So far, the games from the Japanese developer FromSoftware have hardly appealed to me. Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice – it all looked too dark and depressing to me. So I admit that Elden Ring is the first game from the developers that I played intensively.
My interest was fueled by the move to an open world and the involvement of George RR Martin. In my play report, I’ll tell you whether “Elden Ring” is also worthwhile for newcomers (like me) in the dark cosmos of FromSoftware.
You can twist and turn it as you like: Although “Elden Ring” plays in its own fantasy world, the parallels to “Dark Souls” are difficult to overlook. Here, too, you rely on gameplay that is relatively rock-hard for today’s times and fights that are won less through speed and hectic, but through timing and tactics. You can’t adjust the level of difficulty, so either you can handle it or you’ve had bad luck.
The story of “Elden Ring” is somewhat convoluted, but in my opinion, it can also be completely ignored. I always find that a bit unfortunate in an RPG, but it’s a disease of many open-world role-playing games. In essence, a powerful artifact, the eponymous Elden Ring, was destroyed. The player’s task is to find its fragments and restore them. Then the protagonist could rise to Elden Lord.
The story is an excuse to pit you against numerous bosses who carry around fragments of the Elden Ring and have been corrupted by them. From time to time you chat with (few) NPCs about the development of the plot, but if you ignore the conversations, you don’t really miss much, I claim. After asking a friend who is a fan of FromSoftware, it should have been similar with “Dark Souls” and Co. So this will sound familiar if you (unlike me) don’t find Elden Ring to be the first Japanese game to delve deeper into.
As forgettable as the sometimes abstruse story snippets are, the gameplay is as engaging. In fact, you won’t get very far here by simply storming off and banging on. Rather, it is important, especially with new opponents, to observe their attack patterns closely and strike at the right moment. Sneaking also plays a major role, because such an ambush attack can knock out many opponents directly or at least weaken them significantly for the subsequent skirmish.
Always there: The faithful horse, which you can materialize out of nowhere at the touch of a button. It’s not very realistic, but it’s practical. Especially since you are very agile on horseback and can still catch opponents with swords, magic, and co. In many games, you wave your sword around rather uncontrollably on a high horse. On the other hand, FromSoftware managed to preserve the feeling of control in “Elden Ring”.
As already indicated, this is also urgently needed: If you bless what is ugly enough, you cannot simply load your old save and start again. Rather, you lose all your collected runes. Now you have the chance to storm to the place of your own death, collect the runes again, and pile up. However, this can be hopeless if you ventured into an area where the enemies were completely overpowered.
So you shouldn’t throw yourself blindly into battle with all enemies. Some enemies that you discover early on in the open world are far too powerful at first. First, you need to find better equipment, increase your own stats and become more skilled in combat. In the beginning, you choose from different character classes such as the samurai, the warrior, or the vagabond. Depending on the class, the initial values are distributed differently and your abilities also differ. But you can also choose a completely average class called “Wretch”. But that’s not necessary, because the classes differ at the start, but basically, you can all develop freely in the direction that suits you best.
I tested “Elden Ring” on the Xbox Series X, where the game looks “good” but not earth-shattering. I count “Elden Ring” as one of the titles that particularly shows its cross-generation roots. This is reflected in particular in many washed-out textures and plenty of pop-in objects. I’m currently very spoiled by “Horizon Forbidden West”, which I’m playing at the same time. “Elden Ring” scores with its dark art design. Above all, the opponents sometimes look a lot unusual and very creatively designed. As I was exploring the game world, I was really excited to see what awaited me next.
I also really like the bombastic soundtrack, while the English speakers sound a bit mixed. There is a lot of theatricalities here. Clash of weapons, disgusting grunting of the monsters, creaking walls – it all fits perfectly. What I really like about the gameplay is that “Elden Ring” takes a different path than, for example, the Ubisoft titles or, to some extent, “Horizon Forbidden West”. Instead of packing the overview map with symbols, the map is deliberately kept spartan and only gives a rough overview.
Instead, the player is inspired to venture into places that look exciting from afar. If you see a ruined castle, for example, you don’t actually need a marker on the map to arouse interest. Here the impressive foresight of the title also proves to be a gameplay feature. The player’s urge to explore should be actively awakened. This works great, even if he is not always rewarded. Because I would say 50% of the time you encounter overpowering enemies at first and then take your feet again.
But that is also part of the experience and you naturally expand your knowledge of the game world. As in a “Zelda” game, you will always find entrances to dungeons and dungeons on the upper world. In those, particularly powerful opponents await – but of course also rewards or possibly parts of the Elden Ring, which gives the title. The overworld gives you the chance to arm yourself for those challenges. Otherwise, you will go down mercilessly in the dungeons.
Technically, “Elden Ring” still has a few problems at launch: The longer I played, the more the game started to stutter, which leads me to conclude that there is a memory leak that also affects the console version or at least the Xbox Series X. That can also lead to disadvantages in the flow of the game if you think you have the ideal time for a counterattack, but you hit too early or too late due to a stutter and get hit on the cap yourself.
I myself will certainly invest more time in “Elden Ring”, even if my skepticism regarding the title of FromSoftware is still not completely wiped away: I’m missing a good story and characters here, which I remember not only because of their overacting. It would also have been nice to find oases in the game world, i.e. small villages or even cities with NPCs. But in the inhospitable world of “Elden Ring,” you tend to be alone against everyone.
I really like the gameplay of “Elden Ring” and the beautiful open world without boring filler. But I also see further potential to deliver a real classic. However, many colleagues are already celebrating “Elden Ring” like this, so that as a newcomer I may be alone with my opinion: “Elden Ring” is a good action RPG with a large scope that is suitable for fans of “Dark Souls” and Co. is mandatory. But if you imagine something similar to other RPGs/action-adventures a la “Tales of Arise”, “Cyberpunk 2077” or “Horizon Forbidden West”, you will find many rough edges.
How about you: Did you like “Elden Ring”? Are you also new to the game or are you old hands? In both cases, I am very interested in your opinion!