FromSoftware’s Mainstream Breakthrough: The Late Elden Ring Review
Reviewed on PlayStation 5
“Elden Ring will be a game I return to for years to come.”
– Brian Dawkins ‘Mook World’
This feeling and many other similar sentiments have been the overwhelming consensus for a game that has garnered all the attention of the gaming world in 2022. A lot of anticipation, hype, and curious excitement surrounded Elden Ring years before its release, and to many, it lived up to (if not exceeded) expectations. I myself bought into that hype and excitement surrounding the game and took a deep dive as soon as the game was released.
I want to take you all through my experience, thoughts, and general feelings toward Elden Ring after now finishing. Specifically the beautiful map, combat, and enemy design, along with detailed nuances that make every player’s experience unique to them.
“The Fallen Leaves Tell A Story…”
After the cinematic opening and tutorial boss that hands you your first death in the game (in typical FromSoftware fashion), you begin the great journey on the quest for the Elden Ring. You begin this journey and are able to explore one of the strongest aspects of the game.
The Map.
The unexpected size of the map grabbed my attention immediately, but even after the first 9-hours of my first playthrough, the scale continued to blow me away.
Usually, in open-world games, I try to discover and gain the entire picture of the world before I dive in deeper to explore what each individual part has to offer. With Elden Ring, I found myself unlocking parts of the map thinking I was getting close to unlocking it all, only to realize the further I kept going that I was getting nowhere close at all. It was so much of a vicious cycle that, up until I finished my first playthrough, I was never really confident that I had discovered the entire map. That leads to what I view as another strong selling point and that is the sheer amount of content.
The map alone is so much content in itself. When you start to explore each and every part of it, hours upon hours of more content for players to discover is added. Who could be upset about endless content (besides completionists…)? With countless mini-boss fights, caves, catacombs, and areas hidden by invisible walls, underground, and by other mechanics, there is nothing outside the scope of most people’s imagination to discover.
Anyone who purchases or plays this game would have a hard time saying they felt like there was not enough for them to do, and that is a great thing for any video game. I didn’t even mention the enemies that you have to fight within the areas, items to find, materials to gather for crafting, and key items you have to find to advance the story that are hidden/guarded as well.
Just a ton to do, so much so that it could seem daunting and overwhelming. However, all of it is presented in a way that is digestible and able to be enjoyed rather than made to feel like you are grinding through the map just to complete the game. Some items and areas are necessary but there is a lot that is optional as well and having a choice and options in a game can be great for each player to have their own unique enjoyable experience.
“Someone Must Extinguish Thy Flame…”
I’m trying to be somewhat subtle with my heading for topics so that I do not spoil the game for anyone that is on the fence about playing and may end up diving in one day. This heading above is part of a larger quote said by one of the integral characters in the main story and leads us into what I want to discuss next. The main-story boss fights. The combat in Elden Ring is, according to most, very reminiscent and similar to most Soulsborne’ games. Now that is not the case with Sekiro and I don’t have much experience with Soulslikes’ outside of Sekiro so I’m trusting the community with that tidbit of information.
My experience with Elden Ring’s combat system and how it interacts with the main bosses in the game is its own character growth arc in itself. I was terrible to start the game out, as I was in Sekiro, but with Sekiro, I gained enjoyment in the combat earlier than I did in Elden Ring. Understanding the mechanics of what you are asked to do is not the hard part. The hard part is understanding how the game mechanics apply differently to each unique enemy or boss that you are fighting.
For example, in God Of War understanding that no matter how much you want to, you cannot damage the annoying revenants without hitting them with one of Atreus’ arrows first… That is especially so when it comes to the main story bosses. The main story bosses can be the most frustrating, painful, enjoyable, emotional experiences you ever have in a game. An undeniable reputation of most FromSoftware titles.
With the boss fights, aside from their challenge – The cinematic presentation, variety, and dialogue even during the fights were something that stood out to me. I felt that each boss was bringing something to the table that the others didn’t, besides different fight mechanics. Having a clear distinct experience with each main-story boss I faced, added another layer that made additional playthroughs enjoyable.
“A Tarnished Cannot Become Lord… Not Even You…”
As much as I have positive to say about Elden Ring, no game is perfect from top to bottom.
I wouldn’t be doing anybody a favor by dismissing the things that I did not like about the game. Though most of my gripes are minor and more so personal preference rather than a flaw in the actual game, I would still like to address them. The first is slight enemy repetitiveness. How could I say the game had a lot of enemies, mini-bosses, and main boss variety but also have enemy repetitiveness?
The map is so large and so detailed that it genuinely does have a lot of different unique content such as enemies, bosses, etc. However, after you’ve discovered everything and gotten more comfortable with the areas of the map, you tend to notice places where the enemy structure repeats that of another area. It’s not a glaring issue, but it is one that I noticed the longer I played the game and the more playthroughs I went through. One such example is the Catacombs.
Catacombs are the next thing that I wasn’t totally a fan of either. They were fun to discover throughout the game but the way they’re structure gets somewhat old to explore as the game goes further along. They all have the same structure essentially, with a few details changed here and there. There were only two significantly different catacombs in the game.
Again this is more of a personal preference issue rather than something I feel is a real issue in the game. They are still presented well and they still have great significance to your journey if you take the time to explore them properly. It’s not a meaningless part of the game – it is just one that I personally did not enjoy as much as other aspects.
Another brief issue is with some of the quests that you can do throughout your journey. You come across many characters with many different storylines where you have a chance to be a part of that storyline and help advance it. I felt there were a lot of questlines that had no real impact on the game. Whether I did them or not, I felt that some of them would not have changed anything else about the game for me other than the time it took. I have to admit along with this that I am not the biggest lore person when it comes to games of this genre.
I like everything I do to tie back to the game in some way– whether it be to the story, a key item , or foreshadowing information. Because of this, some quests did not hit that mark for me.
My last real complaint about Elden Ring.
Let me preface this by saying that this can be viewed as a spoiler depending on how important details of a game are to you. So let me take this next sentence to warn you that this could be a spoiler!
This is the last warning I am giving so do not message me or @ me later on saying I ruined the plot for you. I gave you three sentences to skip over this next paragraph and go to the next section!
The Fire Giant boss and the Elden Beast boss fight have to be two of the most annoying fights I have ever taken part in in a video game… The Fire Giant should not be as versatile as he is. and I did not enjoy running a marathon to fight the Elden Beast. I hope it doesn’t get on your nerves as much as it did mine but man, those two were a tedious and grueling time. Also P.S. I really didn’t like how things ended up with Sir Gideon “The All-Knowing”. Let’s just put it this way…
…“It really be your own people.”
“Brave Tarnished.. Thy Strength Befits A Crown.”
Elden Ring Lived Up to The Hype.
From the map, to the amount of content, to the bosses and combat. I enjoyed this game immensely! So much so, that I “Platinumed” the title and acquired every-trophy available.
And yet still, there is plenty that I can go back and enjoy from Elden Ring. The replay value is there and I will come back to this game for years to come.
This game has also piqued my interest in other Soulsborne FromSoftware games as well.
I’m currently playing Bloodborne for the first time.
I highly recommend this game to everyone interested in playing. If you are thinking about taking the plunge into your Elden Ring journey, my last peice of advice is to have patience.
Take time to learn the game, and play the way YOU want to play.
The challenge that FromSoftware presents in their games is among the most daunting decisions when it comes to giving them a try. It can be challenging, but Elden Ring gives players every tool and piece of information needed to help them succeed. Players simply need to take the time to learn, and give it a proper chance.
ELDEN RING (PS5)
FINAL SCORE: 9.2/10
Thank you so much for making it to the end!
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