Elden Ring is FromSoftware taming the monster they created, not by filing down its teeth and claws, but by giving players the weapons and armor to endure it.
A series so influential it becomes its own genre. That alone is FromSoft’s crowning achievement. For Elden Ring, the most recent iteration of that series, all superlatives fall short. This game is a timeless masterpiece that will go down in history as a milestone, not only for the genre and developer From Software, but for gaming as a whole.
Elden Ring is the embodiment of From Software’s best work yet. Top-notch quality of another huge soulslike adventure persists, especially in the cryptically epic story co-written by George R. R. Martin and in the ingeniously vast and visually stunning world of Lands Between that sets the new standard for open world games. And of course, you can expect a lot of dying, rolling, and rage-quitting. Elden Ring is a must play for every fan, but it also makes so many good steps towards accessibility for a greater audience.
Elden Ring is a crowning achievement of over a decade of Miyazaki’s and FromSoftware’s work, and an amazing example of how to find a whole new level of fun in a well-known and somewhat worn-out formula. The open world turned out to be a perfect fit for the genre and you can still tell this masterpiece was created by the famous Japanese studio. I honestly haven’t been so excited about a game since the first Dark Souls.
Elden Ring feels like the natural evolution of a video game series that continues to reinvent itself after more than 13 years of its birth. FromSoftware is simply the best at what they do. While there are some technical issues and repetitive structures and creatures, Elden Ring is a cruelly wonderful piece of work and one of the best adventure games of recent years.
The years of waiting were worth it, Elden Ring is brilliant. It offers a huge amount of content, a beautiful world and addictive gameplay. But the series does start to feel a little bit stale.
Elden Ring needed to be fresh and bold, and
it succeeds, putting you in charge of your
own adventure. However the open world has
some uneven terrain. [Issue#12, p.80]
I’m on my third playthrough at 300+ hours in and I can truly say that I’m only now starting to feel like I might need to take a break from the Lands Between. Nothing is quite like the first play through with all of its amazing surprises and sense of exploration, but with the build variety offered, there are still so many ways to play and each offer such a unique experience that the replay value is beyond what I initially expected.
Despite its reputation, the game is not very difficult. There is a learning curve and that is most found in the navigation of the menu. Many game mechanics regarding damage scaling and item usefulness are extremely obtuse. Also I love the lack of overly cluttered quest logs, but having any option to jot down a note about an NPC would be nice.
Otherwise, the game is actually quite forgiving with experimentation. The player just can’t expect to brute force their way through it. It rewards patience, paying attention, and enthusiasm in the journey, which I luckily had ample supply of.
All things considered: it’s easily my favorite video game of all time. Period.
Elden Ring is a good game, but the open world came at the cost of rewarding, tight level design that the other Souls areas had. It says a lot that my favorite areas of this game are the "dungeon"-esque zones. The open world areas are pretty, but you'll spend most of your time in them sprinting past all the enemies and empty space. Weapon variety is disappointing, especially for the boss weapons. A majority of the bosses are reskins and forgettable, and all the ganks are poorly designed. There were a few bosses I enjoyed, but overall I think I would have enjoyed ER more if they focused less on the open world and more on tight level design and boss quality.
Elden Ring is Dark Souls with a Zelda twist while may sound awesome but it only goes skin deep. While i'm glad it bonked the overrated non game god of war cuckmarok from getting a game of the year , Elden ring as a game itself is pretty mid.
Overly difficult just for the sake of being difficult
Nonexistent story
Slow sluggish combat. Look at how fast the characters move! A 10 year old moves faster than that.
SummaryA New World Created By Hidetaka Miyazaki And George R. R. Martin
ELDEN RING, developed by FromSoftware, Inc. and BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Inc., is a fantasy action-RPG adventure set within a world created by Hidetaka Miyazaki creator of the influential DARK SOULS video game series; and George R.R. Martin author of The New York Times b...