Elden Ring

⭐ 9.5/10

This review has been a long time coming. I started this game probably a year and a half ago, having never played a Dark Souls game.  I always thought they looked kind of dull and lifeless, boring colour palette and rage-inducing gameplay.  This is the Dark Souls to end all Dark Souls, and it was getting universal appeal, so I had to try it.  Not breaking any news here, but this game is amazing.

I think what it does best is the environment.  The world you are in is so massive and detailed, with an insane array of things to fight.  The storytelling is complete gibberish, but that doesn't matter when the world is full of so much life that your brain is basically making up story as you play.  Made me feel like a child again, uncovering new things around every turn, along with the immense satisfaction of beating such difficult bosses.

No boss really sticks out in my mind as one that took forever. Actually nevermind it was Malekith and when I won it felt completely lucky.  The bosses that felt unfair to me are the massive beasts where you gotta run up to them and get a shot of without being killed in one hit. Overall though I liked the difficulty and the satisfaction that came with overcoming hurdles.  I used all the tools available, like summons, so real gamers might stop reading this review now, but its part of the game I'm gonna use it.

My main gripe with this game is how many parts to the game there are.  I picked up thousands of cool items I will never use.  You are forced into locking in your play style so early on, and hard as I tried switching weapons was never worth it.  I had a second build that I loved but had to switch out of for most bosses, which is ridiculous.  You also never know which items to invest in because the level up system for weapons is so opaque.  What if I want to try a cool magic charm I just got?  Impossible, unless you want to spend tons of hard-earned skill points on something you will probably never use.  The game is tailored for true RPG fans, who play games like this multiple times with multiple different builds to experience everything the game has to offer. But who has time for that!? Instead I used the weapon I found 15 hours into the game to massacre the final bosses 150 hours into the game.  Really upsetting, and I get angry just thinking about that.  Such a massive world with endless possibilities and I stayed in one tiny lane my whole time.

While I'm worked up, I think its insane that to complete any quest you have to go online and read about how to do it.  Quests are so disjointed and not tracked anywhere, every single one feels like another random encounter.  I think that part of the game is terrible, and I can only overlook it because the immersion of the world is so good.

My favourite section of the game was my random foray into Volcano Manor, which opened up and quickly became my favourite region in the game, with my favourite boss that forced you to use a new weapon. Those little contained pockets of the world are so magical to me, with distinct plants and enemies and scenery.  Open world games are great but sometimes I like when I'm trapped in a classic video game dungeon.

Its been a while since I played a game that looks this beautiful.  I would find myself mindlessly panning my camera around me to take in the scenery.  The sky, the distant towers, the open fields with murderous things everywhere, it was so magical.  I love that feeling of being weak, scrounging all the items you can, just trying to stay alive.  Many games give you this feeling to start, and this game gave me it for probably 70% of my play through.  I love having to be strategic about every encounter, knowing that the smallest enemy could kill me in a second. This leads to frustration, but its a rare feat to sustain that balance, completely open exploration with the well-earned fear around every corner.

I probably won't play the DLC, but leaving this game for a year, then coming back to it to beat the final bosses was kind of satisfying, like I learned a ton that I can't forget even after all that time. The vast amount of unique bosses I think is what really sets this game apart, and even when you fight the same monster it will have variations. I remember the first time fighting one of those massive beasts underground, then realizing I was standing in front of the roots of an Erdtree, and the cohesion of the world blew me away. There were so many moments where I would emerge from a cave and be in awe of the scenery in front of me, but also the design of this game's makers to continually feed me those moments. It's a special game that's going to be hard to top, and I worry that like Red Dead before it any other game in this style will never be able to compare.