Welcome to our review of Elden Ring, a game that is the most polarising game I ever played.
In short and prior to actually starting the review, let me be clear, I both hate and love this game, it challenges everything you know about toughness but at the same time, I feel like my experience on PlayStation was under expectations by a longshot. If you love fair games that are easy to play, stop reading and move on. Those who are into self-inflicting pain aka lovers of the Dark Souls games, do read on, I plan to be brutal in my review…
Rise, Tarnished, and be guided by grace to brandish the power of the Elden Ring and become an Elden Lord in the Lands Between. A vast world where open fields with a variety of situations and huge dungeons with complex and three-dimensional designs are seamlessly connected. As you explore, the joy of discovering unknown and overwhelming threats await you, leading to a high sense of accomplishment.
In addition to customizing the appearance of your character, you can freely combine the weapons, armor, and magic that you equip. You can develop your character according to your play style, such as increasing your muscle strength to become a strong warrior, or mastering magic.
A multilayered story told in fragments. An epic drama in which the various thoughts of the characters intersect in the Lands Between. In addition to multiplayer, where you can directly connect with other players and travel together, the game supports a unique asynchronous online element that allows you to feel the presence of others.
So let me first address the gigantic elephant I just invited into the room, I was incredibly enthusiastic after my demo time on the Xbox and now that I played it on PlayStation, I am beginning to truly loathe the PS controller and its thumbstick layout. I could not do a few fights in a row without at least accidentally pressing the L3 button and starting to crouch. I lost at least 100+ fights due to this and it is so frustrating, it even made me consider selling my PS5, the frustration was incredibly high. But of course, this doesn’t take away anything from the game’s quality itself.
I never had this issue on the demo/Xbox and it just baffles me that the controller layout really influenced my gameplay so much and so negatively. I have complained about pain in my left thumb before on Playstation 5, but this is taking that issue to another level. I actually intend to buy the game on Xbox once it is out in stores so I can play it again on a proper controller. Which clearly showcases my love for the game I have.
Having said all that, I really do like the game, as I generally dislike this genre, I do enjoy the big open worlds, the big gorgeous open worlds. It becomes clear upon starting the game just how pretty this game is, right after the kind of lackluster opening sequence though, I can not understand how this opening is so static for a game this grand. Great for screenshots, but all those images kind of do the game some injustice.
Once you pass those, you arrive in the world of Elden Ring and while there is a completely free approach to everything, you can go for the story as well, which I did after around 2 hours of roaming free in the world. I wish I did remember to level up more often, kind of a disappointment that there is no sort of auto level up. I get how this is part of the game, be a killer or get killed, it just felt coming short of that little bit extra.
Elden Ring is also a game where there is more item management than any other game that I know. From crafting items to setting up weapons and the weapons have even a deep statistics system. From heavy scimitars with special attacks to basic daggers to throw. I hate the fricking crossbow with a passion, but damn, I adore a double scimitar approach. Nothing beats being able to do a fast flurry with left and right and most basic enemies will be defenseless against them. But you know what I am going to say, there are many harder opponents too.
Talking about harder opponents, prepare to die. Prepare to die a lot. Prepare to die so many times, you will want to throw that PlayStation controller against the wall, pick up the pieces and start throwing them into the wall as well to do as much damage as possible. I know, I sound frustrated right now, but this is all due to having encountered a big opponent that has a tell. If you jump when he strikes, you avoid his attack almost every time. Kinda hard to do when you suddenly start crouching again.
And that frustration pretty much sums up the feeling of my current experience compared to that amazing gameplay I had during the demo. During the demo, I would have called this a 10/10 game, but right now, at least on PlayStation, I am more leaning towards a low seven. All due to the controller issue I am facing. Without it, I would lean towards an 8 out of 10.
Now I will break my usual habit and write down a lengthy conclusion first, where it lost the points from a perfect score.
First off, again, I know this is a Dark Souls game, they are merciless and all, but I just feel that for an open-world approach, this should be handled a little better. I just spent too much time not enjoying the game, but looking at statistics, deciding who to attack so I could level up, and wasting a lot of my time by crafting or gathering items. While this is the staple of what an open-world game is supposed to be, there are just too many options and statistics to keep track of.
Forgetting to properly upgrade a new scimitar, for example, can be the difference between a full takedown when approaching an enemy from behind and just leaving him enough health that he may end up retaliating or even notify his allies. While some will just enjoy this aspect so much, I feel like it is taking away from truly shining as a game.
Secondly, the autofocus on a single opponent makes your movement cringeworthy at times. I have died multiple times because I simply did not see the enemy behind me. Especially when facing animals, this was kind of an issue. When facing enemies with swords, you either launch a special flurry of strikes or you will get slaughtered. I do not want to sound too negative here, but it really got on my nerves a few times so in the end, I pretty much only started using this against flying enemies or boss fights.
Thirdly, while this may be a plus point for some, I was flabbergasted at some of the warp points in the game. At one point I was warped to a new part of the map, one that I had not been yet. I was in a mine with diamond-like beings that kept on shooting me. No save or warp point nearby so I struggled just to escape from them, got stabbed in the back so many times. The one time I finally made it, did kind of prove to me that Elden Ring is a great game. Despite all the times I died, I made it out alive and I was just excited to start exploring more and more.
The fourth one is probably a typical one for Dark Souls, but when you get ambushed, you almost never make it out alive. I kind of wish there was at least a fighting chance to survive, like a one-in-a-million chance, but you are pretty much unable to even move when you get thrown in a corner with sometimes 5+ enemies throwing attack after attack at you. I once got cornered by 6 at the same time and my replay showed my character did not even try to attack. It just went down like a boat in a Looney Tunes cartoon with 10 holes in the bottom.
And despite all that, I keep on trying.
I keep on fighting, despite the issues with the controller.
I keep on trying to really beat that one boss that has been plaguing me.
I keep wanting to beat that boss.
And it is because of that, that I consider Elden Ring a great game, despite “only” giving it a 7 out of 10 on PlayStation. Like I said before, without the issues with the controller and all, I would take it to an 8, but I fear the high difficulty will hurt it in the long run. When I see how it performs straight from the start. Resetting everything right after resting up, it can be beneficial, taking out some easy enemies and grinding your way to a higher level, but at the same time, if you are out of potions, you are forced to rest or find that elusive beetle before getting offed.
In short, there is so much to do and so much to say about Elden Ring, I doubt there will ever be a game like this, and I may even say this is a good thing?
In conclusion, I said pretty much everything already, but I will say this, my score is based upon the game after all and I am purposely ignoring the crappy experience due to the PlayStation controller despite truly loathing it, not giving a 7, but giving it an 8. After release, I am picking up the Xbox version and restarting there…
