Elden Ring

⭐ 9.5/10

(Originally written by Joseph)

In the words of the trailer: "OooOooOh... Elden Ring." After 120 hours in just over a month, this game has consumed me. And yet, I'm still not totally sure just how I feel. In many ways, I think this is the best game ever made. The highs I've experienced in this game are higher than almost anything I've played. However, this game almost drove me insane. You can't really achieve the highs this game gives you without overcoming the lows, so yeah, it's conflicting.

For those unaware, this is a dark, and I mean DARK fantasy role playing game that especially made headlines this time around cuz G.R.R Martin contributed to the writing. You play in this depraved world where the gods recently had a war that essentially destroyed everything, and now its up to you to kill the gods and restore order. It's made by one of the premier video game makers of our time, FromSoft a studio that is essentially known for inventing the "souls" genre, a genre known for being difficult, dark, cryptic but also genius.

I can start with the lows. I died probably 500 times in this game. Every time you die, you lose progress in the form of dropping all the experience you gained since your last checkpoint, and also you are sent back to said checkpoint. Every single death feels infuriating, so that's a lot of anger. Most of the deaths are earned, and this game teaches you to be patient, strategic, and to be careful. But also some deaths feel so cheap and the greatest accomplishment for me in this game is that my controller came out in one piece. This game does a ton to encourage exploration, but then also punishes you if you're not careful. It's definitely a tough balance. I want to see what's in that cave, but also I know it's just gonna be some horrific enemy sending me back thirty minutes.

Another major complaint I have with this game and every From game is the absolute terrible storytelling. People laud these games for their lore and environmental storytelling, but can anyone actually tell you what this game is about? No! I have no idea what becoming the Elden Lord even means, and that's the point of the game. Everyone speaks in riddles, and everything is just so completely nonsensical. The quests are completely obtuse and impossible to follow without a guide, and I'm just tired of people confusing mystery with an inability to tell a coherent narrative.

Now on to the positives. I would describe this game as a mix between Hollow Knight (or any Souls game) and Breath of the Wild. Those are two very good games. The world is hauntingly beautiful and so worth exploring. There are cool weapons and armor and magic spells to discover around every corner. This game features 120 unique bosses, and probably double that amount of unique enemies. That's an insane number and I feel like the employees at the studio must be driven by a whip to accomplish all that. The variety and depth are unmatched in anything I've played. Plus, it has a lot of nice ambient music and an amazing main theme.

The main highlight though is the combat and gameplay. Again, because it is so incredibly punishing, it feels incredibly rewarding in turn when you finally beat that enemy causing you so much grief. This has a bit of a different take on difficulty then their other games. You can either take the time to learn the boss's moves and perfect the fight, or you can take the time to gain levels, get new, cooler weapons and spells, and destroy the boss that way. I mostly chose the latter because it allows you explore more, plus I just don't have the patience to become good enough otherwise. This also created some balancing issues as there were few times a boss actually hit the sweet spot of being difficult but manageable. I was either dying without making much progress, or else melting an end-game boss in 10 seconds. But I'm glad we had that option so I didn't end up banging my head on a wall for hours on end.

So in the end, yeah, I loved this game. I'll never forget playing it, and it has made me want to play other From games, and I know this is a game I'll come back to. But also, I am very relieved to be free of this game and I'm ready to do things that make me happy again. It's amazing, but I think it falls just short of my Mount Rushmore, and more in line with amazing games that had too many things I disliked to be a ten, like Hollow Knight or TLOU 2. Maidenless no more, baby.