this is a Souls game in disguise, and not even a particularly good disguise as Elden Ring goes so far as to lift enemies, fight designs, and concepts wholesale from previous games - honestly, it can feel more like a greatest hits package of From's previous efforts than a brand new game a lot of the time, although I'm not sure that's necessarily a bad thing, just not at all what I was expecting. Controls, feel, stats, systems, fonts, the works. ![]() Finally picking up a controller, though, you could have told me I was playing Dark Souls 4 and I would have readily believed you. Martin all seemed to point to something fairly significantly removed from the Souls games, not unlike Sekiro and Bloodborne previously. In my head, the original name, seemingly more high-fantasy backdrop (from what little I'd seen), and involvement of George R. I'd been intentionally avoiding as much pre-release information as possible as I firmly believe that going in blind is the best way to experience FromSoftware games. The first thing that struck me about Elden Ring was how surprisingly familiar it felt. I'll try to keep things as spoiler-free as possible as I know a lot of folks are still busy working their way through the game, but at the same time I want to cover as much as possible, so fair warning, there may be the odd allusion to things, enemies, and places you've not seen yet. So, after 100+ hours, dozens of deaths, all major bosses slain, most side content ticked off, and more bellowed expletives and creative compound cusses than I care to admit (as well as all of the Elden Ring achievements bar the ones for additional endings unlocked), I'm ready to say my piece - Elden Ring starts out ridiculously strong, but as it draws on, the constant enemy and boss repetition and some poor encounter design later in the game just hold it back from being From's finest work, with the open world setting sometimes detracting from the experience as much as it benefits it as the team struggles to fill the expansive map with meaningful original content. Still, this actually served as something of a blessing in disguise, as rather than try to rush the game and thrash out an article without seeing the credits just to hit the review embargo, I've been able to take my time and see almost everything Elden Ring has to offer, including messing around with multiple builds to get a much broader view of this massive game. ![]() the real Dark Souls starts here, I guess. In order to get a review up in time to meet the embargo, I would have had to complete the game, write it up, and put it live, all a full 27 hours before our copy even arrived. Elden Ring Bandai Namco Entertainment Online Multiplayer Online Co-op Review Game review Action-RPG Luke Albigés I know FromSoftware games have a reputation for being difficult, but our situation with Elden Ring was some next-level craziness.
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