Elden Ring

From Software has recreated their infamous (and unforgiving) style for an open world. Does it work? Yes and no would be my answer. It's been about a week since Elden Ring came out and after 100+ hours and standing in front of the final boss, I can honestly say they've done it again. As much praise that I can heap onto Elden Ring though, just as much frustration exists. In the opening hours, the game is very inviting. Giving players a quick little tutorial cave before unleashing them into the first of many wide-open areas. There are certain sections of this area that let you know that you need to be stronger. After finding lost grace (AKA bonfires AKA rest spots) you'll gain the ability to level up. The basic loop of From Software games remains intact. Get souls (now called runes), rest, and level up. From what I can gather on my first playthrough you're meant to explore these open areas. You can move at whatever pace you like, but the lower your level, the harder you get hit. And everything hits hard, from bosses down to rats you have to make damn sure nothing touches you. That's one of the few frustrations I expressed up top. At this time I'm not sure what level you should be in any certain area, and it's hard to tell because everything in the game does so much damage. I wanted to see if it was just my soft guy magic build, so I respect to high strength, high endurance build. I threw the best damage negation armor I had on and I was still taking a sometimes unreasonable amount of damage even from enemies I could kill in one shot. This could be the way I played the game going from boss to boss with some exploration here and there.

The reason I didn't explore that much isn't that there aren't things to find, it's because there's so much. It's an impressive feat to make an open world map in which every corner has something of interest. It's not something I see in a lot of recent open-world games. It feels lived in. After 100 hours I feel like I've only seen half the game. There are weapons, spells, materials for upgrading your weapons. I never felt when I set a marker on the map to run to that I wasted my time by running to some corner with some aesthetic set piece. You'll also run into world bosses in which some you can't beat quite yet so it's best to not get too close, for now. The narrative does a good job at driving you towards the main bosses of that area which are mandatory for progression. It can get tricky sometimes when you come across an NPC which sends you on the hunt for a secret area. Once you get there though you may have to come back.

The combat is also an evolution of previous games. Dodging is still incredibly important and the change to jump being on X introduces it into combat. Especially when bosses and other enemies will use a move that you can only avoid by jumping. You have more than enough tools to deal with things that you should be able to handle. Estus is back in the form of flasks that can be upgraded. Two separate ones for healing and FP (mana) respectively. The weapon you use and your overall build are up to you. Weapons scale so if your sword has a B in Dexterity, you'll do more damage the higher your dexterity attribute is. You'll get the chance to reallocate your levels fairly early on, so you're encouraged to experiment a little bit throughout the game. After every major boss fight you receive not just an abundance of runes to level up with, but a great rune as well. once you travel to a divine tower and unlock its power you can equip it. These great runes each have a different effect once activated via a rune fragment. Fragments are found throughout the world and upon helping others defeat a boss. One early on is an increase to maximum health. Some later in the game are a little more complex and allow you to experiment even more with your build.

Summons/multiplayer makes its return in two different ways. The first is the traditional way of signs being put down by other players. You receive an item in the first couple of minutes that allows you to put your personal summon sign down near any boss fight in the game. Placing your sign is free of charge, but to see other people's signs you need to use an item. These items aren't hard to acquire and I didn't have one when I needed it. Be cautious when using one though, because that opens you up to being invaded by other players using the invasion item (which you obtain a little later). Also, keep in mind that for every human player you summon in the boss receives more health. It may make it easier by giving the boss more targets but you can't sit back and let them do the work. As far as I could tell it doesn't work the same if there is an NPC summon sign down.

The other way of summoning is ashes. In what I assume is a nod to Bloodborne you receive a bell which you can use to summon in "ashes" who are roaming NPC's. They can be summoned anytime your near a boss whether it's a world boss or behind a fog door. There are many different ashes in the game and most consume some of your FP upon use. However, if you summon another player you cannot use the ashes. The ashes can also be upgraded like most other things in the game. My personal favorite is the jellyfish you can get early on from an NPC.

With the variety of builds you can go with, some old and some new, Elden Ring evolves Dark Souls and other previous From Software games. It feels like something of a magnum opus, playing the greatest hits of those titles. From Software has created one of the best games I've ever played, even with the frustration. This also may be their most accessible game as long as people have patience with the sometimes crushing boss fights. Like most of their games, Elden Ring will take you from incredible lows to amazing highs. While the open world can be dangerous, it can be just as breathtaking. Only time will tell just how much Elden Ring has in it, but after my week with it, I can tell there's more to be uncovered.

9.9 swords made of swords out of swords out of 10