Everyone is still talking about Elden Ring and rightly so. With Elex 2, another role-playing game was released almost at the same time, which is worth a second look, especially for Elden Ring fans.
Languages:German English
release:10/17/2017
Platforms:Xbox One, Windows, PlayStation 4
A commentary by Alexander Gehlsdorf
Quick quiz question: Which open-world role-playing game from a cult studio was released in early 2022, offers a challenging combat system, complex quest chains, suffers from some technical difficulties and starts with “El…”? Right, Elden Ring of course! But when I was enjoying the credits of Miyazaki’s new masterpiece after almost 90 hours, my first impulse was to pay Elex 2 a visit again. Why is that? To answer the question, you can accompany me on a little journey through time to the year 2006.
As a reward, there are heavier opponents
It’s the end of March 2006 and I’m ecstatic to have The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion in my hands after years of waiting. Both The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind and the first two Gothic parts have so far held the position of what I consider to be the best role-playing games of all time, but if one game were able to conquer this podium, it would have to be Oblivion! Or?
The huge tower in the center of the imperial city already greets me in the main menu – I definitely want to go up there! Finally, in Morrowind, I was able to literally fly over the game world late in the game, so that’s definitely going to be possible in Oblivion. However, the more time I spend in the game, the greater the disillusionment. Right at the beginning of the game I get a horse, but otherwise there is very little in the way I move. In fact, Morrowind’s best feature, levitating, is completely absent.
Even worse: Oblivion relies on level scaling. The stronger I get, the more powerful enemies stand in my way. That sounds somehow understandable on paper, but in practice it is a great motivation killer. After all, the main reason I want to get stronger is to be able to face previously impossible challenges. Those who train in Oblivion, on the other hand, are rewarded with even heavier opponents.
A few years later, Skyrim marginally revised the scaling disaster – the higher my level, the more powerful opponents spawn, but weak opponents are not replaced – but still manages the feat of nipping any noticeable progression in the bud. Already in the first hours of the game I am allowed to kill a dragon(!) as part of the main quest. Don’t you usually save that for the boss? Accordingly, the boredom is great when I have to fight another dragon (yawn…) at the end of the main quest.
Whether you’ve spent 20 or 200 hours in Skyrim or Oblivion, it always feels the same. There is simply no noticeable progression, no meaningful character development. As a reminder, in Morrowind I could literally fly over the game world in the later stages of the game! In Skyrim, dragon riding was only added a year after the release via a paid addon. Due to the game world worth seeing, the numerous conversations and the interesting lore, the games can hide this weakness well, but those who value character development are not well served with Oblivion and Skyrim. Fortunately, there is a German studio that has a golden touch in this regard.
Progress must be worthwhile again
Anyone who wakes up in the Khorinis Valley of Mines and plays Gothic by Piranha Bytes for the first time can only dream of scaling opponents. In the first few hours of play, it is practically impossible to leave one of the paths at all, as certain death awaits just a few meters away. Anyone who strays into the forest between the old camp and the swamp camp quickly ends up as wolf food, even though wolves serve as harmless tutorial opponents in most other role-playing games.
Instead of offering an omnipotence fantasy, Gothic does the unthinkable and lets you feel how weak you are. But that’s exactly what makes character development so motivating, because if I can eventually take on a wolf, the minecrawler queen or even an orc, the victory tastes all the sweeter. After all, I know exactly how it feels to be hopelessly outnumbered in a fight.
On the other hand, the game rewards me for daring expeditions: For example, two guards block my way to the orc area for my own protection. However, should I cheat past those two and survive the endeavour, I’ll be rewarded with equipment and resources that I can usually only acquire in the final third of the game.
Gothic and its successors are not the only games that masterfully use this noticeable inferiority. When I first played Dark Souls many years later, I saw more parallels in it with Gothic than with any other game. Instead of going into the forest or the orc area, I can go there directly at the beginning of the game via the graveyard into the catacombs, only to be overwhelmed by invincible skeletons. But if I’m clever, I can secure some extremely powerful items early on.
Needless to say, even a Dark Souls with scaling enemies wouldn’t be Dark Souls at all. Once you’ve defeated Ornstein and Smough and then bravely ventured back into the skeleton-strewn catacombs, which no longer pose a threat, you’ll know what tangible character development feels like. The way I move through Lordran also changes as the game progresses. While I’m still on foot at the beginning and the same groups of opponents always block my way, towards the end I have a noticeably easier way through the game world thanks to individual quick travel points and unlocked shortcuts.
Back to Magalan!
Our time machine has landed back in 2022. It’s no longer a big surprise why the Elden Ring made me want to spend a little more time in Elex 2. After all, there is still at least as much Gothic DNA in Elex 2 as there is Dark Souls DNA in Elden Ring. Nothing in these games scales with my progression or abilities, and that’s why I feel my character’s development more clearly than in almost any other game.
Actually, I’ve already finished Elex 2, seen the credits and freed Magalan from the Skyands. But luckily my quest log is still chock full of side hustles that take me all over the map. However, I’m not going there on foot, because in the course of the game I was able to upgrade my jetpack more and more, so that I can now fly unrestrictedly over the game world and even feel my character development comprehensibly outside of the fights. Hey, just like in Morrowind!