Recently famous German studio Piranha Bytes, responsible for the Gothic and Risen series, has announced a sequel to its 2017 RPG Elex . And just the other day she held a closed presentation of gameplay. And we were there, and I even managed to ask the authors a few questions, including the main one that worries many: when will they finally make a role-playing game that can compare with “Gothic”? All details are below.

“Gothic” as first love

In fact, this question is largely rhetorical. It is clear that the success of the first two parts “Gothics” can’t be repeated. It’s not about competence Piranha, but the fact is that these games are like first love for many, something beautiful and bright from childhood and adolescence, and such feelings are no longer repeated. And for the Germans themselves, this is also their first love. This is what they answered me: ““Gothic” was our first child, it was a chaotic time, but we learned a lot about game development and the essence of that time. Now we can use all the previous experience to incorporate it into our current project. The passion we put into our work can definitely be seen in Elex 2».

That is Piranha Bytes trying to develop. And she has nowhere to go – and to Risen, and to the first Elex there were questions, although they still remained quite attractive to the audience of fans of such niche European RPGs.

And the authors are ready to work on mistakes. “Elex was always planned as a series. And we think we can improve on the sequel. After receiving a lot of feedback from the community, we overhauled the combat system and offered more difficulty settings to give any player an experience tailored to his or her interests. In addition, we have improved the pacing of the story. The sequel will have a clearer central challenge that you can follow to experience the storyline.”, – the developers promise.

The game will be released on PC, as well as on both generations of Xbox and PlayStation with full Russian localization, but the release date is not yet known.

We save the world as we can and as we want

The sequel is planned to be even more nonlinear and free than before. And the authors themselves assure that “in no other game Piranha Bytes there wasn’t as much dialogue and storylines.”.

We again play as Jax from the first part, who, a few years after defeating the Hybrid, is forced to save the world again. A new danger has fallen on Magalan from the heavens – it has released the most dangerous forces of the dark elex and threatens all living things. To protect the planet, Jax must unite all factions.

We’ve already seen this somewhere? “Gothic” remains “Gothic”, even if it’s called differently. And why change the “trick” of work for different factions if it’s good? IN Elex 2 there will be five factions. Among them are both familiar from the original (for example, berserkers) and new ones to whom players will be able to swear allegiance. “Factions are an integral part of the story and decide the fate of the world, so your choice of which faction you want to fight for will greatly affect the story.”, – said the authors.

They claim that the world Elex 2 will readily respond to our choices – they say, even entire battles happen or don’t happen because of what you did. A moral system will play a big role here, taking into account what we say and how we respond – the authors hint that they “love contrasts”. Some effects are felt immediately, some much later. Either way there will be many endings. “They depend on which faction you joined, which partners you chose, how you acted within the moral system, and several other factors. And in the finale they will tell you what your actions meant for the fate of the world and its characters.”, – representatives explain Piranha Bytes.

Fathers and sons

The authors paid special attention to partners. They are all unique, remember our actions, react to our actions, depending on them they join us or leave the group. And Jax may even kill some, which will affect the plot. “We want to give players a lot of freedom, so most characters, including many quest givers, merchants and other integral members of this world, can be killed, but not all. Of course, there are immortal NPCs meant to advance the story.”, — the authors specify.

Jax’s own son will also be among his associates. He first looks for the child, and then participates in his upbringing. But they won’t make a second Kratos and Artei, if only because Jax’s son will not take part in the battles. Here’s what the developers say about it:

We’ve been wanting to add children to our worlds for a long time, and now we’ve finally managed to do it. We think they will bring a lot to the game world – sometimes even giving you tasks. And of course, the fact that Jax has a child that players interact with will also add a lot to the story. At the same time, children will absolutely not participate in any hostilities, and they cannot be attacked.

There are no sons in the screenshots allowed for display – let’s just say that we are still a small boy of 10-11 years old.

New old combat system

Authors Elex 2 studied player feedback, changed several mechanics and conducted many tests to bring battles to a new level.

We’ve put a lot of effort into the new combat system to make it feel more dynamic and responsive to player input. Now she is much more responsive than in the first Elex. One of the strengths of the combat system is its flexibility – melee or magic, ranged or support. You can lure any enemy to a group of guards around the corner, fight while hovering on a jetpack, or use quick attacks and dodging. There are always many ways to defeat the enemy. Our goal was to offer players an entertaining experience, not to punish them for doing something wrong.

True, in the demonstrated sections of gameplay, the combat system Elex 2 looked about the same as the original. Yes, more dynamics, many types of weapons, including bladed and firearms, there are battles on the jetpack. In one of them, they first shot flying monsters with a rifle, then rained magical fire on them, then lowered themselves onto the roof and began to finish them off with a metal baton.

But it’s still clear that this is, first of all, not an exemplary action game, but an RPG from Piranha Bytes – with all its flavor, pros and cons in the combat system. It’s not that bad – it’s just not worth expecting from Elex 2 level of the latest God of War . Everything is more traditional, sometimes clumsy and “erpegish”. On the other hand, battles here are not a goal, but a means, and they will most likely cope with their task.

In addition, opponents somehow suspiciously easily died https://nonukcasinosites.co.uk/independent-bingo-sites/ from blows, even if they tried to block them. We can only hope that at least the AI ​​and balance will be improved. As for the role-playing system, there are no details yet, but one could notice that some indicators gradually grew right in battle as strikes were dealt.

If we don’t take off, we’ll float

But what I definitely liked about what I saw was the world itself and its exploration. The locations will be both from the first part (but changed) and new ones. And everyone looks colorful, atmospheric, lively in their own way. According to the developers, we can go in all four directions and freely explore everything we see. And the appearance of an improved jetpack, which will allow you to travel long distances and soar into the skies, will clearly bring new colors to the process.

At the same time, the world itself will not become larger:

The area of ​​the world was not increased, but we steadily advanced on all other fronts. The game has more characters, more dialogue, more quests, and overall more content – but all in a similarly sized world. Players will feel like they have a lot more to do, simply because there really is a lot more to do.

Piranha Bytes is true to itself and again makes “Gothic” – the largest, non-linear, with children, jetpacks and the ability to kill not everyone, but many. You shouldn’t expect any fundamental changes in the approach to game design, but many will be happy about it – Elex 2 will definitely find its audience.

ELEX II

Best comments

The area of ​​the world has not been increased

This makes me very happy. Better less, but better quality, than a big and empty world.

Because no one else does the same? It depends on who, but for me personally it was Elex that was a revelation and an outlet in recent years, and not your Witchers, GTA and cyberpunks)

I’m very happy with the first Elex too. It’s hard to find a more “free” game, but the “jetpack” doubles this level. And the combat, as for me, is quite good, the main thing is to understand the mechanics. But I haven’t finished the game yet. Joined the “outcasts” – normal flight. I’m really looking forward to Elex 2.

The main complaint of piranhas is precisely that they do the same thing every time, a carbon copy

So half of the people scold piranhas because they make another gothic game every time, and the other half buy piranha games because they make another gothic game every time. This is how it has been done since the first Risen.

If you look at it, in many games you follow the instructions of all sorts of homeless people and go here and there :). But I like games from piranhas (Gothic, Risen, Elex), spiders (Mars, Technomancer, Gridfall and their other games), etc.n. studios, t.To. there is something about them that makes them go through with interest, despite the jambs of combat, outdated graphics, animation, etc.n. problems. But in all sorts of AAA games like assassins, headlights, etc.n., something from 2013-2015 no longer makes me feel like playing, t.To. They do the same thing as a carbon copy, even the animations don’t change at times, they added numbers, colored items, loot boxes, rainbow sails and they require computers to run their games for 2000-3500, but for that price I’d rather take two Elecs or 5-7 other RPG games.

Thanks to Piranhas for another Gothic! (no sarcasm).

It’s people like this that make me miss the old rating system on this site.

This is the studio that provides everyone with quality B-class games that are missing on the market. I really love games from Piranha for their simplicity in execution and complexity in the gameplay itself. Their games don’t have a lot of budget, but they have more than enough soul.

Correction: they are “trying” to release a second Gothic. So far with varying success)

Firstly: hamsters only live a couple of years.
Secondly: the gaming industry does not rely only on expensive titles and series. Even they can be a carbon copy and mediocrity despite multi-million dollar budgets. Cyberpunk 2077 has become a world-famous disappointment and is oversaturated with bugs. Nevertheless, I still got pleasure, since I myself made up my own impression of the game.
Thirdly: where did you get the idea that Elex is a massive game?? It was developed for a specific circle of people. The marketing company was modest, and what can you expect from the Germans? They make RPGs according to their own formula and they like it. There are players who like to play games with this formula.

I wouldn’t call the game an alpha because of its balance.To. I went through Risen 3 and Elex at the start, I was able to complete all the quests without bugs, there were several crashes, occasionally guards teleported to buildings and back to the ground, once the interface froze due to the fact that I tried to get into the inventory during the script, a pirate funny held a bottle in one scene, and that’s all, the optimizon was good, everything flew on ultra. And as for sending you to slaughter and the Persians, I don’t know where to look, tell this to the mercenary quests from the second Gothic and say hello to the black troll, the orc and 90% of the mobs in the first chapter :).

And I’m a fan of these awkward, but such soulful Piranha games.
I’ll wait for the game and hope that the translation will be more… adequate. In the first part, of course, he was not outright terrible, but there is room for improvement.

I completed the first part a couple of years later (although I bought it at release) and received completely positive emotions from it. And I’m very glad that they’re making a sequel, that the piranhas didn’t die.

But what they should fix is:

– progression system. Even if everyone criticizes the combat system, in my opinion it’s ok. There are many ways to drag, the main thing is to find yours. You can use it with a bow, you can have it down, or you can use it in miles. And by all means you can drag almost from the very beginning, which is wrong. Due to the fact that piranhas made the whole world open thanks to the jetpack, it became possible to kill all living things from the very start. It is enough to get to the first available imbatactics.

Therefore, we need to return the progression. So that there are areas where you can’t get into from the start because your eyes are on your ass. Like the catacombs in the first Ryzen or the territory of the orcs and the forest behind the lighthouse in Gothic 2. Strong mobs should be such that you need to wear armor on them. Don’t dump them in their underpants and with a rusty pipe +10 to bleeding.

– variability. In local quests everything is fine, the dialogues and the quests themselves are dragging. But the ending, how damn possible. The finale is just like ME3, fuck the galaxy with traffic lights. Why make an ending that depends only on the amount of booze you drink?. Make normal relationships with factions.

— Elexit booze. They took it and threw it FUCKING OUT. Just increase the experience from mobs and fuck this elex. This is nonsense.

— filling locations. Cool juicy locations. When I stood at the top of the rusty stairs and looked at the shore it was awesome, but when they tried to fill them with notes like a gazebo-folaut it didn’t turn out so great. Little information and few microstories. Think through some of the stories better. And make some secret caves without stories just for fun. Then it will be much better. I was incredibly sorry that I was never able to get behind the iron bolt of the bunker at the factory. Oh how I wanted to go there.

And if the piranhas correct these little things, then the game will play. And those who shower it with shit, well, go play the top AAA RPGs of last year. Who was there at the awards?? Valhala? Well, fuck it, it’s an RPG now.

I wouldn’t call it an outlet, but there is a certain atmosphere in these games. It is not the banal world that has gone the farthest, albeit with a banal division into factions. I just remembered New Vegas during the playthrough.

What does mass participation, normal people and other nonsense have to do with it?? Similar class B games came out 20 years ago, in those days a score of 6-7 was considered normal for passing, as in that meme picture where before 5-7 was a good game, 7-9 was possibly the game of the year, now everything up to 8 is crap, 9-10 is possibly the game of the year. And if we’re talking about mass production, it’s the big publishers who need to be criticized, not the poor small ones, etc.n. developers who make games not for everyone and to the best of their ability.

Forget it. I looked at the profile and it’s a local bot. All comments are of the same type and do not carry awareness or meaning) It was even offensive that I left time for such a long comment (

Judging by the fatness and stupidity of the comment, it is already clear that this is a fool troll, well, at least our normal comments diluted this nonsense, otherwise under this preview there would have been almost only comments about shit and dull games :).

Piranha Bytes is true to itself and again makes “Gothic” – the largest, non-linear, with children

Piranha Bytes will make their own Gothic, with non-linearity and children?

Piranhas are cursed and for 20 years they have been releasing the second Gothic under different names.

And every time the debate about whether their games are crap or not, it got so bad that stopgame couldn’t resist and released a review of Risen 3 with heavy trolling, which is funny, then they also helped the fan voice-overs for it :). I hope that something like this won’t happen again, otherwise a friend of mine trolled me for six months because I liked Risen 3 :).