I want to preface this with I am not new to the souls series. I platinumed Dark Souls 1, Bloodborne, played a fair bit of Demons Souls both on PS3 and PS5, Dark Souls 2 Sotfs and Dark Souls 3, so I know From Softwares Souls series‘ history. I also played a few Soulsborne games from other developers like Nioh and Kena. So I‘ve been there done that.
I wasn‘t as hyped about Elden Ring as some other people. It was on my SSD for well over two years before I felt it‘s time for me to complete this behemoth of a game everyone has been talking about for years. But that has more to do with me being a patient gamer, I rarely play games when they releqse. My backlog is huge and I don‘t care about graphics that much. And frankly, most games are full of issues when they release and they need a few patches anyway.
Also, I‘m not a big fan of AAA anymore. In the past few years I had so much fun with indie games and big budget AAA just kept disappointing. Since suits see games as an investment and want to make sure a game‘s a success, developers started making games that are creatively bancrupt and try to regurgitate the same old boring ideas over and over.
Still, I was kinda excited to step into the land between. After all, From Software delivered with almost all their soulsbornes before (let‘s not talk about DS2). But, unfortunately, Elden Ring suffers from the same issues most AAA games suffer from today.
I get it, they wanted their mass appeal (to sell more games, obviously) so they reduced the difficulty, but they did it in a way that the core DNA of Soulsborne games changed in a way that it feels more like an Assassins Creed than a soulsborne.
I have nothing against making a game beginner friendly. But do it in a way where I, as a fan, don‘t get bored with every boss encounter. Don‘t include 239 bosses when most of them are repeated over and over again. Offer a real eqsy mode for example. Or ask the player if he wants to reduce the difficulty of a boss if he dies over and over again, like so many other games do. But don‘t strip away one of the core identities your studio stands for. And it‘s not the dying over and over mechanic but the sense of accomplishment when you defeat a boss. Dying is just a more or less avoidable consequence.
There‘s also game mechanics I never even used for because the game is too easy. Yesterday I arrived at the altus plateau and I never assigned an ash of war to my weapon. I‘m still fighting with a Longsword+7 and I have absolutely no problem defeating any boss. I‘ve cleared most of Limgrave, Caelid and Liurnia, done almost all the dungeons, which also feel so generic I ask myself if an AI did them (enter cave/grave etc. -> use elevator -> defeat a few enemies -> defeat boss -> receive item I never need or use).
I never summoned a spirit animal, I never crafted anything. Never even changed my equipment. But somehow, From thought bigger equals better and so I think they just wanted to add everything they can imagine to make this game as big as possible. Cynical to think the only thing missing would be a base building system, but I‘m sure they thought about something like that as well.
And all that, boring gameplay, generic dungeons, boring boss fights, too many mechanics I don‘t need, whil simultaneously offering a world and an art design in the overworld I‘d say is the best I‘ve ever seen from a FS game. Not the clipping graphics that‘ll lead to me being hit from an arrow even though I‘m standing behind a pillar, because the games engine is from 2009, or the not top of the notch graphics because ER was developed first and foremost on last gen, but the visual artstyle itself. Caelid with its red tones and depressing feeling as if somehow the world itself is dead, limgrave with its fresh, green and colorful forests or the altus plateau which looks like you‘re finally in the second half of the game. It doesn‘t make up for the boss fights, but it shows how much potential ER would‘ve had if the would‘ve packed these locations in a somewhat more streamlined and not so much open world.
Also, the jumping button, why did we need that if not just to annoy the player with sections in the game where you have to use jumping to progress in the area. And it‘s not implemented that well, jumping feels kinda off.
It just feels like From Soft tried to implement everything in ER and make something out of it which it clearly is not or doesn‘t need to be. Bigger isn‘t always better, but I‘m going to complete it nonetheless. On thing’s certain though, I definitely won‘t do a 2nd run or buy the DLC because Elden Ring, as it is, feels like work rather than enjoyment. Just like any Assassins Creed, open interactive map, look where bosses, golden seeda, tears are, run to the location, collect thing/defeat boss, rinse repear.
Currently Lvl 60 at around 32hrs of playtime and I think it‘ll take around another 20 hrs to get the platinum.
Tl;dr: Mildly disappointed.
