ELEX Preview

The folks at RPGWatch have published their own preview of ELEX based on what they could see of the game at this year’s Gamescom. It’s a good summary of all the information we have on the title so far, so if you want the skinny on the game, you might want to give it a read:

The game features four factions. The Beserkers live in the forests, are fearless fighters and convert Elex to mana. With this mana they are able to make the world around them green again, but they also use the mana as a source for magic. The Clerics live in the volcanic mountains and have over time, gathered knowledge about the available technology on their world. They do not consume Elex, but instead use it as a power source for their machines, but not their weapons. The Outlaws, live in the deserts and they are anarchists. They steal and plunder whatever they can find and convert Elex into a drug that they use. The last faction are the Albs, who live in the icy mountains and not only use Elex for weapons, but also consume it directly and have, because of that, become emotionless, machinelike even. They have however gained a lot of strength and powerful skills because of the Elex consumption.

At the start of the game you are an Alb, but you crash and were because of that a long time without Elex, up to the point where you are no longer have any Elex in you, nor have a need to consume it anymore. So you start with a clean slate and you can mold your character in whatever you want him to be. About halfway the game you have the option to join a faction and once the choice is made, you cannot change it anymore. Every faction comes with its own missions, ranks, home base, weapon types, skill trees and philosophy. However you can only choose between the first three mentioned factions and not the Albs. Despite knowing that, I explicitly asked them if I could join the Albs. The answer was that you couldn’t, but that in the end you will need to make a choice regarding the destiny of the world and what will happen with Elex. At that point in time you can make a decision that favors the Albs and perhaps not the faction you have joined.

Very early in the game you will get access to a jet-pack, which will allow you to travel in vertical direction and can also be used in combat by flying up and then crashing down with your sword on one of your opponents, which will cause much more damage than a normal blow would. There will be skills in the game that will improve your abilities using the jet-pack. To not overpower the jet-pack too much, it has an amount of energy that will deplete when being used and it will take some time for it to reload again. If you are not on the ground when the jet-pack energy has been drained, you will crash down and loose HP or even die, depending on the height you fall from. The jet-pack is seen as an essential part in the movement of the player. They are thinking about the option to level the jet-pack up by going higher or being able to use it longer, but nothing on that has been decided yet.