Piranha Bytes stuck her own squeal of role -playing games. They are so named by: “RPG from“ pirania ”, and those who have once encountered series Gothic or Risen , immediately nod with understanding. Yes, a compact, but lively open world, three factions to choose from, the rapid transformation of the hero from a ragged with a stick into a mighty warrior or magician … In general, “RPG from“ feasts ””, which is incomprehensible to be incomprehensible?
The first two Gothic are considered cult. However, the third part has already gone in a different way and did not deliver great joy to fans, and many recognized the Risen series to the Risen series too secondary. Elex it undertakes to start everything with a clean sheet – let it be more painfully similar.
Last year we already wrote about her, the time has come for new details.
World, background and main character
The ELEX world has nothing to do with worlds in previous studio games. If you remember, in Risen there were still hints that everything does not happen so far from the scene of the Gothic, but at another time. There are no them at all. But there is a planet Magalan, where a hundred years passed after a meteorite fall. He destroyed civilization and brought a new element of Elex to the Magalan, and with it magic.
The main conflict of the ELEX world is the confrontation of magic and technology. However, if this topic is usually revealed in the style of steampunk (as in Arcanum or Thief ), then here is still futurism. Something reminds of old Might & Magic, where the elves and gnomes ran through distant planets and space stations and hunted for dragons. But just a little bit.
► https://lady-linda-casino.co.uk/ contrasts of the game world: a network of power transmission peacefully coexists with primitive structures of acorns and sticks.
Why post -apocalypse?
Bjorn Pankrats, Director of Development in Piranha Bytes
“The idea and world of ELEX has been invented for ten years now, but now we have finally have the opportunity to bring them to life. Fans of Gothic and Risen, of course, recognize familiar principles and images, but otherwise ELEX itself.
In what place are laser rifles and magic, fantasy fractions and science fiction groups? How to combine all this so that the world does not seem raw and superficial? That's why we chose a post -apocalyptic scenario in which one disaster brought everything together ".
When it comes to landmarks, the development director of Bjorn Pankratz does not call any one thing. There is a little bit here: something from books like “dunes”, something from films like “Running Blade” and “Equilibrium” and games like Fallout and Outcast.
The main character this time has a name and background. He leads some albas, who, thanks to the Elex, received great power and ability to magic, and paid for this by deprivation of emotions – a kind of clerics of Tetragrammaton, only in a completely different universe. But, like the hero of Christian Bale in Equilibrium, our character at some point eludes from the action of the substance and begins to understand that until that moment he lived somehow wrong. Or, on the contrary, he did everything correctly and we must return – this will already decide the player.
► there is a little from the Fallout series, only there were the sixties on post -apocalypse, and here – almost the Middle Ages.
In fact, you can dispose of the Elex in different ways. This is both a source of power and magic, and the basis for building all machinery, including military. It is clear that, as in the case of Spice from the Dun, who controls it, he owns the world. And, gives up, in the game we will just redistribute this resource among interested parties.
Three fractions again?
Bjorn Pankrats, Director of Development in Piranha Bytes
“In Elex, you do not join the guild, just to learn its combat style. You make a solution based on whose views you support. The future of the world lies in the use of technology? Or in return to the laws of nature? Or maybe it’s better to do what is being done and what happens? In this regard, Elex is much deeper than everything that Piranha Bytes did before ".
The ELEX world is built in clear contrasts. Magic against technology, nature against mechanisms, science against fantasy, logic against emotions, and many, many more “against” between which you have to choose. And at the same time, Pankratz insists that in ELEX there is no strict scenario in which you begin at point A and should go to point B to force the story to develop. Piranha Bytes create a living world in which the characters are engaged in their business, animals and monsters walk on their own, and interesting things happen here and here.
► It seems that the meteorite fell, but the dinosaurs never died out. Or just the opposite, it caused their appearance?
About freedom and development
The map will again become whole and seamless, and not a set of individual locations than the last Risen sinned. The structure of the world is well acquainted: you can go anywhere, but if you wander into too dangerous wilds-do not blame you, you will be killed. Remember Gothic 2? Remember how miserable you felt at the very beginning, running from every one and a half rat, and how great it was to live, rising to the first armor of the city guard (or mercenary fur coat, or mantle of a fiery magician)? They seek to evoke similar feelings here.
Will it be difficult?
Bjorn Pankrats, Director of Development in Piranha Bytes
“Reality is cruel – and Magalan too. In late games, we added a lot of mechanics, which were supposed to make the game more accessible for a more “casual” public. Now we believe that it was the wrong choice.
Elex will be difficult. She should give that sense of satisfaction when you rise from dirt to bunch. We want the player to feel that he is being improved. There will be difficulties settings, but a whole is a game for true players, not a walk in the park ".
► The hero at the start will not necessarily be completely weak – but it seems that even such a satire with an electric breakdown will be difficult to score.
Therefore, first – research, training, search for bypass paths. And only then – fateful decisions in the name of changing the guise of the planet. By the way, another interesting feature: ELEX will not end after passing the main story. New monsters will appear, NPC will have new tasks. Did someone really decide to pay due attention to such things?
How not to stand still
The developers themselves consider ELEX the sum of all their past achievements. All successful developments will be collected in the new world, and unsuccessful achievements are thrown away. For example, instead of the Risen combat system, they made a new one, from scratch. There is not so much known yet, but the developers are particularly pressed for fundamentally different AI behavior (battles with groups should be much more tactical), alternating shooting with fencing and much greater importance of choosing a position and means in the skirmish.
The main thing is freedom
Bjorn Pankrats, Director of Development in Piranha Bytes
“In some games, we experimented with cinematography, making the gameplay more linear, but with a bunch. Now we are sure that our power is in simulated game worlds that allow marginal freedom. This does not go well with cinema, so here everyone has changed ".
► Combat Mehi is here too. And they, like magic, function due to the energy of the Elect.
Only bold ambitions are alarming. They always alarm – especially considering how the pursuit of the scale cost Gothic 3. Piranha Bytes again swung at the largest world that she had ever done, moreover, Pankratz claims that this will not be filled to the detriment.
How to build an open world?
Bjorn Pankrats, Director of Development in Piranha Bytes
“A large card and a denser gameplay do not exclude each other. It is worth dividing the inhabited territories like Horinis from Gothic 2 and the lands that surround them. These same lands in Elex will be more extensive than in Gothic 3, but “interesting cities and settlements” is one of the first tasks on our list.
Three shacks with a fence are not a city. For example, berserkers in ELEX live in the settlement Goliet (Goliet). It has a military district, the area of workers, the residence of the leader at the top of the mountain – everything is that it is supposed. We spend a lot of effort on creating such locations. We think: “Why did anyone need to build a building here? How this society works?" – and the result is a world that seems correct and real".
► It looks like a screenshot from some Dark VOID. But literally next to the power line, a village with log houses and chickens in the yards probably.
And there will also be a reactive satchel in ELEX. He completely changes how the player will explore the world – in theory, it can be achieved with him anywhere in the game world. This seemingly trifle entails a huge job: sometimes developers simply lower some details of the environment, since the player will never reach them anyway. But now, with a reactive satchel, how it will get!
In short, work at Piranha Bytes Proterva. But all the more interesting it will be if it turns out.