REVIEW: Elden Ring is already one of the best games of the year

After being awarded as the most anticipated game in two consecutive editions (2020 and 2021) of The Game Awards, Elden Ring is finally among us. The open world RPG driven by Hidetaka Miyazaki in partnership with the writer George RR Martin it was the biggest release ever published by Bandai Namco — and no wonder.

O showmetech had early access to the game, which features an infinite number of locations and resources to explore in a variety of ways. The massive amount of objectives and locations present in the game world did not allow us to post our final impressions on launch day. On the other hand, the time has come to debate how the title is already one of the best games of the year.

Tens of hours after my first kill in the Midlands, let's go into more depth about the kind of game that FromSoftware does today and how Elden Ring approaches and, at the same time, moves away from these conventions.

Using your own inspiration for new air

To say that “Elden Ring is a soulslike "open world" sounds reductionist and overly simplistic, but it's not completely wrong either. Some more “different” concepts of FromSoftware's works can be noticed since the distant year of 1994 — when King's Field was released for the first PlayStation console — these being the methodical combat, the unpredictable sense of exploration, and the laconic way of telling the world's story.

In 2009 and 2011, respectively, Demon's Souls e Dark Souls combined some of these more classic RPG ideas with a slightly more pleasant gameplay, perpetuating a memorable legacy of excellent bosses, environments and combat/traversal. Since then, many games from the studio and other teams around the world have been inspired by this type of more challenging and complex experience to try to succeed in the sea of ​​games released day after day.

Elden Ring is no different: it is the culmination of a continuous work that began more than 10 years ago, went through Bloodborne and came to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice — voted game of the year at TGA 2019. It's all there, even if renamed or redesigned: the Estus mechanic, the bonfire, the Nexus, the stat system to make up your build, positioning of enemies in scenarios, assignable skills/perks, weapons for all tastes, etc.

As it is an experience that retains the DNA of FromSoftware's RPGs, I believe that the game is still not recommended for all types of audiences. I'm happy with the reasonable amount of people who hated or didn't care about soulslike showing interest in venturing into the magnificent open world of the Midlands, but I think it's important to put expectations in the right place so they don't end up frustrated with the difficulty.

Discovering the Midlands

Em Elden Ring, you are a tainted being (from the English tarnished) whose aim is to restore order to the world through the so-called Pristine Ring. The artifact was shattered and the pieces were stolen by powerful enemies, hidden and protected within the Legacy Dungeons.

These locations refer more to the level design classic from FromSoftware for the verticality of exploration, interconnectivity of rooms/corridors and because they are environments full of important items for the development of the lore about the game. However, some of these strongholds do not necessarily need to be resolved in the same way: the game allows for more offensive or stealthy approaches, depending on your style of play.

There are also caves, catacombs, grottos, tombs, and tunnels — some unlocked by consumables, others accessed through portals. The size and quality of these underground mazes vary, but there's always a boss waiting for you in the last room to make the challenge tighter. Some of these scenarios even do not allow us to transport ourselves to places for free (aka checkpoints) enabled and spread around the world.

The open world, in turn, is immense, full of details and very inviting to exploration. Once we have collected the piece of map corresponding to the region we are exploring, the task of finding points of interest becomes a little more intuitive. Bridges, towers, huts, churches, ravines and waterlogged plains are some of the environments that blend together to form distinct regions in architecture, fauna, flora and population.

The magical steed offered by Melina, Torrente, is not just for occasional use. The mount serves the purpose of traversing the map in a way never seen before in FromSoftware's history, allowing us to access swampy regions without much problem, move quickly during battles against colossal enemies and reach plateaus through vertical wind currents scattered at strategic points on the map. .

fight to survive

You will face creatures, entities and individuals of the most diverse types during the adventure. Therefore, it is important to understand what you have at your disposal when it comes to battle equipment, attributes, abilities and perks.

First, you need to choose one class among the 10 available. This is usually not an easy task in RPGs, as the choice will determine how you fight and approach situations during the game, but don't worry: the builds are more malleable than ever in Elden Ring. So choose one you feel comfortable with for the first few hours of play.

Weapons, staves, shields and some specific clothing can be permanently upgraded, and there is also the possibility to allocate calls ashes of war. This feature assigns a specific skill and also modifies affinities (standard, heavy, fire, ice, lightning, hidden, etc.) on equipment. It is also possible to increase the amount of spaces available for talismans (which work like the rings in Dark Souls III) as we face new threats in the world.

Each great lord, after being defeated, provides us with a great rune and a remembrance. The first must be enabled for use in its corresponding turret, and can be equipped at any Free Location. The second can be transformed into equipment, magic or charm in the illustrious presence of the Two fingers, symbol of the Golden Order located on the Round Table. Finally, it is possible to summon spirits if the battles are too difficult – in my case, I opted for larger groups to attract the attention of enemies. They're not as effective as summoning a player in online co-op multiplayer, but they can be useful especially after you've leveled up.

Artistically memorable, technically regrettable

Like other titles from the studio, Elden Ring does not present a realistic world in which nature is reactive and functions as a character - as is the case with Horizon forbidden west e Red Dead Redemption 2. However, the art direction impacts a lot during the journey. There are locations that are extremely well designed both in structure and aesthetics. It's a shame that there's still no feature for capturing and editing moments like a Photo Mode.

The design of enemies, bosses, NPCs, creatures and any other life form is worthy of applause. The art team must have gone to great lengths to come up with such evenly uncomfortable concepts. If you're a long-time fan of the so-called Souls series, you'll notice recurring appearances and animations for some types of enemies — the game doesn't mind inheriting (or copying) some hard-nosed details. This fact, however, is not a demerit for me: it is good to take advantage of assets again and save work for other features.

The soundtrack changed a little, putting more tranquil music during the crossing in the open world and notifying the player of dangers with the entry of new instruments in the composition. An elegant departure for a game type that used to feature monumental and dramatic orchestras only during boss battles.

The game's performance, however, is not the most pleasant: each of the platforms has its share of problems. The copy I received for writing the text is from Xbox — I played about 80 hours on Xbox Series S — but I also had the opportunity to check out the game on PlayStation 5 and PC.

Interestingly, playing Elden Ring on Xbox series s it's better than in Xbox Series X. That's because the most modest console doesn't reach 4K resolution, putting all its power in the account of the framerate (more stable). The PS5 version is also showing more "stutters" than the PS4, so I recommend playing the backwards compatible version instead of the free update for the next generation of consoles.

On PC, as the saying goes, the hole is further down. The optimization of port for computers leaves a lot to be desired even for more powerful machines. Minimum graphics card recommendation is already a component mid-end. The performance, in turn, drops so much that it's hard not to be disappointed with the fluidity of the image.

Another aspect that should be praised for its accessibility, but which ends up stumbling in quality, is the localization for Brazilian Portuguese. In addition to the game's language syncing with that of the console, not offering the change via the menu, the game's writing doesn't seem to live up to the original work, making some grotesque and quite confusing translation errors. I've always chosen to play this type of game in my native language, but this time I'll stick with English.

Verdict

Elden Ring it's the type of game that I can imagine myself commenting on for years on end, without repeating myself too much, such quality and quantity of content that it offers. FromSoftware got their hands on almost everything they set out to execute in the RPG, impressing again in terms of aesthetics, structure and narrative.

Elden Ring is available for PC, Xbox Series S/X, PS4, PS5.

Technical requirements (PC)

Minima:

Recommended

See also:

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