If you haven’t heard of Elden Ring by now, I have to wonder what color rock you live under. The latest action RPG by FromSoftware, who you might know from games such as Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro, Elden Ring carries the torch of the company’s staple style of games. And what are those kinds of games you ask? Vast, dark, and brutally difficult. The brainchild of the legendary Hidetaka Miyazaki, Elden Ring is a massive game, and also a collaboration with Song of Fire and Ice author George RR Martin on the written end.
Now maybe you’re like me, and this is your first “SoulsBorne” game, as they’re referred to. The game was released about a month ago as of this writing on February 25, 2022. I bought into the hype and bought the game on my Xbox, despite knowing nothing about the game itself or the franchise as a whole. And good lord, am I glad I hopped on board.
You spend a good half hour designing your character, which is a blast considering how detailed you can make them. You choose a class – in my case, “hero” – to get a nice little starting point for weapons, armor and stats. The game starts, you make your way out to a platform and a gigantic monster holding 45 swords lands and you’re in battle. If you’re like me, you die instantly, though some skilled vets have taken this monstrosity down. Afterwards, you fall in a huge pit, make your way through the tutorial (it’s down the giant hole, and I still missed it), emerge from an underground building and… you’re off.
Now this goes without saying: this game is GORGEOUS. I personally haven’t played anything that looks this good. The environment is alive, every corner of every corner contains something. An enemy, an item, 12 enemies, a secret passage, a random boss… It’s completely jam packed. You’ll see gigantic fantastical trees off in the distance, sweeping plains littered with dilapidated churches and castles, lakes complete with dangerous aquatic life – simply put, a fully realized and stupidly massive world that will take your breath away.
Okay, the story: I really have no idea what’s happening. I’m over 20 hours in, which for this game is a drop in the bucket. Please note: this is not a full game review. This is a FromSoft new guy gushing about the incredible experience I’m having. I’m used to games throwing the story in your face and shoving it down your throat. None of that happens here. In the very beginning there’s essentially a slideshow cut-scene giving you the lowdown of the Lands Between and the shattering of the Elden Ring. Now, some people may have hung on to every word, and need that story as they go. And that’s fine. Personally, I have no clue why I’m doing what I’m doing, and truthfully I don’t care one bit. That’s not to say it isn’t interesting – there is certainly some incredible lore here. It’s just that you don’t need to know every line of backstory to enjoy the game.
They drop you in this world and that’s it. Go play and have fun. Except, you get throttled just about everywhere you go. At least, I did. For a little bit, it was admittedly discouraging. I had no direction and was wildly under powered, not to mention inexperienced in the genre. Luckily, there are no shortages of friendly YouTubers that have put together guides for people like me to have a chance. If you’re new, I highly recommend doing something like this.
What about for the veterans? What do they think? Well, the game is getting overwhelmingly positive reviews from media outlets (as well as selling over 12 million copies already). But I don’t really care about any of that. I want to know what the little guy thinks, what the common man thinks. One such person whose opinion I value is micro-niche internet legend, twitter user NeoWokio.
The dude has beaten the game five times, figured out how to hack to add hilariously busted spells, even created crazy level skips and comprehensive early weapon leveling guides to give you a fighting chance. If you’re interested in passively seeing content about this game, and great opinions on other things in general, give Neo a follow. You won’t regret it.
The game may be difficult, take a little bit of time to get used to, and become frustrating at times, but these are challenges well worth overcoming. The first boss I ran into, some wild beast-man in a cave, killed me 15 times. Not only that, but there is a pack of common enemy wolves right before him that maybe killed me 25 times. But when I tell you that when I finally killed the boss that I stood up in an empty room, ripped my shirt off and yelled in satisfaction, that was the moment I became hooked. Every enemy presents their own challenge. Every brutal boss ignites a fire inside me that won’t go away until I take them down. So far, I’ve explored a handful of hidden areas, caves, and catacombs in the like. Probably have taken down a dozen minor bosses, some full fledged side missions, and taken down the first “real” boss (in one attempt because I’m nice now) over the course of 20 hours, and I would estimate I’m about 5% into the game.
This game is magical. If you haven’t played it yet, I’m begging you to give it a try. If you have, then what the hell are you doing reading this? Click off and go play right now. The hell’s the matter with you? I’ll refrain from diving much deeper at risk of dragging this post on any longer. I’ll leave you with two things. First, the banger of an intro track:
And this photo I took below after accidentally discovering an entire underground world that doubled the size of the map. Yes, those are stars underground. This game sometimes makes no sense, and that’s why it’s so amazing. Stop thinking, stop waiting to have your hand held. Jump in, get better, and play Elden Ring dammit.
Hub World 