ELEX official artwork and logo

ELEX is an upcoming post-apocalyptic open-world RPG from the creators of the Risen and Gothic series. As with all of their previous games ELEX is going to allow you to play in whatever way you wish, befriend or become enemies with whichever factions you choose, and most importantly of all, let you decide how to solve each and every problem.

And what better way to showcase this freedom of choice than through a disjointed, minute-long gameplay trailer set to some truly horrendous music! While the video unfortunately won't give you an idea of what ELEX plays like, it does at least showcase some of the different environments you'll get to visit, armor sets you'll get to wear, and jetpacks you'll get to pilot straight into a tree. Have a look, and trust me, turn down the volume:

The animations are fairly bad, but if Piranha Byte has managed to recapture the same spark that led to the creation of Gothic 1 and 2, as well as Risen, I will be more than willing to overlook any such technical flaws. These types of games have always been about player freedom, constant world-building, and exploration, so while they are usually a bit of a buggy mess they do at least offer a gameplay experience no AAA studio really dares to experiment with. As such I genuinely hope ELEX is going to be more like the classics such as Gothic 2 and Risen rather than the incredibly disappointing and 'innovative' Risen 2 & 3. 

To learn more about ELEX, its gameplay or RPG elements, you should visit either Steam or the official website. As for the release date, you can expect to see ELEX on PC and consoles on October 17th.