Elden Ring: Surviving a world where everyone is out to get you
By Aditya Deshbandhu This review of Elden Ring comes nearly a month after the game’s release and in mean time I have waited for the game to receive the customary updates that made its overall experience stable and smoother. As every patch was delivered, I steeled my resolve to endure the beautiful punishment that FromSoftware […]
By Aditya Deshbandhu
This review of Elden Ring comes nearly a month after the game’s release and in mean time I have waited for the game to receive the customary updates that made its overall experience stable and smoother. As every patch was delivered, I steeled my resolve to endure the beautiful punishment that FromSoftware has in store for the game’s players. I have spent years trying to beat FromSoftware’s earlier games like Dark Souls, Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro and have struggled and failed to a great degree. The games’ much-talked about punishing difficulty has at times been simply too intimidating.
With Elden Ring though it was supposed to be different, this was a game in a mythical world where I could use magic. The promise was simply too enticing and I dove in when the game launched. I picked the astrologer class, watched the gorgeous opening cinematic and within a few minutes I was dying to a powerful enemy and being revived at the cave of knowledge. The few minutes were enough to trigger years of memories of painful virtual deaths despite hours of careful parries and blocks. For those of you who are under the impression that the magic in Elden Ring will make the game’s combat easier and the learning curve gentler let me gently shatter that illusion.
In terms of gameplay, Elden Ring is an open-world RPG with minimal information available to its players. After braving the opening sequence, playing through the game’s tutorial and surviving its first boss-fight, I encountered the first character that was not out to kill me and he told me that I had simply no future in this world. A few steps ahead I encountered my first work bench and a trader who was selling wares I could simply make no sense of, and I was grateful that one of the game’s dialogue options was asking the trader for recommendations on what to buy. This game has no instructions on how to progress in the world, be it in the form of cues that are either navigational or narrative-driven.
The game’s detail and openness are simply staggering as most players I know have been maintaining a diary/journal as they play the game. There is simply too much to explore and find when death is looming a few steps away. Each time you re-spawn you hope that you have learnt something from the previous encounter. In my early journey I spent nearly an hour in a cave inhabited by wolves which when cleared led to my second boss-fight of sorts. The challenge was such that despite dying 4 to 5 times there was no guarantee that I would kill all the wolves the 6th time, let alone surviving the boss. With time and patience, I beat them both and the satisfaction while significant was only fleeting as I was shredded by a horse-mounted knight. There is quite a lot of repetition in Elden Ring but there is no way to be sure that you will beat the same opponent a second time.
The game’s early glitches and bugs are significant, make sure to update and patch before you play. On the PC, there were a few updates necessary because the game would at times simply stop using the graphic card or just not detect the controller. Early hassles aside, this is one of the most difficult games you will play this year. Elden Ring is a marvellous world that has death waiting for you at every turn. Brace yourselves if you are taking this ride.
The second contender for Game of the Year.
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