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ELEX
ELEX pairs a seamless science-fantasy world with jetpack exploration, tactical combat and consequential choices. At ≈ $4.67 from 
Kinguin, its tracked low makes this a timely option for players seeking a substantial solo adventure. The Steam PC version supports full controller input, while its story centers on a resource that changes the people who use it. At $29.99 on Steam, ELEX is at its tracked low; its single-player focus suits anyone planning a solo adventure rather than co-op.
All-time low ~ $4.79across Steam & third-party storesat the recorded all-time low
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Price History
Past 36 months · Updated dailyHistorical Low~ $3.252026-07Current Low Across Stores~ $26.99Kinguinvs. Historical Low+730%
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
DLC
01About ELEX
ELEX blends action role-playing with post-apocalyptic science fantasy. Explore a seamless open world, use a jetpack to reach new places, and make moral choices in a struggle over a resource that grants power while eroding emotion. Steam player rating: 72% positive from 12,456 reviews. Release date: October 17, 2017. Supported interface languages: Simplified Chinese, English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian, and Czech.
Credits
Composer
Björn Pankratz
Developer
Piranha Bytes
Publisher
THQ Nordic
Voice
Bodo Henkel
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$3.252026-07-30 · KinguinBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.Language support
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | Yes | Yes | — |
| English | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| French | Yes | Yes | — |
Show 6 more languages
| Language | Interface | Subtitles | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Italian | Yes | Yes | — |
| German | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Spanish | Yes | Yes | — |
| Polish | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Russian | Yes | Yes | — |
| Czech | Yes | Yes | — |
Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-22
02Before you buy
Controls and language
The Steam PC version has full controller support. English and German have full audio and subtitles; other supported languages have subtitles.
Play mode
ELEX is a single-player action RPG. Its seamless open world and jetpack shape exploration and movement.
03Frequently asked questions
How does exploration work?
Explore a seamless open world and use a jetpack to reach elevated places.
What is the story about?
The conflict centers on a resource that grants power but drains people of their emotions.
What is combat like?
Combat combines melee and ranged fighting in a tactical, challenging system.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviewsSelected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
Things I was desperately missing during 80 hours of gameplay: - lootboxes - levelling up through cards - pay to win (or save time) - Day one DLC - a Season Pass - Silver, Gold and Deluxe Editions with exclusive content - microtransactions - forced mutliplayer - online scoreboards - online only DRM - procedurally generated open world elements that turn out boring and random - open world busy work like freeing camps with each and every "mission" being the exact same - climbing towers - a cluttered screen full of HUD elements that ♥♥♥♥ up immersion and can't be turned off Buy this game. Make a difference. Thank you, PB for another wonderful game.Show moreShow less
84.7 hours at review782 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
I REALLY want to recommend this game because it does so many things right, but a lot of people are going to have to get past the packaging to find the fun bits within. Generally, only people who really enjoy RPGs should purchase, or wait for a sale. PROS: - It's a classic Gothic-style RPG, with a lot of choices, both overt and minor, that affect the gameplay world. - 3 factions to join, each radically different from the last - A true open world, with lots to do and explore. After a brief intro the game no longer holds your hands, and you can quite literally do what you please. - Deep character customization, crafting, and rewarding tactical gameplay. Very similar to Mass Effect as far as combat, but with far, far more in-depth character design CONS: - Graphics are DATED. Think 2009 era. - Sound design is pretty lackluster. Be prepared for some hilariously bad voice acting - Whoever designed the UI needs to be bent over a barrel. Non-pausing inventory management, clunky menus, and none of the usual quality-of-life features, IE, showing what you have equipped when selling to a vendor - Wonky design features, for instance, you can't loot with a weapon out Overall? Hopefully this game will be improved over time/with mods. A good foundation and an interesting lore is all there, but the dated visuals, sound design, and UI features will drive most people away.Show moreShow less
9 hours at review434 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
So...I've just over 350 titles purchased through Steam over my years of gaming. This isn't a humble brag, rather a picture of perspective. I have never written a "review" for any of those games, but I want to write a bit about this one. Look...the game starts off sucking. I don't know how many times I said to myself "This game is SO bad" but, I don't like losing to challenges. That's what this game is. A challenge. A challenge of fidgety controls, a challenge of stiff combat, a challenge of convoluted quests, and I should preface this by saying I have never played any of the Gothic games to completion, but I have played the Risen series, and came to very much enjoy those. The game starts off with these milestones that seem unreachable at first, requiring seemingly way too many stat points to learn any skills, get any upgrades, or progress your character at all. Right around the 6 or 7 hour mark it was like...all these milestones came at once, and then all of a sudden, the game was playable and started making sense. I hate saying this about games, but you have to put a little time into the game before it gets good, and I guess you could argue that this is the "Piranha Bytes" way, but I felt it more in this game than in the Risen titles. So give the game a try for a while and power through the garbage first 5 or so hours, get your first companion, and THEN you will have much better grounds to make a decision. I am SUPER glad I didn't push this one to the side. UPDATE: So a little over 20 hours in, and I have to say, the game has done nothing but get better and better. I am at the point now where the world building is incredibly well done, and I have had so many awesome experiences with the quests moslty due to the lack of "Here's the morally good choice, and here's the morally bad choice". There are SO many more grey areas than that, and choices that you made at the beginning of the game come full circle 20 hours later, and I am hoping the game continues that trend. I also want to note the companion system. I LOVE these guys. They have their own motives and views on the world, and will change their disposition towards you if your choices conflict with their goals. The companion quests, so far, have been really interesting as well. I havent cared for a companion in a game this much since KotOR, I just wish that there were more banter between your companions themselves. I feel like that was a missed opportunity that could have been interesting, and added even more to the world building. So far if I could sum this up with some cheesy quote, it would be "Shoot for the moon, because if you miss, you could still land on a star" and then I would add "...And eh....if you don't land on a star, theres all kinds of other cool stuff hanging around in space".Show moreShow less
39.8 hours at review538 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
What a shame. Having grown up with Gothic, I really wanted to like this game. But at the end of the day, it just has too many roadblocks to be enjoyable. In terms of production values, Elex is okay. Decent visuals, passable music, good voice acting. And while the overall color scheme looks incredibly cold and uninviting, the design of the world itself looks solid. The gameplay, however, is a mess. Combat is clunky, balancing is all over the place, and the first twenty hours feel more like a series of roulette spins than anything else. Without faction ablities, you will die so often and so quickly that you have to force yourself to continue. In Gothic, the developers' first title, the difficulty in exploring new areas used to be an asset, since being able to access them in the late game felt like a true accomplishment. But in Elex, the initial progression is a loop of "spot the one enemy out of fifty who won't kill you in one hit, and reload whenever you choose the wrong one". It stops feeling organic very quickly and becomes a chore. In addition, the interface is an obstable in many ways, with many questionable design decisions. For example, the skill descriptions point out certain stat requirements, but some of the associated stat numbers are outright hidden. Once you join a faction, the gameplay improves over time. And the leveling system is good enough to keep you exploring, despite the above. The problem is: once you overcome the initial challenges and start exploring, there really isn't much to see. The story and the game world are bland, uninspired, and don't encourage any kind of emotional investment. Whereas series like Fallout, Mass Effect or The Witcher have lots of detailed lore behind them, Elex is little more than a generic assortment of clichés. In fact, a lot of the wildlife is directly recycled and/or reskinned from the Gothic series - sometimes even with the same names! This gives the entire setting a distinct feel of "been there, done that". Which, for the first game in an emerging series, feels like a particularly large fauxpas. The factions, too, share a few too many aspects with the Gothic series, and their entire history can be summed up in a handful of sentences. On top of that, none of them are really likeable, boiling the main choice down to "which group do I dislike the least?". As far as the writing goes: some of the characters are okay, but they are drowned in lots of filler NPCs. The dialog is a mixed bag, with few NPCs being memorable. Even with all of that, I still persevered for more than 50 hours. But eventually, the story just fell apart completely. Events happened out of nowhere, characters made insane decisions, and the supposed motivations for the protagonist began to seem incredibly hollow. At this point, I lost all hope for Elex. And I actively regret spending fifty euros, and fifty hours of my life, with a game this messy. If you're looking for a good alternative, you might want to check out Gothic 3. As long as you remember to install the Community Patch, as well as the Humanforce Quest Pack, you will have a far superior time. Despite its age, the short-range visuals have aged surprisingly well, the gameplay is still a lot of fun, and the game will run on any current onboard GPU. Considering that Gothic 3 is as cheap nowadays as you would expect from a ten-year-old game, it's a far superior value for your money compared to Elex.Show moreShow less
51.4 hours at review356 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Elex is a third-person action role-playing game (ARPG) by Piranha Bytes. The games by this German studio are so unique in terms of atmosphere and playstyle, they might as well be their own subgenre within ARPGs. That's why I'll refer to the collective works of Piranha Bytes as 'PB games' in this review. Elex is definitely the best PB game since Risen, and maybe even since Gothic 2. Elex has a true open world with exciting and dangerous places to discover, it has three joinable factions, each having a distinct philosophy and memorable NPCs with personality, it offers choices that matter in the long run, and it has noticeable character progression. But Elex does have its flaws, as well. The melee combat can feel clunky (yes, again!) and the attribute system is nothing but a platform for skill and weapon requirements. If you're into PB games, you'll like or even love Elex. If you're into ARPGs but aren't sure about PB games, first you need to answer two questions. 1. Do you expect games to be perfectly polished? 2. Do you expect to be a god who can kill anything in his way from the very beginning of an ARPG? If you answered 'yes' to either question, Elex is not for you. If you think you can accept some flaws and a difficulty curve, provided the other aspects of ARPGs are present and excitingly so, you may want to give Elex a chance. The story When a meteor struck the planet Magalan, its inhabitants were almost wiped out. Their society, which very much resembled Earth's circa 1995, ceased to exist. The meteor brought a strange new mineral to the planet, which the people of Magalan call Elex, that spread all over the planet. The survivors formed four factions, each with their own view on the new world and on how Elex should be used. I'd love to tell you a little something about each of the factions, but the character limit doesn't allow it, so I'll put these thoughts in the 'Comments' section below. You play Jax, an Alb commander. While on a mission, his jet crashes. Immediately after the crash, some fellow Albs show up to execute Jax, which is the normal punishment for failing a mission. But how could they have shown up so soon at the crash site? And why was his mission deemed failed when it had hardly started? Having survived the attempt to execute him, those are questions Jax would really like an answer to. Gameplay Gameplay is typical third-person ARPG with three types of combat: melee, ranged and magic. For some reason, melee combat is always the worst part of PB games. In Gothic, Gothic 2 and Risen, melee combat was okay, but in their other games it plain sucked. In Elex, the melee combat system is good in its design but bad in its execution. You can perform light attacks and heavy attacks. You can parry, you can dodge roll and, if you equip a shield, you can block. If you manage to perform a succesfully timed chain of light attacks, you can perform a special attack. All this sounds great but it isn't because controls are clunky. Sometimes, input doesn't get registered properly. This may break your chain of attacks. It may also mean Jax keeps hitting nothing but the air in front of him, even though you used the mouse and keyboard to tell Jax he should turn around and strike the next opponent who's behind him instead. There is also a bug that prevents you from hitting any opponent if they are on slightly higher or lower ground than you are. All these things often cause melee combat to be a frustrating experience. Like in most PB games, ranged combat is a lot more enjoyable. But in Elex, there is a catch: if you have at your opponents with ranged attacks, they switch to ranged attacks, too, which means they deal a lot more damage than they would in melee combat. So ranged combat may be more enjoyable but it makes the game a lot harder, especially in the first half of the game. There is a wide range of ranged weapons in Elex. Bows and crossbows, as seen in the Gothic series. Guns, as seen in the last two Risen games. And you'll also be able to use flamethrowers, harpoon guns, laser rifles, and so on. Magic is back after being absent in Risen 2 and only present pro forma in Risen 3. But the spells still aren't good enough to play a magic-only character. Also, you get the same additional difficulty you get with other ranged attacks, the fact that opponents switch to their ranged attack, too, meaning you'll take a lot more damage. There is classic character development in Elex. You gain XP by questing and killing opponents. When you level up, you can increase abilities and skills. The strange thing in Elex is that abilities don't really *do* anything. You need to increase your abilities to learn skills and to equip better weapons, but the ability increase itself does not make you stronger. The factions are satisfyingly different and they each offer strong and weak points. At last, choosing a faction is as enjoyable as it was in the first Gothic games again. This also adds to replayability, of course. Elex has some unique characteristics. For one, the world of Magalan is truly open and I haven't had this much fun exploring a world created by PB since Gothic 2. The 'ruins from the Old World' you come across are brick buildings, concrete roads, car wrecks, etc. It's as if you're exploring the Planet of the Apes: a strange, new world built on top of a ruined Earth. Another nice feature is the jetpack that Jax finds at the beginning of the game, allowing him to fly up into the air for a few seconds at a time. This almost literally adds another dimension to the game world, as you can now explore the roofs of buildings and towers and such, and often get rewarded for it. PB games never start out easy. Elex is no exception. During the first dozen hours or so, you can defeat almost no opponents. You need to pick your fights carefully and run around tough opponents. You need to find quests that don't require defeating strong opponents and you need to think out of the box. If you're asked to find an item that's guarded by a strong monster, you try to run around the monster, grab the item and run back to the quest giver. Or you wait until midnight, when the monster sleeps, and sneak around him to grab the item. Or you lure the monster to some strong NPCs who will kill it for you, so you can go get the item it was guarding. For me, this part of PB games is as enjoyable as the second part of their games, when you're strong enough to kill almost anything and can get pretty much everywhere with brute force instead of your wits. Graphics and sound The graphics of Elex aren't triple-A quality. To hide this a bit, PB decided to cover the world in a permanent fog. I think this was a bad choice. I even made a guide that explains how to remove the fog. And although the graphics still don't look perfect, I think the world of Elex is a lot nicer than its creators gave themselves credit for. The music is atmospheric but not memorable. Except maybe for the score I heard while travelling through the Berserker's town, which is very reminiscent of the Gothic games' score. The quality of the sound effects is okay. The only thing I noticed is that after loading a game, the first few sound effects may be late by a few seconds. The voice acting is decent to good. The fact it's not great seems to stem from the fact the lines are translated from German into English, making them sound not 100% fully natural to begin with. On Steam's extra features Elex has 7 Steam Trading Cards. You'll get 4 while running the game. The 50 Steam Achievements are extremely varied. There are some story-related achievements, some faction-related achievements, some achievements that require you to collect a series of items scattered across the game world, some achievements that require you to upgrade weapons, kill opponents, etc.Show moreShow less
199.3 hours at review475 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
The worst game by Piranha Bytes and the worst of all RPGs I've played in the last 10 years. First of all, loot. For me, it's the most important gameplay point in Piranha Bytes' games. Unlimited inventory allows to pick up every item in such a big world. So what do we got here? Tonns of toilet paper and cutlery, over than a thousand mugs and fine cups, a couple of toys, lots of scrap, old coins and bundles of ♂Three hundred bucks♂. All of these items are worth almost nothing, and it's so damn boring to find another pack of trash instead of something useful. You can't loot any weapons from defeated enemies, even if you are killing them. Maybe developers didn't want to break game economics yet they allowed to abuse crafting system wich damages economics even more than selling picked-up weapons. By the way, there are almost no good equipment in this damn game. The strongest meele weapon is not the legendary but some random axe upgraded to lvl 3. You can't upgrade legendary items even if they're much weaker than common. You can't upgrade modified weapons (though you can but they lose their modification). I've never used legendary or modified weapons in this game (except The Mortal Beam in the end of the game) just because they're weaker than common. I've never met any weapon that stops stamina regeneration on enemies, though enemies had such swords and axes. The only good thing here are sunglasses that allow you to see any loot in a short distance. BUT they cannot be equipped with helmet and they reveal damn frustraring items that are stuck in textures (guess I was lucky that there were no stuck quest items). I could've written a lot more text about loot, but there are more things to tell of. Secondly, the combat system. I guess guys on game jams can create more logical and balanced fights than we can see in this game. Tell me, what will happen to strong man if you beat him with 10+ kg axe (just imagine, I do not call up to do it)? At least, he will step back. What happens to almost every enemy in this game if you hit them that way? Nothing, They just finish their move or strike you if they began backswinging before your hit. And the funniest thing is that you WILL be stunned if an enemy hits you. Just because. The most disgusting thing here is stamina. I know that consumption of it is varied due to difficulty level, but it's hard to find more crooked and useless mechanics than this one. I passed the game on ultra level and every fight till the middle of the game was like save/load every 20 seconds (or even less). And it's not about reaction. You just hit and enemy (or an air: hitboxes here are beyond any understanding) three or four times and... you can do nothing but walk around. You can't run, you can't EVADE ATTACKS just cause you have to wait for stamina regeneration. It could've been okay if not what I've written above. Btw, it all works only for a player. Animals don't suppose to have stamina here and human enemies can strike even if they have no stamina. Yeah, every hit here stops stamina regeneration and decreases its level. Aggro also is non-understandable for me, sometimes a whole bunch of beasts can run a half of the map to fight you even though you only ran pass them in 15+ meters away. Some human enemies (Zardom, for example) have much more HP and damage than Mountain troll, and fighting them is even harder than fighting the final boss. Thirdly, personal progress. I won't say much about it, it's just broken. You can learn 3 spells that increase the amount of exp you are getting for: killing beasts (not every enemy, just beasts, not humans), completing quests and reading books. Before learning them you need to upgrade about 10 lvl and reach 50 points of intelligence. And what do you think the percentage of added exp is? 5. FIVE DAMN PERCENTS. Or even less. It's almost nothing compare to how many exp you need to reach the next level. You get 10 attribute points with every level (11 with corresponding spell), but after 30 points of any attribute you need 2 instead of 1 and after 60 points you need 5 to upgrade it. Btw, if you are travelling with the companion (wich is almost inevitable on ultra difficulty if you don't wanna spent 20+ minutes fighting one dog and an eternity if there are 2+ enemies), you need to last hit every enemy or you just don't get additional exp. For the whole game (even after the epilogue!!!) you companion's damage is much higher than yours. Reading mechanics is bugged and usually you just don't get any experience for it. FFS. Paragraph 4. Story. While previous games by Piranha Bytes at least had interesting and logical plot (for average RPG), this one has none. The only story that is more or less interesting to know is the story of Clerics' god Calaan and old world Scientists (almost all information is located in one place that takes 30 minutes to fully discover it). All the rest is annoying, common and doesn't make any sense. All quests are monotonous and boring. There could've been much more interesting stories but we have lots of empty places as instead. There were much more things to discuss how awful they are but if you aren't convinced by my words that this game is not worth of your attention, you can buy it and test by yourself. The only reason I've played 170+ hours in this piece of junk is that I hoped there will be something interesting in the end, but the only thing waited me here was disappointment. I'm happy I didn't pay the full price for this (it was on Steam sale) and if I could turn time back, I wouldn't even add this 'game' to my wishlist. Congratz if you've read the whole text, but you won't get any exp cause mechanics doesn't work.Show moreShow less
173.3 hours at review253 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
Elex is a true succesor to the Gothic series. Three different joinable factions, an immense open-world where choices have severe consquences. Even at normal difficulty you will have a rough time at the start as even after a dozen hours in most things will wipe the floor with me in a few hits still but I love it. The jetpack mechanic does lend a great feel to it. The Elex universe is beautiful, the soundtrack is great though slightly overpowering during a conversation sometimes so I'd turn it down a tad. A truly great rpg as it doesn't hold your hand after the initial beginning you could march on Xecor if you wanted to. Though you would be horrible murdered by mechs and Albs if you did :) Has a few graphical and some techincal issues as once I was being pursued by a person in town I had provoked into a fight and he kept pursuing me and I ran through albs and looted their building and they paid no attention to me since I was already in combat minor stuff that can be easily addressed. Also slight issue when talking to females npcs as sometimes depending on the clothes they seem to have some sort of squirrel squirming around in their top. Overall I love Elex and hoping this goes into a franchise like Gothic Did. Final Review Score 8/10 Video Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWi8d_FDGp0 Review edit: I did figure out the 30 fps problem it was actually due to recording software only picking up 30 fps for some odd reason switched software and getting a solid 60.Show moreShow less
18.6 hours at review463 people found this helpful
Received for free
Not recommendedSteam player
I'm writing this review after only 38 hours of gameplay, so these are relatively early impressions. However, I am writing the review now because from this point forward I will be making use of a trainer to overcome some of the issues with the early game. The game really feels like a AAA game that was released a year before it was ready. The game is beautiful. The setting and set-up use a lot of very familiar elements. The post-apocalyptic world that "isn't" earth (just to justify elements that are unearthly, while still creating a world where there are ruined hatchbacks and sedans scattered all about), the cataclysm that introduced the fantasy material that is both a source of magical power while simultaneously being the source of all problems, the factions... It all has a "slightly different take on the familiar" feel. Character animations and voice acting are better, mostly, than Fallout 4... although there are moments where voice acting is jarring (especially when asking to trade). The world design is, so far, impressive. I've been to one town and it is beautifully designed. Fallout 4 towns don't hold a candle, although I'd say towns in Skyrim do. Progression feels weird. You get far more XP from quests than combat. Which is good, but this is to the point that avoiding combat entirely is strategy #1. Not only does combat net you so little XP that it isn't worth the time sink fighting the creatures, but your character is made of wet tissue paper, and increasing combat ability is annoyingly difficult. For example: it requires sinking multiple levels worth of attribute bonuses into Strength and Constitution in order to switch from a "rusty hatchet" to a "hatchet", and gaining those levels is very difficult in early game. At 38 hours, I am level 5. Everything, including the insects, are more than a match for you. The easiest actual opponent, a giant rat, requires at least half a dozen swings to kill, and has a fair chance of killing you first. Most things out there can one-shot you. There is a lot of polish, and the setting is cool, but there are a myriad of places where it is clear that things weren't finished. For example, at some point they changed "Charisma" to "Personality". And yet there are multiple places that refer to Charisma instead of Personality, which is easily confusing. Similarly, the skills are not well explained. I've had to go online to forums where people have tested the skills in order to find out what they do. There is a lack of ability to check certain statistics and qualities. I have a "cold" rating, but there is no place that explains what that is, what its effects are, or what my "cold" level is at. The experience bar is just a bar with no indication of numerical amounts and no way to know exactly how far you are from the next level. (Although the fill amount will give you a vague idea.) The lack of clarity extends into base mechanics. For example: there is no indication of what the attributes actually do. After much gameplay and online research, I discovered attributes do absolutely nothing beyond providing thresholds for skills and equipment. Strength has no direct effect on your melee damage or your ability to perform feats of strength. Instead, having a higher strength unlocks the "do more melee damage" skill. And there are similar unlocks for the other stats. (Higher constitution unlocks a "have more hit points" skill, for example.) It's an odd design choice, and one the player should be informed about. All in all, there is a lot of give and take. There are many great aspects to the game, but there are enough issues that I cannot recommend it. I don't love being stuck playing a male, and like even less being stuck in third person perspective, but I can accept those as design choices. I DO love the fact that they give you a jet pack right off, so you have vertical mobility. I'm not in love with the fact that enemies do not drop their weapons or armor when killed. I rather enjoy the unlimited carry capacity, having spent too many hours in other games doing inventory management. I DO love how, once you get out of the tiny beginning area, you have a huge, open map to explore and freedom to explore it. That's amazing. And I look forward to being able to go out and explore without being killed by a giant frog. I'm hoping a few nudges with the cheat trainer will get me there.Show moreShow less
79.5 hours at review219 people found this helpful
RecommendedSteam player
So.. I pumped about 20 hours into this game now and I can come to a conclusion about this game. We'll do that quick and firm. Cons: - Animations (Janky, look weird at times and are forced to play until the end a lot even when not needed) - Movement system - Combat system (mostly because it contains the movement system) I hate the fact that the character has to play through the "I was falling and now I am hitting the ground, preparing to start moving again" animation until the end and you are not able to do ANYTHING while it does that. You are literally frozen for a whole second. And oh boy, even if you didnt fall from a big height, let it be just a small stone u are walking off, the character plays the animation and THAT is truly annoying especially when fighting. The enemy can get up to 3 hits on you ending up killing you while you were unable to do anything because that animation forced you to freeze at the spot, waiting to play it through until the end. The falling animation from greater heights is a joke. The player is standing still like a statue and is standing straight. What the ♥♥♥♥. https://imgur.com/a/whoj7 This is a gif of that animation. The one after the feet touch the ground. Its about 1 second long and you are completly unable to do anything while the animation lasts. And this animation plays no matter how high u fall down. Even if you jump off a small stone, this ♥♥♥♥ is gonna play through completly. Its annoying. Pros: Pretty much everything else. Character depth is amazing Story is amazing The handcrafted world is beautiful and hosts many stunning locations. The music is awesome and fitting The faction's gameplay is good The balance between the weapons and skills is good. For example, shields block the laser weapons of albs. I talked to one of the developers in the Elex Discord. The cons I listed are already being worked on and are about to be improved in the future. I dont care if it takes a month or 2 months for the big patch to drop, I know that it will improve the game so I dont even vote this game down. I truly approve of this game and it is a gem in todays RPG's. If you want a game with a good story, character depth, a really good karma system and funny dialogues within a stunning handcrafted world, then this is your game.Show moreShow less
29.6 hours at review358 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
So I got 57.3hrs on record. I actually played through the whole game. I quite enjoyed the story, characters were quite decent in my opinion. And yet I still cannot recommend this game. There's a plethora of reasons. List might be incomplete, though. 1. Combat sucks hard. 1.1 You cannot change direction mid-combo. Your enemy dodges? Too bad, you will hit air with your next strike. The camera follows your target, but if you don't wait for the attack animation to end before your next attack, you will just hit air in the same direction you've been facing before. Your enemy dies? Same. Wait till the animation ends or you'll continue beating a corpse while the camera already has target lock on another living enemy. 1.2 Health potions will kill you. Yep, you read that right. Drinking a potion takes about 4 seconds. In these 4 seconds, you cannot turn your character around. The camera will follow your enemies, but you will not. This makes it hard to dodge - as in walk away, you cannot actually dodge while drinking a potion - and you will end up taking more damage than the potion provided health. 1.3 Jetpack attacks are horribly buggy. Not only is you hit box minimalistic - if you hit an enemy, all others around you are knocked back, but if you miss your main target by a hair, nothing happens at all. Also, bigger enemys like trolls have hitboxes smaller than the character model. You hit him, the game doesn't care. Oh, but you're also out of resources from the jetpack-attack and therefore die. And if you actually land ON your enemy? Well, you hit him with your feet, not your melee weapon. So you missed. And you'll die, because you're out of resources to jetpack away or dodge. Oh, and sometimes you'll just be stuck midair in the animation. Doesn't matter if you die or not. You're stuck. Have fun going back to you last savegame. 1.4 Exploiting is mandatory. It's just impossible to beat a pack of mutants or robots in melee combat. It's also impossible to beat them in range combat, unless you're in a position where they can't reach you with melee attacks and where you also have cover from ranged attacks, so you can take potions between exchanges of fire with your enemies. Also, flamethrowers are your best friend. Damage, knockback and fire DOT. This game is not about skillfull battle, just exploit everything you have. Then again, it's not really an exploit if you have no other choice, right? 1.5 Bossfights are narcotic. The engine is old, bad and can't do a lot, so bossfights are horribly monotonous. More often than not you'll just find yourself keeping them on distance with your flamethrower, as they are not designed for melee combat anyways. But they are really, really resilient. So five minutes of flamethrower 'action' that will still kill you if you mess up once...yeah. The challenge is to not fall asleep and keep up your concentration during boring ass boss fights. 2. Exploring rewards you with trollshit 2.1 Going up that mountain? Jetpacking from boulder to boulder? Sure, go ahead. Nine out of ten times you'll find nothing but ordinary plants and common enemies. And if you find a safe or chest? If you can actually unlock it? Here, have some toilet paper to sell, brave hero. You earned it. 2.2 Fighting through a massive horde of monsters? Going through the hidden caves? Sure, you can do that. You might even find a legendary weapon. Which has horribly bad stats for the attribute requirements on it. Can't even remotely compete with manually upgraded vendor gear. So you'll sell it. But it's worth quite a lot. You basically found legendary toilet paper that even has a name! Congratulations, hero. 2.3 Going for map pieces shattered all acrose the map, that you'll hardly be able to find without a guide? Oh, yeah! You can do that. It will reward you with the ultimate price of...♥♥♥♥ to sell to the next vendor. 2.4 Multipart-riddles without markers on the map, that will keep you searching and hoping for some great story and epic loot? Well, the riddles are there, the hopes are there...stories...hardly...loot...lol. Here, have some toilet paper instead. 3 Charachter Progress is ridiculous 3.1 Level up! Sweet. Buy some attributes with your newly earned attribute points. And also spend that new Skillpoint, if you have the necessary attributes and found the right teacher. That makes you stronger! Somewhat. No matter what you do with your Talents, you'll be a filthy little one-shot anyways. You don't need level ups. You need...plants. And recipes. To craft potions that give you health and resources. Just like in Gothic. But was that really a good part of Gothic? Well, honestly...no. 3.2 Woohoo, new equipment! Which you can find randomly or buy from some merchants. The armor won't save you from anything and the weapons are still weak. You'll have to join a faction to get stronger. But the pre-faction quests are actually the most fun. So you'll spent half your time or more being a pathetic little ♥♥♥♥, no matter what your level is. And the new equipment from factions? Expensive as hell! You'll actually end up exploring all the world and you'll be happy for all the basic boring enemies you'll find even in the most hidden places. They are somewhat easy to kill and if you spent enough skillpoints in looting animals, you'll get way more money out of them as the food and health potions you needed cost you. Like, seriously, you'll be exploring the map, finding nothing but vendor ♥♥♥♥, but you'll need it, because the new armor is so expensive. Oh, and it won't really help that much either. You're not a oneshot anymore, but once you're hit by a single mob in a group, the staggering kills you anyways. Sweet! 3.3 Ok, now we're talking. Endgame gear. As damage is calculated by 'Weapondamage * Multiplicator - Enemy Armor' your damage will explode once your weapon is somewhat better then your oponents armor. You'll end up onehitting most enemies, other only take two hits. Something you wanted to feel for the last 50 hours, but you just got there now. Oh, but a pack of mobs will still tear you to shreds if you don't exploit the environment and your good old flamethrower. 4. All the small things 4.1 You'll be asked to retrieve the bow of a hunter's apprentice. By the apprentice. Who has a bow on his back. 4.2 You'll ask a guard about his swordfighting skills. He'll tell you all about, while wielding a gigantic mace. 4.3 You'll sometimes get hit while jetpacking, knocking you back and eliminating all friction. You'll just glide backwards until you fall to your death somewhere 4.4 You'll sometimes want to use your jetpack, but it doesn't react. You'll have to put away your weapon and then pull it out again, because the controls got somewhat stuck. 4.5 You'll sometimes be midair, sword in hand, stamina full and just can't attack your enemy. Landing, putting away your sword, pulling it back out and going back into the air will fix this. But this sucks. 4.6 You decisions will have an impact on the dialogue choices you can make. But they are so incoherent. You'll have to contradict yourself while talking to different characters about the same topic, because the dialogue options available don't leave you any other choice. 4.7 Some boss battles have very, very long dialogues, cutscenes and even loading screens ahead of them. There is no autosave before the combat starts. You can't save infight. Everytime you fail, you'll have to skip through lots and lots of stuff. Sometimes even stuff with dialogue options that might affect the outcome of the game. You'll end up just taking the first answer when quickly skipping through because you stopped giving a ♥♥♥♥. So...well. If you like a decent story and got lots and lots of time at your hands while being resistent to everything else about the game being a mess, you might want to go ahead. If you're looking for a quality game, not just a decent story, stay the hell away from this.Show moreShow less
57.3 hours at review186 people found this helpful
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.