Elden Ring is one of the best open world games of all time, but, just like Dark Souls, it is a game of two halves. On one end, you have one of the most intriguing designs for an open world game. It feels like the game that FromSoftware has wanted to make since Demon's Souls launched in 2009 on the PS3. It is unmistakably a FromSoftware game through and through. The world design, enemies, lore... it all screams "This is FromSoftware at its best." However, when you start digging deeper into Elden Ring, you realize that this game has issues. The last third of the game is objectively bad, and I will be going into the good and the bad in this review.
Lets start off with what Elden Ring does right. Elden Ring is a meticulously crafted game that puts almost all other open world games to shame. The player is given little guidance on where to go and what to do next. This lets the player explore the world at their own pace. You can go almost anywhere on the map before killing the first major boss, Margit. During my first playthrough, I found the chest that teleports you to a mine in Caelid. After dying more times that I can count in the cave, I finally escaped and saw what Caelid looked like. It was so different compared to Limgrave. The luscious greens and yellows that scattered the landscape in Limgrave were replaced with hellish reds and browns. Seeing each of Elden Rings zones for the first time is something that will stay with me for a long time. I can't think of another open world that has nearly as much variety in its landscapes that Elden Ring does. That Caelid example is just one of many like it. Taking an elevator in Limgrave and discovering an entire underground city was crazy. Ranni's questline taking you to the underground city under Liurnia and it all leading up to the fight against Astel might be my favorite part of the entire game. These are just a few of the things that Elden Ring gets right.
The highs are so high in Elden Ring that I doubt FromSoftware could ever replicate them, but the lows are so astonishingly low that I'm worried that the DLC will be disappointing.
How could I give Elden Ring a 3.5/5 after singing its praises so much? Lets talk about the worst of Elden Ring. The end game is something that FromSoftware used to struggle with. The entire 2nd half of Dark Souls is unfinished, Bloodborne has some of its worse moments (The One Reborn, Micolash) after fighting Rom, and Demon's Souls final archstone is worse than Blighttown. But they can do endgames that are as good as the rest of the game, and we can see that in Sekiro and Dark Souls III. Elden Ring's final act--which I'm labeling as from Fire Giant onwards is horrible. There are good moments. I, for one, loved fighting Malenia, and I think that Horrah Loux is the best boss in all of Elden Ring. Barring those two, though, Elden Ring doesn't have much to offer after defeating Morgott.
I loved Crumbling Farum Azula as an area. It's the most striking of all of the locations in Elden Ring--which is a feat in and of itself--but it is let down by the two worst main bosses in the entire game: Godskin Duo and Maliketh. Godskin Duo just does not work as a boss. Separate from each other, I think Godskin Apostle and Noble are fine as bosses, but their movesets do not work in conjunction with each other. This makes them a pain to fight. Maliketh, on the other hand, has problems that almost no other boss in Elden Ring has. Since Maliketh is able to delay his attacks at different times, switch to a different attack at will, and is overall kind of buggy to fight (he got stuck on the pillars in the room constantly in phase two and would teleport to the middle of the arena), he might be my least favorite fight in the entire game.
With refinement, an eventual Elden Ring sequel could be exceptional, but, right now, we're left with a perfect open world game that is let down by some MAJOR things that FromSoftware should have known better to avoid.
Lets start off with what Elden Ring does right. Elden Ring is a meticulously crafted game that puts almost all other open world games to shame. The player is given little guidance on where to go and what to do next. This lets the player explore the world at their own pace. You can go almost anywhere on the map before killing the first major boss, Margit. During my first playthrough, I found the chest that teleports you to a mine in Caelid. After dying more times that I can count in the cave, I finally escaped and saw what Caelid looked like. It was so different compared to Limgrave. The luscious greens and yellows that scattered the landscape in Limgrave were replaced with hellish reds and browns. Seeing each of Elden Rings zones for the first time is something that will stay with me for a long time. I can't think of another open world that has nearly as much variety in its landscapes that Elden Ring does. That Caelid example is just one of many like it. Taking an elevator in Limgrave and discovering an entire underground city was crazy. Ranni's questline taking you to the underground city under Liurnia and it all leading up to the fight against Astel might be my favorite part of the entire game. These are just a few of the things that Elden Ring gets right.
The highs are so high in Elden Ring that I doubt FromSoftware could ever replicate them, but the lows are so astonishingly low that I'm worried that the DLC will be disappointing.
How could I give Elden Ring a 3.5/5 after singing its praises so much? Lets talk about the worst of Elden Ring. The end game is something that FromSoftware used to struggle with. The entire 2nd half of Dark Souls is unfinished, Bloodborne has some of its worse moments (The One Reborn, Micolash) after fighting Rom, and Demon's Souls final archstone is worse than Blighttown. But they can do endgames that are as good as the rest of the game, and we can see that in Sekiro and Dark Souls III. Elden Ring's final act--which I'm labeling as from Fire Giant onwards is horrible. There are good moments. I, for one, loved fighting Malenia, and I think that Horrah Loux is the best boss in all of Elden Ring. Barring those two, though, Elden Ring doesn't have much to offer after defeating Morgott.
I loved Crumbling Farum Azula as an area. It's the most striking of all of the locations in Elden Ring--which is a feat in and of itself--but it is let down by the two worst main bosses in the entire game: Godskin Duo and Maliketh. Godskin Duo just does not work as a boss. Separate from each other, I think Godskin Apostle and Noble are fine as bosses, but their movesets do not work in conjunction with each other. This makes them a pain to fight. Maliketh, on the other hand, has problems that almost no other boss in Elden Ring has. Since Maliketh is able to delay his attacks at different times, switch to a different attack at will, and is overall kind of buggy to fight (he got stuck on the pillars in the room constantly in phase two and would teleport to the middle of the arena), he might be my least favorite fight in the entire game.
With refinement, an eventual Elden Ring sequel could be exceptional, but, right now, we're left with a perfect open world game that is let down by some MAJOR things that FromSoftware should have known better to avoid.