ELEX

Elex is an admittedly janky game that does more than enough world building to provide a solid roleplaying experience in a fairly large and engaging open world. To be totally clear, it's not anything like a polished product. Among the not insubstantial number of elements that deserve criticism, the voice acting in particular comes off amateurish, and the combat is not at all fluid until you acquire basic skills and items at least 5-10 hours after the start (even then, let's be honest, it's still rough around the edges). Another aspect to highlight that is somewhat jarring early on is that the game world is not neatly arranged zone wise from easy to hard or early to late game - in other words, just beyond the present immediate area you may find yourself, you might discover several mobs that are impossible for your character to currently handle. This is not at all totally random, however, and the post-apocaplytic setting has main towns and roads that you should stick to at the start to avoid overwhelming enemies. There are also, even now in 2025, more than a few (minor) bugs, although I haven't come across anything gamebreaking.
Regardless, I found that for all its faults, there are corresponding strengths and creature comforts that keep the title enjoyable - there's no player inventory weight limit, no enemy scaling, plenty of teleport stations that are always accessible from the map after being discovered, lots of detailed locations to discover rewarding exploration with bits or sometimes heaps of loot (yes, much of it is generic "junk" with no purpose other than vending), a faction system that impacts both your character build and questing that's not too restrictive while still allowing important allegiances, and player progression feels rewarding, especially in the face of the initial weakness of your character at the beginning of the story. You have to work to find ways to improve and progress in the world of Magalan, but on balance, the effort is enjoyable and feels worthwhile. The cherry on top for me is the central plot, which feels like more than the sum of its parts, and has become engrossing as I've gotten familiar with the game of Elex as a whole. The game successfully expands upon its world and your place in it, as well as mostly providing impressions of agency and consequence for the player in a meaningful and intelligible way as you make decisions working your way through the story, as one would usually hope from a true CRPG.
I recommend it for anyone looking for an action oriented fantasy and sci-fi roleplaying title who is willing to overlook more than a handful of flaws for the bigger picture.
I've also played this title a bit on the Steam Deck and it plays well on the device out of the box.

The early game is rough, like really rough. Everything kills you and its a slog to move anywhere, but once you get into it and get your first levels and new wepons, the game is really fun honestly.

It is a crime against humanity to keep this wonderful gem at mixed reviews. Despite the fact that Elex excedes many of the aspects Piranha Bytes is known to excel at, it was unjustly bashed by casual gamers who are incapable of understanding core gameplay mechanics.
I have finished the game in its entirety on Ultra difficulty using nothing but melee weapons without the help of companions at any point. Therefore, I will absolutely derail each and every single one of these unjustified arguments against its melee combat. But first, I will elaborate on the core gameplay loop and the general world design.
Story and Exploration
The story revolves around a post apocalyptic dystopia with a unique twist where a powerful resource named Elex has divided the humanity into multiple factions, each with their own rules, philosophies and agendas. The politics are never simply black and white as they have a number of nuances and it is genuinely intriguing trying to fit in as an outsider. Despite its gloominess, the world is extremely colorful, lively and eventful. Biomes all make perfect sense and blend into each other effortlessly. Every single tree, structure and even item was meticulously hand placed by the developers in a way that it's sensible and believable. Exploring, looting and surviving this harsh and hostile world never ceases to be fun and is hardly matched by any other game.
Gameplay Design
In its own staple Piranha Bytes fashion, the beginning of the game is extremely ruthless and is not meant to be brute forced through. You will start off extremely weak and you will lack capabilities to kill anything but the few of the weakest types of enemies in your surroundings. For the first dozen hours, you are expected to get intimate with the world, get to know each of the factions, understand their ideas and provide assistance. You will spend this time talking to NPCs, doing them favors and deciding which faction appeals to you the most. This will carry you through the "early game" until you decide to join one of them, and this will give you your first power spike where you will for the first time feel competent to engage in more meaningful combat and exploration. Understand that you are expected to run away from danger and survive. If you are really struggling, use a companion. They can outright trivialize early to mid game.
The Combat
Things not to do
- do not spam clicks (The game features a timed combo system where you are expected to learn the flaw of your attacks and click exactly as the hit lands. This allows you to keep enemies staggered with constant offense and finish your combos.)
- do not use lock-on (The lock-on system in this game disallows running and fast movement, which is a crucial part of combat encounters. Get used to manually manoeuvring around the enemies and attacking them when they are vulnerable)
- do not stay on the ground without stamina (the moment you run out of stamina, the only safe place for you to be is the air. Use your jetpack and hover until your stamina bar refills)
- Do not fight multiple enemies at once unless you are more powerful than them. (It is usually a bad idea to do so, but later on in the game you are forced to fight in this manner almost constantly. Here, you want to swing hard with heavy hits from a longer distance. Do this once or twice, dodge away, fly up and re-engage.)
Things to do
- Observe the enemy behavior and patterns (Each enemy type has its own unique set of tendencies, strengths and weaknesses. You need to be aware of them and exploit them accordingly.)
- Keep jogging in circles and keep your distance (Most enemies like to charge at you from a long distance. Each and every single one of these charge attacks can be avoided by simply moving sideways. This is why you don't want to use the lock-on system because it will disable this mechanic. As the enemy misses the charge, it will try to run away. Chase them and start your combo from behind their backs.)
- Block up close (when enemies are at point blank range, they will attack extremely quickly. As long as you have stamina it will always be safe to block these fast attacks, even without a shield. If you are good enough, you can dodge them instead.)
- Mind the hyper-armour (Now, this is probably the most intricate one. Certain enemies can occasionally disregard your attacks and trade you hit for hit, which messes up your combo and your flow. When this happens you MUST disengage. It is not random, however. Most massive enemies like Ogres have these types of attacks, but are extremely slow and it allows you to cancel your attacks and dodge away immediately. Arachnids are another one, but it is safe to keep attacking them with heavy attacks which keeps them perma-staggered. Ironically, the only unfair enemy in the game is the ostrich type which is normally very weak but has random hyper armour and can rarely be combo-ed fully because of it. I am almost 100% sure this is a bug rather than a feature.)
The only absolute BS gameplay mechanic in the entire game is the Flamethrower and Granade launcher which certain elite humanoid enemies wield. These can knock you down from infinite range and disrupt you constantly, making it impossible to play. You have to run into these enemies instantly and make them switch their weapon to melee.
Conclusion
I know this seems like a long one but I couldn't just sit there and ignore the fact that this last ditch mastery effort by this passionate company get trashed by incompetent "modern" gamers who are used to having success and gratification be fed to them with a silver spoon. If you are having serious problems with the combat, understand that it is you, and not the game. A skill issue, if you will...

This game runs perfectly on Steam Deck.
At first, it may seem a somewhat generic RPG with 3 opposing and different factions to support, undermine, or join. That is actually still the feeling many hours into the game - the combat and enemies are uninspired, overtuned, and usually offer little reward compared to completing tasks for people - and surprisingly that is where the game shines!
NPCs will lie to you in this game and it isnt obvious, they have their own plans and some task outcomes effect other NPCs and their tasks for you. Plenty of tasks/missions/quests have multiple solutions, and you get a jetpack almost immediately.
Its a decent and unique RPG, I just wish the combat was better tuned and exciting.

Janky. Slow. Tedious. Prepare for that. Amazing character progression. Fun lore. Choice and consequence is actually conflicting. Hard to ever feel like you did the right thing. If you like a slow well earned sense of character progression then its a great game. the game is probably objectively mediocre, but subjectively it's
fantastic! I'm gonna play all of their games now...

First off, most criticisms the game received are valid, e.g. clunky combat, weird animations and subpar voice acting. It is certainly a far-from-perfect game.
But this game has its merits and imo is definitely recommendable especially on sale. The RPG elements are what actually drew me into the game. As a forgotten amnesic soldier, you get to choose which faction to side with and learn their abilities accordingly. This is already a big plus because it creates strong immersion. Weapons have a good variety but I don't feel they differ much to give you more choices in combat, but the combat itself is fine for me. Story is well paced, you can feel that the story is progressing while still taking your time to explore different places or doing side quests.
Overall a 7/10 for me, definitely worthing getting on sale when it often gets a 90% discount now in 2025.

As a big fan of Gothic , this felt like home to me. The combat can be quite junky sometimes , but if you are used to playing other games from this developer , you will have no problems learning it. The story is nice, the variety of enemies is good , the characters are quite memorable and you can easily spend over 50 hours playing this game. If you like old school rpg's then play this game.