Summary: Good game, with poor developing choices The graphics are beautiful, and the game knows this by showing you the landscape from high ledges more than one time during the main story and side missions. The former is nice and fits well with its predecessor. The maschine designs are cool and the world from zero dawn still appealing. However, this game is simply too long. The dialogues are drawn-out and the side mission are tedious without adding much to the world, since the first part already uncovered most mysteries. There are many unnecessary maschine fights which feel artifical: Its used as an easy and cheap obstacle to many times, even if its just illogical for the maschines to appear at exact that moment in the mission. And it will happen in nearly every mission. The first minigames and collectibles are nice, but they become boring very early. The gameplay is a bit expanded, but most things are unnecessary, especially if you play on lower difficulty levels. My advice: Play mostly the main story and do side quest only to level up. At the end, you are still free to do all the side quests and will have an easier time doing it because of unlocked mechanics. Although you probably will abandon this game way before you have done everything, if I had to guess. Nonetheless, I wanted to know what mystery was behind the ending of zero dawn, and therefore played it to a great extent. That being said, I will definitely neither play the anounced/teasered third part of the series nor the DLC.
tl,dr: Elden Ring is a masterpiece with some flaws. However, you are not guaranteed to like it, since Fromsoft sticks to their formula regarding graphics, multiplayer and most important of all difficulty. First, the reason why most review sites (rightfully) acclaim this game: It does not tell you what to do. There is a tutorial of course, but after that you are free to explore the huge open world with only a loose suggestion where to go. This game does NOT bombard you with markers on the map or characters who spoon-feed you the story and solutions for your in-game problems. And this is what really is the selling point of this game: When you find something interesting, when you beat an enemy or when you connect lore pieces to a coherent story, it is all your doing and gratification comes with it. And there are many interesting things to find from loot, bosses to npcs and side quests. Some bosses are a bit repetitive, but since the scope of this game is larger than anything they did until today, it is excusable. Regarding the difficulty: This game is a Soulslike. That means you will die a lot and most bosses and even enemies will impose a challenge for players unfamiliar with the genre. If that is not of your liking, look elsewhere. A changeable difficulty setting, or an overall easier game will not happen, should not happen if you ask the Fromsoft fanbase and is comparable to asking for guns in FIFA or a PEGI 3 rating for GTA. Therefore, every soulsborne fan is probably satisfied with the challenge Elden Ring poses. Nonetheless, there are plenty of mechanics to get help from: spirit ashes which will attract boss attention or other players who can help in multiplayers. The most difficult bosses are also optional. Even players new to the genre should give it a try. For a game with great difficulty, it is of utmost importance that the internal mechanic is good enough that you are actually fighting the bosses and not the controls. And the game mechanics guarantee just that. Controls are understandable, animations smooth and you have plenty of possibilities to adapt the fighting to your personal style and even be able to change your stats and weapons mid-game. The wide range of weapons, spells, and talismans are interesting and allow several approaches to tackle an enemy. The lore is fascinating, and you should definitely read item descriptions and listen to npcs to understand what is going on. Their stories are often catching, and the underlying (interpretable) bigger picture is worth the effort. Personally, I think other Fromsoft games have a better underlying lore where they tackle more interesting questions, although none of them has a lore so rich. Elden Ring is more defined by the relations of the fractions and gods among themselves than the question of humanities place in the world. The graphics are not AAA standard compared to games like God of War, Horizon or even the Demon’s Souls remake. Do not get me wrong, the design of Elden Ring is great and connects very well to the overall lore/story. So well, that you can hunt for details in boss design and likely be able to learn something from it. But the technical aspects are an average B-. Clipping errors, loading of objects and washed-out textures are common. As I mentioned, this isn’t a surprise, and the game is definitely an improvement compared to Dark Souls, but it is something they should work on. There focus is clearly on game mechanics and design. I do think this game is beautiful, but in 2022 more is possible. At last, the multiplayer is fun for cooperation and invasion of players. But the whole mechanic is still tedious to understand and to execute, since areas are often randomly defined as a section which you can’t leave while in coop or invasion. Sometimes this is necessary, sometimes it is just annoying. But still Elden Ring does it way better than Bloodborne. Summary: Elden Ring has everything a soulslike fan could want, but still suffers from similar problems other Fromsoft titles did. However, the vast open world, interesting lore, challenging bosses with intelligent design and the thrill of exploration outweigh all the quirks by a great margin. GOTY incoming, 10/10 Fromsoft game.
You need to be lucky to actually finish an online game and do not encounter cards sticking on the screen or loose the server connection at various stages. Ubisoft account needed for unstable server connection, thanks for that. I am really surprised one can pack so many bugs in such a low function game. The basic Uno experience and especially the DLC are therefore not worth the money
I will keep it short, because I feel very conflicted about this game. It is definitely something different from the first part, because it lacks the mystical gameplay. Personally I liked the Diaz brothers very much. Although most of the plot can be justified, it has some major plotholes, which don't make the game unenjoyable, but prove the heavy political message they wanted to make. This is not unforgivable per se, but the plot feels forced because of that. I was very sad at the end, though I have to say none of the 4 endings are making any sense. By showing a pro immigration message they ignored that neither Mexico nor USA are law-free. The latter may have a in part stupid judicial system, but definitely not us stupid as they tried to show us here (says a European). I like the art style, and the soundtrack, though one can argue it was better in the first part. Because the game is a road-trip through it's five parts, you are not able to connect to side characters as you were able to in the first part of the franchise. As a fan of the first part you should give it a try. But you may be disappointed at the end.
Played with a GTX 1070 Ti and an i7-8700. Constant 60 fps on Ultra settings. If you have trouble with this game on a PC, buy the PS4 version, because it even runs on a PS4 small there. This game is one of the few examples where the choices you make really matter to the extent where you may miss important points for the story if you make the "wrong" decisions. Because of that and of the overall fun factor I would recommend to play it more than one time. Although most characters are well written, this game relies on many stereotypes. It works in this story, but it feels sometimes artificial. The Gameplay is nothing special. You have the choices in dialogues and which route you want to make and a few (not difficult) quick time events. It it mostly an interactive movie, like Until Dawn, but with a much better story. Face caption technic is top notch. Personally I also liked the soundtrack. The Three composers match perfectly with those three main characters. Can definitely recommend if you like those story based games.
Disclaimer: Played on PS5 in PS4 compatibility mode While there is no doubt the game is unplayable on a 2013 PS4 and therefore doesn't deserve a higher rating for this platform, I would like to rate the Game as it is playable. First, even on PS5, there are numerous bugs which for me wasn't game breaking, but annoying after some time. Subtitles hanging on screen, random explosions and a very dumb AI throw you out of this dark future America. However, if you ignore the Bugs the Game is stunning beautiful. You will find yourself intrigued by most areas and smaller details, like a tree build inside a building or a parade accompanied by colourful holograms. The story is, despite being short in its parts where your choices really matter, very well written with interesting characters and brushes deep and important questions. Side Quests and job are also interesting, but your choices there are almost irrelevant. But the diverse characters compensate for that weakness. References to Pop culture are a bit excessive for me, but this depends on your taste. The Gameplay is okay, but nothing great. While your choices how to tackle a level are vast, neither the leveling mechanic nor the items/inventar or the item build mechanic are of great importance. You have to be careful not to waste countless hours in your inventory to sort the countless items you get. You will only use let's say up tp 6 weapons the entire game, don't waste your time, choose early and then sell everything else. Supply of Healing Items is excessive, hope it will be patched, because after 100 hours you will have approximately 400 healing items left which heal your wounds instantly. Makes this game except a special boss fight very easy. But even this Boss fight was buggy for me, so after some time it was stuck on a pixel and i was able to just stand and shot. There is much unused potential for CD Projekt Red here. And yes, you can customize your genitals in this game. Though, you will only see them in your inventory screen. Your sexual partners aren't commenting on them, you will not see them one time in a sex scene and you can not drive a motorcycle naked and be stopped by the police, because you will always wear an underwear. This makes it so useless and deprives the players of so many funny possibilities that I'm not sure why they bothered animating this. Comment on the police: They will find you. In this game they pop out of nowhere when you shoot people considered civilians, even though they should not know where you are. Their AI is as bad as for the cars: they aren't able to drive around your parked cars, even if only two pixels protrude to the street. But I'm sure they will fix all the issues in the future. At least I hope. In a time, where the hotfixes don't need other hotfixes. But despite all those flaws, this game was fun for me. But I can't deny all the unused potential here. My advice: Wait for a PS5/ Extended Version. At least wait 6 months to a year and see if they progressed. Then you will find a funny and well build game.
Nice Game with a well written story. Despite having a few flaws the overall message and likability of the characters deserves a high rating. The Graphics are top notch. The levels are often tubular, so there is only one way to go. A more open design couldn't have hurt. The Gameplay is fun and I was not bored even after 20 hours. I would recommend also playing the DLC, because it adds a nice side story
First I have to say, I didn't play the original. I played Bloodborne and Sekiro, so I'm not new to the souls genre. For somebody who hasn't had the chance to play the origin of the Souls Series I was excited to play the Remake, as I don't own (or will ever buy) a PS3 console now. First warning: If you're not into hard games with unchangeable difficulty level, then go away, because you probably will be frustrated by this game. That being said, it is a nice start in the Souls Series because it it easier than Bloodborne for example. If you understand a boss you can probably beat him even with terrible timing. Level Design stays close to the original I heard and isn't nearly as clever as in Bloodborne. Before some Bosses there are shortcuts, before others not. Nonetheless I liked the game and the bosses, because they were diverse and after a few tries easy to beat. The graphics are astonishing, though not as scary and depressing as in the original (as far a I can tell from youtube videos). The remake has some quality of life improvements (send to storage function, sodden ring). Online Mode ist nice, but for the start you should play offline until you are confident enough to encounter other players who want to kill you (or if your are struggling with a boss and need some help). Like any other soul game, you have to figure out good builds, weapons and additional stuff on your own. No shame to seek help in Lets Play and Walk Throughs for the start. I also liked the Soundtrack, though I heard from many that the OST in the original was better. I think it ist mostly because of nostalgia, I would also be angry if they made a Bloodborne remake and changed the soundtrack, because during countless Boss fights this music burned itself into my mind. When you played the original your are not set to like the remake, but in my opinion you should give it a chance. For me this remake was justified because the souls series gained its fanbase mostly through Dark Souls and Bloodborne, so most of them haven't had the chance to play this game. I am glad I was able to and don't regret buying it for 80€. High Price, yes, but worth it I guess. Especially to call it robbery, like some of the reviews did, is an exaggeration. Wait for a sale if it's too much for you or honor the developers if you can afford it.
