Elden Ring is simply a game that the player naturally adapts to their own style of play. Challenging at times, vicious at others, but mostly incredibly fun. The enjoyable pace makes the hours of play pass by like water, and each path opens up a few more, only to come together again after a fair amount of exploration before the next big reveal. [Issue#318]
Elden Ring is a superlative title, one of those works capable of becoming an event and becoming engraved in the collective imagination. It achieves this by remaining faithful to its formula and exporting its identity to the concept of the open world, achieving its own personal approach, resulting in a world that is visually stunning, and that works with overwhelming precision in terms of mechanics. An excellent videogame that also maintains the concreteness of its proposal.
Elden Ring serves as a testament to open world video game design. There is a true sense of accomplishment once that rock-hard enemy has been slain and, something that compels a player to relentlessly do it over and over again until they succeed is truly rewarding
Elden Ring packs its intricately crafted world - a world which should be used as a reference point for open-world design moving forward - with more impressive boss fights and secrets than you can shake a giant greatsword at. Although its punishing combat system may not be to everyone’s taste, it is an essential experience both for FromSoftware newcomers and seasoned veterans alike.
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]
It's got a lot of good things about it but to me the absolute best was the feeling of excitement and discovery when finding new areas, I felt like a kid again in the best kind of way.
Was torn between 7 and 8.
Insight into my gaming experience regarding this game: I have beaten Bloodborne 3-4 times (new game+ runs, no new file), including the DLC twice (first playthrough and new game+ 2), every boss and area (including hidden ones) - additionally, while I Iost count, I beat many dungeons and platinumed the game; I beat the Demon Souls Remake 4 times and Sekiro once (so far). I am in my first playthrough of Elden Ring and have been playing for 170 hr. I have been thoroughly exploring and completing every area and have not skipped a single boss.
First, the good. The open-world is massive and beautifully designed (FromSoft always has excellent level design) - I can see why some have deemed it empty for its size but, I was happy with it (however, while the caves were awesome exploration and yielded numerous cool weapons or items, they severely lacked variety in design which can get monotonous). The addition of a horse was awesome (allowed for expeditious exploration and horseback combat). The dragon fights were super cool and cinematic (classic fantasy element). Lots of cool spells. Compared to most games, the combat is great (Typical FromSoft combat). For Souls veterans who have relished in previous Souls titles and are always waiting for the next Souls release, this game will probably be a 10/10 (some exceptions have been seen).
There are multiple misses or imperfections in this game but, I won't go into too much detail. With how many bosses are repeated or simply somewhat boss versions of enemies seen in the world, and the lack of variety of cave design, as well as repeated enemies, despite the enormous ground covered, the game probably could have been smaller. This game added a lot of things from recent titles (talismans, weapons, spells, etc.) but, are mostly disappointingly underwhelming (whether it is range, damage, speed of animation or cooldown, or viability in combat). Poise is poorly done in this game. The overall mobility of the player compared to most enemies is annoyingly and unnecessarily unbalanced. The tracking of enemy moves compared to the lack thereof on the player side is frustrating. A lot of moves or movesets are difficult, in the sense it would be a difficult fight to be put in the ring against Mike Tyson in his prime with my arms tied behind my back. They have run out of ideas and essentially made things "difficult" for the sake of being difficult, where you'll die more due to luck of the draw on the RNG than lack of skill (at least once acquainted with the game's combat). This game is, relatively speaking, very overrated. Somewhat oversimplified, but, it is Bloodborne: removed from the gothic setting, the world magnified 10x over in size, and took the gods, outer gods with various sects of followers but, increased the amount of gods and used different mythological inspiration; however, Bloodborne's unique, Lovecraftian approach, and how unique the weapons were, along with the sidestep dodge, worked better - since the game also took less time, you're left wanting more, not tediously drained. Aside from the story, it is the combat/challenge - especially the combat/challenge - that really attracts you. Elden Ring made enemies more ridiculous in multiple ways while the player's mobility and base combat ability is nothing new. This game is overall, okay, wrapped up in very pretty paper: size and design of the world, the exorbitant amount of items, attire, spells, and weapons (I would be surprised if even 30% of the total things you get are worth it - mostly, you'll find little reason to switch up from whatever setup you've worked with for your first 30+ hours (maybe that varies from build to build). Sekiro was their best combat. Less dressed up (1 weapon / playstyle, but prosthetic tools and combat arts), but simply better: high skill requirement, but if you met it, you were rewarded by being able to die less (nonetheless, you had to remain on point and there was no room for error) or manage bosses "easier", like things seem easier for Crosbys, McDavids, Jordans, and so on. Sekiro had fast-paced combat that kept you engaged and on your feet, but if you're parrying was on point (parrying perfect), you can stand against any foe. You got punished if you slip, but only if you slip. Elden Ring is more dressed up, but a step back from Sekiro. Another critique accurately stated that it's like the enemies and/or bosses of Elden Ring are playing Sekiro, while you're still existing in OG Souls-style gameplay.
This game was the perfect opportunity to raise the ability and difficulty of enemies (which they did) while innovating and improving the player's agility. For one, they still use the outdated, overly exaggerated animation for using curatives (adds zero value). Either way, allow for dodge cancelling out of certain animations (during cooldowns, or at the early stages of the startup). Could have included Sekiro's parrying to add value for builds that lack stagger ability.
Elden Ring is a good game, but it falls short compared to the last Souls games released. It has too many repeated bosses, making it feel overly long and dragging at times. The last areas have almost no dungeons and very little content. The quests are impossible to follow without guides, and the game is very poorly optimized for PC.
Lock on system doesn't work keeps changing no pause screen worlds cool bit you can just run past 60 percent of the games one bosses are cool 20 percent of everyone's death are **** side quest boring characters I don't care for good looks good combatspretty good never explain any of the stats and what they do I constantly have to go on my phone and search something up good character customize leveling weapons Is a pain in the ass the game doesn't want you to switch your build mid way though
Level design, music and art style are great but that doesn’t complete a game. More of the same old thing, dodge roll, learn attack patterns, die alot, and screw with the inventory for hrs before finally defeating a boss (or not). As an adult gamer, i value my time too much to waste what little time i have to play on this game. Getting stomped for 3 hrs straight and calling it a night with little to no progress is not for me. I understand it may be the greatest game for some but, this game clearly has a target audience.
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...