Elden Ring is a mixed bag for me. On the positive side: Elden Ring is gorgeous, it looks like high fantasy from every angle and I never noticed any issues. The environment and atmosphere are dark and ominous, superbly portraying a terrifying world. The world building is rich and multifaceted. Narrative is solid - the story is your own, supplemented by incidental crossings with other goings on in the realm, now and earlier. It's an intact setting.

On the negative side: well, it's not a game for me. I don't like games that are mostly a series of fights and I certainly don't like boss fights. It begs the question as to why I played the game - the answer to which is that I wanted to create a narrative and experience the world. Immersion is important to me and I found myself dragged out due to the placement and execution of encounters. I often felt like there was a bit of a disconnect between the encounters and the world in which they existed, as though they were plopped onto the world rather than existing within it. They didn't feel organic and speech always seemed forced and not part of the world. There was a rich world, but the game element sat on top of that. Now, this is just a negative for me. I understand that such a design is exactly what people want. People come for the fights and those fights binding to a rich world helps create the narrative. I just don't enjoy the fights, so it doesn't work for me - but it wasn't designed for me.

In conclusion, Elden Ring is a genuine achievement in AAA gaming, and I haven't felt like that about a AAA game in a long while. I wish there was some way to tackle the narrative without the encounters, or perhaps someway to beat the encounters with a less a need quick reactions.