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Elden Ring Review

Hi everyone. I am new to the soulslike subgenre. Elden Ring was the first Souls game I’ve played. In this review, after playing more than 300 hours and completing the game–I want to share my opinion about it.

I Don’t Didn’t Like Hard Games

First of all, before I played Elden Ring, I didn’t like (what I thought) the high learning curve and the challenging gameplay.

I remember giving Bloodborne 2 minutes and other similar souls the same more or less the same. I DIED A LOT — Stopped playing.

Elden Ring screenshot
Every area looks different. Art direction is second-to-none!

It happened at the time that Elden Ring came out, that I kind of had enough of those easy games that pose no challenge. I felt like I am just traversing through them, not really enjoying them. Especially where many of those games that I played had an uninteresting story to follow and the theme and combat felt shallow. Aside from that, there wasn’t any satisfaction in winning a fight as it was easy anyway.

I felt I wanted to play something new, and Elden Ring just came come at the best time.

I was thinking about getting Horizon Forbidden West, but after playing Zero Dawn a month earlier on the PS5, I got bored and I knew that I needed something else. I couldn’t care less if Forbidden West was an exclusive, I wanted to have fun–I wanted something exciting and new (for me).

I can’t of course speak as a Dark Souls player, as I haven’t played any of those games before, so for me–it was a new experience, taking into consideration some of the similarities between Elden Ring and Dark Souls

Game Design & Art Direction

I knew before getting Elden Ring, that I want to play a dark fantasy game. This is a world I want to immerse myself in. It felt mysterious and exciting just watching the trailer and streams of those who streamed the technical preview version of the game.

The moment I stepped into the game I got stunned by the beauty of it (Played on the PlayStation 5 BTW).

Elden Ring snowy area of the map, screenshot
Exploration is bliss in Elden Ring

All those discussions about the graphics didn’t matter, the world was stunning. The art direction is second to none. I felt a sense of mystery no matter where I looked and walk to. The game felt very welcome as well in terms of its color palette and especially at the beginning of the game. It felt much less dark and “depressing” compared to Bloodborne. I think that this is also something that lead many players who weren’t into souls games to feel more welcomed into the world and less intimidated.

The level design made traversing through the world exciting, especially after getting the torrent mount. There are secret areas, caves, dungeons, hidden places, loot dropping from unexpected areas, and enemies. Day and night cycles also change the atmosphere and make other types of enemies spawn.

The amazing use of elevation also brought some stunning vistas that look absolutely breathtaking. I was so immersed in the world that when I start playing it, I was playing 48 hours straight and sleeping the night, and that cycle repeated for a week or two. It never happened to me before that I felt so into-the-game, or at least I can’t remember the last time I felt like that. This is the moment I knew I am experiencing something big, something completely different.

One can overanalyze every single part of a game, but it’s the collective–that made the experience feel amazing and different—Elden Ring WAS DIFFERENT, in a very POSITIVE way.

It’s The most beautiful game I’ve ever played. Even if the graphics’ visual fidelity might not stand with the best out there, it shows me that the art direction is the most important thing, but still, the game looks absolutely stunning by all means, don’t get me wrong.

Difficulty

OK, let’s talk about difficulty. I know many players decided not to pick up Elden Ring because it’s a souls game, so it has to be very hard. You hear it all over the place and it’s one of the things that make many fans proud of being souls players. The word “difficult” is mentioned in almost every second sentence on reddit when I asked a question. Even on my YouTube I’ve read so many being proud of “finished it first try”. Players just feel pride in being able to be good at what is considered a “very tough game”—It’s almost felt like a lie after playing the game—let me explain.

Elden Ring is more difficult than many games you played and if you weren’t into souls games before. That being said, the learning curve isn’t high and I got “into it” in about an hour or so. Once the ball starts rolling, the game becomes so much easier.

Not just that, there are so many ways to approach combat. It’s an open-world game, you can stealth, find elevated places to hit enemies without getting hit back, you have summons that can tank enemies, you can use a shield to block attacks (even 100% of the damage), you have very strong builds (**cough** blood loss) that are super strong early on and throughout the game, you can use magic to cast spells from far, ride a torrent (horse) to traverse fast in combat (when possible) and even use spells while on it; and let’s not forget the ability to co-op with randoms and friends!

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There are so many tools the game offers you, that once you choose to use them, can make the game so much easier.

That being said, “easier”, doesn’t mean that the game will be super easy for you. There are ways to make it much easier, but still, there will be challenges and you’ll find yourself needing to at least fight a boss several times just to understand how to tackle it. Even those who eventually find an easy way to do things, died several times to understand how it’s done. Well, unless they already have a good build to tackle a specific challenge.

But that’s the thing. It wouldn’t feel satisfying winning a fight if you get it always the first time. That wouldn’t be the same as playing a very casual game. But this is subjective of course. Some might not get enjoyment until they finish the game on a Level 1 character.

I decided to go with a single faith-strength build throughout, with all the challenges involved. I haven’t respected. I was able to finish the game solo with that and felt insane enjoyment after I completed the game with everything the game had to offer to make it possible. What builds others were using really doesn’t matter, I chose my own path and it was my journey.

After that, I was more open to seeing what others are doing and see which build I want to use on NG+, my next playthrough.

Bottom line, the game is more difficult than your casual open-world combat-based game and many other games that you might have played lately as a more casual gamer, but the learning curve isn’t high and there are many ways to make it way easier than you might have thought.

DON’T Let the so-called high difficulty be the reason preventing you from playing this amazing game.

Open World Game & Questing System

I’ve played many open-world games and many of them were much less exciting than that of Elden Ring.

This is The Best open-world game ever made in my opinion in terms of immersion, art direction, mystery, exploration, rewarding for exploration, hidden secrets, and immersion. All followed by fantastic dynamic music.

I know the Questing system has been negatively criticized by some, even by Forbidden West devs.

Now let me tell you something. In my opinion, this way of the questing system, which is less clear and “open” fits the open-world exploration and discovery better. It’s way better than seeing exclamation marks asking you to go and to this and that. You felt in a way obligated to do it in Horizon Zero Dawn for example. I didn’t want that, I want it to be a mystery, maybe to be discovered later, or not at all.

I like the fact that things aren’t clear as I felt more alien to this new world and I felt more like it was my journey and not one dictated to me by very clear marks and to-do list.

I also like that some of the things are quite ambiguous and hard to discover, and are discovered by the community. This is something that kind of unites the experience of players who play the game on their own.

This is why in Elden Ring, quests felt a more natural part of the open-world gameplay experience.

That being said, there is a BIG BUT HERE. This is a two-edged sword.

That being said, this can least to players who don’t have a lot of time be frustrated about it, can lead to back-tracking in areas you already completed, even miss some quests that aren’t doable anymore if you progress further in the game, miss some important items that can be perfect for your build.

There is also no way to track that progression. Although in a later patch you can see the NPCs on the map, which is much easier to follow quests this way than before the patch. So indeed it was too stretched out and this was patched out by the developer for a good reason.

Thing is, that FromSoftware probably took it too much to the extreme and a mid-ground would be something more accessible while still keeping the fun in discovery and progression tracking aligned with what fits the game and player’s wants and needs.

I think that Elden Ring is probably one of the games that which many players spend more time in Wikis than playing the game. And playing a game with a guide absolutely RUINS THE IMMERSION.

So in that aspect, I think that the game wasn’t balanced well enough, but I personally saw that as another opportunity to discover things in NG+, but for some, one playthrough is more than enough. So although I might not see it personally as a big negative, some will.

Combat & Boss Fights

Boss fights are the bread and butter of souls games. This is what you are farming for and trying to find amazing gear to have a great build to challenge those tough enemies.

These are the most challenging enemies in the game (in most part).

The design of the enemies in Elden Ring is second to none, let alone bosses.

Every boss looks so well designed, and combat is one of the most satisfying things you can have in Elden Ring.

Thing is that combat isn’t complicated in Elden Ring but still you’ll have a large variety of moves. You can do regular attacks, strong attacks, you can block and parry, can do attacks while jumping, combo attacks by changing locks on enemies, have unique skill attacks, can dual-wield, one-hand or hold a weapon with two hands that increase damage. And of course, there are spell casting, dodge and roll.

Well, plenty of moves, but you’ll find that you definitely don’t need to use all and you get used to many of these moves pretty quickly as you’ll use them often and force to use them in a way in order to avoid getting it (which you’ll do a lot depends on the build).

You can also use a shield to block attacks and have lots of items that can be consumed and used to buff you up.

Soe yeh, plenty of options to use in combat and everyone can choose the things that fit their playstyle.

In general, every boss fight was unique and felt different, all felt intimidating and fun to fight against. The variety of combat options also add to the replay value, because although you can’t fight them again alone only on NG+ (unless you do co-op), it really wanted to fight them again with other builds.

Co-Op, PVP, Builds & Replay Value

Many Souls games fans enjoy the PvP, creating the best meta build to smash other players to pieces, invading other players’ worlds or co-oping with others to finish tough challenges or just enjoy playing with others, helping others, replaying bosses and trying out other builds.

This means that even after you complete the game’s main storyline, there still will be tons of things you can do.

To be honest, I thought I’ve completed the game, but even after 300 hours, I’m still finding TONS of things that I’ve missed – the game is MASSIVE!

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Summary

There always be players who will overanalyze every single thing in the game. Thing is, as a collective, Elden Ring delivers one of the best gameplay experiences ever made and it’s a crime skipping it because you might think it’s “just too hard”.

Elden Ring is packed with endless things to do, tons of secrets and everything feels so natural to the open-world game design. The game looks stunning to say the least, combat is so satisfying and progressing feels amazing, especially when you able to finally beat a tough challenge.

Elden Ring will have features that will be debatable but in most cases, it works in favor of the game design than against it. That is how it was for me. I don’t agree with many things said, as in my experience, it was The Best gameplay experience I have ever had. And those devs who criticized it negatively, I played their game and got bored so fast. So you see, bottom line is that Elden Ring is one of those games that you at least need to try. I could easily dismiss it for its difficulty as I’ve done in many other souls games. I just didn’t give those games a little bit more time to adjust, from my “lazy gaming” habit as a casual gamer.

Once I had done so, I’ve discovered a game like no other and I am happy I did it.

No ranking system will give this game justice. This game had to be played to be appreciated. Thank you FromSoftware for this incredible and memorable journey—GET THE GAME!

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