It's always a bit disheartening when you are not as enamoured with something the way the rest of the world is. That is to say, I think Elden Ring is OK, pretty good even but I don't think it is great. I don't want to sound too negative about it because I still am quite impressed with what From Software managed to achieve with its world. Descending into a massive cavern with mysteries to uncover and items to find from a random hole in a rock wall you stumbled by is what exploration in games is all about. It is something that Elden Ring has to offer in spades. Wth the wide array of items to find such as weapons, armour, spells, ashes of war (which are special weapon attacks), summon spirits, consumables and upgrade materials, there is always something to find and there are diverse builds you can work towards.
Now this is going to seem hypocritical but the things I just praised the game for with its world also lead to some of the drawbacks. The bigger world means that the level design suffers. There are some areas that feel similar to locations from the Souls games but nothing reaches the heights of in From's older work. I think there are some areas that are just straight up awful such as the Farum Azula near the end. Granted, every From game has a bad area so maybe I shouldn't hold it against Elden Ring so much. As great as the diverse builds are, if you are working on a specific build, it can be quite annoying to work your way through a difficult optional area to get an item you will never use. I don't think there is a good fix for something like that because it would ruin the exploration if every dungeon told you upfront what you would unlock so perhaps it is not a fair complaint. The game being so challenging does exasperate that issue. The repetitive nature of the dungeons and bosses does get a bit annoying after a while. I'm not one to complain too much about open world games having repetition since I enjoy Assassin's Creed games but it does make the wonder of discovery lose its lustre.
As impressive as it can be, I'm not sure bringing the Souls template to open world was actually a good decision. They did make quite a lot of those games though so I don't begrudge From trying to do something different. I go back and forth on how positive the strengths of the game are and how negative the weaknesses are. Ultimately, my feelings seem somewhere in the middle.
Now this is going to seem hypocritical but the things I just praised the game for with its world also lead to some of the drawbacks. The bigger world means that the level design suffers. There are some areas that feel similar to locations from the Souls games but nothing reaches the heights of in From's older work. I think there are some areas that are just straight up awful such as the Farum Azula near the end. Granted, every From game has a bad area so maybe I shouldn't hold it against Elden Ring so much. As great as the diverse builds are, if you are working on a specific build, it can be quite annoying to work your way through a difficult optional area to get an item you will never use. I don't think there is a good fix for something like that because it would ruin the exploration if every dungeon told you upfront what you would unlock so perhaps it is not a fair complaint. The game being so challenging does exasperate that issue. The repetitive nature of the dungeons and bosses does get a bit annoying after a while. I'm not one to complain too much about open world games having repetition since I enjoy Assassin's Creed games but it does make the wonder of discovery lose its lustre.
As impressive as it can be, I'm not sure bringing the Souls template to open world was actually a good decision. They did make quite a lot of those games though so I don't begrudge From trying to do something different. I go back and forth on how positive the strengths of the game are and how negative the weaknesses are. Ultimately, my feelings seem somewhere in the middle.