Rate top gamesConcise Review:
It’s easily my favourite From Software game. ER is absolutely massive and very flexible in how you play. The enemy variety, creativity and quantity is unreal. The locations are even better. The different biomes are unique and so fun to explore. There are so many “holy shit this is cool” moments.
It’s the longest single player game I’ve ever played and it never gets old. That’s the best compliment I can give it. Fucking fantastic game.
Journal Style Review:
Strong opening. Clearly a dark souls game but I can already tell I’m going to like the open world aspect more than previous titles. I love how I can mark up the map with different symbols so I can mark what areas I want to return to at a later date. My biggest initial complaint is still that I wish you could pause the game. It’s single player. Just let me pause so I can deal with my puppy without dying.
It’s going to be hard to not get overwhelmed with how much there is and where to go next.
12 hours in. I’ve explored a good chunk of the first map section but I can already tell that a small fraction of the full game. It’s really good. It’s dark souls but less frustrating and I just think it looks and feels cooler having the open world map. I’ve made a balanced character so far. I want to use magic and shields and swords so I am sacrificing efficiency for diversity.
Another minor complaint, why does pushing back bring up the map but then pushing back again brings up help. It should just close the map. Every other game has pushing it twice closes the map. It’s strange and annoying. Loving the game though. It’s so fucking fun.
Loved the Goddert boss fight in the big castle. He looked sweet. When he cut his arm off and replaced it with the dragon spine and head I lost it. It was a lot of fun. The whole castle section was great. 18 hours in, I’ve cleared most of the west and east of the first main section except for a handful of remaining boss fights. I have entrances to four new areas that I could go to next. Im so curious to see how big this game will be. Did I just see 35% of the game? Or 10% of the game. It’s already an A at this point. I can easily see it going higher.
About 22 hours in and I’m working on the south most region. It’s been a cake walk (for dark souls at least) because I’m over levelled but that’s a refreshing feeling. I’m actually able to play around with different melee weapons. Historically in DS I would pretty much only use my best weapon because otherwise I would make no progress. This is already definitely my favourite from software game.
Melee weapons I’ve enjoyed so far. That blood dagger was the first great weapon I found. Next was the erdsteel dagger which I only used for a short time before finding the bloodhound’s fang which really became a personal favourite. I slayed a lot of souls with that one. I may come back to it. Now my newest favourite weapon is the twin blade. It has a darth maul vibe. I’ve tested out another half dozen or so weapons that I didn’t like enough to keep using. I’m still loving ER.
About 42 hours in. I’ve cleared a large portion of the lakes map section. I’ve still been really enjoying this game but I don’t think the lakers will go down as a favourite location. They aren’t bad but I preferred the first two locations and I think the later areas with have more variety and will be my preference. Still ER has held this high level of engagement and enjoyment for this long and im not likely to be even half way done.
At 45 hours I’m starting to feel fatigue. It isn’t that I want to be done with the game. Im excited that there is still so much to do and see but I’m at a good point to take a break and play some other more lighthearted and less demanding games in between. I’m going to enjoy this experience more if I take a breather. Even if I quit now it would be an A. I really like Elden Ring. I look forward to jumping back in at a later time.
56 hours in. It’s a blast.
68 hours. I’m tackling the Mt Gelmir map section and it might be favourite biome yet. I love the vibe. The volcano is great. The way it intertwines is very cool.
Volcanic Manor may be my favourite place as of now. It’s awesome.
Got the moonveil katana which I’ve seen people talk about on Reddit so I decided to upgrade it and give it a go. It’s unreal. It might actually take over as my primary weapon over the bloodhounds fang. Both are very good and very fun though but the change up has been nice. I’m going to try to change up weapons every now and again.
97 hours in. The game is amazing but it isn’t making the jump to A+. Not that I have much criticism. It’s an unreal game that has drawn me for a longer journey than any single player has ever done before. Like by a lot. The only other game that comes close to the Witcher 3 and even then it’s only close if you include both DLCs and even then ER is still longer.
106 hours in and the last two areas I’ve explored have been some of my favourites. Two of the late underground worlds. This game is a high A. I love it. I really love it.
I looked up all the highest level bosses so I could beat all the ones I missed before doing the final boss fight. Even at 100+ hours I still wanted to see all the game had to offer. That’s a good sign.
Okay I ended the game on a lame note because once again I tied a boss. The final boss and I killed each other. I didn’t get the runes once again, not that it matters, but it just wasn’t a satisfying way to beat the game. Regardless my final stats are level 179 and 114 hours so I think I got my money’s worth.
Final Score: A
It’s easily my favourite From Software game. ER is absolutely massive and very flexible in how you play. The enemy variety, creativity and quantity is unreal. The locations are even better. The different biomes are unique and so fun to explore. There are so many “holy shit this is cool” moments.
It’s the longest single player game I’ve ever played and it never gets old. That’s the best compliment I can give it. Fucking fantastic game.
Journal Style Review:
Strong opening. Clearly a dark souls game but I can already tell I’m going to like the open world aspect more than previous titles. I love how I can mark up the map with different symbols so I can mark what areas I want to return to at a later date. My biggest initial complaint is still that I wish you could pause the game. It’s single player. Just let me pause so I can deal with my puppy without dying.
It’s going to be hard to not get overwhelmed with how much there is and where to go next.
12 hours in. I’ve explored a good chunk of the first map section but I can already tell that a small fraction of the full game. It’s really good. It’s dark souls but less frustrating and I just think it looks and feels cooler having the open world map. I’ve made a balanced character so far. I want to use magic and shields and swords so I am sacrificing efficiency for diversity.
Another minor complaint, why does pushing back bring up the map but then pushing back again brings up help. It should just close the map. Every other game has pushing it twice closes the map. It’s strange and annoying. Loving the game though. It’s so fucking fun.
Loved the Goddert boss fight in the big castle. He looked sweet. When he cut his arm off and replaced it with the dragon spine and head I lost it. It was a lot of fun. The whole castle section was great. 18 hours in, I’ve cleared most of the west and east of the first main section except for a handful of remaining boss fights. I have entrances to four new areas that I could go to next. Im so curious to see how big this game will be. Did I just see 35% of the game? Or 10% of the game. It’s already an A at this point. I can easily see it going higher.
About 22 hours in and I’m working on the south most region. It’s been a cake walk (for dark souls at least) because I’m over levelled but that’s a refreshing feeling. I’m actually able to play around with different melee weapons. Historically in DS I would pretty much only use my best weapon because otherwise I would make no progress. This is already definitely my favourite from software game.
Melee weapons I’ve enjoyed so far. That blood dagger was the first great weapon I found. Next was the erdsteel dagger which I only used for a short time before finding the bloodhound’s fang which really became a personal favourite. I slayed a lot of souls with that one. I may come back to it. Now my newest favourite weapon is the twin blade. It has a darth maul vibe. I’ve tested out another half dozen or so weapons that I didn’t like enough to keep using. I’m still loving ER.
About 42 hours in. I’ve cleared a large portion of the lakes map section. I’ve still been really enjoying this game but I don’t think the lakers will go down as a favourite location. They aren’t bad but I preferred the first two locations and I think the later areas with have more variety and will be my preference. Still ER has held this high level of engagement and enjoyment for this long and im not likely to be even half way done.
At 45 hours I’m starting to feel fatigue. It isn’t that I want to be done with the game. Im excited that there is still so much to do and see but I’m at a good point to take a break and play some other more lighthearted and less demanding games in between. I’m going to enjoy this experience more if I take a breather. Even if I quit now it would be an A. I really like Elden Ring. I look forward to jumping back in at a later time.
56 hours in. It’s a blast.
68 hours. I’m tackling the Mt Gelmir map section and it might be favourite biome yet. I love the vibe. The volcano is great. The way it intertwines is very cool.
Volcanic Manor may be my favourite place as of now. It’s awesome.
Got the moonveil katana which I’ve seen people talk about on Reddit so I decided to upgrade it and give it a go. It’s unreal. It might actually take over as my primary weapon over the bloodhounds fang. Both are very good and very fun though but the change up has been nice. I’m going to try to change up weapons every now and again.
97 hours in. The game is amazing but it isn’t making the jump to A+. Not that I have much criticism. It’s an unreal game that has drawn me for a longer journey than any single player has ever done before. Like by a lot. The only other game that comes close to the Witcher 3 and even then it’s only close if you include both DLCs and even then ER is still longer.
106 hours in and the last two areas I’ve explored have been some of my favourites. Two of the late underground worlds. This game is a high A. I love it. I really love it.
I looked up all the highest level bosses so I could beat all the ones I missed before doing the final boss fight. Even at 100+ hours I still wanted to see all the game had to offer. That’s a good sign.
Okay I ended the game on a lame note because once again I tied a boss. The final boss and I killed each other. I didn’t get the runes once again, not that it matters, but it just wasn’t a satisfying way to beat the game. Regardless my final stats are level 179 and 114 hours so I think I got my money’s worth.
Final Score: A