With the Dark Souls games being among my favorites, I was excited for Elden Ring but worried about one thing: the open world. I dislike open worlds in general so I was afraid of how that was going to impact my enjoyment of the game from the start. I was correct to worry. While I think Elden Ring is the best open world I’ve ever experienced, it still has everything I dislike about them, most notably the size of the world being burdened with fillers and distractions being placed around every corner. The game feels too big for its own good. On my way to find one thing, I’d be swept off course any number of times and end up not accomplishing what I set out to do. Getting off track usually wasn’t just a brief detour. That’s probably a fun adventure to some players, but I have always found it stressful. Much of my time in Elden Ring was spent being frustrated about where I was and not being where I wanted to be. The camera while riding Torrent being nauseating didn’t help my attempts to right my course. For these reasons, I ended up taking long breaks from the game periodically and that only made it harder to get my footing when I went back to it.
Most of the issues I have with Elden Ring stem from it being an open world. Everything else was as wonderful as I expected. The landscapes were stunning, the world-building mysterious and compelling, the characters strange and lovable in their classic FromSoft way. Some of the boss fights rode the line of how difficult I want these games to get, but none of them were impossible and the process of learning the fights was still immensely satisfying. The weapons were entertaining, sometimes even funny in the way I like from these games, and I had a good time with spells too. When I wasn’t hours off track from it, the story was one of the best of any FromSoft game. All the ways Elden Ring was great were exactly what I was hoping for.
The game being so amazing otherwise may have added to my frustration at not being able to enjoy it fully. It didn’t need to be an open world. I think FromSoft got it right with Dark Souls 3, a large game with branching paths that made it feel less linear than it is. I would have preferred this approach instead.
I finished Elden Ring about two months ago and I look back on it in a more positive light than I felt while I was actively playing it. I think NG+ is likely to treat me better than my first playthrough did simply because I know what’s important now and what I’ve already seen. I look forward to revisiting Elden Ring in the future on its own terms.
Most of the issues I have with Elden Ring stem from it being an open world. Everything else was as wonderful as I expected. The landscapes were stunning, the world-building mysterious and compelling, the characters strange and lovable in their classic FromSoft way. Some of the boss fights rode the line of how difficult I want these games to get, but none of them were impossible and the process of learning the fights was still immensely satisfying. The weapons were entertaining, sometimes even funny in the way I like from these games, and I had a good time with spells too. When I wasn’t hours off track from it, the story was one of the best of any FromSoft game. All the ways Elden Ring was great were exactly what I was hoping for.
The game being so amazing otherwise may have added to my frustration at not being able to enjoy it fully. It didn’t need to be an open world. I think FromSoft got it right with Dark Souls 3, a large game with branching paths that made it feel less linear than it is. I would have preferred this approach instead.
I finished Elden Ring about two months ago and I look back on it in a more positive light than I felt while I was actively playing it. I think NG+ is likely to treat me better than my first playthrough did simply because I know what’s important now and what I’ve already seen. I look forward to revisiting Elden Ring in the future on its own terms.