In the newest issue of german gaming magazine PC Games there is a new preview of Elex. It's writer visited Piranha Bytes and was allowed to play the game for 5 hours without any limits, with both controller and mouse and keyboard. He started in the Berserker's capital, Goliet, and later used save games prepared by Piranha Bytes to also try out the other factions. We want to give you a short summary of the article:
The journalist praises the game's open world, since it's nicely designed and can be explored right from the beginning of the game, which leads to the desire to explain everything immediately. There are some boundaries though, like especially strong monsters or zones poisoned by radiation, which limit the exploring a bit until the player has become stronger. In order to do so, there are five attributes which can be increased by the player, and plenty of skills which must be learned from teachers for money. These skills can, like the coldness value, also unlock new dialogue options.
In the article the factions are explained again and it's said that they engage in conflicts which can lead to the biggest city in the game changing the owner. The story is presented better this time around, the loading times when teleporting are very short and there are combat arenas again. The HUD is configurable and there are difficulty levels again. The combat system is being described as an improvement compared to Risen 3, because the controls work really well and the stamina adds a bit of Dark Souls. The combat also is very varied because of the different weapons, special attacks and spells.
In the article, the animations are being critizied though, as well as the ranged weapons which lack power, which means the handling is far from being as good as in pure shooter games. The dialogue animations also are a bit clunky and are repeated quite often. These weaknesses are forgivable though, if you look at the size of Piranha Bytes' development team, according to PC Games.
Conclusion: After the slightly uninspired Risen 3, Elex might deliver german RPG entertainment on a high level again!
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