A few weeks ago I told you that we are not ready for Elden Ring. Surely many of you thought that it was an exaggeration, or that he said it to attract attention and that you click on the article/video. “You won’t be ready haha” some of you told me in the comments.
And now, having spent close to 70 hours touring the Midlands, I can tell you that far from exaggerating, I fell short. No matter how much you think you know, no matter how many hours you’ve put into Dark Souls, no matter how high your expectations are… Elden Ring is going to shatter them into a thousand pieces.
Elden Ring is colossal, along with Elden Ring items. Immense. Gigantic. boundless. Monstrous. It doesn’t matter how many bombastic adjectives you use; What’s new from FromSoftware is much bigger than anyone imagines.
So much so that I leave the experience without having seen even half of what it offers. And no, again I assure you that I am not exaggerating one bit. I have left many unexplored dungeons, undefeated bosses, unknown characters, unfound weapons… And that I have taken great care to explore every corner of the map.
In an ideal world we would have needed a month to analyze such a mammoth work. But in the real world we’ve only had a week; a week of intense gaming, few hours of sleep and a lot of coffee.
They are not the ideal conditions, that is more than clear, but that after such a slaughter and even with all the accumulated fatigue, I continue with a mad desire to return to the Middle Lands, it is a testament that we are facing a very special game. Let’s go with the analysis of Elden Ring.
I imagine that the big question that most of you have is: how does the jump to the open world feel? Does the gameplay of a soulslike work well within a limitless space? And I’m glad to say I have good news.
Instead of being faced with the structure that this class of games usually present, FromSoftware has applied its mastery of level design in a big way. In Elden Ring you will never feel like you are going through an esplanade to go from point A to point B, but at all times you will have the feeling that you are exploring. And that’s the key word: explore.
You’re not going to chase icons to see a goal get checked off a to-do list; you are going to approach some ruins because something will have caught your attention, you will travel to a forest because a character will have mentioned it to you and you will visit a cave because you will have read it in the note that you bought from a merchant. It is the pleasure of discovery, pure and simple. You can even buy Elden Ring items easily.
And in that sense, Elden Ring is discovery after discovery. With every step I took, I found myself with a new enemy, a new situation, a new object, a new character, a new location, a new boss, a new trap… Elden Ring has not ceased to surprise me in the near 70 hours that I have dedicated to it.
That’s why I think it’s very important to arrive blindly, having seen the right thing, especially if you are followers of FromSoftware’s works. Because there is no better feeling than arriving in a new area and encountering beautiful views… Or being cordially received by an unexpected boss. For this reason, in this analysis we only show you images of the first hours.
But Elden Ring is not just an open world. In the Middle Lands it is very common to run into mini-dungeons: catacombs full of enemies and traps, with a boss at the end and a reward that is always unique. Think of something similar to the optional caves in Skyrim, but much more elaborate.
Because at first they are small and relatively simple in design, but as the game progresses their complexity increases… To the point that on many occasions you will think that more than a mini-dungeon, you are exploring a main dungeon.
Because there are also large and classic-style fortresses where the level design completely explodes. We’ve always praised FromSoftware for this, but in Elden Ring the design of these locations is devilishly complex and twisted. Surely, like me, when you explored a location in previous titles of the study, you were drawing a mental map in your head, trying to remember the roads that you had not gone to return later.
Well, in the first castle of Elden Ring you are going to find so many paths, that you are going to have to resort to paper and pencil (seriously, I highly recommend it). Different routes, secret paths, shortcuts, heights, optional areas, doors that you won’t be able to open until much later… It’s crazy.
These are big words, but I daresay they’ve hit a ceiling: Elden Ring has the best level design of any FromSoftware game.
The inclusion of the jump ability has had a lot to do with this, as the design of the locations has gained in verticality, and on many occasions you will be walking across rooftops in search of new paths. Moreover, in Elden Ring there are sections that can only be described as platforming phases. Yes, you read correctly: platforming.
It is not very common, but sometimes, in the mini-dungeons, you can see small sections (rooms, practically) that we have already seen before, in another mini-dungeon. And there are also several bosses that repeat throughout the adventure… Although they always usually include some mechanic to differentiate them.
It’s hard for me to hold this against him because we’re talking about optional content and because the variety of enemies is simply huge. But mainly because Elden Ring respects the player at all times. And at all times means for hundreds of hours.
You will never feel like you are wasting your time. There is no filler here or artificially lengthening missions; there are characters with interesting stories, new locations, spells and abilities, situations that we haven’t seen before, bosses, utility items… And even if it’s not useful for the type of character we have, we will always find something unique or different.
I know I’m a pain in the ass with this, but honestly: it’s gigantic. You don’t have an idea. It is as if they had put together three Dark Souls in the same game. As we progress the map keeps growing and growing and growing to monstrous size. And even when it seems like we’ve seen it all, it still manages to grow in new directions… literally.
I have lost count of the times that I explored an area thinking that it was going to take me a few minutes and, without realizing it, more paths, more options, more things to do were emerging… until turning those few minutes into several hours. I’m not going to lie to you: Elden Ring overwhelms and a lot.
