Elden Ring Launch Edition (PS5)

Product Information

Elden Ring is FromSoftware taming the monster they created, not by filing down its teeth and claws, but by giving players the weapons and armor to endure it. Is the game everything we all hoped for and more?’ Is what I would usually tease you all with at this point, you know, to bait you into reading the review. But: YES OMG YES THE GAME IS AMAZING! Anyway… The game is massively front-loaded, meaning they put the best stuff in the first 20+ hours to scale highly with critics who rate the game before finishing. So the first few days of time you put into the game will be the best.

As the echoes of this conflict thunder in the distance, an outcast arrives. Once, their ancestors called the Lands Between home, but the blessed light of grace was lost to their tribe long ago and they were expelled from the kingdom. They are the Tarnished, and they have returned to claim the Elden Lordship promised to them by legend. That being said, once I finally dived into Bloodborne I realized the difficulty of the games has been vastly overstated. Just like any other RPG, so long as you spend a fair amount of time leveling, you’ll progress through FromSoftware games just fine; that is, until Elden Ring. Even over-leveled at 154, beating the final boss was outrageously obnoxious. Not necessarily hard, mind you, but tedious as all hell and still tries to make your level grind feel nearly pointless. Multiplayer: It really needs an overhaul. It's the weakest point of this game next to the story. My buddy tells me it's the best it's been in these games, but you need a consumable item and ritual to summon a friend. That's ridiculous. It doesn't matter how easy the item is to get and craft. It shouldn't be a thing.

A multilayered story told in fragments. An epic drama in which the various thoughts of the characters intersect in the Lands Between. It is always a mix of fear and joy when you are casually slaying minions and a half-decayed, bizarrely proportioned, mutated bird-like creature climbs over a ruined building and shrieks at you. The “oh sh*t! oh sh*t!” moments are what really make these games shine. Jumping! Traversing the world is a delight. The introduction of a noble steed to ride from point to point is both a very welcome addition to the SoulsBorne formula and a necessary one. The world is massive. And that therein lies why so many reviewers (including myself) did not finish the game completely before writing the review. Each area of the game is immense and holds many, many locations to delve into to explore, loot, and inevitably, die in. There are bosses waiting for you at the end of most of the caves and dungeons you’ll find scattered and hidden amongst the landscape. There are even some thrown into the world at random that will take you by surprise -which is an absolute heart-racing delight!

Create your own Character, with From Software’s signature action RPG mechanics in mind but now with more leeway for experimentation, use a variety of weapons, magical abilities, and skills found throughout the world. Use stealth to take out enemies one by one or come in guns blazing and call upon the spirits of your allies to come and aid you. It’s up to you how you want to approach exploration and combat. In addition to multiplayer, where you can directly connect with other players and travel together, the game supports a unique asynchronous online element that allows you to feel the presence of others. MULTIPLAYER: Players will be able to enjoy their experience with other Tarnished in the LANDS BETWEEN by cooperating or invading other players' worlds. Players on PS4 and PS5 will be able to play on the same servers. According to user th1nk on ResetEra those playing the PS4 version will experience less vegetation populating the environment, reduced quality of shadows and ambient occlusion effects, slightly longer load times, and a lower resolution picture.A vast world where open fields with a variety of situations and huge dungeons with complex and three-dimensional designs are seamlessly connected. As you explore, the joy of discovering unknown and overwhelming threats await you, leading to a high sense of accomplishment. Some of the smaller dungeon boss battles are simply revised and tweaked versions of previous boss battles. The crafting can feel a little overwhelming at times with the sheer staggering number of things available to craft. The UI can be hard to get used to for new players. Um, um, the incessant notes left by other players littered everywhere that simply say “Fort, night” or “illusionary wall ahead” (there is never an illusionary wall ahead)… That is pretty much all I can think of. Any smaller, niggly things will likely be patched out shortly. Such as some framerate issues in one area, or not knowing what the status symbols mean. Credit Roll Players on Xbox One, Xbox One X, Xbox One S and Xbox Series X/S will be able to play on the same server. Next, not only do the graphics look two generations old, but the gameplay itself just screams PS2 indie RPG. Anyone expecting a story, or modern gameplay we’ve become accustomed to, should search elsewhere. Elden Ring (like all FromSoftware games) puts all their effort in epic boss fights, and forgets a game should tell a cohesive story. Nothing about Elden Ring is cohesive, and if you’re expecting a AAA story RPG, you’ll be massively disappointed. Having loved Bloodborne, I’m okay with FromSoftware’s lazy storytelling, but considering George RR Martin wrote such a lore heavy world for them, it’s absolutely unforgivable that their first attempt at an open world game requires you to read item descriptions for the slightest tidbit of information on the story, info that constantly contradicts itself and just never adds up. Art/Design: 10/10 - Epic world, Epic enemy design. Some legit make you uneasy. It feels like playing a Metal music video. Put on some Dio and fall into the cycle of death and destruction.