- July 12, 2022
- Tiny Roar
- 4h median play time
XEL
A game with a lot of potential bogged down by a plethora of bugs and atrocious dialogue & voice acting. Playable but far from enjoyable.
Platforms
About
XEL is a single player role playing game with fantasy and science fiction themes. It was developed by Tiny Roar and was released on July 12, 2022. It received neutral reviews from critics and negative reviews from players.
XEL is an epic 3D sci-fi fantasy action-adventure. Explore the mysterious world of XEL and help protagonist Reid to uncover her enigmatic past. Make new friends and foes along the way and collect exciting gadgets to master challenging dungeons and solve time bending puzzles.











- XEL features a vibrant and colorful art style that creates an engaging sci-fi world, making exploration visually appealing.
- The time travel mechanic adds depth to puzzle-solving and exploration, allowing players to interact with the environment in unique ways.
- The game has a charming narrative with quirky characters, providing moments of humor and emotional depth.
- The game is plagued by numerous bugs and technical issues, including game-breaking glitches that can lead to lost progress.
- Combat mechanics feel clunky and unrefined, with limited enemy variety and repetitive encounters that detract from the overall experience.
- Quality of life features are lacking, such as poor camera control, awkward keyboard bindings, and a confusing minimap that makes navigation frustrating.
- gameplay76 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
The gameplay in "xel" draws heavily from classic Zelda-style mechanics, featuring top-down exploration, real-time combat, and puzzle-solving, enhanced by a time-shifting mechanic that allows players to navigate environments in different states. However, the experience is marred by technical issues such as bugs, hit detection problems, and uneven difficulty, which detract from the overall enjoyment and fluidity of gameplay. While the game showcases ambition and engaging mechanics, many players find it suffers from a lack of polish and balance, leading to a frustrating experience at times.
“Drawing clear inspiration from classic Zelda-style gameplay, it aims to blend top-down exploration, real-time combat, and puzzle-solving with a futuristic twist.”
“A key mechanic in Xel is the ability to shift between different timelines, allowing players to explore the same area in multiple states—past and present—solving environmental puzzles and accessing new paths by switching between these timelines.”
“The gameplay mechanics are smooth and intuitive, with challenging yet accessible obstacles and enemies to overcome.”
“While there are boss fights that attempt to shake up the formula with more involved mechanics, they can also fall victim to the game’s sometimes finicky hit detection and uneven difficulty spikes.”
“Unfortunately, these high points are too often interrupted by bugs, underbaked mechanics, or pacing issues that slow the experience down.”
“Yet, in every aspect, it just does it with mediocrity because it isn't challenging, the story is subpar and brought down with horrific dialogue/no real motivation besides plot device, and lackluster gameplay which bugs out in just the worst places and ways.”
Games Like XEL
Frequently Asked Questions
XEL is a role playing game with fantasy and science fiction themes.
XEL is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Steam Deck and others.
On average players spend around 4 hours playing XEL.
XEL was released on July 12, 2022.
XEL was developed by Tiny Roar.
XEL has received neutral reviews from players and neutral reviews from critics. Most players liked this game for its gameplay but disliked it for its stability.
XEL is a single player game.
Similar games include Apex Construct, Hob, Downward, Eternal Edge+ Prologue, The Last Case of Benedict Fox and others.





