Throughout mine and many of your lives, we have had them calendar marker games, the ones
that you’re counting down the days leading up to its release.
Well, Elden Ring was exactly that for me.
It feels like it has been an age since its announcement and it’s finally releasing
in a few days.
It promises the same formula of dying…dying and then dying some more but this time all
within an open world.
how does From Software’s airtight design hold up in an open world environment?
Well, that’s what I’m here to answer in Gamexplain’s review of Elden Ring.
The game opens with a cryptic yet intriguing cutscene.
The Elden Ring has been shattered and the gods of the Lands Between are established
leading me to wonder where or when I will fight these monstrosities.
Typical of other From Software games there is quite a lot of jargon spewed over the player.
The rest of the story is delivered through small conversations with NPCs and item descriptions.
At this moment in time, a lot of it is lost on me.
I was never one for delving into the lore myself, I’ve always waited for Youtubers
like VaatiVidya to help me in that regard.
There is the typical character creator is here with 10 classes.
As per usual I picked the Bandit, wielding a dagger, a buckler, and a bow, partially
because The reviewer’s guide specifically pointed out that ranged combat was much revamped
but more on that later.
After this, Elden Ring wastes absolutely no time in throwing you into the open world.
There’s an optional tutorial that teaches you the ropes, but if you’ve played any
of their previous titles then you’ll know what you’re doing.
Except for jumping, even after 40 hours, it feels strange being able to jump in a From
Software game.
From minute one the world begs to be explored.
You see the first bonfire…wait I mean site of grace, the games checkpoints and there’s
once again an NPC speaking in some cryptic dialogue vaguely pointing you to where you
want to go, and from there, the choice is yours.
Maybe explore the broken down church off in the distance or brave the giant covered beaches
to the left or….and though I would advise against it, attempt to fight the massive golden
warrior.
Yes, I tried it….no it didn’t end well.
After my first death, it didn’t take me long to realize just how many places I could
visit.
I found a statue that led me to my first dungeon and boss.
I snuck into a camp littered with soldiers that once again killed me.
And not too long after that, I unlocked Torrent, a half cow, half-horse mount that can inexplicably
double jump.
The freedom was staggering I was engrossed in exploring the Lands Between from beginning
to end.
The game organically led me to points of interest meaning that I rarely felt compelled to check
my map.
The only thing guiding me was my sense of discovery and the odd line from an NPC.
Although there are times when the game is almost too cryptic.
I’m not going to spoil anything but I was stuck at one part until I discovered the solution
in the reviewer’s guide cleared up for me.
It was extremely frustrating, and I don’t understand how anyone will figure it out without
looking up the solution.
Perhaps I missed something but by no means should I need a guide to figure out something
vital to progression.
No matter what challenge awaited me ahead, I was always handsomely rewarded.
The stellar area design holds through too, but with a twist.
Just like previous titles, the areas are labyrinthian mazes littered with enemies and items that
are just begging to be explored.
There is finally a dedicated jump button and it is reflected in the level design.
I was always on the lookout for jumps to make, which usually led to a shortcut or a powerful
item.
In some cases, if you are clever enough you can sneak past whole groups of enemies with
a few jumps and I love that From Software gave the choice to do so.
While I do have some issues with repetition in the optional areas, it’s something that
plagues most every open-world game.
Sometimes a point of interest might hold an interesting NPC, or some enemies to kill with
loot to scavenge, or best of all an interesting boss fight to put my skills to the test.
While I can’t show the later areas, each one is unique with distinct enemies, bosses,
and structures making them highly memorable.
It gives me similar vibes to BOTW if you replaced the environmental interaction and puzzle with
pure souls like combat.
While there is no climbing or gliding, I haven’t got lost in a world like this since Breath
of the Wild, add to the exploration a grueling combat system and there’s no wonder why
anyone could fall in love with this game.
And speaking of combat, All the trappings of a souls-like game are here, dodge rolls,
light, and heavy attacks, along with more weapons and armor than any one person knows
how to deal with.
I chose a dexterity build for my playthrough, opting to use dodge rolls instead of a shield
as my only method of defense.
Combat feels the same as previous Souls titles and I loved it.
I was afraid that the combat wouldn’t translate well to an open-world environment but their
worries were laid to rest quite quickly.
on a challenge level, Elden Ring seems similar to Sekiro, where the normal encounters felt
slightly less tense than those of Bloodborne or Dark Souls but slip up once or twice and
you’re dead.
When it comes to combat, it’s as challenging as ever.
It plays similarly to Dark Souls 3 which is my favorite combat in all of the From Soft
titles.
I feel there is a heavier emphasis placed on weapon artes.
I found one weapon early on that had an amazing weapon arte that saved my ass on more than
a few occasions.
I’m glad to say that running through the many castles, towns, and dungeons of the Lands
Between was equal parts stressful and exhilarating.
I was still creeping around each corner hoping to see a shimmer of the yellow light of a
site of grace.
The main areas or levels if you want to call them that feel like a souls game but there’s
whole new type of combat and that is horseback combat which adds something small to do while
traversing the world.
You can perform heavy or light attacks on both sides of your horse.
Smaller enemies like basic soldiers and wolves are easy to handle but at times you will run
into other mounted foes or bigger enemies that will destroy you if you’re not careful.
Yes, some of the encounters are made easy on horseback as you can gallop off into the
sunset but I think it’s a worthwhile trade-off for the benefits in exploration.
I think some purists might dislike the calm feeling on exploration but I adored the shift
in tone.
There are a few moments on respite in the more linear From Soft titles and I thought
the sheer amount of moments like this in Elden Ring might’ve cheapened the feeling but
it wasn’t the case.
The boss fights are a bit of mixed bag, with some incredible highs and some unfortunately
low lows.
So let’s get the good bits out of the way.
The amount of boss fights in this game is staggering.
The world is littered with them.
Some might be at the end of a cave, or dungeon, most of them are at the end of the game’s
larger ‘levels’ if you want to call them that but they are also found in the overworld.
I won’t spoil any of the main bosses but they’re all standouts for the series, one,
in particular, was unlike anything I had before and it was epic, I wish I could show it but
you’ll just have to wait and see.
I was tearing my hair out, dying upwards of 20 times to a few but the payoff of finally
beating them and shouting whatever profanities that leave my mouth is as amazing now as it
was back in 2012 when I played Dark Souls for the first time.
It’s just a shame that I have to avoid spoilers in this review because I could relentlessly
gush about a few bosses.
Now unfortunately not all bosses are created equal.
The bosses at the end of the caves and dungeons are hit or miss.
Some are challenging, others are a complete cake-walk and unfortunately, some feature
repeats of bosses I had already defeated.
Look, the fights are still fun and the rewards of new items and runes meant I was always
rewarded for my efforts but some were quite unremarkable.
This didn’t detract from my experience too much as I personally will take a few repeated
or lackluster boss fights if it means I have an awe-inspiring open world to explore.
While From Software is a master of world-building, combat, and level design, they have certainly
struggled technically in the past.
And Elden Ring doesn’t fully buck the trend, at least for the PC version.
I tested it on two both my desktop machine as well as my laptop On my PC I could run
the game comfortably on high to max settings at 1080p or medium to high at 1440p.
But on my laptop, I had to drop the settings to low to medium at 1080p.
Most of the time, it ran fine with the odd frame drop here or there, especially in the
open world but at random the game would stutter, and in some cases outright freeze for a second
or two.
I initially thought it was an issue with my Radeon GPU but the same issues occurred with
the RTX 2060 on my laptop.
Luckily this mostly happened while traversing the world at high speeds but it did happen
a few times during combat which was super frustrating.
From a graphical standpoint, the game looks like any other souls game.
It’s nothing special when it comes to textures or foliage but when you add it all together
the world looks phenomenal.
The weather effects helped sell the tone of the world.
Some areas are covered in a dense layer of fog which can quickly lead you astray.
Other areas are littered with ruins of old settlements and castles.
Combine these visuals with some dreary music and it makes for an extremely immersive experience.
Fortunately, it’s not all doom and gloom.
When the sun comes up in the wide open grassy plains of West Limgrave look stunning, Especially
when you have the golden hue of the Erdtree in the background.
There were some amazing views in the previous souls games but none of them compare to what
Elden Ring has to offer.
As always, the music is fantastic.
The somber tracks emphasize the doom and gloom of the world and the hefty orchestral boss
fight themes make them all the more epic.
But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the title theme.
I was blown away when I started the game and each subsequent time I stopped to listen to
it for slightly longer than I should have.
Technically the game falters but the world is gorgeous
Even though 2022 has just begun, I’d be surprised if Elden Ring is dethroned as my
Game of the year.Yes, there are some shortcomings, such as some of the boss elements but everything
else is fantastic.
I got lost in the world, enjoying the tranquility of galloping towards a castle only to be promptly
knocked out of it by whatever eldritch horror awaited over the horizon.
I never thought the open world format would work so well with souls like gameplay, but
yet here we are, where Breath of the Wild is the only other open-world game that has
engrossed me as much as Elden Ring. and there is no better honor in my books.
And that is why I loved Elden Ring.
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