Elex 2 After 8 Months - What Happened to This RPG?

[@click4gameplay]

Get Yahaha studio for free here: mtchm.de/ctgsd Edit: I got the part about the DLC wrong. Risen 2 and Risen 3 did have some DLCs, although they weren't big by any means. Especially compared to Night of the Raven. What did you think about Elex 2 in general? Better or worse than Elex 1?

[@rroyoy]

I've been waiting to play this for so long just haven't bought it yet

[@jessedoherty5072]

Elex 1 was a much more enjoyable and expansive experience

[@jessedoherty5072]

heres hoping they learn for Elex 3 that the world isnt as important as the individual factions. The Morkons we're a step in the right direction

[@ArantyrDarkhand]

Nothing happen it just got released toghter with elden ring and end in the forgoten place i did not even touched it yet, ive not even finished elden ring. Due to lack of time. They really need to make something like a DLC to market the game.

[@droggelbecher2k127]

Gameplay, Exploration was better, story was worse. Sidequest and Lore was on par to Elex I. Morkons were amazing. Nice twist to have 3 Fractions which actually split up again to 5. was sceptical but actually worked out.

[@Herptroid]

Legitimately didn't know Elex II had released and I really enjoyed the first game. Dropping it a week after Elden Ring is worse than even releasing Kingdoms of Amalur when everyone was still playing Skyrim.

[@aidencampbell9120]

What? Your last sentence lost me.

[@averageguy9549]

I get what you mean, I never heard of kingdoms of amalur until the remaster came out, never heard of elex 1 or 2 until it came out on ps plus. The AAA games cast a shadow over these ones and they went unnoticed due to that

[@MrKrampyHands]

Kingdoms of Amalur was and still is a masterpiece tbh if it would been released earlier or later than Skyrim it would got the recognition it deserved

[@user-bj1mx2ip1c]

​@@MrKrampyHands I love skyrim but I can never get into kingdoms of amalar I feel like the graphics are horrible on console PC version was better but the game which was really weird it was like rotate warcraft but offline

[@jeffreyschwarz3699]

Elex 2 appears to be a better game, but you need to give it time to strengthen your character. Sometimes the game makes you wait because your character is not strong enough.

[@rafiqul84]

Your video made me think of how much of a gem THQ is as a publisher. They always have their eye out for niche games with smaller audiences, building their portfolio with average sales numbers. Keeping a foothold in the AA game market while the bigger publishers focus on AAA titles.

[@lukazgarza4075]

My favourite publisher.

[@innerparty1]

THQ biggest strength is the way they choose developers for certain franchises they intend to bring back. It's always a perfect synergy, and for that I find that the best publisher around.

[@jakedill1304]

I mean... they are just about one of the biggest software conglomerates around... see my above post about Embracer for more context... but you know... actions are definitely not as loud as marketing and PR departments, and outside of their name lol, just the lack of a news cycle is a almost proof enough they might actually intend something near abouts to their mission statement... a history of actually doing it over the years is even better lol... strange world we live in I suppose... annoying one... and for some reason PR and marketing think they speak human still... better to say nothing as a corp or little no nothing and I'll take that as a much better sign bout what your intentions are...? Funny how rare that is.

[@drag0nmare]

I'd live another Red Faction Guerrilla-ish game

[@pyrojinn]

THQNordic is not really the same anymore

[@Onionbaron]

I have not played this game myself... I watched The Revs play-through and loved it! There is something about Pirhana bytes games thats really hooks you, and they have always done it! So much atmosphere!

[@zozihn8047]

Piranha Bytes, in short, completely nails the feeling of not being the chosen one. The games are a bit janky, but worlds feel alive and the experience is pretty brutal compared to a power fantasy like Skyrim. They also have a habit of building their maps vertically, rather than vast horizontal expanses.

[@AveSicarius]

@@zozihn8047 Even if you are the Chosen One, like Gothic 1 and Gothic 2, you still have to work your ass off to actually get to the godlike point you end the game on, and even then you can easily get swatted by group's of enemies, who don't nicely come at you one at a time, even if you could 4 shot the last boss with your slab of steel or crazy magic. You can be the Champion of Innos, some highly decorated Alb Commander, or a dude who beats Titan's to death with a wooden stick, but you are still in a world that wants to kill you and doesn't care how it does it. Just because you end up a demigod doesn't mean an overgrown chicken or giant rat can't tear you apart until you get going.

[@ianemory5800]

So i was excited for this and really liked the 1st one, but I feel off of this game pretty quickly. I think I just didn't get grabbed by the story the same way I did with the first.

[@enotpoloskun8799]

to be honest, after 50 hours of playing, I love this game. Maybe as much as I love Elex 1 and maybe even more! By the way on my PC directx12 works very well, only start take more time to load.

[@StalwartShinobi]

I found elex 1 because I love trying strange RPGs, like gothic, and two worlds. Elex 1 and 2 are now my favourite RPGs, if I compared it to Skyrim I'd say the factions in elex are much more involving and eventful, great companions, and a very difficult learning curve, it took me so long to get out of goliet in elex 1 because I weren't used to the game and didn't have confidence to explore too much but I reached the clerics and went along with them and I saw why elex is such a great game

[@torham]

Overall, Elex 1 was the better game. Elex 1 kept me engaged while in Elex 2 the last 20 hours was a major grind, I finished it but only because I have finished every PB game. The story was pretty bad, I didn't care about the kid and the reveal at the end was meh so I'm not really excited for the next game. Quests were often weak, many of them didn't make any sense and people didn't respond to your choices. Also, the camera made the game absolutely unplayable until modders fixed it. Next time I'm waiting 1 year after release to buy.

[@inquerion8867]

Worst PB game for me. Gothic 3 was unpolished and unfinished, but it was unpolished and unfinished gem. Elex 2 is just mediocre in most aspects. I have no idea how they managed to create worse game than Elex 1 and especially Risen 2 (Elex 1 wasn't that bad). They had biggest budget ever, 5 years of dev time and many assets from first Elex game. It feels like this game was made in 1.5 years max. Feels rushed and unfinished. And this ancient engine needs to be either replaced or heavily modernized. I'm not interested in Elex 3 after this game.

[@forcebane]

Absolutely love your retrospect videos, keep 'em coming. Uživaj, burki!

[@aljosap8445]

Uživaj ? Where you bois from ?

[@Sandro234]

@@aljosap8445 Balkan gigachads 😎

[@GrailSeeker]

Although I liked the first Elex - I never finished for some reason. Reached maybe the half of the main story line and got tired.

[@independentthought3390]

I'm not surprised. I'm playing Elex 1 right now, and am about 30 hours in, but the game is becoming a chore to play. The story isn't moving anywhere, every enemy encounter is the same, and I am doing nothing but errands for faction leaders, or companion quests. I hope it gets more interesting soon, because if not, I will probably give up.

[@Ezio999Auditore]

Don’t play 2 then 😅

[@aaron5809]

10:00 Aged like milk

[@Riot076]

Personally as a die-hard Piranha Bytes fan I found the first Elex to be very underwhelming and just overly reliant on their formula for making rpgs. They need to move on and by that I don't mean scrap all they were doing so far completely,but just develop it in some direction. Like Rockstar did for example with their concept of a sandbox game. From missions bound to specific,clearly marked locations in the open world,through random strangers,appearing on your radar only when you were in their close proximity,to random scripted encounters,that often play out "in-game" rather than force you into cutscenes and all activities being much more mechanic-based and immersed into the world rather than instantiated. And I know Piranha is no Rockstar,but I didn't want to draw this comparison scale-wise,but rather approach-wise

[@sensoeirensen]

I loved Elex 1. Played over 200hrs. But Elex 2 was crap from beginning to the end. Never touched it again after 70hrs. The whole look and feel is way worse than the first one. Huge disappointment!

[@jiri-novotny-active]

I LOVED the first Elex and was really looking forward to the next one. But the E2 was a huge disappointment to me mainly for two reasons: first - the optimization and bugs - It is unacceptable to release the game with outdated graphics, poor performance and graphical glitches A YEAR AFTER it was supposed to release when they had a whole another year to optimize and bug-test the thing. The game was even unable to start on a couple of older graphics cards! And the second reason is the simple story and illogical events - I don´t want to spoil but there is one important character that died in the end and the rest of the crew completely ignored the event, like it never happened. That was too much for me. This game taught me to not preorder games. I have no desire to play this again (I forced myself to finish it).

[@polygonparade4083]

The morkons didnt really appeal and the city hubs were made so big I never really learned them. The companions were just a bit meh and cleric armor changed. Looked a lot better visually but art direction in some areas was a bit off, mainly companions. Shame because i loved elex 1!

[@jaredh289]

Thoroughly enjoyed both one and two. Desperately want a third… just hope they don’t go for the filler ending with kill 10-40 of x, y and z. I love the world, the characters and I’m invested into it.

[@brothergrok]

I just started watching the vide, but right off the bat I just wanna say: Elex 2 vastly disappointed me. I did finish the game, but it just did not hit for me. IDK why... so let's watch your video so I can hear more! lol

[@buc991]

Same, but i coudn't even finish it, also not sure why, i had many hopes because i finished first one many times. On the paper it looks better, but in reality many aspects seem off, uninspired, unfinished and boring, especially quests and exploration, and this is most important things for me in this kind of games.

[@brothergrok]

@@buc991 Yeah! Boring is right. The jetpack was cool, though.

[@IncomingLegend]

I'll tell you why: the 1st half of the game was decent, it felt just like the classic games, but the 2nd half felt like turd... Its like they gave up and just copy pasted generic quests of go there and kill 30 enemies then go over there and kill 50 enemies... I used cheats to get infinite jetpack and that only put it in perspective of how boring the finale is... The ending with the aliens is also extremely dumb and felt more like a rehash of the 1st game... And don't get me started on factions, you spend all that time and effort to join one and all you get is some armor, ZERO story impact, now that's just lazy writing...

[@jimmysgameclips]

@@IncomingLegend this is my issue with Risen. The first half was SO good

[@thevenerablezhin4489]

@@IncomingLegend I just finished the game, and I agree with everything you said. The game eventually felt like a drag, the storyline sucked and the finale was extremely disappointing.

[@timinou9915]

They should partner with Spiders studio , they both make great budget title rpg that almost play the same.

[@johnd3124]

Spiders actually improved a lot with Greedfall, unlike PB.......

[@timinou9915]

@@johnd3124 😜 Im a bigger fan of Spiders too gotta say

[@LizzardKaze]

The last skit where you show the Arcania game, reminds me of durmin paradox. Nicely done

[@click4gameplay]

That guy made some great videos about Gothic games and just disappeared. :(

[@adambakalar952]

^^ this. I wonder what Durmin is up to now 😄His Gothic videos are awesome.

[@aleksandargaciczagor]

I completed ELEX II four times and today I started playing it again I have played all the Piranha Bytes games and for me the best is Gothic 1 Gothic 2 Gothic 3 and Risen 1

[@ktstubble]

thank you for all your awesome content. I am a big fan of Piranha Bytes and THQ Nordic games and especially the two most recent Elex I and Elex II. bought and played Elex II on launch and enjoyed it much more than Elden Ring which also launched then.

[@tevildo9383]

Yeah, the timing of the release is a big part of why I still haven't purchased Elex 2 even though I really liked Elex 1 when I first played it on Xbox and bought it again on PC to play as preparation for Elex 2. I was legitimately excited for Elex 2, but then Elden Ring completely stole ("spoiled"?) my focus for a couple months. And then I saw the reviews for Elex 2, and I kinda just decided to let it sit on the Steam wishlist until a good sale comes along. Honestly my backlog of games is already getting out of hand (22 started but not finished, 33 never played), and I'm almost finished reading the Witcher books for the first time, so I plan to replay all 3 of those soon (super excited for Witcher 1 remake as well, even if it's several years away). I really do plan to play Elex 2 eventually, but it's just not my top priority as far as games go right now. I guess I also need to finish the mess that is Gothic 3 and get started on the Risen series. I hope G2 and 3 get a second chance with THQ because they need it way more than G1, IMO.

[@AveSicarius]

Steam sales are the devil when it comes to creating an unattainable catalogue of games to finish. I almost 500 games on my account (purchased over more than a decade), and I've maybe finished a quarter of them, if that, and I still have so many I want to finish. It's definitely better to focus on a small number at a time, even if that's 20-30 haha.

[@vayce2970]

Loved Elex 2. Finished it 4 times. Here's hoping they come through with Elex 3.

[@wargamesmaster]

I think the Elex games are the only games I enjoy enough to consider playing on high difficulties just for the fun of it.

[@MrOthello7]

this game is a shyt xD

[@salamathesusatbiyernesulit2161]

I love the Elex series and I can't wait to know what will happen to Jax in Elex 3. I am still bitter that Jax ended with Kaja and not with my favourite girl Nasty.

[@zennistrad]

It kinda seems like Piranha Bytes has a knack for disappointing sequels at this point tbh

[@UndyingGhost]

I finished the game had high hopes for it but it was kinda underwhelming. Piranha will never make a game like Gothic ever again.

[@MrWellls]

i felt elex 2 was a let down story and gameplay wise compared to elex, little was improved on and i feel like the criticism that was about elex 1 was either ignored or was too late to implement in to its sequel, also the fact that there was a noticeable downgrade in graphics compared to the first game felt like to me that this was just another mass effect andromeda

[@Yes4HumanRace]

Elex just didnt do it for me. Cant they go back to gothic formula? For example why dont enemies drop their weapons?

[@gerritgrauwinkel8665]

They do

[@Vondora]

Enemies in Elex 2 drops their weapons.

[@Yes4HumanRace]

@@gerritgrauwinkel8665 Oh they do in elex 2? Nice

[@Geraduss]

Lets just say it plain, Elex2 is the only PB game I haven't played. And I'm one of those who lets say played Gothic 1&2 more times then I care to count.

[@assassindelasaucisse.4039]

I liked PB games, been playing their games since Gothic 2, but I grew tired of their formula. I respect the "artisanal" aspect to some extent, but after all those years, it also seem a little cheap in my opinion. I have been waiting for almost 20 years for them to make a game with a actual budget and less jank. They'll never do it, I'm sure of that now. They're too satisfied with not being perfectionists, and too proud to stop being independent.

[@lukaszads95]

The reason Elex II flopped was the story, the characters, the factions and the quest structure. Nobody cares about the graphics or combat in such games, when the story and worldbuilding is inferior to the first game. Jax in Elex 1 had more character, he was more of a badass. In 2nd game, he is just an ass :) And what did they do to Nasty... !! Anyway, I was sick of Elex 1 after 60 hours of play, but when it comes to Elex 2 it was more like 15-20 hours. It just wasn't as interesting.

[@sebogothic]

ELEX II is worst game Piranha Bytes. Even Gothic 3 is higher in my private ranking. 1. Gothic II: Night of the Raven 2. Gothic 3. Risen 4. ELEX 5. Risen 3: Titan Lords 6. Risen 2: Dark Waters 7. Gothic 3 8. ELEX II

[@WurdNinja007]

Loved Elex, loved Elex II even more. Played them both on PS4. If they make Elex III, I will buy that too! I think they are highly underrated and deserve more attention. Never played Gothic, but the remake looks awesome, cant wait. I just hope they release it on console.

[@taljune142010]

If you liked Elex, you will much more like all the Gothic series, even with the old graphic it is still the best series.

[@MESHtro]

I have Elex 2 but still haven't finished it. It's kinda...bland...a step backwards in some areas compered to the first game. The combat is improved for sure, graphics are nicer without a doubt but the world is kinda meh, and the story and writing and how it is presented in general is - in my opinion - worse then the first game and especially any of their older games. Call it looking through rose-tinted glasses but I remember that Gothic series and at least 1st Risen had better quality writing. Elex 2 has some of the cringiest dialogue(not all of it to be fair), and the story has potential but from the very beginning it is obvious that not much will come out of it, considering how things are presented. Also the world is too big for it's own good, and is not that interesting to explore. And I personally don't like their attempt on world building, because it seems too random and uninspired. As an example I remember finding a note that was some corporate report that not only did not tell me much about the world of the past, but I found it in a random building that was not that much distinguishable from other buildings in the game. I think they would be better off with creating smaller world, but one that is much denser and a bit more believable - quality over quantity, and given the size of their studio one would think that would be no-brainer and yet for some reason I cannot comprehend, despite lacking manpower they try to go big. And they have some great examples in their own game catalogue. Gothic 1's world was not that big, but was actually really fun to explore, and Gothic 2 had expanded that world in an interesting way. I loved the new areas that were introduced by the sequel, but I also loved the fact that I could visit some of the areas from the first game, because they were actually memorable. With Elex...well I only finished the first game once, but I rarely reply games...but when I started playing the 2nd game, even though the map shares some areas with the map of the first game, I don't know...they made it somehow worse...it just feels lazy to me. This is not at all a comprehensive opinion about the game, but the comment is already too long - just wanted to highlight the things that put me off the most. I loved most of their games including 1st Elex, but the sequel...too many things off about it for my taste. I will probably finish it, but it is the first time I'm not enjoying myself as much as I did with their previous games (not counting Risen 2 and 3 - did not have a chance to play them enough to form an opinion) even though their games are not that different in structure from each other - and I loved them for that, this was what made them unique among other RPG games...but it seems like the studio is loosing their drive. Maybe I'm wrong...I hope I am because their games are close to my heart and maybe with the new publisher Elex 3 will be a return to form for them.

[@jefferycervantes2225]

The game is trash. The story dialog is nothing compared to the first game. They put 5 year's of effort into this game an only accomplished a perspective of work. The graphic's & sound for the game are a 10, for major difference improvement from the first elex. An the fighting mechanism is a 5 because it's simple & boring & glitching. An the story dialog is a 4, because the story has no maturity & no physcial empathy reactions & meaningless character attachment & no affection interaction!! The final score rating is a 10 - 5 - 4, this a pitiful attempt toward's creating a unique game for rpg which falls short from the first elex game.

[@larsschulze2799]

I couldn't even finish this game, it was so boring and dragged out story/gameplay wise it just felt like a chore. I'm a massive Gothic fan but if the next Piranha Bytes game plays anything like Elex 2 I'm definitely skipping it. U can literally feel that the devs give a shit what u think about their game, they make whatever they think is fun/good for them. In their opinion the die hard fans will buy their games anyways. Really sad the studios work is a shadow of its former self

[@adnan4688]

This is not PB we like. That PB is long gone. I will never say I like PB games,I like Gothic 1 and 2 and NotR. The rest of the games are trash. Gothic 3 is meh,it doesn't come close to first two games. OG PB fell apart long time ago.

[@spiffdaddy]

it was this or Elden Ring i picked Elden Ring

[@ouboet9245]

"We will definitely see another Elex game from Piranha Bytes". That quote did not age well unfortunately.

[@ergohash2517]

Most people were curious about ELEX 1, so they checked it out. It was something completely new from PB. So I think curiosity was the driving factor for the first game's success. As for the 2nd - it seems pretty much the same as the 1st one. So all this curiosity goes out the window. The ones who liked ELEX1 will buy ELEX2, the ones who didnt - wont buy it. I personally didnt get to play ELEX1 myself, as I dont have a good PC. But even I, upon hearing that they were apparently planning to do for a whole ELEX trilogy, let out a big sigh. What i saw from videos on ELEX 1 didnt really impress me, so hearing that PB is going to spend another 4-7 years doing more ELEX games wasnt exciting at all.

[@click4gameplay]

That actually makes a lot of sense. It's very interesting to see a brand new IP in general.

[@gypsykang7545]

The game just straight out sucked. Zero improvement over the first one, story and quest design were even worse. It wouldn't surprise me if the reason they released it so close to Elden Ring is because they knew they had a dud on their hands and wanted an excuse for poor sales.

[@alexschmidt3034]

It runs very well on DX12. Great game, anxious for Elex 3.

[@theverylastuser]

I hope in the future games Pirahna would scrap this awful soulslike combat and just go with something less infuriating, slow and stupid.

[@itsVaith]

Elex is missing a good story and gameplay also the world felt quiet boring.

[@jackplisken4738]

the PS5 version is still unplayable in the Ice-Region even Peformance mode is like 20 FpS. I have to say after Elex 2 Piranhas Gothic Bonus is gone for me

[@126sebi]

Womp womp

[@NotUnymous]

I hope they don't make an Elex 3... I won't buy it. I hope they will turn back to good old Fantasy, and maybe some new story writers.

[@SSchithFoo]

There are also the Elex 2 first timers that wanted to play Elex 1 and bought it.

[@dennisdavidov782]

Has the recent DX12 update significantly improved performance ? There are some reports about it introducing some visual glitches (and somewhat lower image quality) and also much longer loading times.

[@HeinSmit1]

Playing at 4k with a strong pc, the performance improvements for me are negligible and a few settings ste stuck on low. The dx12 update introduces things like anti aliasing not working and environment render range being stuck on low no matter what. Any performance gains are probably sue to those settings not working properly

[@gamedoutgamer]

It's like PB doesn't care. It's just adequate on many fronts.

[@peterclay]

I plan on buying elex2 at the next steam sale. I own elex on ps4 but I've been having alot of fun with Mt steam deck and I'd love to play elex 2

[@HeadsFullOfEyeballs]

As a Gothic fan who got burned out on Piranha Bytes' newer games a long time ago, I was mildly interested in Elex 1 because of the new setting (didn't end up buying it though), but never considered touching Elex 2. So I'm not surprised at those Steam peak player numbers.

[@epyjacek]

You should play the first one. I enjoyed it a lot and I've been playing their games since the release of Gothic 2.

[@innstikk]

Nice video, made me want to play Elex I again. I liked Elex I. Liked the arty graphics in it and gameplay. Played it just before Elex II was released. Elex II felt more like a shell compared to Elex I. The open world was generic and repetitive compared til Elex I. Don't get me started on the character art, and the story was a bit meh. I am still going to buy Elex III when it comes 😄

[@tairyu2574]

I got a bad feeling when, after starting a demo, the game crashed in 30min. I might have only been playing it on a ps4 pro, but it still made me worried about technical performance.

[@armelior4610]

I never played any PB game, but from all those videos about them I got the feeling that they're happy with their production model and don't try to increase their ambitions with each game like Spiders or CDproject back before witcher 3. I'm not sure they're even trying to increase their audience. It's probably a good thing, for fans of their style of games. Don't jinx it by wondering what a triple-A gothic would be like ^^

[@gamerdad9051]

I was really disappointed. The writing was horrible IMO

[@GmanTheTank]

This is already out?! Lmao, I didn't even realize it had released! I enjoyed the first one well enough, I need to pick this up soon.

[@vinoirma8225]

You should review Archolos, the gothic 2 mod of the year, its truly amazing

[@rockyramsy]

Despite everything Elex 2 is one of my favourite games in 2022. There is something gripping about it that made me invest 100+ hours. It was the same situation with the original Elex I think I spent 120 h playing Elex. I really hope we see Elex 3.

[@thehatter9400]

So question for you then. I myself felt ekex 1's combat and....just how character progression is handled, what character challanges you encounter and how they did enemy placement. Is elex 2 better in this regard? I could get into riven 2 because i like pirates but also hiw you get more skills just clicked in that one, with elex it was less so, mostly because of basically every character tries to take advantage of you.

[@Ezio999Auditore]

Avoid 2 like the plague

[@rockyramsy]

@@thehatter9400 sorry for the delayed response. ELEX 2 is improvement in everything

[@Rubikant]

Small technical correction to a statement you made - Gothic 2 was NOT their only game with DLC. Risen 2 & 3 also had DLC with extra islands to explore. However, in those cases the DLC came out at launch, so I'll grant you that Gothic 2 is the only one with DLC that was worked on after the game was released, which is the point you were making (post-release support).

[@dvr1337]

Will there be another gothic or elex or risen soon? We all need one:)

[@karimghazal1531]

is it worth the price if im diehard piranha b fan?

[@AshWolfPath]

Still playing elex 2 A lot in it that makes you want to keep going back on it.

[@jjforcebreaker]

One day I might check it out, but there's so much stuff to play... I'm still not a big fan of a mashup of generic(ish) sci-fi and primitive, grounded technology. In theory, it's fairly original but doesn't click with me. And without atmosphere, there's not a lot in the gameplay department. For a quick Gothic fix I'd rather reinstall G3, Risen3 or Archolos, despite finishing each of those at least a couple of times. They clearly had a limited budget and IMHO aiming for something with a production value above AA was a mistake. It would be better to focus on gameplay and RPG elements and content.. In the end even the presentation was 'just' OK when it came out. Idk, it's a shame. Still I'm excited about Gothic remake. Gothic 3 remaster would be amazing too, with integrated CP +tons of fixes, some new equipment, side quests and elevated graphics.

[@rroyoy]

I've been wanting to play this for so long

[@gamingtonight1526]

Elex was a very hard game. The devs said Elex II was even harder, for those of us that got frustrated at the game difficulty of the first game were never going to buy the second game, like I didn't.

[@stockpilethomas7900]

I would say it was easy then first. The combat is alot more easy for casual games. The first one had to have the right timing to push the attack . The second you don't.

[@PhreakDarkSoul]

@@stockpilethomas7900 I never managed to find the right "timing". Also hand weapons are so weak, why did they implement them at all? With Elex, PB lost a great fan. I bought all previous games, but Elex was definitly my last PB game.

[@justrok79]

I had a lot of gripes with the game, but still enjoyed it. I definitely picked it up at launch while everyone was on Elden Ring. My performance was all over the place and I spent a lot of time tweaking it. In any case I look forward to more from PB

[@thetrashcanman7537]

Choosing this game over elden ring is hilarious!!!

[@justrok79]

@@thetrashcanman7537 yup, I laughed all the way til the credits rolled. Had a great time.

[@thetrashcanman7537]

@@justrok79 I’d laugh tears if I had that bad of taste in games too

[@porkerpete7722]

​@@thetrashcanman7537damn nobody can have their own opinion.

[@thetrashcanman7537]

@@porkerpete7722 I answered his opinions with facts

[@jakedill1304]

This is kinda my point whenever someone brings up Embracer buying up beloved IP's, especially from studios that were put into a toxic abusive relationship with their overlords like Eidos Montreal had with Square... So far Nordic has kinda been exactly what you want from a large publisher, or at least the best case one could hope for with the bar as low as it has fallen... Unlike the former namesake for THQ... Nordic has been surprisingly supportive and as the embracer conglomerate goes, they have thus far not been anything other than creepy by name alone(1). Funny though the Company buying the namesake of a massive publisher that went all in to bankruptcy on a preverbal Etch A Sketch(2) and thus far have been bout the polar opposite in operation and financial responsibility... But I can't think of any real standout AAA publisher conglomerate moments, which again, a low bar, but just that they have been super chill and let the sublets do their thing... so far for real... you know like every hungry conglomerate says they will after a good gobble, like EA or Activision in the late 90's or just anyone in corpoland.... before gutting the studio or converting them to indentured franchise support staff. Thus far I think THQ Nordic just as a standalone(3) has done what no one else is doing in that investment in the mystical unicorn of ol', the AA game... and while no one is perfect and they are still a publisher, like the bar is low... and the kinda support and whatnot they seem to offer and the projects, ect... like it would be reasonable by the older standards before AAA, nowadays, it's downright saintly... at least thus far. Feels odd, praising a conglomerate for going above the bare minimum, or not being outright misanthropic as a business model, but thus far I feel credit is due where it is, and will call it all out should Embracer Nordic Q whatevermajig live up to the dystopian namesake they branded their company(4)... But Ever since the last big roundup that re-negotiated Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamic's indentured servitude, people have been acting like this is a bad thing... cause the passive aggressive and abusive relationship that Square Enix had with it's studios was workin out great right? Well now they got a publisher that has a proven track record of... actual... low... interference publishing... and even better, they have more than a few forays into the whole medium budget affair... which that alone is a better sign than many would really understand till you look at the landscape of modern AAA and how that budget and scale and manipulation to justify it to a speculative market that lives in an infinite feedback loop and has nothing to do with it... well... Dunno... Gonna go reflexively vomit now for putting this many words into cooperate shillery lol... hopefully that's just reflexive, but again... with THQ big hugs edition... they kinda have for a while now actually done the thing they said, and with little notion to call attention to that there of... Which whenever a large corpo entity starts waxing bout the things... is always a really bad sign bout anything they are up to lol... and all of them do it endlessly like they don't seem to comprehend humans don't speak PR marketing. (1)Maybe it's a Swedish thing... I mean... they are kinda... well... lutefisk... (2)You would think they coulda seen the writing on the wall... HA! Man... no one get's that joke, but THQ died in one of the most RCA-esque manors, but instead of apathetic and too little to late, they did it with pride and oblivious vigor... good riddance. (3)There are two, but the THQ branding is more core Embracer group, as opposed to it's other sublets... SO both do different things, but... well.. ehh... nvm... (4)On purpose lol... like they were Under THQ Nordic as an over all listing... and were like... this is better... not creepy at all... Sweeds...

[@ruekurei88]

I was interested in this game, despite not too fond of the Hank and wonky combat I’ve seen, until I found out there was no character creator. Huge deal breaker for me when it comes to RPGs. If even Japanese console developers can sort themselves out when it comes to that stuff(Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Dragons Dogma), I don’t see why I still have to put up with it from PC devs. I barely put up with it for Witcher. If they put in a character creator for part 3, I’ll check it out, if not I’ll just play other RPGs with character creators.

[@MegaCygnusX1]

"Pirhana Bytes games will always sell well enough for the studio to be financially stable and to make the publisher happy." - and this is the root of the problem. PB are the epitome of "...good enough, ship it." which is why their games will never get beyond "charming Eurojank", at best. Problem is they've basically been releasing iterations on the same game for 2 decades now, and for many the charm is starting to wear thin. PB will never be more than what they are currently while they remain with THQ, and honestly Ihe team is too small to be making open world games, if they scaled back we'd get much more polished and consistent games from them.

[@asgarzigel]

Pretty sure Elden Ring is what happened. I still haven't bought Elex 2 bc I simply don't have the time to play it. (Haven't even finished Elden Ring). I hope I can get to it around Christmas or so, I do love PB games.

[@dragondropdota]

I love PBs style of games and I appreciate them sticking to their strengths, although I'd not be opposed to them finding ways of increasing the production value in some ways. Even after 60 hours of Elex 2 in my first playthrough I could never get fully used to the character models in dialogues - they felt like a step back in some ways? Some uncanny valley type stuff I'm sure. Still gearing up for another playthrough now and already looking forward to zooming around with the jetpack :D Your point about DLCs is not quite accurate I'm afraid. There were some DLCs for Risen 2 (one for some bonus starting gear, Treasure Island with Patty, and some Storm Island thing where you smack some gargoyles). They were enjoyable enough, although more simplistic in their scope compared to Night of the Raven which really integrated and completed Gothic 2 at the time. The reason PB never stuck with making DLCs for their subsequent games is that, according to Björn Pankratz, they received a lot of criticism along the lines of "omg you're cutting out content to sell it to us after" even if that wasn't really the case. You're also right that the limited ressources of the small development studio are another reason - Björn also said that they would rather concentrate on making new games rather than worthwhile DLC, as the effort required would be comparable but the money made would be much less. He likes to compare it to Witcher 3s Blood and Wine in that regard.

[@leviidaisuke64]

Elex games is actually really interesting, like the gothic was kinda funny and the magic system is amazing tbh

[@yvesgingras1475]

Elex 1 was alright but I was not hype at all for elex 2. I was disapointed it was still a premade avatar and not a custom one.

[@dennisdavidov782]

It was obvious the story is going to continue with the same character, it is like being dissapointed the you have to play as Geralt in the 3 Witcher games.

[@yvesgingras1475]

@@dennisdavidov782 I know, its not really a critic or anything, just my personnal opinion. Its the same reason why I dont really like the witcher game in fact XD I have real issue with immersion and premade character in rpg.

[@anduril38]

While I'll admit I enjoyed some of Elex 2, the writing, characters and dialogue in it was just atrocious. What happened to the writing quality?! Sure, PB's writing hasn't been amazing, I've seen better, but Elex 1 was a lightyear ahead in comparison. I have my doubts we'll even get an Elex 3 at this point, and seeing how PB third-game in trilogy titles are always the weakest, my hopes wouldn't be high. Kinda glad PB aren't reamaking their old Gothic, seeing what happened with this.

[@adamaccountname]

For the Gothic remake I want first person view and to turn off that horrible motion blur and depth of field. My eyes do that for free

[@revoltingpeasantry8796]

Didn`t Risen 2 have dlcs? PB should invest in new story writers and make every effort to make Rosenkranz and Hoge come back to the studio.

[@5minutereviews296]

I played it eight months ago, just went back and it runs so bad now, so many bugs and fps drops, check my last video of random gaming glitches, there is a crazy elex two bug.

[@Ray2001ify]

Bug looks crazy and creepy

[@thememorybank2623]

I enjoyed the first Elex but to be honest, the setting just doesn't keep me engaged. I don't like the factions or the world and therefore haven't bought the second one. Guns in fantasy RPGs man, just don't do it.

[@marksironi3324]

I played Elex 1 but haven't bought Elex 2 yet. Not because of any particular impression of Elex 2, purely because this is a steam sale not full price kind of game for me.

[@dennisdavidov782]

It was 50%-discounted a while ago.

[@BaldyMacbeard]

How games could look with 3A budget? Dude... Dude. Unreal Engine is literally FREE and you could make a game looking 10x better with free assets from the marketplace. They charge you 5% in royalty after your game makes 1M+ revenue. Quite insignificant for a small developer studio that can't afford to waste manpower on the engine. It eludes me why the Piranha guys are refusing to use Unity or UE for years. Their games look like shit and even things like animations have been getting WORSE. Compare the magic/casting animations and effects in Risen 2+3 with Elex 2 - what the hell happened?

[@Northernmight]

too bad. Looks like PB really upped their standards and made a great game. And it goes unrewarded. That always sucks. It's like when Obsidian made Tyranny WHICH IS FUCKING AMAZING. But for some reason it didn't sell well, so they focused on Pillars of Eternity instead.. Which is pretty dull in my opinion. Sucks. Quality and success sadly doesn't always go hand in hand :(

[@almothemarmot]

Actually Risen 2 and Risen 3 had DLCs which were not well received from the fans, because they were cut content and attempts at a cash grab. Then in Risen 2 you could activate the DLCs for free in the developer console, which I guess pissed of the suits, which later on in Risen 3 led to the developer deactivating the console for all titles forward. I am sorry but since Gothic 1 I was dependent on the developer console for solving Quest breaking Bugs in EVERY. SINGLE. PIRANHA. BITES. GAME. Yes even in Risen 3 and Elex 1 where my only option was to load save games taking me several hours back. The break for me is that there is no real mod support. The last one was for Gothic 2 and look how the modding community is still keeping this game alive. Piranha Bytes has some of the most dedicated modding fans out there and they can't for their life see it. They have the goose shitting golden eggs in their house but decide to slaughter the goose for the meat. Some of my most played games have at least some mod support. (Every Paradox Interactive title, Total Wars, Skyrim, Kenshi, Dont Starve Together, played a lot of League of Legends and Counterstrike where the whole genre started as a mod. Enderal is a free game and basically a Skyrim Mod) So for me I would never buy the game at full price, maybe in one or two years from a shaddy key seller for 10 bucks. THQ Nordic as a publisher is cool though.

[@Baardnick]

I love rpgs. havent played any games from this dev before tho ive heard of Gothic, Elex and seen Risen or whatever its called on several consolestores or steam. I love rpgs: final fantasy 6, 7, 9, 12. Suikoden 1, 2, 5. Elder Scrolls Skyrim, Witcher 3, Elden Ring and Zelda Breath of the Wild (ye, its not a real rpg, but kinda edges over into the genre for me). anyways, would I like this game? would love to have a 3rd person open world rpg to explore, gear, items, bosses, culture, music. is this game good or lots of technical stuff dragging it down? does it feel good to control etc? I wanna get it for a console, so PS5 I guess.

[@neosildrake]

I like Elex 1 better, because the world looks better, with more alien details, while Elex 2 looks like it could take place anywhere on earth and even in the woods outside my home town. Exploring is so much more fun in Elex 1. Take the Tavar coastline f.e. and compare the one in Elex 1 with the one in Elex 2. Combat system is better in Elex 2, but still... it just feels not as good. It feels kinda "flatter", it just lacks "something" and some things always rub me the wrong way. Why are all the windows still intact after nearly 200 years, but they couldn't even be bothered to add doors. That was much better in Elex 1. The whole worldbuilding in Elex 2 gives me "unfinished" vibes. The story and ending in Elex 2 is just... wtf? MC and companion reactions are as stiff as 70s british puppet shows. Character graphics range from meh to terrible. The sidequests are the heart of the game. Unfortunatelly all of them, that are non companion and non faction related, can be done in the 1st Passus, which leaves the other 3 main chapters a 90% mob beating slog. I hope Elex 3 brings us back to Edan, Abessa and Xacor, takes up the cliffhangers in the main- and sidequests, adds more new areas and has more sidequest that are chapter locked and also more faction quests. You only have the promotion quests after you join a faction and that's it. And those can mostly be counted on one hand. There are so many things that I'd like to have in Elex 3... well, we'll see in 5 years, if PB has read any of my various comments on any video about Elex 1 and 2 and deemed my criticism and suggestions valid and worth to think about.

[@iluvatarchem]

PB is starting to annoy me to be honest. I have played all their games. I liked Elex 1 but Elex 2 was actually the first PB game I havent finished. I was playing it and I suddenly thought: Dude were the FUCK are they spending their resources? Their games do NOT improve despite the sales. This should not be a small company anymore. They have the funds to hire more people. This quality is not excused when smaller companies release games in a better state (I thought about spiders and Greedfall actually). I guess I finally got a bit angry with the studio. More people need to get a bit angry so they can finally change their mindset imo.

[@FalkFlak]

As for the smallers numbers of Elex2: Overall Elex1 was a disappointment. The lack of polish and the seeming and blissful unawarness of the devs for basic game design principles made it unbearable to finish the game or play more than 30sec without quick save. Despite the few qualities of the game (which all come from gothic) I don't see myself buying any more PB games until they get their shit together. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

[@DrkStorm1]

Elex 1 checked most of the boxes on what i look for in an rpg. It's big problem is the combat was such complete trash that it made the game almost unplayable. Amateur hour wtf where they thinking even releasing it kind of bad. Worst i've even seen in an rpg. I tried to like it and watched videos on it but in the end it's still trash. Elex 2 i avoided because i don't trust they made enough combat improvements from Elex 1. I suspect many others avoided it for the same reason. If i could get it for 10$ or on gamepass i'd give E2 a try but Elex 1 left me with a huge negative impression of Piranha Bytes. They will need huge combat improvements or better yet a complete rework to ever see my money.

[@korinogaro]

Copium is the favourite drug of piranha bytes fans. Yeah, they make interesting worlds but their gameplay is always wood. You can have lame graphics, completely average world and characters but if your gameplay is smooth than the game will succeed (with good release date). Elex 1 saw more interest from players because it was new universum from old dev. And yeah, a lot of older gamers still thought very warm about Gothic and there was also new, young generation that hear about Gothic, saw the memes but never played it alone. But Elex 1 showed that PB is unable to make anything other than wood so Elex 2 saw worse reception. Like I was a fan of Gothic but it was years ago when the gameplay it presented was acceptable and overall game was kinda unique, now there is so much better competition that... why bother.

[@darthmorbous]

This is actually pretty easy to explain. People were hyped for Elex, bought it, played it and encountered the clunky af gameplay and bad voice acting, aka: first impressions. When ElexII was anounced, just the people who actually liked Elex 1 would be interested in a sequel. It is like bands, if you buy a record and liked it, the next record will do better, if you buy a record though, and don't like it, you won't buy the next one, hence the way bigger numbers for the first one.

[@Magnisus]

PB has to step up the game. The publicity of their games was always based on German audience and not world wide. Game is in general worse then original Elex. I personally have it on XSX. PB became lazy, always something missing and always anew excuse why something is missing or not working. I am starting to be very disappointed. I hope that Alkemia won’t mess up G1 remake.

[@TheArakan94]

Another explanation for the drop of interest could be that people who became first interested in Elex 1 (it being new PB IP and quite interesting one in general) found out they didn't like it enough to be interested in sequel. I am certainly not one of them but it wouldn't be that surprising IMO.. Another large chunk could be those caring most about technical side and while it seems like decent evolution from all the trailers and gameplay, it's not a revolution nor huge leap and if someone didn't like gameplay of Elex 1, they wouldn't buy Elex 2.

[@Reynewang]

I thoroughly enjoyed Elex 1 and kind of remembered Elex 2 was already out about a month ago, so I watched some reviews and decided to buy it. I was honestly extremely disappointed with the game. From technical aspect the game was great. Combat felt better, jetpack was great, levelling was improved with potions no longer affecting levelling, visual as well. However I could not bring myself to like the story, characters or anything that the devs wanted me to like. Ditto with the quests - some really missing the mark for me, not to mention the constant forced companions. Two things that I also felt was worse compared to first that was not as talked about was the exploration and enemy placement. In the first game I feel like every time I asked myself - oooh, whats there. I got rewarded with something and made me love the exploration in first elex. I felt this was missing in the second game. Second was enemy placement which ties to traversing the place. There seemed to be no natural progression. Huge dangerous enemies right at the doorstep of faction bases, no weaker enemies on the more travelled paths and the dangerous ones off the beaten path. Even the first game had some issues with this but Elex 2 just haphazardly placed them wherever it seemed to me. So I returned the game, got a 50% refund and bought Elden Ring.....

[@slaudwn6110]

ELEX is a game that centers on story and conversation. If you didn't focus on the story, of course you can't focus on the game. If someone blames motion and combat systems for being clumsy, that person is not qualified to evaluate ELEX. It is technically impossible to build an Eldon Ring combat system in an ELEX interactive open-world game engine.

[@tomasz9429]

Still haven't played Elex 2... I did finish Elex 1 twice, shortly after release too! But Elex 2... eh... I don't know. Playing the remaster of Kingdoms of Amalur with the DLC right now, maybe after that...

[@ItsaMeGo]

PB's decision not to patch Elex 2 on GoG and then competely bowing out of fixing performance for the game across all platforms has removed any respect I had for them as a studio. I'll likely still get future releases from them, but at a heavily reduced price, maybe after sampling performance on my pc first.

[@Mustang1984]

For me I love RPG's but I could never get into ELEX 1 or 2. I don't know what it is tbh, I would say animations but I love Fallout NV or say Outward and their animations suck too. It just seems bland to me.

[@tradeandmagicofficial2563]

I love bethesda games and so I know how a fan suffer when the company or the major games of that studio are heavily and sometimes criticized in a bad way. For these reasons i will be gentle and kind and I want to talk about Elex 2...my friends i was a virgin of piranha bites games and this was not a good start, i am a developer too and the gameplay, from movement to combat, seemed the classic impersonal third person template of unreal engine. Combat movements are so blocky and well you know, not fluid, quest sometimes tedious and annoying, not much hooking, very little immersion due to the camera very far away feom character ( personal preference, i love first person because is immersive, for example when you exit the cave from skyrim tutorial and see how vast the world is while you are inside the nature is awesome ). I think that elex 2 was a missed opportunity with so much potential that sadly was not developed to the right direction, in comparison if you take a single indie dev like the one who made Gedonia alone, did a really good job. I hope that PB learn from this and will delibera some crazy title, it would be awesome to be fan of another brand that doesn't take more then 10 years to make a game ahah. I hope to not upsetting anyone with my comment, was a critique with my heart in hand, i know how hard is to develope a game and I only hope for the better, for PB and every fan out there.

[@platoonmexx9278]

elex is just boring, bland without character, atmosphere... and the biggest eyecatcher in the world ( for me) ( the old industrious complex at the beach) has zero loot ( at least in act 1, never played to act 2 actually cous lame as fk), wasnt easy getting up there with a nonupgraded jetpack, i was so frustrated when i got there and got no loot what so ever, i turned off the game immediately PB lost their grip on rpgs after risen 1, after it there was nothing good coming out anymore

[@jakedill1304]

It's not the graphics that's the problem.. it's characters and dialogue, they make these great social systems and okay so the game plays mediocre and that's not their thing in this never really been their thing.. like they never make it ultra boring, there's always a thing.. but it's not going to have enough variety on its own to be outside of a hack and slash but that's not the point of their games.. so without good character or dialogue writing, even if your story is good it doesn't matter.. and if I'm going to play an RPG, that's that's my biggest requirement is that make the character interactions feel like character interactions.. scrap your graphics budget for a good writer and voice acting director and that will solve the problem with the game that you're trying to make.. which is problematic because the game that they're trying to make doesn't have that key component to the thing that they do.. now if you wanted to make better combat all that stuff go right ahead and I'm all for it, that certainly helps LOL.. or at least have some good modding tools so I can do it for you.. but it's suffering on its core that's why I've never really wanted to push into any of the later piranha bites games cuz they've always suffered on that regard..

[@Corvus586]

I played through it twice and it was overall disappointing. Companions and their quests were boring and lackluster. The main base could not be build up and the ending was underwhelming. I was more disappointed and had a hard time even finishing it. I could go in detail, but that would be several pages. I hope there is no Elex 3. Rather make a new Risen oder Gothic.