Elden Ring

🎮 Steam ⏳ 300 hours ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)

Monumental Action RPG #

This title is a monumental action-RPG that combines FromSoftware’s signature punishing combat with an expansive open world full of mystery, danger, and discovery. The Lands Between is vast and beautifully crafted, rewarding exploration with hidden dungeons, powerful gear, and unforgettable encounters. Its dark fantasy atmosphere, supported by striking art direction and subtle storytelling, makes the world feel alive and dangerous at every step. The combat system refines the Souls formula, offering a huge variety of weapons, spells, and builds that allow people to approach challenges in different ways. Boss fights are tough but memorable, making every victory feel hard-earned and satisfying. The sheer amount of optional content, from side areas to multiple endings, gives the game incredible replay value and freedom of choice.

Replay Value Strengths #

By far this is the biggest standout for me, and this made me play the game, from start to finish, two entire times, and also to mess around with alternative playstyles and classes along the way. And as much as the other titles of the same company also have this feature, by far ER is the one with the most advanced replay value up to this day, not only when it comes to FS titles, but Souls-likes in general. On the downside, the PC version suffered from performance issues at launch, with stuttering and inconsistent frame rates, though patches have improved stability over time. Some mechanics, such as mounted combat and certain movement systems, can feel clunky, and the game’s lack of guidance can make it overwhelming for newcomers. Still, these drawbacks do little to diminish the overall experience, while at the same time, the lack of sign-posting can be a good thing, since this resembles how gaming worked back in the day, for example, in the SNES era.

Freedom and Mastery #

This kind of approach promotes freedom and curiosity, in order to advance forward, the only possible strategy is to always keep moving. Ultimately, this game is a masterpiece of open-world design and a must-play for fans of challenging, atmospheric RPGs. It demands patience and persistence but rewards players with one of the most immersive and memorable adventures in modern gaming. This is definitely one of the best games of all time, and a landmark in the action-RPG genre, which was starting to become saturated with less and less inspiring games. I absolutely consider this a must-play, for everybody, not just for fans of Souls-likes, even if you don’t manage to beat it, or if you can’t get past the first few areas of the game, you’ll still have an amazing experience while doing so.

Simple Classes Viable #

Particularly speaking, I started off playing with the Samurai class, from start to finish, and I don’t really like to change much of the stock character. And I did the same with the Warrior class afterwards, on a second playthrough from scratch, this shows that even the stock simple classes are viable from start to finish, you don’t even need to get creative if you don’t feel like it. And lastly, yet to this day, I still have not played the DLC, but I plan on doing so, and I highly recommend doing 100% of this game. It is one of those rare cases which, even though the game is very complex, long and hard to finish, it is still worth it to endure every little content it displays for you to the fullest, there is little to no downsides in doing so.