The soulsgame is one of the most popular genre of videogames. Everybody has heard of Dark Souls and since 2022 everybody knows Elden Ring. For me, and many others, this was their first soulsgame. And one thing is certain: Now I want to play more.
As an experienced gamer who played over 100 games of all different genres I know how to handle a controller pretty well and I quickly adjust to any game I choose to play. But the soulsgames have a pretty dense reputation. They are usually pretty hard to beat and demand a lot of patience and learning from the player. And that's true. I once started Deamin Soul's and deletetd the game after two hours because I felt the game was unfair and it would require tons of hours invested to reach the skill level needed to progress.
In Elden Ring you have an open world, free to explore. So if a boss is too hard for you, you can level up through killing smaller bosses or farming runes and come back later to beat him. This is the main reason this game is such a massive success. The other Fromsoftware games were great aswell, they have won several awards and created an entire genre. But the mass market was claimed by Elden Ring.
So after this rather long exposition, let's start with the review beginning with the gameplay.
Elden Ring's combat system is close to perfection. There are countless possibilities how to fight, beginning with the character creation and the different attributes you can level. I am a gamer who always goes for HP, Endurance and Strength and I can only recommend this to everyone because it is the simplest and, in my eyes, most effective one. But of course there is a lot of magic to experience with. Then of course you have weapons and Armor to choose. Speaking of armor there are dozens of sets you can collect in the game which protect you from all kinds of damages. One great feature is, that you can get the armory of the bosses you have slain, buying them from the lady next two the two fingers in the roundtable hold.
For weapons, there are tons and tons of them and there is no best weapon, but a few very string ones for each playstyle. I chose the giant crusher which served me well. With this larger than player weapon I slayed Malenia, the hardest boss in Elden Ring pretty easily.
The fighting is easy to learn, but hard to master. The timing of your rolls/jumps and parries is very important and you have to study each bosses unique attack moves to have a chance of beating them. This is arguably the most fun part of these games. Overcoming challenge after challenge, getting better in the process, so in the end you have become a real master of the game.
And this would not be possible without the masterclass boss design.
There are no better bosses than those in the Fromsoftware games. Elden Ring features 80 unique bosses and a dozen main bosses, which all look gorgeous and fight different. This is why you should play the game. No other game can give you that. Not even Breath of the Wild with it's four titans and Ganon.
Next point on our list is the open world, the NPC's you can meat in it and the overall story of the game.
So from what I've heard the soulsgames usually have no real story but just some hidden lore. Elden Ring is a bit different. Through the 36 side quests and the curscenes before and after the boss fights, I've learned a lot about the world and its history. And I belive most of the credit for this goes to one of entertainments greatest writers and creators, the legendary
George R. R. Martin
With his a Song of Ice and Fire series he earned himself a spot in entertainment olympus alongside J. R. R. Tolkien and George Lucas. With Elden Ring he expanded his legacy even more. He connects the great gameplay by Fromsoftware Games with an intriguing world.
Last but not least I want to talk about the visuals, the soundtrack and of course the performance.
Visually the game looks great, but there has been games on a different level. I like to compare any game with the objectively best videogame of all time Red Dead Redemption II. RDR2's graphics are better than reality itself. But comparing these two games with each other is unfair in every point so let's just say Elden Ring looks good.
The soundtrack is pretty good aswell, especially the main theme, that hooked me instantly. At the end of the game there are also a few good tracks.
And now we come to the only point where I have to critizise the game. In terms of performance I often had some framebreaks and fps drops while riding or running through the world. After two years these issues should long have been fixed. Unfortunately they are not. But this did not ruin the game for me.
So in the end I am very happy to have played this game. It took me 74 hours to complete it and earn the platinum trophy, which is a perfect time in my opinion. Not too short and not too long. Elden Ring is definitely a masterpiece. There are almost no flaws and the game never gets boring or repetitive. In fact I fell in love with this game and this genre and will definitely try Dark Souls soon. This is a massive achievement from Elden Ring.
So why did I give it a 9 and not a 10, you might ask?
Well, to answer that short and simple. Red Dead Redemption II is even better in every aspect, so I am sorry, but the 10 is reserved for the best, and the best only.
