Parents' Guide to Elex

You don't have to spend much time with this game before you start to realize things are slightly off. Characters walk through other characters while in town. You'll set up camp to get in from the rain, and when you wake up, find the controls completely unresponsive, so you can't get back up again and have to load an earlier save. The sluggish controls are so clunky and awkward that running from a fight is nearly impossible -- since you can't manually target enemies, you'll wind up dashing toward exactly what you're trying to escape. This list of grievances could go on and on, but Elex is simply weighed down -- almost crushed -- by undercooked elements that likely would have been caught, addressed, and fixed with more rigorous internal testing. As such, the final product feels anything but.

What's worse, Elex simply feels generic. It owes to better games and not only doesn't surpass them, but pales in comparison. It's another open-world game with a gravelly-voice protagonist who explores bleak landscapes and happens upon other characters who unspool exposition about warring factions and politics. No matter how much you listen, though, you will feel lost playing this game until you level up considerably -- an interesting, even commendable choice, is having the entire game world open to you from the get-go. Unfortunately, this backfires, as you'll wind up impossibly lost, ill-equipped, and unsure of your choices. The reality is, this is how you would feel after the apocalypse. But other games sharing this same setting make better choices that at least give you a better chance at finding your feet.