4 people found this review helpful
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 60.4 hrs on record (60.3 hrs at review time)
Posted: 11 Sep, 2022 @ 12:12am
Updated: 22 Nov, 2022 @ 5:49pm

Go Forth Tarnished
Basic premise/Story

From developer studio, FromSoftware. Directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki and Yui Tanimura. Elden Ring was made in collaboration with fantasy novelist George R. R. Martin. You play as a Tarnished who must go forth and restore the Elden Ring.

For users who are very familiar with Fromsoftware games. Elden Ring(ER) is the next step in their past souls series. Except with a gigantic open world called The Lands Between. Taking all the best elements from their past games and including past works like Bloodborne and Sekiro.

For those unfamiliar with Fromsoftware games. ER. is a harsh, but very fair open-world action role-playing game played from 3rd perspective. It could be considered comparable to other open-world games out there. Like Botw, Witcher 3, Elder Scrolls games, and more.

A Most Satisfying Gameplay Loop
Unique Gameplay

There is so much freedom you can do in the game it’s mind-boggling. I could go in any direction and the game would not impede my progress to do so. Allowing players to check whatever is over the horizon and see if they can reach it. Rewarding those with a sense of adventure and wonder. You may tackle various enemies in groups, mini-bosses, or secret dungeons in the form of caves or catacombs. Venturing underneath your very soles to find large caverns and hidden areas you may not expect. You will find every corner of the Lands Between filled to brim with content.

One of the most gratifying features the game has is the reward of defeating any enemy group and refilling your main health items. Keeping the momentum of exploration further without the need to backtrack to a site of grace to replenish your health flasks. Concurrently, one of the slight frustrations I had with past Souls games was the distance you had to run from a resting area to the boss. Here the implementation of ‘stakes’ puts you just outside the boss room door. So you don’t have to make a decent trek to face the boss. Making repeated attempts against any boss is less painful and a most welcome feature to have.

Perhaps one of the most satisfying features ER displays is the ability to traverse long distances with a horse. With an innate ability to double jump AND fight on horseback as well. This isn’t a shoe-horned feature with barely any proper implementation. It is the exact opposite. The utilization of horseback is vital to traverse the world and in some cases can be used to fight enemies who are mounted and can be used to defeat other enemies. From groups of enemies, minibosses, and bosses. And the fact you can get the horse very early on is a major plus in my book.

In past Souls games, I usually felt alone in exploring the vast world. Despite the fact, that you can summon online players to help you. You’re still left to summon an online person every time you enter a zone. Which can be kinda frustrating for some. Here the restriction is a bit lessened. Granted they can’t come with you everywhere, but you can explore a good chunk before the online companion has to leave. Additionally, In ER you can summon a companion! They’re called Ashes of War. And they’re fantastic for combat. Sure you can’t use them every single time. But in zones where you know, a boss encounter will come later on. You can summon them and they can help you fight mobs of enemies too. Being a welcome decoy for your enemies to hit while you can take a breather to recuperate. And having an ally with you that you can summon at will for boss fights makes battles a bit fairer and not so lonely anymore. The AI is pretty good as well. Well depending on what type you have and how far you upgrade your ashes.

The sheer amount of level design in ER is insane. I thought I would be done in a dungeon only to discover secret pathways and clever verticality to trick my eyesight. And the usage of the jump button and running helps immensely as you explore the Lands Between. While you can’t use the horse in some dungeons, you can go back and forth in a large dungeon and open up new pathways and learn new areas to explore and new enemies to fight. Keeps the gameplay fresh and exciting. Never gets old finding new paths to tread and discovering new loot to find.

One last point I want to praise is the inclusion of a map screen. And the ability to continually update with markers of various symbols you can drop on any area of the map. As well as obtaining free maps to unlock portions of regions for the whole map. This allows you to see paths and points of interest you may want to check out. While it doesn’t show every secret cave/catacomb and other secrets for players. It’s nice to see your map update more and more as you progress further in the game. Past Souls games didn’t have an in-game map you can consult. And the feature here is most appreciated.

Voices and Ambiance in the Lands Between
The Sound Design

The sound design in ER is incredible. Every track hits hard, despite some tracks giving off a melancholy vibe or motif in some songs. There is a good balance in every track. And the harmonization of vocals slightly in the background and foreground in certain tracks adds weight to the big bad boss fights you encounter. Voice actor wise I found each of them to be adequate without anyone being too forced or fake. Every single voice actor was spot on. Thereby, making the world feel more alive. Especially for the main story bosses and optional major bosses you face. I was mesmerized.

Death is not Always the End
Final thoughts/Ruminations

Aside from one crash in my game and some stutter issues. The game ran fine for the most part. I was genuinely impressed by the game's optimization. I was below the minimum pc requirements and yet the game was able to hit stable framerates consistently.

Playing through ER is such a weird nostalgic feeling. There is so much the game does well and expands from Fromsoftware’s past works and does so brilliantly to exceed beyond what I initially thought. If someone were to ask me if this was their magnum opus. I would say it must be the Elden Ring. It is very little to none I could criticize the game for. And just about every corner of the world in the design from gameplay, sound, level design, and story(as well as Souls stories go heh) is crafted with such care and precision with the help of George R. R. Martin. If a zone was too hard for me. I would travel to a different zone and level up and acquire new gear and equipment to see if I could utilize a new strategy to overcome my current barrier. There is a huge amount of items from weapons to armor to spells. There are a plethora of methods to tackle situations and circumstances you wouldn’t otherwise think would work. But it does, and the game allows you to do so freely. And so effortlessly, as if to say to the player “Yes you can do this method. No problem.” If there is ever a game you need to play from any company. Especially from FromSoftware. Let it be the Elden Ring.

Total Times Beaten: 2(1 on PC, 1 on PS4)
Score: 10/10
Date Finished: 7-10-22
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