Elex

With great quests and an even greater world Elex turns out to be the best game by Piranha Bytes since Gothic 2, but inherits the flaws of the latter.

ELEX is an old-school RPG, with all the pros and cons that come with it. Sometimes it is so crude that it's charmingly unpredictable. Beyond the few technical shortcomings, it is a fully satisfying role-playing game in an era that tends to forget the "role" part.

Magalan, while not always the prettiest to look at (the game isn't much of a looker) is so large and varied that it pulls off the hard-sell on mixing so many different themes into one. Whether it’s the lush forests, the arid deserts, or even the frozen mountains peaks and old world ruins, Elex is a game that I play for the exploration. I kill, I loot, I explore and I'll pick up quests along the way that I pretend I care about. But mostly I'm just aiming for that next big reward until something in the story happens that interests me. If you're someone like me who loves exploring open worlds, you'd be hard pressed to pass Elex up. But if you're looking for the sharpest looking, smoothest playing, go-to because you're finally bored of The Witcher 3, this one may not be for you.

There is a fantastic RPG at the core of Elex with some excellent world and quest design, remarkably diverse factions and environments awaiting those who can get past its slow start, clumsy combat and overall lack of fine polish.

In its best moments Elex sucks you into its beautifully weird world like Fallout. But in its worst it feels like a relic from a past long gone. Almost every design element offers something to praise, but also something to condemn. But nonetheless I wanted to dive in deeper.

A solid adventure with a cool scenario mixture of science fiction and fantasy. Elex is not a must-have title for RPG fans like Divinity: Original Sin 2 - but it's a nice addition.

Although dialogue writers were burning the midnight oil, the team responsible for combat was obviously slacking off and did nothing to really improve that mess of a close combat which ELEX inherited from Risen. Monster fights are as choppy, unnatural and buggy as ever, for example, enemies slide right up a steep slope if they happen to dodge in that direction. [Issue#225, p.68]

In many aspects, Elex is a blast from the distant past — antiquated, clumsy, and half-baked. But even with all that, I would often find myself pulling all-nighters in its weird world.

Elex demands a certain species of patience, a particular brand of mental acuity.