Elden Ring Review – Death Of The Wild (PlayStation 5)

Elden Ring Review

Elden Ring Review after 15 hours of playing, I defeated Godrick. Between entering the Lands Between and killing him, I’d explored crumbling ruins, twisted caves, encountered enemy encampments, and fought tough bosses. Gaming has always made you feel small: They say you’re a plagued mouse or a cursed Undead, unsuitable even for cinders. Your ego is progressively dismantled as you navigate unforgiving landscapes. Elden Ring has the suspenseful combat and mysterious atmosphere of From Software’s Soulsborne titles, but it is boosted by the studio’s vision of an open-world game. I was reminded of my smallness and the enormity of the task ahead of me after bringing down Godrick.

Taking in the sights and sounds of the world around me, I stood on a rock overlooking Liurnia of the Lakes, beyond Godrick’s arena. The giant Erdtree projected bright golden beams of light onto the country beneath it; the high points of a distant mountain that appeared like claws tore at the sky. Nothing in Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, or Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice had made me feel as little. At the same time, I was giddy with anticipation for what the Lands Between held in store for me, and it did not disappoint.

The Elden Ring is From Software’s crowning achievement in world design. Its open world is big, detailed, and filled with possibilities, but that isn’t what makes it distinctive. Rather, it’s how the company applied its esoteric design ideas to create a new, elegant, and distinctly From Software experience. The game’s basic pillars are action and role-playing, but with greater flexibility to explore than ever before. Elden Ring is a unique open-world game. From Software’s precise orchestration of highs and lows, tension build-up and release, along with the joy of freeform exploration and discovery, is an exhilarating potion of game design.

Elden Ring guides the player with delicate touches. The Lands Between is completely open and allows for exploring on foot or horseback. It is ruled by five Elden Lords, each wielding an Elden Ring shard. A Tarnished aims to fight these corrupt lords, seize their shards, and appear before the Erdtree as an Elden Lord. After a brief cutscene establishing the idea, you are free to explore the realm as you see fit.

In Elden Ring, this process increases exploration and discovery, the experience’s heart and soul. Elden Ring is the studio’s most obtuse and hard game yet. For one thing, there is no map until you find an object that reveals the geography of a location, which is something you’ve come to anticipate from modern open-world games. Even so, you won’t be able to identify the region’s most notable landmarks until you’ve been there and taken in the sights. You can only see the cardinal directions and any waypoints you’ve set on the compass, as there is no minimap.

The characters, on the other hand, aren’t desperate for your attention; as with previous games, the objectives they give you aren’t noted down or tracked in any kind of log—up it’s up to you to do your due diligence. There is no obvious indication of when you should go to critical sites, and the areas you go to will not be gated depending on your level. Sites of Grace, like Bonfires, Lanterns, and Idols in previous games, are your greatest bet for rest. Each of these locations has a faint trail of golden light leading somewhere. Whether it’s the next step in your adventure or just another dungeon, you’ll only know for sure if you go.

Due to a lack of diversity in the genre, From Software faces an uphill battle in making their games stand out from their competitors. The execution of Elden Ring is flawless, but there’s one thing to keep in mind: it’s not a seamless, universally applicable experience. An unrelenting lack of transparency and a desire to have players fight to overcome overwhelming odds characterizes the game’s approach instead. The gameplay of Elden Ring will be familiar to those who have played other From Software titles. Taking on dangerous foes in third-person combat is always exciting, but it can also be nerve-wracking because of how quickly the game’s opponents penalize inexperience. When it comes to combat, Elden Ring requires patience and skill, whether you’re using a sword and shield, wielding something closer to a mass of raw iron, or standing back as a mage and unleashing spells to bring down your adversaries.

This time around, From Software has tweaked the Soulsborne concept by including a leap, which is adapted from Sekiro’s more dynamic movement style. A leaping strike that can break past an enemy’s protection and create a critical strike opportunity can be accomplished with this ability. Another new concept is the ability to counter an enemy’s attack after blocking it with a heavy counter, delivering a significant amount of damage and potentially leaving the target vulnerable to a critical hit if it is part of a protracted offensive.

Compared to Bloodborne’s gunshot and visceral combo, this heavy counter has part of the satisfaction, but it isn’t quite as dramatic. Even though it’s easy to rely on, it still requires a lot of strategies to execute correctly—an enemy’s swift follow-up strike could kill you before the counter is launched. The new gameplay features give the player more options versus formidable enemies, but they still need the player to know their opponent and properly chose their moments.

Finally, Spirit Ashes let players summon AI-controlled combatants who can be upgraded. These can be anything from a horde of wolves pursuing their prey to a lone wizard standing back and casting spells at their enemies, to more bizarre possibilities like a jellyfish floating around and spewing poison at their enemies. Spirit Ashes may only be summoned in specified locations and only once per character’s lifetime, hence there are limitations on their use. This makes them better at drawing attention than winning battles because they’re more vulnerable to being slain by more powerful foes.

To accommodate the game’s open nature, the checkpoint system has been tweaked to be a little more liberal. When a player is killed, instead of their corpse being transported to a Site of Grace, the wider world is scattered with Stakes of Marika. As a general rule, you’ll find these in exceptionally difficult regions, whether it’s because there are numerous dangerous foes in a fortified area or a single mini-boss that must be defeated in one of several heart-pounding and soul-crushing clashes. This may seem like a boon, as not having to fight your way through treacherous labyrinths like in previous Soulsborne games makes the repetition more bearable, but it’s a requirement to alleviate the stress of traversing vast areas in an open world. The hurdles that come before the Marika Stakes aren’t much easier.

“That delicate orchestration of highs and lows and the build-up and release of tension that From Software has mastered, coupled with the thrill of freeform exploration and discovery, is an intoxicating cocktail of game design”

Elden Ring is, without a doubt, a challenging game, on par with anything else developed by From Software before. For the most part, this is due to the difficulty of the bosses, but also because of how much freedom the player has in the game. As a result, it’s easy to become lost and end up in places that are too difficult for you to get about. However, you may still ride to Caelid, a territory that looks like something out of Bloodborne, or Caria Manor, a spot where the enemies are so terrifying that I nearly jumped out of my seat with apprehension. As a player and a character, you are expected to assess the circumstances and decide whether or not you should return to the area or continue to create your character and return at a later date.

The excitement of being viciously slain for hours on end, just to emerge victorious, if wounded and bruised, is something some will fall hopelessly in love with as I did when I first started playing the game. Even if you’re willing to risk your life to explore a treacherous cavern filled with terrifying monsters just to get your hands on a few crafting supplies, others will view this endeavor as a waste of time. However, there is a bravery to the approach that should be commended.

There is a lot to accomplish in The Lands Between, which is no less content-heavy than its open-world competitors. At the 35-hour mark, I had only defeated two of the five Elden Lords. There are various caves, tunnels, ruins, catacombs, shacks, and encampments to explore just in Limgrave’s beginning location. If you’re walking through the woods late at night, you might hear what sounds like a guy imitating a wolf howling, or you might stumble onto a mystery elevator that takes you deep down and out into a hidden realm. Forlorn merchants may be sheltering away in a lonely church or a raging monster may be lurking nearby. Even though these may not necessarily lead to significant progress in becoming an Elden Lord or progressing a critical questline, none of it felt unnecessary or dull. Why? Because they provide a gaming loop that piques the player’s interest in the Lands Between and provides the raw delight of discovering new things.

Elden Ring is based on the idea that discovering new things to do is just as rewarding as actually doing them. By facing the Lands Between, you will experience the same growth and fulfillment that comes from defeating Lordran or becoming fully immersed in Yharnam. As you progress through the game and spend runes to level up and become more powerful, the things that once frightened you become insignificant. No surprise that a From Software game doesn’t reward you or thank you for your efforts. A better way to measure success is to think of it as a trek through an unfriendly terrain as a cartographer, exploring every corner and cranny to see what’s lurking there as a prize for your perseverance and perseverance in the face of adversity.

There will be several surprises along the way that will pique your curiosity and encourage you to keep exploring. The Warmaster was living in a distant cabin at the time, and I went there to see him. My first nighttime visit to him was a surprise, as he had always been there during the day. When I got close to the shack, a crimson cloud emerged, and a terrifying knight stepped out to wage combat. He wasn’t in there. In my estimation, he had the upper hand because he was using a big, ghostly blade as his weapon of choice.

Once, a giant young bird that had decayed to its skeleton plummeted from the sky and knocked me from my mount, trapping me in a fight. At times like these, my imagination would rush with possibilities. What else could I see in the Lands Between, a vast universe that changes radically depending on the time of day? When I first started playing Elden Ring, I was compelled to explore all of the possibilities because each one offered a unique experience and made the environment feel more vibrant.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the proverbial elephant in the room when it comes to freeform exploration in video games. Although it’s tempting to compare Elden Ring to Nintendo’s popular open-world Zelda, what separates these two is a more authentic feel to the Lands Between, as well as a cohesiveness between the open world and these activities. If you find yourself in the middle of a deep tunnel or a gigantic castle, the Elden Ring offers a seamless experience, no matter where you are. For a select set-piece place, like Hemwick Charnel Lane in Bloodborne, there are occasional transitions, although they are reserved for a few specific dungeons with ambitious design ideas.

Open world gameplay emphasizes freedom and player agency, but multiple crucial locales are more in line with contained, directed regions in earlier Soulsborne titles. Stormvale Castle, Redmane Castle, and Raya Lucaria are just a few of the locations where From Software continues to do what it does best: create visually arresting locations that are intricately designed to loop and weave in on themselves in a way that makes navigating through them as enjoyable as it is dangerous. There are distinct atmospheres, aesthetics, and vibes to each of the game’s important settings; it was impossible not to be impressed by the artistry on display. While playing this game, you’ll be forced to put the game down now and again to take in the sights, including the horrific animals that were produced.

Elden Ring’s environment has parts that feel as scary as Bloodborne, such as Caelid, where the river runs copper, fractures erupt like bursting arteries, trees are shriveled and curled like the hands of an ancient witch, and a blood-red sky extends out as far as the eye can see. The Lands Between isn’t a world on the verge of extinction, but if you take Torrent west to Limgrave, you’ll see that life isn’t about to be extinguished. The lush fields, busy wildlife, and beautiful vistas make it clear that this place is thriving. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch a glimpse of a forest as the first rays of sunlight break through the canopy and the trees softly wave in the breeze. That is all comes together to form a single landmass across which the player can travel is particularly astounding, given that each location appears and feels as if it might be from a completely other game. To say Elden Ring is eye-catching would be an understatement.

However, despite all the hype, there isn’t much in Elden Ring that stands out as George R.R. Martin-influenced. Hidetaka Miyazaki and the From Software crew are all over this, from the characters to the story and the way it’s presented in bits and pieces for the player to fill in the blanks. I won’t go into specifics, but suffice it to say that Martin’s work on the game’s enormous setting has resulted in memorable people. Some are mysterious, while others have terrible histories and backstories that are both tragic and harrowing. Everything you need to supercharge the From Software lore video industry is here, including warring philosophies, divine entities, and secretive societies. Until the entire community gets involved, I can only see a small portion of what’s going on, and I can’t wait to see how everything comes together.

It is possible to enjoy Elden Ring as a solo adventurer, but the game may also be played together. Players must jump through hoops to connect with others, such as being positioned in precise ways, utilizing specified things to make relationships, and staying in certain places, like in past From Software games. A complicated system lends to interesting multiplayer experiences whether you’re merely exploring or summoning someone to help battle a particularly difficult enemy. Even if you partner up with a friend, you still feel like you’ve won because the difficulty scales to accommodate for multiple players, so it still feels like you’ve triumphed.

If you’d rather be the bad guy, you can into the worlds of other players and try to assassinate them. It’s not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of PvP experiences, but for a long time now souls games have been the battlegrounds for intense brawls. The charm of the game lies in the fact that it allows for a wide variety of builds, so you never know what your opponent will use as a weapon, armor, or ability. With the game’s stunning landscapes and ferocious foes thrown into the mix, the fights become tight ballets of evading, rolling, and striking that feels a lot like a fighting game.

Know more about Eden Ring

According to Hidetaka Miyazaki, the Day Elden Ring Was Released Was “Not a Nice Occasion”

Elden Ring is unabashedly contrarian in nearly every manner in a genre rife with bloated and over-designed games. Its commitment to designing by subtraction and to placing the responsibility of charting a path through its world entirely on the player makes it stand head and shoulders above other open-world titles. Elden Ring takes the shards of what came before and forges them into something that will go down in history as one of the all-time greats: a triumph in design and creativity, and an open-world game that distinguishes itself for what it doesn’t do as much as what it does.