Let's admit, I expect people playing ELEX II to be long acquainted with Piranha Bytes, and expecting this to be just another Gothic. If you haven't played Gothic 1 or 2 and ELEX, you better start with one of those, they are cheaper and arguably better made 😅 I do recommend this game but take it with a grain of salt, as I like it largely because of the familiarity. Let's start with problems, there are quite a few: * the depiction of faces seems to have landed right into the uncanny valley, mimic is sort of okay, but heads look eerie and teeth are not a small part of it * the inhabitants of Magalan suffer from drafts, even in the room when you talk to someone with a hanging clothes pieces, they'll be flapping as if in a storm * the graphics tend to break here and there, textures become invisible, lightning flaps undecided if something is lighted or not, things like that mostly only break the immersion but not the game itself * there seem to be a certain amount of broken/possibly broken quests, those were not addressed in patches and likely will not anymore as patches seem to have stopped coming * some cutscenes are recorded yet they are made on the game engine, they stick out way too much * but in-game cutscenes also happen abruptly and sometimes change time of day or other things that don't seem necessary * dialogues seem to break here and there if you don't act as expected or don't do things in an expected orded * there's some (maybe more, I am yet to see) grind for ingredients, money, and equipment * some of the tropes are reused way too many times 😅 * of the five factions you encounter in game, there are again just three real factions. The rest will provide you with quests and such but will not play as big of a role, it seems. Yet there are some things that are made rather well, especially when those are novelties I didn't expect: * you can totally get into places you're not supposed to be in and you will only be removed if a guard encounters you, no invisible walls or magical removing of the trespasser * I think there was no weapon reforging before, and that seems like a good addition * there are some companions that only join you because they have orders. This is a fresh take, for one, to build a relationship with them * for once you're not an unnamed and unknown to anyone hero. Many inhabitants know who you are or at least heard of you deeds, and it also feels refreshing Both good and bad thing is that they didn't just made a new map by adding to an old one. Instead, some of the places you visited became unreachable and some previously unreachable are now part of the game. Also controversial is the amount of old acquaintances, you do expect there to be some familiar faces, but it feels like there's too many of them. When you encounter references to ELEX, you will get reminders, this helps to introduce events to the new players and refresh memory of returning ones, but it feels like it's done somewhat messy. The short flashback cutscenes stick out and don't really improve the impression. I am yet to finish the game and say if anything is breakingly bad in it, but I would recommend to get it on sale if you've liked previous game(s). If you haven't played any, I recommend giving them a try first, maybe you wouldn't want to get this one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Update: there are also quite some issues with pacing and lack of choices in certain quests. I thought that I will be able to choose between different candidates for a war leader in Bastion , but it appears that Tialg is the only one, and he's also the one I met in the first minutes of playing so I was suspicious that it should not be the only choice . After about 70 hours in and completing pretty much everything there was, I joined a faction and started chapter Ⅱ, then there's not much to do, and all of the companions come to pester me at the same moment. Sometimes there are things that were supposed to happen long time apart or in the different order, so dialogues or journal entries make no sense. Sometimes Jax knows more than I do, because something is scripted that way and written in the journal but I have no clue where does it come from (this is usually not the case, so I assume this rare occurrence is in fact buggy) Aside from somewhat lacking coherence in the story, that can be justified with the amount of content, there's targeting with a ranged weapon. Ranged weapons are way superior to the melee, and enemies try to make up for it if the player chooses to go close and personal, but sometimes they forget to change to melee and totally destroy you. But that's not half as bad as the fact that at a later stages there will be more and more flying enemies that become priority targets and trying to target someone specific, especially on the ground becomes nigh impossible. Targeting jumps and keeps rotating the player, battle is chaos, you're targeting someone far away while being eaten by creatures right in front of you, it's quite enraging. Luckily, by that time you're well geared and can stand some biting. Elex grinding is so very real, you're going to need it for more learning and attribute points, but I advice you to just edit your save or cheat more elex/points other way, to save some running around and/or bying few pieces a day and resting till next day. I mean, it is possible to get, just not too fun. Also karma grinding if you suddenly find out you're too creative or too destructive to do something story-related. And money grinding, but to a lesser extent and only in the first half. Experience comes more or less steadily as you progress, so I haven't felt the need to grind EXP. The story, albeit a bit contradictive, seems interesting and mostly all right. It's not war and peace, but there are parts to enjoy in between running around blazing guns or swords. Sound of preparing to shoot is my pet peeve here, it is the same for all weapons, be it shotgun, laser, or arbalet. This is ridiculous, although it's not big of a deal but it breaks immersion so hard. Also, the icon for being a proficient archer shows rifle bullets. Like, really? Sometimes NPCs are bugged, like one I was supposed to give stones to, that would never end the dialogue. Or the one I was supposed to lose a set fight to, but all he did is sheath and unsheath his weapon without ever hitting me, it was a fight that's hard to lose indeed. I've experienced a few crashes, more than three, but definitely not too many. That's not too bad, considering there's an autosave, but All-in-all, I still like it, and maybe even a bit more than in the beginning, but I am still not quite sure if this part is better than the first part.
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