When Elden Ring came out, it seemed like one of those games that was made specifically for me. I'm a big fantasy buff, I'm a fan of George R.R. Martin's work, and I generally find games that are difficult really fun and rewarding, because I love throwing myself at problems until I get it right. Not to mention I enjoy immersing myself in games, and the open world aspect seemed like I could spend hundreds of hours in this game doing just that. I'm essentially the ideal customer for a game like this, but unfortunately, I ended up feeling very mixed on Elden Ring.

I'll go ahead and get this out of the way though: this game is perfectly competent. It is not a waste of your money, and you will probably have a good time with it. I played this game for about 60 hours, and I don't regret the time I spent in this game nor the money I spent on this game. If you think you'd like something like this, check it out, I recommend it. It's a game people are probably going to be talking about for a while because no other game really fills the niche it does. I just don’t think it’s the GOAT, nowhere close – but I do think it will pave the way for bigger and better open-world fantasy games. I’ll also state that I generally like the game, and I wanted to like it a lot more than I did. If you really really like this game, I can totally see why. If you’re willing to put aside some low points and just focus on the good this game does (which, fair enough, that’s just how me and you differ as critics) then yeah, I can see how you might give this game a 9 or a 10 out of 10.

So, what did I like? The game starts off really strong. This game is really fucking pretty. It’s gorgeous, as soon as you step into Limgrave it’s stunning, and frankly this is consistent through the entire game. The environments in general are really creative aesthetically and in terms of worldbuilding. The lore is to be commended in general, it draws a lot from Welsh lore (which is bonus points from me, given that’s my heritage) and doesn’t shy away from some of the darker aspects of that lore. The OST is extremely good, and always does a good job of setting the mood.

Some of the bosses are some of the most fun I’ve had in games. Here’s my top 5.
5. Astel
4. Morgott
3. Maliketh
2. Placidusax
1. Godfrey

Okay, most of you who like the game agree. So, what’s the big deal? What’s my issue with this game? It is thus: Elden Ring is a game that does not respect the time that you put into it. It wants you to spend 100 hours in this game, doing all of the side content and clearing out all the dungeons – the world is massive and littered with tons of content to do. Whenever I would normally grind in a game like this, I went and looked for some side content. And in Limgrave and Weeping Peninsula, and hell, even Liurnia, this content is done pretty well. But by the time you’ve done three catacombs, or searched a few ruins, you’ve done them all.

For the life of me, I cannot tell you the difference between most of these catacombs or ruins besides where they’re located geographically. They don’t look any different, they don’t have terribly different layouts, and most of the enemies inside are the same. So, in an open world game with all of these different environments, that wants me to explore, to find really nothing new or interesting while exploring, I have an issue with that. I didn’t end up doing most of the side content, because I got 20 hours in, and I was fighting my fourth Erdtree Burial Watchdog, and I realized: this isn’t fun to me.

I normally don’t lower games based on their side content – I mean, it’s optional, right? But the conceit of Elden Ring, is that you have this whole huge world to explore and that you’ll find something to do wherever you look. That much is true. The game wants you to explore to get more runes to level up. But between the samey dungeons and the reused enemies and bosses, I don’t think that a majority of the side content is worth your time at all. So it leads me to the question: why the hell would I do it? I couldn’t come up with an answer, so I didn’t do it.

Also, some of the bosses also really fucking suck. These are the ones, unfortunately, that get reused the most. Here’s my bottom five.
5. Crucible Knight
4. Putrid Avatar
3. Erdtree Burial Watchdog (Single)
2. Erdtree Burial Watchdog (Duo)
1. Godskin Duo

I don’t mind dying in bosses, but all of the ones above were ones that frankly did not feel rewarding to fight nor did they feel fair to fight. I’m all about difficulty, but it has to be fun. Some of these bosses just feel like they just fuck you over and over until you get lucky enough to get in the rhythm. Especially Godskin Duo, which doesn’t make any fucking sense as a fight no matter how you slice it. Some would say I should just “git gud” well why the hell would I want to if this shit just sucks? If these were just one and done, I could put it aside but these enemies, or variants of them, appear everywhere.

Some bosses were, honestly, a little underwhelming. Rennala, one of the demigods, was a first or second try boss for me. I’m playing on patch 1.05, and Radahn also was pretty underwhelming – all you have to do is let your boys attack the fuck out of it and hop in when you feel comfortable, it’s not particularly difficult which is a shame. I hear this boss was way too hard when it came out though, so, I suppose I’d prefer this. And of course, the second phase of the final boss has to be the most underwhelming finale I could imagine.

To conclude, I spent about 60 hours in Elden Ring and I thoroughly enjoyed about 20-25 hours of that, most of it in the early part of the game, which seems to have had more thought put into it than some of the later areas. There’s plenty of good moments in this game, but I still feel like I wasted about half of my time playing this game. I still like it, it has a nice world, the graphics are pretty, and the combat is solid most of the time. I wanted to like it a lot more, I spent a decent amount of my spare cash and put a lot of my free time over the last month and a half into it, and frankly I feel like they could have delivered on this better. I hope they give open-world fantasy another shot, I feel like there’s a lot to have been learned from what this game does right, and a lot to be learned from what this game does wrong. I’ll probably like that game a lot more.

EDIT: Removed my dumb elevator complaint.