Never in my life have I had such a complicated relationship with a game as I've had with Elex. I've spent 15 hours trying to get into it, in 30 different occasions and just couldn't. Then, it clicked. And God, is it great. truly. It has almost every single I aspect of what I love about video games, and it does it thoughtfully and wholly, even if jankily. A true Hybrid of Fallout-esque games with Soulslike frustration. Plus, in terms of story, it's a game that explores very interesting ideas in a very German way that is refreshing to see.

In terms of world design, Elex feels like the successor to the failed Gothic 3. It offers a huge world that is, unfortunately, poorly crafted. If you’ve cleared out one set of brick-house ruins, you’ve essentially seen them all. If you’ve cleared one converter, you’ve seen every converter in the game.Enemy placement is also badly handled. You might fight a harmless Critter, only to find a deadly Moloch just a few steps away — completely unbeatable in the early game. Do you remember how location design worked in Gothic 1 or 2? Dangerous beasts such as Shadowbeasts were tucked away in caves or off the main roads, so exploration felt logical and fair. In Elex, these principles have been ignored and trampled. Sometimes the enemy density on the map is simply too high, which quickly becomes frustrating.Early on, when your character is still weak, you often have to kite enemies by luring them toward your companion — especially on Ultra difficulty. And when you start kiting, you’re likely to aggro even more enemies. It’s just awful and exhausting. The game suffers from serious balance problems. Some skills feel completely pointless, or worth taking only at the very end of the game when you have skill points to spare. For example, there’s a skill that increases the XP you get from reading notes — who’s going to prioritize that early on?The issue is made worse by the fact that some skills can be temporarily substituted with amulets. Safe codes are static, which makes the safe-cracking skill nearly useless. Because skill points are scarce, most players will simply look up the codes online instead of wasting points on that skill. It’s also strange that the game doesn’t offer a standard option to highlight collectible items. Instead, you get sunglasses that provide this function — meaning you’ll be wearing them 99% of the time. I only took them off during the final battle.Loot placement is often nonsensical: you’ll find, for example, an abandoned bed in the forest with a backpack, a roll of toilet paper, and a hammer lying next to some bones. Why build such a large open world if you can’t fill it in a believable way?Graphically, Elex was outdated even at release; on closer inspection it looks almost identical to Dragon Age: Inquisition.Gunplay is worse than in Fallout 4, Mass Effect 2, or many other shooters of that era. There’s zero impact or feedback — no difference between a headshot and a leg shot, no stagger, no bonus damage.Piranha Bytes clearly tried to borrow the combat system from Dark Souls, but what they delivered is just an awkward parody. Stamina is too limited, rolls don’t grant invincibility frames, and monsters that leap at you can curve mid-air or hit you with the side of their heads. Yes, it’s better than the combat in Risen 2 and 3, but it still falls short of most action RPGs released years before Elex. The lighting is terrible. Entering a dark building from the outside often plunges the screen into complete blackness for 1.5–2 seconds. In a game featuring plasma rifles, being forced to rely on magnesium torches as your main light source feels ridiculous. The magic system is practically useless. Players get access to so-called “elemental fists.” The maximum damage of a fireball from a fire fist — even with the Magic skill maxed out — is about 65. By comparison, a maxed-out Type-A flamethrower deals 112 damage and can knock enemies down.Companion AI is probably the worst I’ve seen in any game in the last 15 years. In general, about 70% of the game is just running back and forth, another 15% is taken up by empty dialogue, and roughly 10% by tedious fights against the same enemies. The remaining 5% is the only part that offers worthwhile quests and story-driven encounters.I don’t want to call Elex a bad game. No — it’s just pathetic.

I played this game quite a bit when it released and again just latey and I must say I really like how immersive and engagin this game is, graphics are pretty neat in 4k plus the game runs flawless. Combat and movement system is a bit clunky but it doesn`t kill the joy of the game.