwise, plenty of quests have important decisions to make with branching outcomes, or that require you to think for yourself and make smart decisions so that you don't "fail" the quest or get a bad outcome. Angrim's test for the berserkers is a perfect example of this: if you just mindlessly follow the quest markers and take the obviously presented route towards completing the quest then you'll fail the test. Likewise, the quest to get food for the cultivators can be solved most simply by following the quest marker to get moldy bread from Sinda, but you should probably realize that giving the workers rotten food would have repercussions and that you shouldn't take that route. Hakon's quest to find the separatists has multiple outcomes depending on what you say to the separatists, and then what you say to Hakon. Ornir's quest has three different outcomes where you either take Ornir at his word and kill Bigby, or take Bigby's side and betray Ornir, or negotiate a truce between them, the latter of which can be done in three different ways depending on your character's stats and skills. So really, I thought the quests in Elex were pretty good and showed some hints of improvement over Gothic's quest design (like with how it incorporates your stats and skills into dialogue and quest solutions more directly). Possibly the only thing it's missing from Gothic are more broad, open-ended tasks (like "figure out who's dealing swamp weed in the city" or "bring me an orc's weapon as proof of your strength/courage") where you have to explore the world and figure things out entirely on your own, in some cases coming up with your own creative solutions to things, but the only reason that's lacking in Elex is because of the quest markers. If they just got rid of those and gave you better descriptions in dialogue, with more organized structure to the world, then the quests would probably be alright and feel more like the ones in Gothic.
@@TheNocturnalRambler While that's true I was hoping for more immersive sim like ways to complete quests like sneaking or using physics based abilities where you arent directly told to. Maybe even find solutions the devs didnt intend.
@@lyadh0451 Physics based abilities are a QA Nightmare (especially for a small studio). I really don't think that it would be wise to emphasise things like that. A little bit of sneaking can be implemented, but I'd appreciate it if they spend their resources elsewhere.
I'm playing this for the first time right now, pretty much the overall feeling is it seems like they ran out of time and or money to flesh the game out. It has a lot of good ideas and concepts but they all seem to kind of stop short of being fully realized. I'm just assuming that is because this wasn't a big budget type of game, think they tried to do a little too much. I think it would have been a better experience had they focused more on making the combat as smooth and enjoyable as possible. I love the idea of the whole old tech, new tech and magic but it's all kind of bland. Magic visuals and animations are not satisfying, all the tech rifles looks/play the same, huge disparity between melee and ranged combat. Having all that be a lot better would have made the other short comings feel less distracting.
I really liked Elex...but the gameplay (combat, walking, etc.) was so clunky. I know that's something we experience in almost every PB-game, but I think it is time that Elex makes a huge step towards a more fluent gameplay. I also didn't like how many weapons sounded. Every hit with a sword sounded the same, no matter what I was hitting. I also really hope they don't make Elex 2 just "bigger". There is a trend of games becoming bigger and bigger. The only problem then is that the world feels very empty or is just filled with the same repeatable quests / activities (basically the Ubisoft-formula). I rather have a smaller world which is diverse and interesting to discover.
Dynamically upgrading attack animations is something every action game with an upgrade system should consider, imo. Gothic wasn't the only game to do it--Jedi Academy also did it, and it was magical there too, seeing your "Jedi" (or Sith) be noticeably more of an expert as they leveled up their lightsaber style. Unfortunately, it feels like character abilities and design of "skill trees" goes backwards as time goes on. If you look at every major developer this is true. Their earlier games seem more complicated and ambitious with said systems, and it becomes increasingly braindead as time goes on. Compare Witcher 2's character upgrade system (already no huge paragon of design genius) where a single point could drastically change how you play or how impactful your attacks were to the completely gutted abomination that is Witcher 3's MMO-style "+1% to thing you barely ever use".
I think that the main quest IS kinda clear in Elex tho: Find out, who betrayed you. It's just hard to do that because no one has contact to the Albs^^ So jax is constantly asking people if they saw something, shooting at his glider^^ It's a bit like in Gothic 3. Ask everyone where you can find Xardas in a huge open world. xD about 9. PB usually just sets you and everything to 0 in the new game. You have lost all of your powers and gear, former factions don't play a role anymore and your friends are just, well, friends. Elex probably has to go a step further since you had a relationship and war with some of the factions. (if they will still exist in elex 2) I can imagine them just killing all of the former faction leaders and probably your companions. Ray: R.I.P, Falk is an AI anyway, CRONY U4 will probably return?, Duras is most likely dead because of you, Arx too, so it probably just comes down to Caja and Nasty. 10. That's why i always had CRONY to companion me. xD About the skill and attribute system. I see that they tried to give you a lot of possibilities. But things like bonus XP skills just force the player to head in a certain direction early in the game that is very counterproductive to your character progression as you will just spam intelligence and cunning to get these XP boosts as early as possible and even try to avoid killing enemies or reading books until you get these skills done. I think that skill systems should always give you a choice of what you wanna do in the game and what you wanna be good at and not something that EVERYONE wants to have (more XP) and lets you eighter sacrifice possible XP or sacrifice early power in the game to get that XP.
Oh! oh! i have one! Not giving an enemy ranged attacks only beacuse "fuck you! You can't use elevation to kill enemies while they can't hit you" This is stupidest idea of balancing out toll given at start.
20:51 You can equip both shield and sword at the same time if you go to weapon mode (PC default middle mouse). Why would you be using a shield anyway? It makes your finisher (Q) do less damage.
I don't think that works if you switch weapons, though. Isn't "weapon mode" only holstering/drawing your currently equipped weapon? So if you use sword and shield, and then switch to a ranged option, and then want to switch back to melee, you'll still have to press two hotkeys to re-equip the sword/shield, as MMB will only sheath/draw your ranged weapon at that point. Also, yeah, the shields in this game are kind of useless, hence why I personally never used one, but that ties right back into "better game balance."
IDK every next PB's game I like less, but still like)). I liked G3 more than R1, and R1 more than R2/3, and R2/3 more than Elex, but Elex was still good
Would have liked if I didn't accidentially finished quests without even starting them. Was annoying in the Risen series and is equally annoying in Elex. Finished a quest I didn't even knew existed by getting sidetracked in an abandoned factory by gathering some strong booze. Quest items should not appear befor the quest is taken on. At least they are unsellable unlike other games, where I accidentially sold a valuable quest item and had to rebuy it later for 4 times the price. I'd like a way to disable mines and use them to lure and trap enenies. For some reasons half the mines only hurt me and never the enemies that acticate them. (Looking at those f*ing Rippers.) I'd also like a better way, a more nunerical way, to track LP and things like Resistances. A better combat system would be nice too. On PS4 the controller input lags a bit and the neccessary double use of buttons is, as usual for these type of things, annoying. I'd also like better companion AI, factions that are not full of a-holes and not to have an ending forced on my simply because leveling is f*ed and only reasonable by quests, which are limited and grinding via enemies afterwards becomes a huge chore quite fast. At least enemies respawn and I, theoretically, can't run out of EXP. Would be nice if later chapers open up new areas of Magalan, not explored in Elex 1. Hardly think that the planet is just one small continent. A few more customisation options. Maybe the ability to craft or let craft weapons and armour from blueprints. A not so much fluctuating difficulty concerning quests and areas. Make sunglasses an accessary able to be worn in addition to a hood or hat. Have helmets with visors with same abilities as sunglasses in addition to better defense. And have a map that's not bugged. I actually like the character Jax. I hope they continnue him as main character. I really disliked it, that they forced a new character on us in Risen 3. There was so much lost potential in NPC interaction and story because of that. I disliked that they practically tried to force us to join the Berserkers with how they started the game. And they annoy the heckbout of me with their constant harping as soon as I open my inventory. Those who didn't want to or could not chuck Elex potions by the dozen to advance their character were mostly screwed early and mid game, especially on higher than normal difficulty. It's next to impossible to get enough points to wield the more powerfull weapons otherwise. I hope they balanced that a bit better in Elex 2, because the first dozen hours were a very frustrating mix of running from enemies and trying to finish quests that don't require you fighting too much. ...some years ago there were these things called booklets that were sold together with discs, that explained things. It would bennice if the game explained things even half as well in game. Oh, and the loading times in Elex are... abyssmal and loading objects can lag as well. Nothing worse that stepping off a teleporter and falling through the ground because it didn't load correctly yet... or at all.
There is no problem with elex potions balance-wise, they are very expensive 10 attribute points costs 2k elexit if i remember well. Main problem with balancing is the useless skills. Half of them not worth getting at all. I'd rather have half as much skills if all would be useful rather than double but i screw myself up with half of them.
It is indeed very expensive to buy natural elex in bulk, but a skill like Animal Trophies Lvl 3 will grant you TONS of free elex plus extra animal parts that you can sell for cash to buy even more elex. That, combined with infinitely respawning enemies, means there's effectively no restriction on the amount of elex potions you can make as long as you're willing to put in the time farming resources like that. That's really my issue with them. Them being so expensive to make is good for balancing the economy in the early stages of the game, but an early investment in elex potions to get a skill like Animal Trophies Lvl 3 earlier than you realistically should will ultimately pay for itself and net you way more profit in the long run, which of course can go directly back into crafting even more elex potions. So while I appreciate that buying natural elex is so expensive, that in and of itself isn't really the solution to the problem, as it feels like they should be more limited in quantity, like King's Sorrels or Golden Whispers, so that you have to choose carefully when and how you use them instead of being able to just spam an infinite amount of them, which feels almost like an exploit.
You can rush animal trophies level 3 with energy gun build only. I couldnt rush it with my strength/constitute character for obvious reasons. Also i think you cant rush it with strength/dex build either. So i'd say elex potion exploit present only with energy gun build. But energy gun build also op for other reasons aswell. Like melee has lot of skills to get from combat tree, ranged only need 1. Im sure PB put energy weapon class for easy mode.
It will sound strange but make Melee combat feel the way it did in Dragon age 2. Now dragon age 2 wasn't great and ruined alot of what made Dragon age Origin's good but if it was a stand alone 3rd person action RPG the combat would have worked well. For instance sword and Board felt amazing something I never see in RPGs Normally sword and shield is me accepting I will be bored.
i cant agree with your view on gothic 2´s main story being good. knowing from the beginning what the endgame looks like is boring. everything in between feels more like a hurdle than a step forward. still one of my favourite games to this day
I don't believe I ever specifically praised Gothic 2's main story as "good" -- in fact, in my "Gothic 1 vs Gothic 2" video I specifically say that I prefer how Gothic 1 builds its main story up with narrative twists and details, as compared to Gothic 2's which feels like a bit like a series of arbitrary video game objective the whole time -- but as mentioned in the video, I DO like that it gives you a clear cut objective from the very beginning so that you know what you have to do to advance the main story and what all of your gameplay is building towards. As compared to Elex where the main quest is a vague allusion in the background where you're forced to aimlessly wander around the world hoping to randomly stumble into the main quest because there's practically zero concrete direction or up front momentum to the main story.
@@TheNocturnalRambler i missunderstood. to me it sounded like you were praising the main story of gothic 2 as good. i do agree with you on elex's main story. it could have used a clear cut objective like gothic 1 had with the scroll. maybe it would have made me like the world more. turning half the objectives in when i first talked to the separatists made go "oh damn im nearly at the end and i dont even really know whats going on". at least it made me feel that way
@the nocturnal rambler I know how you feel about the risen games and gothic 3. But to be honest the risen trilogy was pretty good, not awesome but good and gothic 3 was at least decent...but that's where I feel the most disappointment
I really hated the jetpack. I think it was a very very late addition to the game when they realized you will not be able to reach certain places without it. It just makes paths and clifs and lift and so many more map features pointless (remember when you entered the Gothic 2 city swimming?). I hope it either gets removed or baked better into the game. Also, some of the story doesn't make sense, it is as if the game was finished but wasn't long enough so they started to add a bunch of things. My first play after defeating the Hybrid I didn't even realize the game has ended (I accidently skipped the credits). There was no point with the ending. I sort of was hoping that there will be a big twist in the plot and some better connection to the old world will be revealed (e.g. Elex was always there and they did a failed experiment to extract it and caused the disaster. Also I would love to see old-world explanations to things like Callan to be the name of some AI computer software or something similar). I hope Elex2 will have a better "point" than Elex because after finishing it I still don't know what the hell I played.
I feel like the worst parts of these games is the very uninspired art design. The Gothic remake looks terrible. I never played gothic back in the day but playing it today it kinda holds up as classic fantasy because of low poly, its still a bit jank an stiff when compared to other contemporaries I more fondly remember.
i dont agree with you when it comes to the balancing, i like that some stuf is much more powerfull than the other. That gives the Game the Feeling that your choices actualy mater. Same with the Progress in game. Enemies are almost unbeatable at the beginning and you become a god at the end. That way it feels like you actually achived something instead of just getting to a new weppon only to realise that your enemies have improved as well just to keep the challange consistant.
I think you've misunderstood what I mean by "better game balancing." What you're describing sounds like level-scaling enemies, which is absolutely not what I'm advocating for, here. I never said I want the game to have a more balanced difficulty, because I actually really enjoy the fact that enemies start out so much stronger than you, as that's a large part of what makes leveling up and conquering the world so satisfying. Rather, I want various gameplay styles and features to be better balanced against each other to make the various options more equally viable so that every choice pays off in a similar (albeit mechanically different) way. Mind you, I'm not saying every option should be the EXACT same, because then what's the point in having choices in the first place, but that the differences shouldn't be anywhere near as extreme as they currently are in Elex, where something like the Clerics' black hole spell is so vastly superior to every alternative in every possible way, thus reducing the decision space down from "Do I use magic fist weapons, or energy rifles, or melee weapons" to "Do I use the black hole spell or not?" Yeah, your choice matters in a situation like that, but it's a pretty shallow and uninteresting choice to pick between the objectively superior option and the objectively inferior one.
I didn't hate Risen 3, but I remember being really underwhelmed by its main quest and incredibly easy difficulty. Plus, I've forgotten pretty much everything about it so it clearly didn't leave any fond memories or lasting impressions.
Remembering save-files`? Hell no, I mean seriously, PB resources were spread WAY too thin with how big Elex 1 was, now every suggestion you have is ADDING MORE to that load, ensuring an EVEN LESS fleshed out game. I mean seriously, BAD IDEA.
Do you remember how Gothic 2 was basically the same game as Gothic 1 but had tons of extra content and lots of mechanical improvements over the original? That was because they weren't having to create an entirely new game, as they were copying all of the basic systems and mechanics from the previous game, thus cutting down on the total amount of work and opening up time and money to be spent elsewhere in development. Many of my suggestions follow that same philosophy: instead of them building a brand new combat system from the ground up with all new animations and mechanics, I just want them to copy the exact same system over from Elex 1 but add a few more attack options and tighten up some of the basic mechanics; instead of creating a whole new world the same size as Elex I want them to reuse parts of the existing map with superficial changes to its appearance. That type of stuff doesn't add to the work load and should actually take LESS time and effort than it took the first time around, because most of the work has already been done, thus giving them more time to work on fleshing out ideas that were previously a bare-bones concept in Elex 1 and/or to implement some new systems into the mix that would've been impossible the first time around because they were having to make an entirely new franchise from scratch. Now that the groundwork has already been laid, adding new features, deeper mechanics, and extra polish on top of that should be much easier and would only help to improve the overall quality and enjoyment of the sequel.
@@TheNocturnalRambler Yeah, but having to take into account save files is a TON of extra scripting, kinda like in Dragon Age and Mass Effect, and those game had huge budgets and they STILL suffered a lot from their decision to keep all the different story branches. G1 and G2 are a different story because G1 was MUCH more manageable than Elex 1. Elex 1 already had way too many features. The fleshing out of ideas I agree with 100% though, I don't want them to add new ones, I want them to improve upon what is already there and expand the concepts rather than adding new ones, such as branching story arcs.
@@khatack I think you're setting unrealistic expectations for what could be done to make decisions from the previous game pay off in the sequel. They don't have to take a BioWare style approach with fully branching storylines and dozens of variables influencing hundreds of different outcomes, as that would obviously be too much to expect from a smaller studio like Piranha Bytes and I'm therefore NOT suggesting anything on that scale. If they wanted to be really simple and efficient with carry-over from the first game, all it would take is a few lines of dialogue being recorded a few different ways to reference prior events, and a few different quests that would start or play out a little differently based on a prior event from Elex 1. As an RPG, they already do that kind of thing with the ordinary game design, seeing as conversations often have tons of recorded lines of dialogue that never get played since they're writing reactions to dialogue options the player might never choose, with branching outcomes the player might never see, so what's so hard about doing that at the BEGINNING of a quest and then converging everything back on to a single storyline? For instance, say Duras becomes an ordinary quest NPC in Elex 2; the quest could be written as "normal" with Duras playing a part in the story, or it could be written to cut him out entirely and skip past his part of the quest with an alternative solution, if you killed him Elex 1, that would converge back on the main path of the quest again. Say an NPC tells you "Duras might know more, you should go talk to him," and then the quest sends you to Duras for a brief conversation before he points you towards a particular location, but if you had already killed Duras, then have the NPC say "The only person who might've known was Duras, but he's dead now. Maybe there's a clue to be found in his old hut," and then go there and find a diary instead of talking to Duras. Something as simple as that is all it takes -- just a short reference with a minor detour in a specific quest to reflect the player's choice from the previous game. A situation like that isn't a completely branching story arc, but is simply a minor deviation in one step along the path of a single quest. If they wanted to really go all out, then they could have the main quest start with three different configurations based on the ending of Elex 1, and then quickly have everything converge to a single plot line and scenario after the introduction, in a similar way as what was done in Wizardry 8. In Wizardry 8, you'll start the game in a different area of the world trying to fulfill a slightly different objective depending on whether you imported your characters from Wizardry 7 or not, and what ultimately happened at the end of Wizardry 7, and then after the first step in the main quest new situations start to occur and thus all players will end up following the same main story line, apart from a few small references here and there. Piranha Bytes could easily set Elex 2 a few years after the first game, make the new protagonist some random recruit to Jax's new army, and have the first quest in the introductory tutorial area reflect whatever happened at the end of Elex 1, and then something happens to set the new plot in motion, with a few lines of dialogue being altered slightly down the line if they really want to stick with those changes. Something like that isn't super intensive and doesn't cut through the fabric of the entire game, and seems like it wouldn't be any more complicated than scripting different quest outcomes, as it's essentially the same thing but done at the beginning of a quest instead of the end. It would be a little more work to write three completely different opening scenarios with all different dialogue, objectives, and possibly scenarios, but it's no different than simply writing three different unrelated side-quests (or writing three different sets of faction-exclusive quests), and if they're already recycling a bunch of content, assets, and mechanics from the first game then they have more time on their hands to work on that kind of stuff anyway. I realizing pulling data from save files might be a little tricky to do, but in that case it doesn't seem that difficult to just put a little questionnaire when the player clicks "New Game" that gives them the option to toggle a few variables to set starting conditions before the game actually begins.
@@TheNocturnalRambler Fair enough, that would require them to forget most of the old characters that could be killed, arbitrating canon would allow them to use the same characters a lot more and focus on the new story without having to worry about the old stuff. Also I'm of the opinion that these days doing what you describe would just cause the breaking of the fourth wall rather than adding to the game, "now this is the part where the game reminds me of what I did in Elex 1". Most of the time, if you can't do a feature properly and go all the way, it's better to simply not do it at all. In game design, if you start adding in all the 'cool' ideas, you'll end up with a ton of half baked executions that don't serve a purpose, such as the player base and companions of Elex 1. E1 shines when you're out in the world on your own, exploring, so that's obviously what they should focus on and cut out features that don't support the faction system, which is at the core of the game. I'd much rather have them focus on adding more faction specific stuff as that would have an actual impact and ALSO add in way more replay-value. Take Gothic for example; how amazing it would've been if at a couple points of the game there were new deliveries to the colony from the outside and there would've been quests revolving around those based on faction agendas; Swamp campers could've had a quest trying to secure them a deal with Gomez so that they can add stuff into their list, and then trying to secure that delivery, the Old camp obviously would give you a personal stake in the delivery and have you protect it from the new camp and the new camp would have you raid the delivery. Then a delivery of new prisoners would've given the opportunity for a recruitment quest where you try to recruit the new NPCs to your faction. Take core features of the world and focus on fleshing THEM out, THAT is what I want them to do.
@@TheNocturnalRambler I agree with khatack with this one. What you mention is import save file as minor consequences. But in the example with Duras: If you killed him before you need to get his clue. But if he is alive all he is allowed to do is be part of a single minor quest... It does more harm than good. PB games tend to have (the good ones) strong bonds between characters and the players. Multiple quests are linked usually to memorable characters. Thats why they are memorable: you spend more times with them. Making Duras (and all other imported characters who might have died) unimportant would just destroy his character. Its much better (in my opinion) if the story is fixed and old characters can be part of complex quests to spend even more times with them in a meaningful way.
OMG man,i cant believe u said user interface is ok .very poor and bland and so hard for new comers.its need to be much better with colors.wich help to find needed things much faster.
Suprisingly even though I played Gothic 2 first it was still very interesting feeling when I started to play Gothic 1, it was like uncovering how things worked before desolation of prison colony, it almost felt like some kind of archeology or trip to the past.
Well lets hope someone from piranha bytes will watch that video. Can i suggest you to make another elex video and show the secrets and easter eggs? great channel bro i hope you will be able to upload more often so your channel will grow.
I totaly agree with the UI, one thing I hated from the start the game. How you can have a RPG where you can't see your overal stats?? Seems to me like car without headlights. I got used to this UI but it took me several hours. For "stats" and quest it was relative ok but inventory was baad, find something there with this primitiv icons and long list things you must scroll... just terrible. That was one thing spoiling game for me, second is the balanc, when I discover plasma rifle only problem was munition, with enough of it I can kill anybody with just spaming attacks. When I was near to the end I discover that posibility of Elex potions exploit, so I get trought the end of the game like nothing and finish it with ending I didn't want because I was just too cold after all that elex potions... Exactly as you said in the video, you can feel the absence of balance testing. I would rate the game 7/10 probably, and only because I am Gothic fan, I really enjoy overal gameplay and idea of the world and story. But there is still a lot of to improve. If I should be objective critic and consider that it's 2017 game, it would be only 5/10. So I hope for a lot of improvements in Elex 2. Please Piranha Bytes, it's 2020, your Gothic formula is great but still you must improve more than just graphic.
This is my main concern as well. PB has a track record of coming up with a good formula and then throwing it out the window to do something completely different, which they did with both Gothic 3 and Risen 2. Elex served as a pretty good foundation for a new series and really doesn't need radical changes to make the sequel good -- it just needs iterative improvements to mechanics and systems already present in the first game, and then expand on those ideas with extra content and features, and more polish. Essentially, do what Gothic 2 did with the original game -- keep everything largely the same, but improve on the overall quality with a new story in a new setting. It seems like a simple enough task, but for whatever reason they like to reinvent the wheel and have me worried that Elex 2 might disregard everything that worked well in Elex 1 in favor of doing something entirely new, for no reason.
@@TheNocturnalRambler Well, I have to defend PB a little bit. While I really don't like the changes they made in G3, I can understand that they wanted to try out something different, G2 plays more or less like an upgraded G1 (which was great, and still is), but you have to try out something new at some point. After they crashed and burned with G3 they went back to the basics and made a game that was mechanically really similar to G1+2 just to show that they can still make good games, so it is just logical to try to innovate with the next title (even though I prefer R1 over 2 and 3). I think one of the reasons why R2 is so much worse is that it was the first one designed for console. The UI is just horrible, and that has implications for how the game handles items. Imho consoles ruin rpgs - or rather controler support. And the whole pirate thing PB seems to be obsessed with didn't help either (Why are there 18th century pirates in G2 NotR, a world that I would place somewhere around 14th century or something like that). Same thing happened with Witcher, I stll like the first one the most (W2 is crap, W3 is okay).
@@zuiop9993 I play Elex with a controller, and I don't see how this should affect the keyboard experience. The UI was their choice to make. In 2 I hope they give total freedom to change the layouts for both, and create a cool UI.
another thing that really put me off with the outlaws is, how they are really just generic thugs and assholes, they stand no chance of surviving alb attacks. berserkers and clerics both have some kind of purpose to their lifes, they seek to improve their surroundings. outlaws are just there to have fun, they dont really fit into the world if you ask me.
I love how you completely sidestep Gothic 3 when doing those comparisons. You even mention Risen, but never Gothic 3. That game deserves to be erased from the canon and completely remade.
After watching your elex videos i got the desire to replay it, but then you reminded me in this video how atrocious gameplay balance is in Elex so i reconsidered.
I hope Jax will become the new leader of the resistance against the aliens. And we play as a other younger Alb that starts anew. And I which for more distinct factions, like one meele faction, one range and tech faction and one magic/psi faction... In my opinion the jetpack should be a late game addition after the first half of the game. Last point I'd like the dogde roll to be a skill that has to be learned. So that your "mage" character doesn't feel like a hyper agile athlete.
My Wishlist for Elex 2: No more burrying Giant Spiders please. Please for the love of god, make another RPG without giant Spiders. Those are quite rare today.
Yes, yes, yes and yes. I agree with all of your points. Starting as a new character would be nicer than having Jax lose his powers again. Cutting down on basic survival challenges and starting with the fully powered Jax who fights dangerous and active enemies might also work. A bit like Gothic 3, but with a more consistent narrative so you don't constantly switch between being a saviour and a bootlicker. Make Jax a saviour who has to deal with the consequences of that resposibility and difficult choices. Having separate areas for the different themes didn't fully use the narrative potential of the genre mix, so I think it would be cool to merge all factions into one. Maybe they all retreated to a Helms Deep-like base and are forced to cooperate with all the chaos that this clash of ideologies ensues. (Abessa was my favorite location in Elex 1 because of that clash). I also think elex was handled poorly in the first game. It apparently mutes emotions and makes you more powerful. If you stop taking it you lose the powers and go through a hard withdrawal phase. So why does elex just give permanent stat boosts? Make the effects stronger but temporary, maybe even with an additional skill system that improves your elex form, but weakens Jax as he goes through Elex withdrawal. Make it an addiction that needs to be actively maintained and has relevant and detrimental side effects (not just "cold -2" or whatever), but also with the ability to come clean through hard work.
Elex was a soulless kind of sandbox game where they tried to blur their 4 or so "cultures" together for the world not being too unconvincing. Combined with the story about a sunken civilization, which had humvees, Russian trucks and some empty bungalows, while at the same time bearing no connection to our own world, it gave the whole game world this eerie, uncanny valley feeling of being engineered around the concept of "we'll have 3 camps with 3 fantasy settings and build and balance everything around it". It's lovely to see people even embracing this inconsistent clusterfuck of a game world and think about how to build a sequel around it. That's more dedication than the developers will be doing, for sure. I'll tell you what that will be: Take a white sheet of paper, call it game map, divide it into 4 sectors, name 3 of them after 3 factions which are to be determined. Plan a hub city somewhere. Blur the borders of the sectors enough that it doesn't look too conceptional, too technical. Insert random scenery and random guys with funny names - Et Voila.
The solution that Half-Life 2 took comes in mind, where the hotbar is visible while you are changing your weapon and then ist quickly hid away, so you can focus und whats important at that moment.
I tried to get into Elex, but I just couldn't do it. The setting and the story did not appeal to me, unfortunately. I will definitely try Elex 2, since I tried every PB game up to date. I still play Gothic 2 once a year or so.
I could get behind this. It's good to have variety but not at the expense of depth, and it's just kind of hard to care about or keep up with so many companions, especially when most of them are superfluous to begin with.
my wish list.. 1. able to abandon a faction for another faction (story changing, can't go back, affects all faction specific quests, but keeps current skills/talents/perks) 2. able to make an entire faction hostile towards player. 3. able to disguise self with faction outfit (like in fallout NV) 4. upgradable jet pack (but also start off with a weaker one than the original) 5. more specific trainers.. (combat berzerker trainer shouldn't teach all the same things an outlaw berzerker does, some crossover is fine) 6. more character impact on the world and story, multiple main story endings that are tied to faction (we have a decent start with elex, push it further) 7. Scaling harvesting (a beginner wouldn't know to pick up specific roots or plants, they also wouldn't be able to cleanly cut out clean meat, or trophies) 8. Pilotable mechs 9. Dear gods remove level requirements for faction promotions!! 10. tighten up the loopholes in battle for cheesing, I've been able to kill mobs that are considerably higher than myself simply through hovering at just the right height so they don't try to shoot but can't hit me in melee. 11. If a lie is believable and no witnesses to the truth, make npc's believe and not hold the end result against the player.. yeah I sold cleric technology at the beginning, but there was no reason for anyone else to magically know it was still there to be salvaged (I didn't go with duras to do it one time). 12. Add Alb and/or Separatists as viable factions to join. 13. Escorts between moderate stronghold towns, not all towns are as strict as others and the moderate towns would have some sort of trade system... along with anyone seeking to get to a different faction, the first companion should be part of this escort system so players can start in any faction area. 14. An actual "world" ... doesn't have to be big, but if I go far enough north, I should be headed south at some point, and the same can be said for south.. if I go west form a town and keep traveling west long enough, I should come to that same town from the east, so tired of edge of maps bs. (oh and before anyone says "yeah but that's every game" or "that'd way too big"... the SNES did that with Drakken, and some Final Fantasy games)
![DDG & G Herbo - Nosey [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/I9Ra0Zc2NlQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I definitely don't want a bigger - and most likely as a consequence empty world. I'd like a new protagonist who wasn't an alb commander and what not... Fantastic video.
Not gonna happens. We have prepared World and we have to deal with aliens now
Piranha Bytes should watch your videos :D
I bet they do. They are actually really groundet and very nice people.
Was about to say I bet they are watching this
its not like they are assholes desperately trying to not make their games good. they just dont know what their success recipe is, even though elex was a lot stronger than anything they had come up with since G2. Risen was kinda on par with elex, for me at least, but G3, R2, R3 were absolute disasters.
so i bet they are watching, they are reading the forums and they will try to make it as good as possible.
I really liked Elex, I feel like its a good step away from the Risen 2/3 simpler gameplay and back to something more complex. Honestly all I want is a modern Piranha Bytes game closer to Risen 1.
Although I enjoyed R1, the only thing I found disappointing about it was its weak second half and copy-pasted dungeons and open areas. I realize that R1 was the game PB tried to play safe with since they were simply trying to rework the core formula they came up with in G1 and G2. I would really love a fully-baked risen game, but I guess this is wishful thinking right now. The big fat open map has become a staple in RPGs and I doubt PB are going to abandon the trope.
@@Kevin5279 really? they also reworked their Formular with g3
I just don't understand why they can't replicate Gothic 1 and 2. Just have AT LEAST all the features these games had and you are almost there. It's the little things like NPC's being able to take half your gold/ore, their routines and the death stab that allow for much better RPing and for your own little stories to happen. It eludes me, how they didn't see that and haven't included those in a single game, not only PB, but NOONE. I was so hopeful for RPGs after G1/2 and 20 years later, nothing has come even close, it's embarrassing.
Right? The fact that 20 years later ppl still didn't manage to get these things right is so annoying, that it almost makes me wanna get into game development...
Great points (as well as those raised in the video). However, I am afraid we will never again get the lightning in the bottle that was Gothic 1 & 2, simply due to the fact that it was never an intended design by PB. Gothic was originally intended to be a classic RPG with classes an only due to troubled development, issues with publisher, last minute changes, etc. it came out in the form we all know (and love). However PB do not understand what made these games so unique and special and move farther and farther away from it (look at Risen series, how it degenerated with each sequel). Even Elex, while arguably fun and unique in aesthetic and setting still feels and plays like a cheap knock-off (having all of Gothic’s jankiness and very little of its charms).
Reminds me of pre-Disney StarWars - New Hope was originally a disaster that was saved in editing by Lucas’s wife and a team of talented people, Empire repeated the success, but once Lucas got money and replaced those talents with yes-men, we got Ewoks and... prequels... So while I share your hopes and dreams for Elex 2, I would not hold my breath for it ever reaching the heights of original Gothic 1 & 2.
There's two reasons for that.
Modern developers think they're smarter than the ones back then due to education and hindsight.
You can study game design in an academic environment now and a lot of the popular techniques and systems have been formalizied.
That makes developers both lazy and narrow-minded, relying on what they're been taught instead of thinking critically and creatively.
Often they just copy what's popular without really understanding when and how to properly implement it.
The other is that they're not developing for you. They're looking at a broader market, so the game has to be accessible and streamlined.
The time of niché products made by passionate enthusiasts is long gone, outside of the indie scene.
These two factors are the main reason for why so many games these days are identical, unambitious and overly safe.
Thankfully every now and then there are some pleasant exceptions to that.
Most recently Kingdom Come Deliverance and Disco Elysium.
i am still searching without any result (currently playing gothic 1 again) and out of desperation started writing on my own gothic clone concept and story line xD
Try out "Disco Elysium".
I simply cannot wait for Elex 2. At least once every two weeks I google "Elex 2 news" ever since I first played it almost 2 years ago. The game despite some flaws has something that just keeps me at it with multiple playthroughs (although I tend not to do to that). The analysis is really great, personally I wouldn't mind seeing Jax again.
Great channel, have been watching lots of your videos lately. Keep it up! :)
The combat system was the worst of all PB games ever, which broke it for me. I am especially talking about balancing here, the melee combat system itself was well ok at max. I mean in the end I just spammed grenades, because they where the best weapon and all other weapons (especially range weapons) where pretty much crap. The whole crafting is broke and the progression is way to slow, which makes it pretty boring. The design/graphics of the game is horrifying, compared to their older games and so much more. The only thing that makes this worth playing are the quests, which actually were good. By the way, what they hell have they done with the Cutsceens? They are insanely horrible. And the music wtf. We can just pray they don't let Björn do the music for Elex 2, and don't outsource their design stuff to india again.
@@SimplyPhoenix yeah same! I love pretty much every Gothic even 3 but I never made it passt 3hours in elex cause the Combat System is so bad. I was really excited about elex in the first place. I'm not sure if I would play elex 2 even if they improved the combat heavily just because I don't know the story of elex 1.
@@mannohneschuh I played it maybe around 20 hours but didn't finish it. The Main story gets pretty interesting in the end, from what I have heard, but I guess you could still play Elex 2. For me it feels PB traded the soul their games had to reach a larger market, which seemed to work for them. In the end they get more players with that but also create a less dedicated community.
I can't wait either, but will there even be an Elex 2? Seems like there is nothing recent regarding news for this title.
@@TheRmm1976 It is not for sure, but it seems pretty obvious they will do Elex 2, for several reasons. Elex went very well and they also always made triologies.
1. Not being able to do 99% of all quests in the first chapter
2. New quests in new chapters
:^)
Jokes aside, Elex is probably the biggest offender of "front loading" I have ever seen in my life
Honestly, your wishlist is almost the same as mine. That is so eerie and comforting at the same time.
Elex Open would should be a example for every single developer (Especially for Bethesda and they empty paper worlds) how to built it. Big, things to found and explore in EVERY single place, living place. No "Cave > Emptiness > Cave > Emptiness" like in 95% open worlds.
I tried to play Elex a second time but after some hours i stoped playing it. while for Gothic and Gothic 2 i played them each more than 7 times and each year i play them again and again ^^
I think that a big point for that is ... the music. You just enjoy being in the world of Gothic because even if you just talk to people or smith or beat up Fellan every day you allways have good music. In Elex I think there are 2 songs tops! that are "good".
7:55 Yeah, that actually made me put the game down for a few months before finishing it. I much prefer focused games than this.
Its weird how much i love Piranha Bytes Games, for me they are on the same level as Witcher 3 even tho they are obviously nowhere near technically and for most not even story wise and so on.. but Gothic 1 was my first rpg back then in 2000 or something around that and since then im in love with their games.. cant wait for Elex 2 or whatever they are up to.
I generally agree with what you said in this and your previous Elex video. Here is a list of things I wish made their way into sequel:
1. Completely reworked hit registration. Instead of this wacky system using some sort of "lock-onto" they have been using since Risen, it should as simple as: if my weapon/projectile hits the model = hit.
2. Reworked combat system more tied with progression in certain fighting style. This basically cover everything you said about more skills for example for jet pack and magic, plus advancing animations and moves.
3. Better audio. It's quite a lot to cover here:
First, the walking and running sounds are so irritatingly disproportionately louder than anything else in game. This needs to be addressed.
Second, almost all the sound effects are pretty bad. They just sound... cheap? All the sounds: consuming, UI select, picking up objects, weapon hitting and firing etc. They just sond like low budget placeholders.
Third, the music score is just mediocre at best. And there is no mian theme? Come on! This pretty weird in light of the fact that Piranha's last two games (Risen 3 and 2) had pretty good music scores.
Fourth, the voice acting. Same as music score, it is mediocre at it's best. And again, their last games had pretty fine and memorable voices, while in Elex there in not a single memorable conversation or voice acting performance.
4. Full commitment to one style. Here is were I disagree with you the most. Even though the genre mashup was appealing at first, it very quickly falls flat. I wish Piranha ether made full fantasy-medieval style game or full on sci-fi/post-apo. I'm fine with either-or, but not both at once.
5. Improved visuals. I'm not the guy who cares much about the graphics but it seems like Elex took a step back in some areas comparing to Piranha previous games. Starting at some low textures and low detail character models (especially faces). The most obnoxious for me is how bad Elex vegetation, water and fire effects looks in comparison to even Risen 2 which wasn't visual marvel itself in any shape or form. Also, what's up with those obnoxious blinding flair effects while indoors when looking outside.
6. Better map. And I mean the map itself not the world. The map is not very detailed and is not clear to read. All road types looks the same, all building types look the same, you don't know whether you see a random complex of abandoned buildings or a settlement. Also the elevation levels are not clear to discern.
7. Ability to see full statistics. This is what you covered in this video.
8. Ditch the cold factor. Many modern RPG studios learned long time ago that all types of karma or, good-evil meters is bad design for RPGs and it is better to focus on not restricting player dialogue options by this arbitrary system and instead focus on designing meaningful consequences for player decisions. I wish Piranha to take that approach as well.
1. This is already in first elex. You just need to mess with settings.
2,3,4,5,6,7. I agree about it.
8. It's not bad but again. Game have said consquences already in. This is more meter that helps you determine if you are closer to being alb again or not. Also it prevents people from acting like one whenever they feel like it. Game shows story about alb Commander that started to feel emotions after some mishaps behind his back. I don't think this would help with narration if you had those dialogue options already unlocked. This can make narration incosistent (idk how to write this word, sorry).
Absolutely agree. I think the music and the voice acting of Risen 1 were the best in the series. The character models need more variations and the waterfalls in Risen 2 were better than in ELEX.
I finally finished my Elex play through yesterday, and was looking forward to watching this video. I’m glad you mentioned the bad UI; it highlighted a lot of Elex’s unfinished and unpolished features. Among the myriad of things Elex 2 should do I’d like to include more interaction between character NPCs. All the recruitable companions just seem to live in a vacuum apart from one another. I liked your list though, so here’s hoping for a better sequel!
Honestly, I wouldn't mind playing as kallax in the sequel and they could honestly make it work. For example if you killed him, he would somehow mange to survive and because he lost the chip he also lost his powers and he fled away to another region because he was afraid jax would finish the job. If he is alive the similar thing can be done that he got rid of his chip and thusly has started to loose his power and is starting to become more human and he went to another region to do a mission for jax. It would be interesting to see his perspective on a lot of things and potential wise he can be as strong as jax and he is also quite relevant to the alien invasion
One of the sure ways they can improve the game is to give good support for mods. I mean look at what happened to Skyrim, people legit made that game better then Bethesda ever could
I wouldn't say Bethesda CAN'T do that. They just don't do it ;) and mods also offer that everyone can pick the mods/adjustments he likes best. Thats what makes it so great. It is basically "make your own game".
The problem with the movement is that the movement is based on the available animations, and not the animations following the movement. This makes animations play and interconnect more fluidly, but also makes the movement less responsive. AAA studios solve this either by having way more animations and transitions, or a much better dynamic animation system to follow the base movement.
The most important thing is probably a semi decent immersive combat.
I can‘t believe how bad the combat is in elex. Possibly the worst implementation of a stamina bar in any RPG ever. It‘s just so clunky and feels terrible and unfair
And I just want something majority of PB fans would see as sacrilige, full character customisation pre game. Its about time they did that.
I just noticed, in Risen I always went straight to the city and then to the swamp.
Put aside what is already mentioned here. :-)
1. PB, please just look at the Elex overhaul mod and do exactly that in your new game..
2. have a return of visual / animated skill progression like last seen in Gothic 1 + 2 (after doing all the called for gameplay fixes of course) The ingenious, sublime idea to add unlockable movements and animations has never been taken up again outside of beat'em up games and would surely give your game more recognition value in the endless sea of RPGs..
Piranha Bytes should hire you.
PS: If by any chance Bjorn Pankratz is reading this... hire me as well ;)
They can't hire everyone... Hire me first.
About Jax returning as a main character, but not protagonist, there was such a case in Risen 3, where you meet the nameless hero from the first two games :)
I agree with your comments. You're on point.Thanks
Rewatching this video made me realise how much Elex lacks believability in regards to how each faction is able to live and thrive.
great video, man! I'd like to see multiple playable characters you can switch between on the fly so you can do multiple builds per playthrough
To add to your list I'd say the companion AI needs to be more responsive to the presence of hostile NPCs. Many a time I've found my companions either doing nothing or waiting for an enemy to attack me first before responding to them. In spite of the overall AI being quite good, the lack of companion responsiveness to combat scenarios looks so frustrating and lazy. Both Gothic and Gothic 2 had allied companions who would respond better to hostile NPCs around the player. I still remember how Lares would escort us to the dark forest and take care of high tier monsters who were too hard for us at that time. Or how Mordrag and the other sect camp member would guide us to their respective camps and clear hostile NPCs without much of a fuss. In Elex it's pretty much like a hostile NPC is really hostile for a companion if they hit us first which is downright insane. It doesn't happen everytime but I've had my fair share of these glitches in the game
It's possible that the dumb companion AI isn't actually a "bug" but a "feature." The examples you mention from G1 and G2 are all instances where those characters are specifically leading you to a location, and you're meant to follow them more passively. They're aggressive by design because that's their entire prerogative in those instances -- go from Point A to Point B killing anything that gets within a certain distance of them. They're following a specific script with specific parameters laid out by that specific situation, acting almost completely independently of you, except to wait until you're close by before continuing forward on their preset path. There's also an element in both games where those characters are deliberately meant to be much stronger and more experienced than you, as surviving veterans of a brutally harsh and dangerous world, so there's an immersive context in which they would have the confidence to pick fights with random enemies because they know they can handle it.
In Elex, it's the other way around -- companions passively follow YOU, and the game has to guess at your intentions before they take action. For example, when you encounter an enemy, they don't know if you're going to ignore it and run past it, or stop and fight it, or try and lure it to another location, so it's possible that the game makes them much less aggressive by default so that they don't rush into fights and cause potentially more problems than you intended. With Elex's much bigger and more open world design, combined with having more mechanical gameplay systems in effect, that's probably a reasonable design choice for them to wait until you commit to a fight before jumping into action. The game's leveling system also makes the companions much weaker than a lot of enemies, and they feel more like ordinary people who're just tagging along with you on your adventure, so it feels somewhat appropriate that they're not always looking to start a fight.
Granted, when Diego is following you out of the VoM in Gothic 2, he's similarly as aggressive as the other guiding NPCs, but that's probably because they gave him the same behavior set as the other characters, except to stay within a certain distance of you instead of following a set path. And granted, companions' responsiveness in Elex isn't as consistent or predictable to work the way you'd expect or want them to all the time, which does lead to some frustration. There's room for improvement, certainly -- possibly by allowing the player to issue behavior commands like "wait here" or "follow me" or "be aggressive" or "be more cautious" -- but it could also backfire by making them have the same consistent level of aggressiveness as the NPCs in Gothic 1+2.
@@TheNocturnalRambler
Thanks for that insightful answer. You've gone the extra mile in discerning the intent behind game design decisions in these games. I daresay that I've never seen an RPG reviewer possess the kind of technical depth and solid knowledge of not just RPG mechanics but also important elements like design and music like your content does. Your channel is indeed a gem in a sea of mainstream mediocrity. Thanks
Bring back the fantastic music of Kai Rosenkranz, please.
That staggering gun shot broke the game lol. It makes the game a cake walk.
Ranged in general breaks the game most guns/ bows do way more damage than any melee weapon or magic weapon
Here I am watching this video, not even heard of this game one time.
I would like to have more than one companion come with me on journeys and also customize them letting me give them better weapons and armor it kinda bugged me to see caja barefooted with a basic sword while I have the best armor with a flaming battle-axe.
I would like to have more alive world like it was in the first and second gothic.
More nps animations, better night day cycle, trainers that say something when they train you,
Also, I'd like stats that actually affect your character.
You should check it out now, at least the preliminary parts of Elex 2, which came out 8 days after this video of yours. Hope it checks most of your boxes; though Jax is still the main protagonist here, so strike one for that. But still, look into it.
Bring back the skill system from Gothic 2 or similar. The skills system with the attributes in Elex felt convoluted for the sake of being convoluted. Make the world smaller but more full of interesting encounters and quests.
14:00
I totally agree, just a minor point about this also being a problem in Gothic 2 (not so much gothic1 where you could essentially max out all skills). Bow is simply the best weapon in G2. It
1 scales directly with the same stat that uses it (unlike crossbow which scales with agi, but requires strength)
2. agility also grants you bonuses for acrobatics, lockpicking and pickpocketing (which grants you up to 3 additional levels). Strength does not give you any bonuses
3. Is ranged so you can kill enemies before they can even get to you (especially good against dragons. Late game you can kill them in 5-10 shots).
4. Is very strong straight out of the box: you can play as archer pretty much from begining and only sometimes need to run away (just as with melee), contrary to magic, which is super weak at the begining, and only very very late becomes super strong. (circle 5 is basically when fun begins as mage).
I completely agree on game balancing. The game mechanics were poorly worked out, as some skills are completely useless. For instance this HP boost that grants you 10 hp for ONE TIME. Whats also funny is that in all gothic games stats like strength, dexterity would increase dmg, but in elex they do not. They shouldve revisited this game balancing after release. I like this game, but the missing mechanics made me leave it.
I tried Elex the day it was released but stopped after an hour because it felt too clunky and just average and could not connect with it while when I heard about gothic games and how great they are just like old fallout games, I went fast to try it but stopped in a short time twice due to its weird controls. but since gothic felt immersive and somehow there was something magical about it that kept bringing me back, I forced myself to learn the controls by searching google and youtube then in a second I was disconnected from real world and did not wake up until I finished it.
I might still play Elex in future but it will always be in low priority list since there are ( /will be ) plenty good/better games to play before it.
I would like more involved quests in general I played both Gothic and Elex but the solutions were very simplistic and laid out for the player I would like branching quest completion parts
I don't really think the quests in Elex were simplistic or laid out for the player, though. I mean, yes, Elex has the quest markers explicitly telling you where to go to find an objective, which I don't like, but that's the only issue I feel. Otherwise, plenty of quests have important decisions to make with branching outcomes, or that require you to think for yourself and make smart decisions so that you don't "fail" the quest or get a bad outcome. Angrim's test for the berserkers is a perfect example of this: if you just mindlessly follow the quest markers and take the obviously presented route towards completing the quest then you'll fail the test. Likewise, the quest to get food for the cultivators can be solved most simply by following the quest marker to get moldy bread from Sinda, but you should probably realize that giving the workers rotten food would have repercussions and that you shouldn't take that route. Hakon's quest to find the separatists has multiple outcomes depending on what you say to the separatists, and then what you say to Hakon. Ornir's quest has three different outcomes where you either take Ornir at his word and kill Bigby, or take Bigby's side and betray Ornir, or negotiate a truce between them, the latter of which can be done in three different ways depending on your character's stats and skills.
So really, I thought the quests in Elex were pretty good and showed some hints of improvement over Gothic's quest design (like with how it incorporates your stats and skills into dialogue and quest solutions more directly). Possibly the only thing it's missing from Gothic are more broad, open-ended tasks (like "figure out who's dealing swamp weed in the city" or "bring me an orc's weapon as proof of your strength/courage") where you have to explore the world and figure things out entirely on your own, in some cases coming up with your own creative solutions to things, but the only reason that's lacking in Elex is because of the quest markers. If they just got rid of those and gave you better descriptions in dialogue, with more organized structure to the world, then the quests would probably be alright and feel more like the ones in Gothic.
@@TheNocturnalRambler While that's true I was hoping for more immersive sim like ways to complete quests like sneaking or using physics based abilities where you arent directly told to. Maybe even find solutions the devs didnt intend.
@@lyadh0451 That's fair, and certainly something that would be welcome in Elex 2, if they could take that approach a little more often.
@@lyadh0451 Physics based abilities are a QA Nightmare (especially for a small studio). I really don't think that it would be wise to emphasise things like that. A little bit of sneaking can be implemented, but I'd appreciate it if they spend their resources elsewhere.
Elex 2 is going to be released in november from what I've heard.
great work!
I'm playing this for the first time right now, pretty much the overall feeling is it seems like they ran out of time and or money to flesh the game out. It has a lot of good ideas and concepts but they all seem to kind of stop short of being fully realized. I'm just assuming that is because this wasn't a big budget type of game, think they tried to do a little too much. I think it would have been a better experience had they focused more on making the combat as smooth and enjoyable as possible. I love the idea of the whole old tech, new tech and magic but it's all kind of bland. Magic visuals and animations are not satisfying, all the tech rifles looks/play the same, huge disparity between melee and ranged combat. Having all that be a lot better would have made the other short comings feel less distracting.
I really liked Elex...but the gameplay (combat, walking, etc.) was so clunky. I know that's something we experience in almost every PB-game, but I think it is time that Elex makes a huge step towards a more fluent gameplay. I also didn't like how many weapons sounded. Every hit with a sword sounded the same, no matter what I was hitting. I also really hope they don't make Elex 2 just "bigger". There is a trend of games becoming bigger and bigger. The only problem then is that the world feels very empty or is just filled with the same repeatable quests / activities (basically the Ubisoft-formula). I rather have a smaller world which is diverse and interesting to discover.
Hey guys. Do we know anything about the release date of E2?
Do you play with the Elex Overhaul mod?
my wishlist has only 2 items: 1.Become an actual good goame. 2. Make it cost what's actually worth, 15bucks
Dynamically upgrading attack animations is something every action game with an upgrade system should consider, imo. Gothic wasn't the only game to do it--Jedi Academy also did it, and it was magical there too, seeing your "Jedi" (or Sith) be noticeably more of an expert as they leveled up their lightsaber style. Unfortunately, it feels like character abilities and design of "skill trees" goes backwards as time goes on. If you look at every major developer this is true. Their earlier games seem more complicated and ambitious with said systems, and it becomes increasingly braindead as time goes on. Compare Witcher 2's character upgrade system (already no huge paragon of design genius) where a single point could drastically change how you play or how impactful your attacks were to the completely gutted abomination that is Witcher 3's MMO-style "+1% to thing you barely ever use".
New engine bro, that's what I want. Especially considering the new game is coming out for next gen as well.
Hopefully Elex 2 will be their most polished game .
I think that the main quest IS kinda clear in Elex tho: Find out, who betrayed you. It's just hard to do that because no one has contact to the Albs^^ So jax is constantly asking people if they saw something, shooting at his glider^^ It's a bit like in Gothic 3. Ask everyone where you can find Xardas in a huge open world. xD
about 9. PB usually just sets you and everything to 0 in the new game. You have lost all of your powers and gear, former factions don't play a role anymore and your friends are just, well, friends. Elex probably has to go a step further since you had a relationship and war with some of the factions.
(if they will still exist in elex 2) I can imagine them just killing all of the former faction leaders and probably your companions. Ray: R.I.P, Falk is an AI anyway, CRONY U4 will probably return?, Duras is most likely dead because of you, Arx too, so it probably just comes down to Caja and Nasty.
10. That's why i always had CRONY to companion me. xD
About the skill and attribute system. I see that they tried to give you a lot of possibilities. But things like bonus XP skills just force the player to head in a certain direction early in the game that is very counterproductive to your character progression as you will just spam intelligence and cunning to get these XP boosts as early as possible and even try to avoid killing enemies or reading books until you get these skills done.
I think that skill systems should always give you a choice of what you wanna do in the game and what you wanna be good at and not something that EVERYONE wants to have (more XP) and lets you eighter sacrifice possible XP or sacrifice early power in the game to get that XP.
Is there a Elex 2 Video to expected?
Oh! oh! i have one! Not giving an enemy ranged attacks only beacuse "fuck you! You can't use elevation to kill enemies while they can't hit you"
This is stupidest idea of balancing out toll given at start.
So... It's about time we get some news right?
More variety to the faces -- especially the female ones (way too much Attack of the Clones in Elex 1).
20:51 You can equip both shield and sword at the same time if you go to weapon mode (PC default middle mouse). Why would you be using a shield anyway? It makes your finisher (Q) do less damage.
I don't think that works if you switch weapons, though. Isn't "weapon mode" only holstering/drawing your currently equipped weapon? So if you use sword and shield, and then switch to a ranged option, and then want to switch back to melee, you'll still have to press two hotkeys to re-equip the sword/shield, as MMB will only sheath/draw your ranged weapon at that point. Also, yeah, the shields in this game are kind of useless, hence why I personally never used one, but that ties right back into "better game balance."
i would love to see a coop mode, where you could just take control of an companion.
IDK every next PB's game I like less, but still like)). I liked G3 more than R1, and R1 more than R2/3, and R2/3 more than Elex, but Elex was still good
nonono The Elix Potion thing is genious its an easy game vs being human trade off so it is suppreme Roleplaying.
Would have liked if I didn't accidentially finished quests without even starting them. Was annoying in the Risen series and is equally annoying in Elex. Finished a quest I didn't even knew existed by getting sidetracked in an abandoned factory by gathering some strong booze. Quest items should not appear befor the quest is taken on. At least they are unsellable unlike other games, where I accidentially sold a valuable quest item and had to rebuy it later for 4 times the price.
I'd like a way to disable mines and use them to lure and trap enenies. For some reasons half the mines only hurt me and never the enemies that acticate them. (Looking at those f*ing Rippers.)
I'd also like a better way, a more nunerical way, to track LP and things like Resistances.
A better combat system would be nice too. On PS4 the controller input lags a bit and the neccessary double use of buttons is, as usual for these type of things, annoying.
I'd also like better companion AI, factions that are not full of a-holes and not to have an ending forced on my simply because leveling is f*ed and only reasonable by quests, which are limited and grinding via enemies afterwards becomes a huge chore quite fast. At least enemies respawn and I, theoretically, can't run out of EXP.
Would be nice if later chapers open up new areas of Magalan, not explored in Elex 1. Hardly think that the planet is just one small continent.
A few more customisation options. Maybe the ability to craft or let craft weapons and armour from blueprints.
A not so much fluctuating difficulty concerning quests and areas.
Make sunglasses an accessary able to be worn in addition to a hood or hat.
Have helmets with visors with same abilities as sunglasses in addition to better defense.
And have a map that's not bugged.
I actually like the character Jax. I hope they continnue him as main character. I really disliked it, that they forced a new character on us in Risen 3. There was so much lost potential in NPC interaction and story because of that.
I disliked that they practically tried to force us to join the Berserkers with how they started the game. And they annoy the heckbout of me with their constant harping as soon as I open my inventory.
Those who didn't want to or could not chuck Elex potions by the dozen to advance their character were mostly screwed early and mid game, especially on higher than normal difficulty. It's next to impossible to get enough points to wield the more powerfull weapons otherwise. I hope they balanced that a bit better in Elex 2, because the first dozen hours were a very frustrating mix of running from enemies and trying to finish quests that don't require you fighting too much.
...some years ago there were these things called booklets that were sold together with discs, that explained things. It would bennice if the game explained things even half as well in game.
Oh, and the loading times in Elex are... abyssmal and loading objects can lag as well. Nothing worse that stepping off a teleporter and falling through the ground because it didn't load correctly yet... or at all.
Would you care to join the Gothic community discord, Nocturnal? The invite link is in the Steam discussions of the Gothic remake demo.
There is no problem with elex potions balance-wise, they are very expensive 10 attribute points costs 2k elexit if i remember well.
Main problem with balancing is the useless skills. Half of them not worth getting at all. I'd rather have half as much skills if all would be useful rather than double but i screw myself up with half of them.
It is indeed very expensive to buy natural elex in bulk, but a skill like Animal Trophies Lvl 3 will grant you TONS of free elex plus extra animal parts that you can sell for cash to buy even more elex. That, combined with infinitely respawning enemies, means there's effectively no restriction on the amount of elex potions you can make as long as you're willing to put in the time farming resources like that. That's really my issue with them. Them being so expensive to make is good for balancing the economy in the early stages of the game, but an early investment in elex potions to get a skill like Animal Trophies Lvl 3 earlier than you realistically should will ultimately pay for itself and net you way more profit in the long run, which of course can go directly back into crafting even more elex potions. So while I appreciate that buying natural elex is so expensive, that in and of itself isn't really the solution to the problem, as it feels like they should be more limited in quantity, like King's Sorrels or Golden Whispers, so that you have to choose carefully when and how you use them instead of being able to just spam an infinite amount of them, which feels almost like an exploit.
You can rush animal trophies level 3 with energy gun build only.
I couldnt rush it with my strength/constitute character for obvious reasons.
Also i think you cant rush it with strength/dex build either.
So i'd say elex potion exploit present only with energy gun build. But energy gun build also op for other reasons aswell. Like melee has lot of skills to get from combat tree, ranged only need 1. Im sure PB put energy weapon class for easy mode.
Jax was a flat boring character, like any else in Elex, so i dont care about them creating a new one.
make elex great again!
It will sound strange but make Melee combat feel the way it did in Dragon age 2. Now dragon age 2 wasn't great and ruined alot of what made Dragon age Origin's good but if it was a stand alone 3rd person action RPG the combat would have worked well. For instance sword and Board felt amazing something I never see in RPGs Normally sword and shield is me accepting I will be bored.
i cant agree with your view on gothic 2´s main story being good. knowing from the beginning what the endgame looks like is boring. everything in between feels more like a hurdle than a step forward. still one of my favourite games to this day
I don't believe I ever specifically praised Gothic 2's main story as "good" -- in fact, in my "Gothic 1 vs Gothic 2" video I specifically say that I prefer how Gothic 1 builds its main story up with narrative twists and details, as compared to Gothic 2's which feels like a bit like a series of arbitrary video game objective the whole time -- but as mentioned in the video, I DO like that it gives you a clear cut objective from the very beginning so that you know what you have to do to advance the main story and what all of your gameplay is building towards. As compared to Elex where the main quest is a vague allusion in the background where you're forced to aimlessly wander around the world hoping to randomly stumble into the main quest because there's practically zero concrete direction or up front momentum to the main story.
@@TheNocturnalRambler i missunderstood. to me it sounded like you were praising the main story of gothic 2 as good. i do agree with you on elex's main story. it could have used a clear cut objective like gothic 1 had with the scroll. maybe it would have made me like the world more. turning half the objectives in when i first talked to the separatists made go "oh damn im nearly at the end and i dont even really know whats going on". at least it made me feel that way
@the nocturnal rambler
I know how you feel about the risen games and gothic 3. But to be honest the risen trilogy was pretty good, not awesome but good and gothic 3 was at least decent...but that's where I feel the most disappointment
if you love gothic so much as much as me too, how come you missing my best let;s play of this amazing game?
My wishlist: Gothic 5
They should do Gothic 4 first.
🔥🔥🔥🔥
Elex was good but than i found the money glitch by mistake really took me out of the game
I really hated the jetpack. I think it was a very very late addition to the game when they realized you will not be able to reach certain places without it. It just makes paths and clifs and lift and so many more map features pointless (remember when you entered the Gothic 2 city swimming?). I hope it either gets removed or baked better into the game. Also, some of the story doesn't make sense, it is as if the game was finished but wasn't long enough so they started to add a bunch of things. My first play after defeating the Hybrid I didn't even realize the game has ended (I accidently skipped the credits). There was no point with the ending. I sort of was hoping that there will be a big twist in the plot and some better connection to the old world will be revealed (e.g. Elex was always there and they did a failed experiment to extract it and caused the disaster. Also I would love to see old-world explanations to things like Callan to be the name of some AI computer software or something similar). I hope Elex2 will have a better "point" than Elex because after finishing it I still don't know what the hell I played.
Create a character would be nice.
I feel like the worst parts of these games is the very uninspired art design. The Gothic remake looks terrible. I never played gothic back in the day but playing it today it kinda holds up as classic fantasy because of low poly, its still a bit jank an stiff when compared to other contemporaries I more fondly remember.
i dont agree with you when it comes to the balancing, i like that some stuf is much more powerfull than the other. That gives the Game the Feeling that your choices actualy mater. Same with the Progress in game. Enemies are almost unbeatable at the beginning and you become a god at the end. That way it feels like you actually achived something instead of just getting to a new weppon only to realise that your enemies have improved as well just to keep the challange consistant.
I think you've misunderstood what I mean by "better game balancing." What you're describing sounds like level-scaling enemies, which is absolutely not what I'm advocating for, here. I never said I want the game to have a more balanced difficulty, because I actually really enjoy the fact that enemies start out so much stronger than you, as that's a large part of what makes leveling up and conquering the world so satisfying.
Rather, I want various gameplay styles and features to be better balanced against each other to make the various options more equally viable so that every choice pays off in a similar (albeit mechanically different) way. Mind you, I'm not saying every option should be the EXACT same, because then what's the point in having choices in the first place, but that the differences shouldn't be anywhere near as extreme as they currently are in Elex, where something like the Clerics' black hole spell is so vastly superior to every alternative in every possible way, thus reducing the decision space down from "Do I use magic fist weapons, or energy rifles, or melee weapons" to "Do I use the black hole spell or not?" Yeah, your choice matters in a situation like that, but it's a pretty shallow and uninteresting choice to pick between the objectively superior option and the objectively inferior one.
I wish the new game was not set in the world of elex. I didn’t really enjoy the setting all that much.
"I had a lot of fun playing elex." are you a masochist?
risen 3 wasn't bad either
I didn't hate Risen 3, but I remember being really underwhelmed by its main quest and incredibly easy difficulty. Plus, I've forgotten pretty much everything about it so it clearly didn't leave any fond memories or lasting impressions.
Remembering save-files`? Hell no, I mean seriously, PB resources were spread WAY too thin with how big Elex 1 was, now every suggestion you have is ADDING MORE to that load, ensuring an EVEN LESS fleshed out game. I mean seriously, BAD IDEA.
Do you remember how Gothic 2 was basically the same game as Gothic 1 but had tons of extra content and lots of mechanical improvements over the original? That was because they weren't having to create an entirely new game, as they were copying all of the basic systems and mechanics from the previous game, thus cutting down on the total amount of work and opening up time and money to be spent elsewhere in development. Many of my suggestions follow that same philosophy: instead of them building a brand new combat system from the ground up with all new animations and mechanics, I just want them to copy the exact same system over from Elex 1 but add a few more attack options and tighten up some of the basic mechanics; instead of creating a whole new world the same size as Elex I want them to reuse parts of the existing map with superficial changes to its appearance. That type of stuff doesn't add to the work load and should actually take LESS time and effort than it took the first time around, because most of the work has already been done, thus giving them more time to work on fleshing out ideas that were previously a bare-bones concept in Elex 1 and/or to implement some new systems into the mix that would've been impossible the first time around because they were having to make an entirely new franchise from scratch. Now that the groundwork has already been laid, adding new features, deeper mechanics, and extra polish on top of that should be much easier and would only help to improve the overall quality and enjoyment of the sequel.
@@TheNocturnalRambler Yeah, but having to take into account save files is a TON of extra scripting, kinda like in Dragon Age and Mass Effect, and those game had huge budgets and they STILL suffered a lot from their decision to keep all the different story branches. G1 and G2 are a different story because G1 was MUCH more manageable than Elex 1. Elex 1 already had way too many features. The fleshing out of ideas I agree with 100% though, I don't want them to add new ones, I want them to improve upon what is already there and expand the concepts rather than adding new ones, such as branching story arcs.
@@khatack I think you're setting unrealistic expectations for what could be done to make decisions from the previous game pay off in the sequel. They don't have to take a BioWare style approach with fully branching storylines and dozens of variables influencing hundreds of different outcomes, as that would obviously be too much to expect from a smaller studio like Piranha Bytes and I'm therefore NOT suggesting anything on that scale. If they wanted to be really simple and efficient with carry-over from the first game, all it would take is a few lines of dialogue being recorded a few different ways to reference prior events, and a few different quests that would start or play out a little differently based on a prior event from Elex 1. As an RPG, they already do that kind of thing with the ordinary game design, seeing as conversations often have tons of recorded lines of dialogue that never get played since they're writing reactions to dialogue options the player might never choose, with branching outcomes the player might never see, so what's so hard about doing that at the BEGINNING of a quest and then converging everything back on to a single storyline?
For instance, say Duras becomes an ordinary quest NPC in Elex 2; the quest could be written as "normal" with Duras playing a part in the story, or it could be written to cut him out entirely and skip past his part of the quest with an alternative solution, if you killed him Elex 1, that would converge back on the main path of the quest again. Say an NPC tells you "Duras might know more, you should go talk to him," and then the quest sends you to Duras for a brief conversation before he points you towards a particular location, but if you had already killed Duras, then have the NPC say "The only person who might've known was Duras, but he's dead now. Maybe there's a clue to be found in his old hut," and then go there and find a diary instead of talking to Duras. Something as simple as that is all it takes -- just a short reference with a minor detour in a specific quest to reflect the player's choice from the previous game. A situation like that isn't a completely branching story arc, but is simply a minor deviation in one step along the path of a single quest.
If they wanted to really go all out, then they could have the main quest start with three different configurations based on the ending of Elex 1, and then quickly have everything converge to a single plot line and scenario after the introduction, in a similar way as what was done in Wizardry 8. In Wizardry 8, you'll start the game in a different area of the world trying to fulfill a slightly different objective depending on whether you imported your characters from Wizardry 7 or not, and what ultimately happened at the end of Wizardry 7, and then after the first step in the main quest new situations start to occur and thus all players will end up following the same main story line, apart from a few small references here and there. Piranha Bytes could easily set Elex 2 a few years after the first game, make the new protagonist some random recruit to Jax's new army, and have the first quest in the introductory tutorial area reflect whatever happened at the end of Elex 1, and then something happens to set the new plot in motion, with a few lines of dialogue being altered slightly down the line if they really want to stick with those changes. Something like that isn't super intensive and doesn't cut through the fabric of the entire game, and seems like it wouldn't be any more complicated than scripting different quest outcomes, as it's essentially the same thing but done at the beginning of a quest instead of the end. It would be a little more work to write three completely different opening scenarios with all different dialogue, objectives, and possibly scenarios, but it's no different than simply writing three different unrelated side-quests (or writing three different sets of faction-exclusive quests), and if they're already recycling a bunch of content, assets, and mechanics from the first game then they have more time on their hands to work on that kind of stuff anyway. I realizing pulling data from save files might be a little tricky to do, but in that case it doesn't seem that difficult to just put a little questionnaire when the player clicks "New Game" that gives them the option to toggle a few variables to set starting conditions before the game actually begins.
@@TheNocturnalRambler Fair enough, that would require them to forget most of the old characters that could be killed, arbitrating canon would allow them to use the same characters a lot more and focus on the new story without having to worry about the old stuff. Also I'm of the opinion that these days doing what you describe would just cause the breaking of the fourth wall rather than adding to the game, "now this is the part where the game reminds me of what I did in Elex 1". Most of the time, if you can't do a feature properly and go all the way, it's better to simply not do it at all.
In game design, if you start adding in all the 'cool' ideas, you'll end up with a ton of half baked executions that don't serve a purpose, such as the player base and companions of Elex 1. E1 shines when you're out in the world on your own, exploring, so that's obviously what they should focus on and cut out features that don't support the faction system, which is at the core of the game. I'd much rather have them focus on adding more faction specific stuff as that would have an actual impact and ALSO add in way more replay-value.
Take Gothic for example; how amazing it would've been if at a couple points of the game there were new deliveries to the colony from the outside and there would've been quests revolving around those based on faction agendas; Swamp campers could've had a quest trying to secure them a deal with Gomez so that they can add stuff into their list, and then trying to secure that delivery, the Old camp obviously would give you a personal stake in the delivery and have you protect it from the new camp and the new camp would have you raid the delivery. Then a delivery of new prisoners would've given the opportunity for a recruitment quest where you try to recruit the new NPCs to your faction. Take core features of the world and focus on fleshing THEM out, THAT is what I want them to do.
@@TheNocturnalRambler I agree with khatack with this one. What you mention is import save file as minor consequences. But in the example with Duras: If you killed him before you need to get his clue. But if he is alive all he is allowed to do is be part of a single minor quest...
It does more harm than good. PB games tend to have (the good ones) strong bonds between characters and the players. Multiple quests are linked usually to memorable characters. Thats why they are memorable: you spend more times with them.
Making Duras (and all other imported characters who might have died) unimportant would just destroy his character.
Its much better (in my opinion) if the story is fixed and old characters can be part of complex quests to spend even more times with them in a meaningful way.
It s juste elex number 1...
OMG man,i cant believe u said user interface is ok .very poor and bland and so hard for new comers.its need to be much better with colors.wich help to find needed things much faster.
Suprisingly even though I played Gothic 2 first it was still very interesting feeling when I started to play Gothic 1, it was like uncovering how things worked before desolation of prison colony, it almost felt like some kind of archeology or trip to the past.
Me too ;)
drž tlamu
I wish me better game music for Elex 2
This and i realy didnt like the ui .
I want Kai Rosenkranz back
@@wander1645 Kai is King 😁
Well lets hope someone from piranha bytes will watch that video. Can i suggest you to make another elex video and show the secrets and easter eggs? great channel bro i hope you will be able to upload more often so your channel will grow.
I totaly agree with the UI, one thing I hated from the start the game. How you can have a RPG where you can't see your overal stats?? Seems to me like car without headlights. I got used to this UI but it took me several hours. For "stats" and quest it was relative ok but inventory was baad, find something there with this primitiv icons and long list things you must scroll... just terrible.
That was one thing spoiling game for me, second is the balanc, when I discover plasma rifle only problem was munition, with enough of it I can kill anybody with just spaming attacks. When I was near to the end I discover that posibility of Elex potions exploit, so I get trought the end of the game like nothing and finish it with ending I didn't want because I was just too cold after all that elex potions... Exactly as you said in the video, you can feel the absence of balance testing.
I would rate the game 7/10 probably, and only because I am Gothic fan, I really enjoy overal gameplay and idea of the world and story. But there is still a lot of to improve. If I should be objective critic and consider that it's 2017 game, it would be only 5/10. So I hope for a lot of improvements in Elex 2. Please Piranha Bytes, it's 2020, your Gothic formula is great but still you must improve more than just graphic.
I'd like to see them go for depth instead of width this time. Elex always felt more like an elder scrolls game than a PB Gothic type game.
Love your channel!
I'd like to be able to freely rebind ALL buttons of my keyboard, with no hard-coded buttons blocking me from my prefered layout. :/
Yes, and same for controller.
Seeing awesome Risen 1 and then awful Risen 2 - I'm afraid :O
OMG, Elex 2 will be Pirate themed. They did it with Risen 2 and G2 NotR (I don't like the Expansion of G2).
This is my main concern as well. PB has a track record of coming up with a good formula and then throwing it out the window to do something completely different, which they did with both Gothic 3 and Risen 2. Elex served as a pretty good foundation for a new series and really doesn't need radical changes to make the sequel good -- it just needs iterative improvements to mechanics and systems already present in the first game, and then expand on those ideas with extra content and features, and more polish. Essentially, do what Gothic 2 did with the original game -- keep everything largely the same, but improve on the overall quality with a new story in a new setting. It seems like a simple enough task, but for whatever reason they like to reinvent the wheel and have me worried that Elex 2 might disregard everything that worked well in Elex 1 in favor of doing something entirely new, for no reason.
@@TheNocturnalRambler Well, I have to defend PB a little bit. While I really don't like the changes they made in G3, I can understand that they wanted to try out something different, G2 plays more or less like an upgraded G1 (which was great, and still is), but you have to try out something new at some point. After they crashed and burned with G3 they went back to the basics and made a game that was mechanically really similar to G1+2 just to show that they can still make good games, so it is just logical to try to innovate with the next title (even though I prefer R1 over 2 and 3).
I think one of the reasons why R2 is so much worse is that it was the first one designed for console. The UI is just horrible, and that has implications for how the game handles items. Imho consoles ruin rpgs - or rather controler support. And the whole pirate thing PB seems to be obsessed with didn't help either (Why are there 18th century pirates in G2 NotR, a world that I would place somewhere around 14th century or something like that).
Same thing happened with Witcher, I stll like the first one the most (W2 is crap, W3 is okay).
Still enjoyed Risen 2 more than Risen 3
@@zuiop9993 I play Elex with a controller, and I don't see how this should affect the keyboard experience. The UI was their choice to make. In 2 I hope they give total freedom to change the layouts for both, and create a cool UI.
Solid work as always
another thing that really put me off with the outlaws is, how they are really just generic thugs and assholes, they stand no chance of surviving alb attacks. berserkers and clerics both have some kind of purpose to their lifes, they seek to improve their surroundings. outlaws are just there to have fun, they dont really fit into the world if you ask me.
I love how you completely sidestep Gothic 3 when doing those comparisons. You even mention Risen, but never Gothic 3. That game deserves to be erased from the canon and completely remade.
After watching your elex videos i got the desire to replay it, but then you reminded me in this video how atrocious gameplay balance is in Elex so i reconsidered.
I hope Jax will become the new leader of the resistance against the aliens. And we play as a other younger Alb that starts anew. And I which for more distinct factions, like one meele faction, one range and tech faction and one magic/psi faction... In my opinion the jetpack should be a late game addition after the first half of the game. Last point I'd like the dogde roll to be a skill that has to be learned. So that your "mage" character doesn't feel like a hyper agile athlete.
My Wishlist for Elex 2:
No more burrying Giant Spiders please. Please for the love of god, make another RPG without giant Spiders. Those are quite rare today.
Giant spiders are one of the most common enemies in RPG unfotunately. I hate them to, I always try to kill them without looking :D
Yes, yes, yes and yes. I agree with all of your points.
Starting as a new character would be nicer than having Jax lose his powers again. Cutting down on basic survival challenges and starting with the fully powered Jax who fights dangerous and active enemies might also work. A bit like Gothic 3, but with a more consistent narrative so you don't constantly switch between being a saviour and a bootlicker. Make Jax a saviour who has to deal with the consequences of that resposibility and difficult choices.
Having separate areas for the different themes didn't fully use the narrative potential of the genre mix, so I think it would be cool to merge all factions into one. Maybe they all retreated to a Helms Deep-like base and are forced to cooperate with all the chaos that this clash of ideologies ensues. (Abessa was my favorite location in Elex 1 because of that clash).
I also think elex was handled poorly in the first game. It apparently mutes emotions and makes you more powerful. If you stop taking it you lose the powers and go through a hard withdrawal phase. So why does elex just give permanent stat boosts?
Make the effects stronger but temporary, maybe even with an additional skill system that improves your elex form, but weakens Jax as he goes through Elex withdrawal. Make it an addiction that needs to be actively maintained and has relevant and detrimental side effects (not just "cold -2" or whatever), but also with the ability to come clean through hard work.
Elex was a soulless kind of sandbox game where they tried to blur their 4 or so "cultures" together for the world not being too unconvincing. Combined with the story about a sunken civilization, which had humvees, Russian trucks and some empty bungalows, while at the same time bearing no connection to our own world, it gave the whole game world this eerie, uncanny valley feeling of being engineered around the concept of "we'll have 3 camps with 3 fantasy settings and build and balance everything around it".
It's lovely to see people even embracing this inconsistent clusterfuck of a game world and think about how to build a sequel around it. That's more dedication than the developers will be doing, for sure. I'll tell you what that will be: Take a white sheet of paper, call it game map, divide it into 4 sectors, name 3 of them after 3 factions which are to be determined. Plan a hub city somewhere. Blur the borders of the sectors enough that it doesn't look too conceptional, too technical. Insert random scenery and random guys with funny names - Et Voila.
MOST IMPORTANT: add an option to HIDE THE HOTBAR. I can't tell anyone how much I hate that gigantic, ugly thing taking up half the screen!
The solution that Half-Life 2 took comes in mind, where the hotbar is visible while you are changing your weapon and then ist quickly hid away, so you can focus und whats important at that moment.
@@DasNetzwerk I agree, that would be good enough.
I tried to get into Elex, but I just couldn't do it. The setting and the story did not appeal to me, unfortunately.
I will definitely try Elex 2, since I tried every PB game up to date.
I still play Gothic 2 once a year or so.
Also, cut it down to 3 companions again and make their interactions deeper. I really did not see the need for 7(!) companions overall.
I could get behind this. It's good to have variety but not at the expense of depth, and it's just kind of hard to care about or keep up with so many companions, especially when most of them are superfluous to begin with.
I 110% agree with THIS! I love ELEX & can't wait for ELEX 2!!! Great Vid, liked & subbed, keep up the great work!
my wish list..
1. able to abandon a faction for another faction (story changing, can't go back, affects all faction specific quests, but keeps current skills/talents/perks)
2. able to make an entire faction hostile towards player.
3. able to disguise self with faction outfit (like in fallout NV)
4. upgradable jet pack (but also start off with a weaker one than the original)
5. more specific trainers.. (combat berzerker trainer shouldn't teach all the same things an outlaw berzerker does, some crossover is fine)
6. more character impact on the world and story, multiple main story endings that are tied to faction (we have a decent start with elex, push it further)
7. Scaling harvesting (a beginner wouldn't know to pick up specific roots or plants, they also wouldn't be able to cleanly cut out clean meat, or trophies)
8. Pilotable mechs
9. Dear gods remove level requirements for faction promotions!!
10. tighten up the loopholes in battle for cheesing, I've been able to kill mobs that are considerably higher than myself simply through hovering at just the right height so they don't try to shoot but can't hit me in melee.
11. If a lie is believable and no witnesses to the truth, make npc's believe and not hold the end result against the player.. yeah I sold cleric technology at the beginning, but there was no reason for anyone else to magically know it was still there to be salvaged (I didn't go with duras to do it one time).
12. Add Alb and/or Separatists as viable factions to join.
13. Escorts between moderate stronghold towns, not all towns are as strict as others and the moderate towns would have some sort of trade system... along with anyone seeking to get to a different faction, the first companion should be part of this escort system so players can start in any faction area.
14. An actual "world" ... doesn't have to be big, but if I go far enough north, I should be headed south at some point, and the same can be said for south.. if I go west form a town and keep traveling west long enough, I should come to that same town from the east, so tired of edge of maps bs. (oh and before anyone says "yeah but that's every game" or "that'd way too big"... the SNES did that with Drakken, and some Final Fantasy games)