Note: This review is after 63+ hours and completing the main story at level 163. I plan on exploring the rest of the side quests that I have yet to find.
Over the past five months, I have had the pleasure of getting back into reviewing video games. It was a hobby of mine as a kid and it has been fun to play both old and new games and provide my opinion. Also during this timeframe, I bought the new Switch OLED and had the pleasure of playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (BOTW). I will not compare these two games (even though that will be in a separate blog once I unlock the rest of Elden Ring's open world) but at the time, I called BOTW one of the best open worlds I have ever experienced. Elden Ring, which would not have existed without BOTW, is a masterpiece in its own right. Whether you have played From Software's games before or not, Elden Ring is something to try, master, and conquer.
Story
The story in From Software games have always been very vague with much of the context being fleshed out in the items you gather across your journey. In Elden Ring you play as a Tarnished, a disgraced class of people who were thrown out of the Lands Between for reasons unknown. When the Elden Ring was shattered, the Tarnished crossed over the Lands Between in an effort to become Elden Lord and restore the ring once again. That's at least how much I gathered from the opening cutscene. In order to fully understand what is happening, why was the ring shattered, what is the Erdtree, why has the Elden Lord throne been empty, etc. all comes from the items you collect and exhausting every single word from each NPC you come across. A game like this should not work but From Software always finds a way. The lore in their games (and especially in this one) is incredibly detailed and will take another 40-60 hours to fully understand each character's motives and what the history of the Lands Between entails.
The Lands Between
Before getting into the gameplay, we must talk about The Lands Between. From Software's previous games have always had extremely detailed world to explore and secrets to find so it was only a matter of time before they created an open world game. The end result: simply amazing. I have never explored such a detailed world before. Similar to BOTW, I took my time and explored every corner of every new area I visited. In my exploration, I found caves, catacombs, secret rooms hidden behind fake walls....and bosses...a lot of bosses. All of which were off the main story path.
Elden Ring is designed for you to explore and encourages you to do so. If a current area is turning out to be quite difficult, go somewhere else. If you looking for key items to upgrade your weapons, find a cave and scavenge some Smithing Stones. If you are interested to see what is behind the gates of that castle on the corner of the map, go and open it. It is also not like these points of interests (POI) are far from one another; it is the exact opposite. Every single area you explore, there will be something for you to find. I do not think I ever visited an area and was bummed I did not find anything interesting. The game does also provide a "light" to guide you towards the main story via certain grace sites (which I will discuss more later) should you just want to tackle the main story and nothing else.
The new areas you explore have their own themes as well. While the main starting area of Limgrave may seem like an open grassland, do not expect those similarities as you explore. Caleid is a wasteland with a dangerous swamp in the middle while Liurnia of the Lakes is a mixture of vast hills and a lake surrounding a spellcaster academy. There are at least half of dozen more areas to explore across the Lands Between....as well as below. That is not to say everything is different. You will find the typical ruins across the world and the caves and catacombs do have very similar designs even though as you progress to tougher areas, the depths of those areas expand and can be a maze to travel.
At first the size of the open world can look a little small. When you open your map, the initial view is smaller than what you might expect. But as you begin to explore more and more of the Lands Between, the size of the map gets significantly bigger to the point where you it might take 3-5 seconds for your cursor to travel across the map so you can fast travel to the main hub area: The Roundtable Hold. I cannot express enough how drastically huge and detailed this world is. It truly is an achievement to behold.
Gameplay
If you have played a From Software game before, the gameplay is very similar to have of Dark Souls. You start off as a certain character you select and from there gather runes (not Souls or Blood Echos....runes this time) to level up your character. The leveling system is, again, very similar to other From Software games. You have multiple attributes to choose from that, if leveled correctly, can change how you play the game. If you want your character to utilize a sword and shield (which is what I did), dexterity might be the best attribute for you. If you are looking to spellcast your way through the game, Intelligence, Faith, or Arcane may be your best option(s). If you want to screw the shield and two-hand a massively powered sword, Strength is your go-to. It really depends on how you want to progress through the game. There is an option after beating a certain demigod where you can change your level progression to increase other attributes, but I only did it once and it might be limited to only a couple of times per playthrough.
The main hub area, which I briefly mentioned before, is The Roundtable Hold. In this area, you can upgrade your weapons, spirit summons as well as purchase items you might need for later. You will also be able to talk to multiple Tarnished like yourself as well as other NPCs that can provide additional knowledge to help guide your path.
A new and welcome addition to the game is the ability to travel via horseback. After resting at a few sites of grace, which are areas where you can level up your character, enhance your flasks, etc., you will gain the ability to travel on horseback with your trusty steed Torrent. This makes traveling across the Lands Between much faster and even gives you the ability to combat on horseback. It is a little clunky at first but after a few hours of getting use to how your weapon is used on horseback, it can be quite fun. Torrent also has the ability to double jump over high obstacles, which is a great thing to have. Just do not think you can double jump at the last moment when dropping off a high cliff...you will still die.
A couple of new additions are the Ashes of War and Spirit Summoning. Ashes of War are different types of special attacks you can equip to your weapons and use at the expense of Focus Points (FP aka your magic meter) or Hit Points (HP aka your health bar). These Ashes of War can be quite devastating and can get you out of tough situations. For Spirit Summoning, you can summon a special character (or characters) to help you out during dangerous battles at the expense of either FP or HP. These summoning ashes can be quite useful during difficult bosses where you might need a little extra help to defeat. That being said, you cannot summon spirits at any point as they are limited to certain areas like boss battles or combat areas where you might face half a dozen foes at once. These ashes, like everything else, can be found across the open world as you explore new areas.
Even with all of these new items to help you out during battles, you should still plan on dying quite often in Elden Ring. Like From Software's other games, Elden Ring is a tough game to get through though not impossible. When you die in Elden Ring, it is probably your fault whether you were being too aggressive or have not really understood the enemy's move set. When you finally complete an area or defeat a boss that has killed you multiple times over a 2 hour time span (I'm talking to you General Radahn), you breathe a heavy sigh of relief and feel like you accomplished something. But when you die (similar to other From Software games), you lose all of the runes you had on your possession. Even though you can go back to the site of where you last died and recover them, you will lose them permanently should you die before reaching that point.
In terms of bosses...there are quite a lot of them. In my 60+ hours, I must have defeated over 35 bosses. While most of them can be found in caves, catacombs and along the main path, there are also numerous bosses that you can face as you explore the Lands Between. The first boss you encounter in Limgrave is on horseback and is there to tell you that at any point you may find a boss to fight (and that you should run away from the dude because you are not ready).
Unlike other From Software games, Elden Ring is a little bit more forgiving in death. Outside of major boss battles and in other areas around the word are Statues of Marika, which act as checkpoints. When you die, you will have the option to returning to the last site of grace (which might be father away) or return to the nearest statue, which almost always is at the boss door entrance. This is probably the developer's way to introduce Elden Ring to gamers who have not played a game of theirs before.
Graphics & Audio
Elden Ring is not the most beautiful game I have ever played. You should not go into this game thinking of Cyberpunk 2077 or The Last of Us Part II type graphics. That being said, the game still looks fantastic due to the level of detail in the world. Sure, NPCs do not move their mouths that much when they talk and you can see some areas of the world pop in from time to time (mainly grass), but you cannot deny how this game compares to other open world games.
The soundtrack is excellent. The god-like chorus or chants are you enter major boss battles adds to the already heightened tension the player is experiencing. The voice acting is also very good, which helps forgive the lack of realism from the characters as they speak.
Verdict
Elden Ring is not a perfect game (nothing is). That being said, what From Software has developed here is something to behold. The open world is incredible to explore with numerous boss battles waiting for you everywhere you turn. It is, like the Dark Souls series, a game that you must put time in to fully understand and master. It will quite a long time before we ever see an open world like this again...so take advantage of it. Explore the Lands Between and become Elden Lord. Elden Ring is a masterpiece that I cannot recommend more.
Score: 10/10