ELEX Critic Reviews

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.

A giant game in all aspects that conveys the sensation of influence on the virtual world. Some failures in control are the most negative point, but ELEX is a new vindication of Piranha Bytes.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Elex is not an accessible game and doesn't make a great first impression but it deserves more than one chance. Fans of Piranha Games should prepare themselves for more of what they love (but they must accept a strange fantasy & sci-fi mix). The final grade could have been higher if it weren't for too many technical issues.

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

Piranha Bytes looks back to Gothic saga as it moves into the future with their new IP. ELEX isn't free from defects, among which are a little inspired setting and a rude combat system, but it will meet the expectations of the hardcore historical fan base.

ELEX gives us freedom, choices and replayability. It's a quite old-school RPG that falls short when it comes to graphics and AI. If you've played and enjoyed any of the previous Piranha Bytes games, make sure you give this one a try.

All in all, if you're a fan of open-world exploration and complex combat, ELEX may be the game for you, though I would add the caveat that you may want to see how things improve over the coming months.

Elex is an attractive old-school RPG game that fails when it comes to graphics and AI.

If not for some serious technical issues, Elex would have become one of the best Role Playing titles of this year. Yet its dark and compelling story along with huge world full of different stuff to do will surely make it worthy of some of your hours.

ELEX is the very opposite of the accessible games that have revolutionised the open world RPG in recent years. I enjoyed it as a modern looking take on the Gothic series, but newcomers will have to be prepared to fight against the systems through the beginning of the game. This has resulted in the game quickly gaining a cult following who celebrate its obscurity and lack of accessibility. I don’t agree with this take and would argue that the best aspects of the game would only be improved by a more polished and refined presentation.

A flawed jewel. Beneath its layers a sophisticated game is hidden, created with love yet with bugs and poor technical design. The game mechanics are the top, but they are nowadays detrimental. Whoever wants to find a treasure in Elex, must try very hard.

Elex is a hard game to genuinely recommend, it does so many important things to only an acceptable level or worse. It's a game that's carried based on the strength of its quest design, or more pessimistically, one that's let down by a general lack of polish and uninteresting combat. It feels like a nice refreshing counterpart to some modern rpgs that treat their quest lists more like chores, but as a complete package, it falls disappointingly short.

Elex has, somewhere, a good game under all the apathy on its surface. There are some good ideas that one can easily miss because of its poor narrative, gameplay and aesthetics.