“The culmination of every game Fromsoftware has done” is a phrase used a lot to describe Elden Ring and that is just the most apt way to sum it up. A combination of every good aspect of their previous works put together into a meticulously crafted open world that never leaves you bored. An open world that feels alive and is packed with huge amount of content that encourages exploration, the impressive art direction that leaves you pausing for a few seconds and just admiring how gorgeous the world looks, this and more is what an open world game should strive to be like.
On the surface, the lore is easy to grasp as the telling of the main events that transpired are more straight forward, but there is still more to what meets the eye as with any other soulsborne. Reading various item descriptions, paying attention to the NPCs dialogue and paying closer attention to the environmental story telling to put together a grand puzzle is what makes Fromsoftwares’ games unique and that is what they did here as well.
The level design and platforming in this game are much more fun compared to the previous games, and the addition of the jump/double jump features are one of the main contributors to that. Seeing how massive the world is you would think some areas would just end up being inconsistent, however every area from the serene Limgrave to the majestic end area are simply outstanding in quality. Additionally, the optional catacombs and rises scattered throughout the map offer many enjoyable puzzle-solving with a nice souls-like twist.
What sets this game apart from the other souls is a lot, but one of them is the consistency with the main bosses. Unpopular as that may be, none of the main bosses in this game are bad at all. There is a lot to say about them but that would be filled with spoilers, so I am just going to say that the atmosphere, lore and mechanic utilisation of each one of them is absolutely fascinating. The combat is pretty much a “refined dark souls”, it still retains the feel of its predecessor yet is more fluid, and with the addition of horseback riding this is taken into another level.
There is a lot to praise about this game, but Elden Ring still has it’s flaws as with any other game. The recycled bosses don’t really bother me much as most of them have a reasoning behind them, however the many reskinned field dragons with the exact same move-sets were quite boring that I just had to skip most of them. Kind of ironic considering this game simultaneously has the best dragon boss fight in a souls game. Another criticism is the somewhat ludicrous end game where everything just one shots you unless you were at an absurdly high amount of vigor. Apparently the soft-caps for other stats as well have also risen to 60/80 which is insane compared to the previous games, to some extent this explains the way the end game is. The PC version of the game also suffers a lot on a technical aspect. Though not as frequent as many make it out to be, the game does admittedly have some occasional frame drops and stuttering which unfortunately gets more frequent with some end game bosses.
All that said, the issues aren’t really anything unfixable and I really hope they do fix them as they are the only thing holding this game back from being an actual masterpiece. Even after finishing the game I just keep finding myself going back to The Lands Between, be it for some pvp or simply exploring more of its enchanting world. Elden ring is a phenomenal open world and is the game that will change the genre as how demon souls devised it’s own.
On the surface, the lore is easy to grasp as the telling of the main events that transpired are more straight forward, but there is still more to what meets the eye as with any other soulsborne. Reading various item descriptions, paying attention to the NPCs dialogue and paying closer attention to the environmental story telling to put together a grand puzzle is what makes Fromsoftwares’ games unique and that is what they did here as well.
The level design and platforming in this game are much more fun compared to the previous games, and the addition of the jump/double jump features are one of the main contributors to that. Seeing how massive the world is you would think some areas would just end up being inconsistent, however every area from the serene Limgrave to the majestic end area are simply outstanding in quality. Additionally, the optional catacombs and rises scattered throughout the map offer many enjoyable puzzle-solving with a nice souls-like twist.
What sets this game apart from the other souls is a lot, but one of them is the consistency with the main bosses. Unpopular as that may be, none of the main bosses in this game are bad at all. There is a lot to say about them but that would be filled with spoilers, so I am just going to say that the atmosphere, lore and mechanic utilisation of each one of them is absolutely fascinating. The combat is pretty much a “refined dark souls”, it still retains the feel of its predecessor yet is more fluid, and with the addition of horseback riding this is taken into another level.
There is a lot to praise about this game, but Elden Ring still has it’s flaws as with any other game. The recycled bosses don’t really bother me much as most of them have a reasoning behind them, however the many reskinned field dragons with the exact same move-sets were quite boring that I just had to skip most of them. Kind of ironic considering this game simultaneously has the best dragon boss fight in a souls game. Another criticism is the somewhat ludicrous end game where everything just one shots you unless you were at an absurdly high amount of vigor. Apparently the soft-caps for other stats as well have also risen to 60/80 which is insane compared to the previous games, to some extent this explains the way the end game is. The PC version of the game also suffers a lot on a technical aspect. Though not as frequent as many make it out to be, the game does admittedly have some occasional frame drops and stuttering which unfortunately gets more frequent with some end game bosses.
All that said, the issues aren’t really anything unfixable and I really hope they do fix them as they are the only thing holding this game back from being an actual masterpiece. Even after finishing the game I just keep finding myself going back to The Lands Between, be it for some pvp or simply exploring more of its enchanting world. Elden ring is a phenomenal open world and is the game that will change the genre as how demon souls devised it’s own.