When The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released 11 years ago (let that sink in for a bit) it was an incredible gaming phenomenon that was something truly beautiful to witness and admire. Everyone who played Skyrim was presented with a gorgeous world with good story telling and an immersive experience that put other open world games on point to try and do a better job than this. Players were not just experiencing a quality game but also going on a great adventure with an insane amount of possibilities to happen in one session.
Friends would come to school with exploits of caves and dungeons explored resulting in the discovery of powerful enemies and incredible rewards like weapons, armor or new dragon shouts to enhance the player's dragon-born abilities. Beautiful sky boxes with clear blue skies and night time aurora skies that left players with a sense of wonder and awe at what a beautiful work of art was before them.
To this day Skyrim is still regarded highly by many who played it many years ago and by people who play the remastered versions today.
For the industry, this was a game changer and a new gold standard of game design to be reached by other developers and studios to achieve in order to satisfy gamers.
The key in understanding part of Skyrim's success comes from one of the key elements of Skyrim: the journey. When you create your character and get through the small tutorial in the city torn apart by the great evil dragon and the NPC you chose to side with says "Meet me here" the player at that moment is pretty much left to their own devices. Sure, you could follow the NPC to this city to continue the main story and begin the journey of taking down the evil dragon but you could also go off into the woods or the mountains and explore the world for yourself discovering river trails that lead to caves, catacombs, dungeons and new cities for you to introduce yourself to help the locals with a monster or a group of bandits harassing the town. The only limit to your exploration was coming across enemies that were clearly very powerful and difficult to overcome so you had to leave or load up a quick save to either level up or load a quick save to try again.
But in that time frame of you going from place to place, dungeon to dungeon and settlement to settlement there was so much in between those moments that was compelling and interesting. It wouldn't be too hard to imagine that even though many of us would have the same copy of Skyrim cover to cover, what each of us experienced was so incredibly unique that no one play-through would have a 1 to 1 similarity.The journey in Skyrim was incredible and by the end of it you had many tales to share with your friends and anyone else interested to learn what your journey in Skyrim was and that one aspect of the Skyrim experience is what made the game such an incredible experience.
Fast-forward to today and while there are many open-world or quasi-open-world titles that ensure that the journey in this open world is an important aspect of the game such as Horizon Zero Dawn that I am FINALLY playing after missing the boat on that one or The Witcher 3 that also has an open world. These two games in particular I want to point out because the open world experience in those games are extraordinary. Horizon Zero Dawn probably has the best rugged survival "David v Goliath" combat. No one combat encounter is ever boring it always pushes you to be at your best and understand that while you may be a very capable survivor you can still be stopped dead in your tracks by either being too reckless or under-prepared. The Witcher 3's experience is wonderful because you can discover so much stuff on the side like catacombs or monster nests that will result in you finding more stuff to enhance your gear or rare weapons that will make your experience as a Witcher all the better because you are better equipped for tougher and scarier monsters.
Essentially, these games do not hold your hand and tell you where to go or make it clear that after a few hours there is an optimal way to play the game and anything else is wasted time. The term "Ubisoft-bloat" has been thrown around in regard to Ubisoft open world titles and there's a good reason for it. These open worlds are not handed to the player for them to experience in their own way but are instead orchestrated in a way that pushes the players to do things that they HAVE to do as opposed to WANT to do in their journey to defeat the final boss of the entire game.
It's been clear at this point that these Ubisoft open worlds are curated in a certain way that will eventually force the player to purchase one of the "Time-Saver" micro-transactions like boosting XP to be ready to take on a certain side-quest or main story mission otherwise the player will have to go circle around the open world to find side-quests and activities and grind away levels and experience points to eventually be able to progress in the story OR you put out and extra 60 bucks on top of the 60 bucks your spending for the game so you get the SUPER DELUXE EDITION of the game which offers rare tier weapons, items, skins or other things to turn your game into Easy mode and your first hours are spent just sneezing in the general direction of enemies and moving on.
Yes it's a thing and really sucks to say that if you want Easy mode turned on for your game it'll cost ya some extra dollars.
So with all of that said you can probably assume what I am about to say about Elden Ring.
Elden Ring is the first open world game that I have played in a long time where my hand was not gripped by the developers and tried so hard to orchestrate my experience and instead I was left to my own devices to experience the world of Elden Ring. The Lands Between is an incredible location with so much to discover and experience that the discovery of catacombs, forts and castles was a reward in it of itself because with each discovery was an opportunity for combat and runes to make my character stronger and hone my skills along the way.
Elden Ring is a game that truly allows for the it's world to be discovered and experienced that no other game that is out right now does what Elden Ring does. Even though I am 46 hours into the game (when I started writing this) there is still so much to do and to discover that I couldn't honestly tell you if I'm close to the end or smack dab in the middle of everything.
But it doesn't feel like it's bloated with content nor is the game forcing me down a set path for me to follow. At the very beginning of the game not 10 minutes in the game was fully opened up to me to explore on my own and make my journey to become the next Elden Lord truly my own. There aren't any areas I HAVE to go or equipment I HAVE to use, I can use anything I want and go anywhere I want and not be punished for it but instead be rewarded for it.
I can say that while I have experienced many frustrations early on into Elden Ring after growing and honing my skills and knowledge of the combat I have to say that this has been an incredible experience that I cannot get enough of and I will tell you why I think that.
Your Journey
Any open world game or any game in general has to have the "Journey" part of the game down. What you do isn't important to the overall experience per se it's how you experience the journey from the start of the game to the end of the game that matters.In this regard, Elden Ring nails the Journey aspect of their game to a fine art. The problem with other open world games like the recent Far Cry and Assassin's Creed games is that they've doubled down on the amount of RPG elements in their games that the Journey aspect becomes loaded with a bunch of side-quests and activities the player HAS to do in order to progress in the story and be allowed to traverse new areas without worrying about having an enemy patrol decimating them for doing the most unforgivable sin of trying to explore an area that they weren't high enough level before.
The map is loaded to the brim with icon after icon of either small locations to kill enemy soldier captains, side quests or other world activities that do succeed in loading up the world with content but do not enrich the journey from start to finish.
Elden Ring, on the other hand, has a big world that only fills up the map with icons of Graces; respawn and level up points for the player. It is not filled to the brim with activity icons or side-quest locations and where to go next should you want to progress through the story. Instead, it is filled only with these Grace points and the world is left blank for you to explore and discover the world on your own. You do not track side-quests or any quest in general like you would in other open world games and instead you would discover the next part of your quest either by remembering what the NPC told you about a certain talisman located in a certain cave and make the sudden realization you found the thing the guy asked you for and can take it back to him for a reward. It is in this regard that Elden Ring leaves the Journey part of the game in the hands of the player and let's them make their own decisions and discoveries of the world as to where to go next and what to explore. Sure, people can make an "Optimal path" for players to breeze through the game in an easy fashion to ensure they have the max amount of materials for improving weapons and other equipment that Elden Ring becomes a smooth sailing RPG but I think anyone who does that is kind of missing the point of why Elden Ring was designed in the way it was.
Elden Ring is at it's best when the player is going in blind, not knowing what is around the corner or what is waiting for them in the castle over the horizon. Finding a catacomb tucked away at the foot of a mountain wouldn't be as fun if not only you knew the catacomb was there because the game told you it was there and it also wouldn't be as fun if you knew what was waiting for you as a combat experience and reward. It wouldn't be as fun if you knew what boss was where and how to defeat them "optimally", rather it is better when the player overcomes any challenge or makes a significant discovery on their own and not handed to them.
Ultimately: From Software respects the player's intelligence. It doesn't hold your hand and take you to the next objective by giving you a way point and optimal path ways to where you want or need to go but gives the player the freedom of discovering the world of the Lands Between through their own merit and sense of curiosity.
The Combat
The Souls games have a very unique 3rd-person combat system that they have used ever since the first Demon Souls game. It's still here in Elden Ring, you may not have played a Souls game before but a lot of the actions you see here with swinging swords, parrying actions or special moves you have probably seen in a Souls game before. However there are a great deal of new weapons and abilities so there is some familiarity in move sets and attacks with some fresh new moves.
Elden Ring combines elements from past Souls games to form a Souls game that truly allows for players to approach combat in a variety of ways. Before,while there were different weapons, spells and abilities, at some point you would reach the peak of those weapons and abilities that your arsenal was rather limited Even with that variety present, there were clearly weapons that no matter how much you upgraded were clearly still not gonna be performing anywhere near some of the other weapons.
Enter Elden Ring that ups the variety and approach to combat. There is so much room for the player to approach combat with whatever tools they want and whatever abilities they want that I think anyone who wants to build any sort of load-out with either a greater focus towards magic, ranged weapons, melee weapons, daggers or great swords can find the means in the game to have their play style rewarded and supported.
In fact I almost feel guilty for not doing more magic stuff. Personally, Magic in past Souls games were cool and the appeal of it was clearly there but I did not find it as reliable as Melee. Here, because there are so many magic spells, buffs and abilities, now I'm looking at my Magic stats and thinking to myself "Man I messed this up".
Clearly after so many years of Souls games, From Software looked at their catalog of weapons and spells and said to themselves "All of it, put all of it in".
The Difficulty
For those of you who happen to be unfamiliar with Souls games, they have a reputation for being some of the hardest experiences in gaming today. Demon Souls is hard, Dark Souls 1-3 is hard, Bloodborne is hard, Sekiro is hard and Elden Ring is hard as well.There are compilations on Youtube and elsewhere of people raging at these games as they cannot seem to figure how to overcome a boss, be ambushed by mob enemies or succumb to a hidden trap.
Even me as someone who has played almost all these games (except Sekiro) was frustrated and defeated many times by Elden Ring as the game continued to challenge me at almost every turn.There were areas I got stuck in because a powerful Knight or monster was stopping me from getting to the next part of the world or a boss was simply too powerful that they would kill me within one or two shots and I walked away from the game for a bit. In other instances, I simply walked away from the areas I was having a difficult time in and returned after exploring different regions of the map.
This is a stark contrast with the past Souls games as the areas you explored in the Souls games before Elden Ring were laid out in a more linear like fashion. If a player was stuck at a boss in a past Souls game, turning around and scouring the area you just explored would not find too much in helping you beat the upcoming boss.
In Elden Ring, because of the open world, if I found myself stuck at a boss and was clearly not as powerful as I needed to be to overcome the challenge of said boss, I could simply walk away and venture of somewhere that I may not have explored previously. My progress in the game did not stop at the boss I couldn't beat but instead would take a different direction. This did lead me to taking out some bosses with greater ease than others because I was so strong than I was before but that was something I actually liked which was realizing that I accidentally made myself over-powered and would find bosses I took out like it was nothing.
All this is to say the challenge of Elden Ring can be overcome with greater ease than past Souls games because of the freedom you as a player have in approaching Elden Ring that completing the game is not as tough as Souls games that came before. This is not to say that Elden Ring is Easy Mode compared to past games but the difficulty of Elden Ring is not as overwhelming as games before it. Difficulty in the Souls game has been a somewhat controversial issue and there are some players saying that the Souls games are good because of the fact that they are so challenging and others hating the challenge. Even some people have said Elden Ring is now too easy because of the fact that combat is so accessible and over-coming obstacles is easier than past Souls games.
To that I would say that part of the reason these games are attractive to so many players is because of the challenge and over-coming the challenges are a very satisfying experience. Because when you do overcome a giant boss in Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro and Elden Ring alike, there really is no one who takes the credit for overcoming the boss more so than you, the player. Even when you take on a boss cooperatively if with a buddy or a random person online, you two over-came the boss through your own skills and knowledge of how to play the game. The victory was not handed to you on a plate, you earned that victory. In an age of gaming where some publishers are offering different versions of a game where if you pre-order you get the super rare sword or machine gun that comes with greater damage stats or all these perks and benefits that make your journey easier, it is refreshing to see a game that does nothing more than hand tools to the player to overcome a challenge and to take those tools and use them their own way to overcome the obstacles the game presents to you.
Elden Ring does not sacrifice that feeling of player accomplishment by making combat more accessible than past Souls games, the challenge is still there and you can overcome it. It just might take a little bit more effort on your part.
The Conclusion
I haven't finished Elden Ring. As I continued to write this as I am nearly 70 hours in of my first playthrough and I have not reached the final boss and become Elden Lord. With that said though, I have played enough of this game to say that this a great new Souls game experience.
Again, this game does a fantastic job of letting players discover the world of the Lands Between for themselves and create an experience for themselves that feels organic from start to finish. While I am sure my load-out and stats may be similar to another player's character I highly suspect that the road I took to get to where I am at now is INCREDIBLY different from theirs. That is something I really like about this game and other games like Elden Ring where it presents a world and an experience that is meant to be explored and discovered by the player. There are many paths for you to take in this game to reach your ultimate goal and destination and the fact that Elden Ring let's players do just that brings a sense of adventure that I have not felt in an open world game for so long.
Once again, in an age where some open world titles try their best to hold the hand of the player in limiting where they can go, what they can do and how much they can do, it is refreshing to experience a game like Elden Ring gives players a great sense of freedom in almost every aspect of the game from start to finish.
While I do not think Elden Ring may be a game for everyone, anyone who does experience Elden Ring and all it has to offer while not be disappointed with what they find in their journey into the Lands Between and their goal of becoming the next Elden Lord.
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