ELEX Reviews
Elex is far from perfect. It can be a frustrating experience and the horrible combat system could be a deal breaker, but it's undeniably an ambitious title with a promising future.
In Elex we'll find the elements that had made Piranha Bytes great: an enormous world ready to explore, an interesting story and skilfull difficulty. The tecnhical problemas and low graphics can deminsh the experience. Definitly, this is not a game for impatient players.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
There's a great game hidden somewhere in ELEX, but there are just too many technical missteps and niggling bugs to give a wholehearted blanket recommendation to all RPG fans.
With great quests and an even better game world, Elex is the best Piranha bytes game since Gothic 2, but inherits its deficits.
Review in German | Read full review
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 is a game that suffers from its lofty ambition. It aims for admittedly high goals that are worth aspiring to, but it seemed to have forgotten some key things along the way. The sheer expanse of the world, rich backstory, and a mind-boggling amount of things to see/do in the game are fantastic, but the game suffers from technical issues, absurdly challenging gameplay at times, and a buffet scenario where you just have too much to choose from. The technical issues alone can be frustrating, but when you combine those with incessant deaths at the hands of minor enemies the game starts to really drive the point home that you should play on easy. Be warned though: you'll still face a hard time.
You simply have to try Elex for yourself, but be ready for some stiff animations, framerate drops, mediocre graphics and clunky combat. However if you are familiar with Piranha Bytes games, you'll be fine.
Review in Polish | Read full review
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.
Review in Polish | Read full review
ELEX has ambition it lacks focus and refinement to become something more than it is. Technical fumbles, bad writing and robotic animations all bring the game down from any possible greatness, and what's left can only be called mediocre.
Elex is an unfortunate case of an intriguing world ruined by most of game which the world is tied to. With average gameplay, horrid combat, bad voice acting, bad sound design and a myriad of technical issues, Elex does little to encourage players to invest time in its vast landscapes, deep RPG mechanics and interesting ideas.
Piranha Bytes has created a legitimately interesting world to explore filled with choices and consequences, though it's technical limitations and budget nature are a hard sell for any gamer who isn't a fan of the Gothic and/or Risen games.
ELEX does little to break new ground in the RPG genre. Fortunately, the core aspects that make a solid RPG are done expertly by Piranha Bytes and this results in a world that is worth exploring.
A vast and rich world with a too-thin story and enough bugs to ruin any immersion.
With Elex Piranha Bytes bited more than he could chew, unfortunately: the games is huge, and we're sure a great effort went into the storytelling and world building, but the combat system is just too clunky and the difficulty curve is off, too much to recommend it.
Review in Italian | Read full review
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. There’s already a plan for a Day 1 patch that may take care of some of the game’s most glaring issues.
I was very impressed by ELEX and I'm glad I didn't take the game at face value. If you're willing to put in the few hours it takes to figure out why ELEX is so great, then you'll be rewarded with an awesome and memorable experience -- especially if you're an RPG fan.
Elex needed much more time in the oven to be the game its promising previews made it seem to be, and with the dearth of games available this winter, I can't recommend it to anyone but the most hardcore fans of the genre.
I still consider Elex one of the best CRPGs of this decade
Overall, Elex had a lot of promise, but it's amalgamation of settings and mechanics do nothing positive for the game. With an utter nonsense mix of weapons, enemies, and settings, Elex might have been a decent game...for 2007. Unfortunately, it seems like Piranha Bytes still hasn't learned from their various mistakes with Risen 3. As it is now, there's simply no reason to try it unless you're a diehard Piranha Bytes fan.