Gothic, Risen and Elex series -

[GogglyGoblin]

THQ Nordic recently released a free demo of what a reimagining of the original Gothic by Pyranha Bytes would look like, called Gothic Playable Teaser.
I figured we could talk a bit about it and didn't find a thread on either the Gothic or Risen series, and while Elex only has one game, Elex 2 has been confirmed since before the first one launched.

The Gothic Playable Teaser is not looking to be Gothic in a modern engine but more like "what if we make a game with the characters and setting of Gothic in 2019", I played it all and got what I think all the alternatives to the few quests that you can play and I think it's absolutely great, at the very least it's as good as Elex (which you should play if you haven't already), though it's a bit rough around the edges and it has some weird graphic settings that you can't turn off, and both the protagonist and Diego who serves as the guy who tells you what's going on in the game feel like they talk way too much and the protagonist seems to have conflicting personalities, I think that these are things that aren't necesarily how the game would turn out if they actually go forward with it and more of "lets just throw everything we have so far and see what happens".
The combat is really good, it's not very groundbreaking or anything but once you get the flow of it is very fun, though at the end of my first playthrough I think I glitched all the enemies' AI so they could only dodge my attacks, in any case it's certainly better than anything in Gothic, Risen and even Elex.
The few quests that are in the game can be resolved in a few different ways and depending on what you choose to do and how you solve them the consequences are different, so I think it's a promising demo.

So what do ya think about these great series???

 

[The 3rd Hooligan]

First game is weirdly comfy to me. Control scheme is kinda weird though. Havent played rest yet.

 

[Crabbo]

I only really know of these because of some German Jew and a guild of merchants.

 

[Agarathium1066]

I only really know of these because of some German Jew and a guild of merchants.

That and his much more tame alter-ego for myself. It's a serious game I've had interest stoked in due to what is on offer seeming more unique than other older pieces. I may have to look into this later.

 

[GogglyGoblin]

I only really know of these because of some German Jew and a guild of merchants.

Well if you never played them then I'd reccomend you start with Elex and then go from there. While Gothic I and Gothic II are great RPGs they are very dated and very awkward to get used to. Doing simple tasks like buying stuff from vendors takes time to get used to but I remember spending well over 30hours in the first chapter of Gothic II just going around stealing everything and trying to talk to everybody.
They all start pretty slow so you should give them 3 or so hours before you decide if you like them or not.

 

[DumbDude42]

gothic 1 and 2 are great games, everything else not so much

 

[ForgedBlades]

I like the Risen games. Just the right amount of jank.

I tried to get into Elex, but I could never get a feel for the combat.

 

[gaystoner]

Sorry for necro but...

Elex chads rise up!!!

 

[Dr. Troon Lagoon]

I tried to get into Elex, but I could never get a feel for the combat.

I agree, the battle is atrocious, but with PB the application of the rule of “breaking the game is part of the experience” it becomes a great experience.
The initial 10 Char levels are tough though.
PB really stick time into world crafting with a lot of cool stuff, sights and lore to piece together.
The voice acting in German was good, English amusing dollar tier trash.
The perks was a mixed bag as most of them claim to something without giving an actual stat and when you go looking for it you find out that a large amount of them are useless. Crafting and upgrading of weapons is also very limited.

The Risen series is indeed a reskinned Gothic, still enjoyable with the same caveats as Elex.

Overall they scratch the RPG itch that a game like Fallout 4 no longer can: dialogue and outcome options.

 

[Marcus the Mong]

These games are janky as fuck (studio core is like 50 people and they're making 3rd person open world RPGs, lmao), but they are the definition of having "soul". I love being a weak nobody in the beginning and trying to minmax exp and skills the best I can. PB's maps are always top notch as far as exploration goes too.

Can't wait for Elex 2.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

Sorry for necro but...

Elex chads rise up!!!

I saw this. PC Gamer trashed it as being "too gamer" because heavy metal, middle aged blokes snarling, and slow motion chopping up bad guys. What do they know, they trashed Elex for having a difficulty cliff even though it's justified narratively by Jax going cold turkey from his super soldier serum and being stranded in a death world (which the land of Magalan absolutely is) and for wonky voice acting (justified, but the writing and world building are A1). And yes, the voice acting and character animation was wonky but the land of Magalan itself? Utter scenery porn.

(Also the difficulty cliff was mechanically justified because you start with a jetpack and thus can escape encounters more easily if you're underlevelled.)

As for the trailer? Welp, glad to see the gang's almost all there; I can see Arx (Alb with laser rifle) and Caja (red haired woman with flaming longbow). No Nasty or Falk though, which is a pity as Falk had one of the best arcs in the first game with his quest to become a real boy.

 

[gaystoner]

I agree, the battle is atrocious, but with PB the application of the rule of “breaking the game is part of the experience” it becomes a great experience.
The initial 10 Char levels are tough though.
PB really stick time into world crafting with a lot of cool stuff, sights and lore to piece together.
The voice acting in German was good, English amusing dollar tier trash.
The perks was a mixed bag as most of them claim to something without giving an actual stat and when you go looking for it you find out that a large amount of them are useless. Crafting and upgrading of weapons is also very limited.

The Risen series is indeed a reskinned Gothic, still enjoyable with the same caveats as Elex.

Overall they scratch the RPG itch that a game like Fallout 4 no longer can: dialogue and outcome options.

I saw this. PC Gamer trashed it as being "too gamer" because heavy metal, middle aged blokes snarling, and slow motion chopping up bad guys. What do they know, they trashed Elex for having a difficulty cliff even though it's justified narratively by Jax going cold turkey from his super soldier serum and being stranded in a death world (which the land of Magalan absolutely is) and for wonky voice acting (justified, but the writing and world building are A1). And yes, the voice acting and character animation was wonky but the land of Magalan itself? Utter scenery porn.

(Also the difficulty cliff was mechanically justified because you start with a jetpack and thus can escape encounters more easily if you're underlevelled.)

As for the trailer? Welp, glad to see the gang's almost all there; I can see Arx (Alb with laser rifle) and Caja (red haired woman with flaming longbow). No Nasty or Falk though, which is a pity as Falk had one of the best arcs in the first game with his quest to become a real boy.

entirely this. I'm so tired of hearing 'DARK SOULS COMBAT' ..like...okay...so does that mean everygame is going to be the exact same and its 'not fun' if it deviates? Elex gives you an actual stat/skill progression that eventually lets you become god tier and melt everyone.

"The first couple levels the combat is brutaallll"...Well go play skyrim on normal or something. Fuck off with your soy whining.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

"The first couple levels the combat is brutaallll"...Well go play skyrim on normal or something. Fuck off with your soy whining.

Ugh. I can't stand that sort of thing. I like the idea of having low level areas next door to high level areas. It adds a frisson of danger to things. Suppose you're just tooling around and you accidentally run into, say, the abandoned mine in Edan. Hmmm. There's probably seriously good loot and treasure in there, but there's a horde of slime drakons and terror birds and other high level enemies with a skull next to them when you target them. Do you think you can dash in, grab whatever's there, and get out before it mauls you to death? Or is it better just to wander off and level up a bit first.

Star Control 2 had this exact thing as well. There's important quest items on hostile planetary surfaces; do you chance it with your lander to go in, grab it, and be out like a spent knob or go find the Melnorme and level up your lander a bit first. And nobody complained about that, and Starcon is rightly seen as a classic.

Level scaling is frankly cancerous because it reduces all meaning to increasing in levels. I can appreciate a downside of no level scaling is that going back to doing low level quests you missed can result in them being a walkover but certain games (Pillars of Eternity 2 being one) has the ability to have upwards-only level scaling, so going back to missed quests in low level areas still provides a meaningful challenge while at the same time lurking in high level areas feels suitably risky.

 

[Dr. Troon Lagoon]

Elex gives you an actual stat/skill progression that eventually lets you become god tier and melt everyone.

Yes, mass casting enemies into oblivion with black holes is good fun aaand also my only way to play cleric.
The projectile speed on the other ones and the need for sniper hitbox precision and movement prediction made them ass to use.
1) MFW when my psi-strike tickles the hitbox of Jax’ brothers testicles and nothing happens.

I mean you could also play Fallout 4/Skyrim if you enjoy faux RPG’s

 

[Pimpleking55]

Sorry for necro but...

Elex chads rise up!!!

To much toxic masculinity in the trailer, so sign me up. A game to look forward to......plz PB don't fuck this up.

 

[SiccDicc]

I saw this. PC Gamer trashed it as being "too gamer" because heavy metal, middle aged blokes snarling, and slow motion chopping up bad guys. What do they know, they trashed Elex for having a difficulty cliff even though it's justified narratively by Jax going cold turkey from his super soldier serum and being stranded in a death world (which the land of Magalan absolutely is) and for wonky voice acting (justified, but the writing and world building are A1). And yes, the voice acting and character animation was wonky but the land of Magalan itself? Utter scenery porn.

(Also the difficulty cliff was mechanically justified because you start with a jetpack and thus can escape encounters more easily if you're underlevelled.)

As for the trailer? Welp, glad to see the gang's almost all there; I can see Arx (Alb with laser rifle) and Caja (red haired woman with flaming longbow). No Nasty or Falk though, which is a pity as Falk had one of the best arcs in the first game with his quest to become a real boy.

I'm really hoping PB completely ignores PC Gamer and their bullshit. Getting sick and tired of those faggots thinking their opinion matters.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

I'm really hoping PB completely ignores PC Gamer and their bullshit. Getting sick and tired of those faggots thinking their opinion matters.

They used to be fairly good, did PC Gamer, but after 2017 or so they went right downhill. They aren't as cancerous as Rock Paper Shotgun though. Generally I don't think there's any reviewer that is totally trustworthy out there. Access media reviewers need to pander to advertisers which means woke bollox and talking points and fellating big publishers, while youtube reviewers tend to be deliberately contrarian in pursuit of the almighty click.

What we need is someone like Gamers Nexus Steve but for games rather than hardware. Yes, he can be a bit dry at times but he goes into an almost autistic level of detail with his tests and generally is pretty fair minded. Amiga Power back in the early 1990s was spot on. They would trash games even from big publishers that were awful and were pretty fair minded although they did tend to have a downer on role-players and strategy games sometimes. Their ethos in the late 1990s was picked up by PC Format as well.

Maybe that's my new job if I fail out of being a lawyer. I think I can be fairly fair minded.

Honestly, I think the best thing to do with vidya these days is basically to read a composite of user reviews and think (gosh!) about whether it's something you might want to play or not as the case may be.

 

[Stoneheart]

Ugh. I can't stand that sort of thing. I like the idea of having low level areas next door to high level areas.

Fallout NV did that even better than the first Gothic.
you can try to make a run for the shining city or go the long way around and level up.