Do you want to shoot a troll in the face with a shotgun, slash mechs with magical swords and then use your jet pack to fly off to do it again? Well, THQ Nordic’s upcoming game ELEX has got you covered. Defying the laws of game genres, THQ Nordic touts ELEX as a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi adventure. Set in a far flung future where technology has been both driven forward and backwards at the same time, game genres are smashed together in a way that’s a little tough to wrap your head around.
During my demo I spawned with several weapons, both melee and ranged. My ranged weapons consisted of a fairly weak laser rifle and a grenade launcher. My melee weapons included a flaming sword, which looked really cool, but wasn’t nearly as fun to use as the chainsaw sword. Yeah, a chainsaw sword! As cool as that was however, the melee combat didn’t feel as comfortable as the gunplay. To deter button mashing during melee fights, the designers included a stamina system, similar to that found in Bloodborne and the Dark Souls series. Unfortunately, the actual swinging of the weapons and the dodging mechanic felt sluggish, leaving me unable to avoid attacks that completely devastate me in only a few hits. Furthermore the guns were were fun to fire, especially while hovering via the jet pack felt weak. My laser rifle appeared to do little damage to the lizard monsters I encountered and even the grenade launcher took a few rounds to bring down a simple bandit. It should be noted however that ELEX is still in development and hopefully, the combat and weapon balancing will see more polish before the game launches.
ELEX has been built from the ground up for both PC and consoles and is slated for release on PC, Xbox One and PS4 simultaneously this summer for approximately $59.99. To see the combat for yourself, or for more information on the weapon systems and narrative, check out the in depth interview recorded LIVE on the show floor with with Reinhart of THQ Nordic.