Elden Ring Review

In the 87 hours that it took me to beat Elden Ring, I was put through an absolute wringer of emotion: Anger as I was beaten down by its toughest challenges, exhilaration when I finally overcame them, and a fair amount of sorrow for the mountains of exp I lost along the way to some of the toughest boss encounters FromSoftware has ever conceived. But more than anything else I was in near-constant awe – from the many absolutely jaw-dropping vistas, the sheer scope of an absolutely enormous world, the frequently harrowing enemies, and the way in which Elden Ring nearly always rewarded my curiosity with either an interesting encounter, a valuable reward, or something even greater. FromSoftware takes the ball that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild got rolling and runs with it, creating a fascinating and dense open world about freedom and exploration above all else, while also somehow managing to seamlessly weave a full-on Dark Souls game into the middle of it. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Elden Ring ended up as one of the most unforgettable gaming experiences I’ve ever had.

To set the stage, all you know from the outset is that you play as a “Tarnished” of no renown, blessed by grace, and are compelled to make the journey to The Lands Between and become an Elden Lord. What that actually means, how one might go about doing that, and what the deal is with that giant glowing golden tree are all things that you have to discover yourself. Like other FromSoft games, the grand story is hard to fully digest on a first playthrough, especially because there’s no in-game journal to refresh you on the events, characters, or unique terms you encounter across dozens of hours. There really should be, but it is a story I nonetheless enjoyed trying to piece together for myself. I look forward to supplementing that knowledge with the inevitable painstakingly detailed lore videos that emerge from the community later.

It ended up being the organic side stories that kept me most enthralled rather than the grand overarching plot that credits Game of Thrones’ George R.R. Martin as its scenario writer. FromSoft smartly doesn’t change much in its approach to these from the Souls games, Bloodborne, or Sekiro; you’ll just naturally meet characters as you explore and discover the world and become involved in their problems. There are no “!” markers on the map, no waypoints to guide you to them, and these characters don’t always flag you down or initially want or need anything from you. They’re just people with their own agendas and goals, whose stories are impacted based on your own actions or inactions.

I never once felt the open-world fatigue that usually sets in when my brain gets overloaded by a map.

That was actually kind of refreshing in an open world as vast as this one, and it was always exciting to see a familiar face pop up again later as I was eager to learn about what brought them to this new part of the world and how their journey had progressed. The trade-off, of course, is that without any markers, quest log, or journal, it becomes very easy to forget about certain plot threads and accidentally leave them unresolved by the end. That’s a bummer, and I’ve already felt regret at missing out on stories that some of my colleagues have had – but for me it was worth it, because even after 87 hours, I never once felt the open-world fatigue that usually sets in when my brain gets overloaded by a map absolutely full of unresolved sidequest markers. Besides, any missed quests give me extra incentive to continue onto New Game+.

“Freedom” is the word that every aspect of Elden Ring’s design connects back to. From the moment you set foot in Limgrave, the first of many interconnected regions of The Lands Between, you are completely free to go wherever you want. And sure, that’s far from a new concept in open-world games, but the way it's handled here is truly extraordinary. If you wanted to, you could be an explorer and spend hours upon hours in Limgrave, delving into every mini dungeon, fighting every boss, discovering every NPC, and leveling yourself up to better prepare for what’s next. Alternatively, you could follow the Light of Grace, guiding you toward the main path and the first major dungeon – or you could find a hidden path to a new region that’s meant for higher levels and completely bypass the first major dungeon entirely! Maybe even steal yourself a cool weapon early while you’re there.

A few things set Elden Ring apart from games like Skyrim that provide a similar openness.

Again, this is not unprecedented, but a few things set Elden Ring apart from games like Skyrim that provide a similar openness. For one, Elden Ring doesn’t scale enemy levels to match your own at all, so jumping into a later region means you’re always dealing with stronger enemies, making the risk/reward prospect of doing so very real. But perhaps more notably, the way its different areas are connected makes finding these new ones more than a simple matter of choosing a direction and heading towards it. Limgrave is designed very specifically with a main path in mind that takes you through Stormveil Castle, and finding a way around that truly feels like you’ve discovered a hidden passage or alternate route, which is a super cool feeling not present in most open worlds I’ve explored.

You also have more freedom in how you approach combat than any previous FromSoft game thanks to a bunch of familiar new systems that are used in interesting ways here. Stealth is a more viable option thanks to the addition of crouch-walking, which finally lets you sneak by tough enemies or get behind them for a critical hit; there’s now horseback combat in large, open areas which gives you more mobility and the ability to attack on both sides with your right-handed weapon, but has the drawback of taking away your ability to roll out of the way of big attacks; you can craft items on the fly using materials found in the world so you can be ready for whatever a situation calls for; you can summon a large variety of creatures to fight for you, each with their own unique abilities and situational advantages; and most substantially, you can equip Ashes of War to your weapons and completely change their affinity and skill.

Elden Ring's difficulty surprised me, even as a veteran of the Soulslike genre.

The Ashes of War system essentially combines two elements of prior Souls games – weapon affinities and weapon skills – by making them items that you can freely equip to your armaments. For example, let’s say I find a really good rapier and I really like the moveset, but I’m building my character with a focus on the Intelligence stat, which means it won’t get the kind of damage bonuses it needs to be a viable weapon. If I find an Art of War that bestows a magic spell onto a weapon, I can equip it and transform it into a magic weapon, thereby giving it Intelligence scaling on top of whatever skill the Ash of War has. Best of all, if I eventually decide to respec into a different build, I can still keep the same weapon and just put a different Ash of War onto it. Of course, you also have to find a specific item to unlock the different affinities, but it's nonetheless an incredibly smart addition that allows for a ton of variety in your preferred weapons.