ryaen
1 review liked by ryaen
This review contains spoilers
Played through the first area and dungeon of the dlc. Stopped playing because the poor soul who bought the dlc in my gameshare decided to leave because I was hogging his precious Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree copy instead of working his 9-5.
Everything is the same as the basegame, they even reuse bosses like the magma wyrm. Caves and catacombs are still the exact same in design and every normal enemy 2 shots you or has a boss moveset. The "open" world is still as empty as the basegame, there is absolutely nothing to do except follow the trails of grace that literally POINT you to where you have to go. Lots of essential NPCs that you can't kill just because the game says so, I thought souls games were supposed to let you kill every NPC?
There's a new progression item that increases your attack and defense in the DLC area for some reason. It just makes the DLC as poorly balanced as the basegame, even if you plan on building a character for the DLC everything is still going to 2 shot you.
The first boss Divine beast dancing lion is a joke, it has so little health but also never stops moving or attacking. Nothing else to say, just a boring and easy boss, beat it in 3 tries.
The inevitable "but it's a skill issue" comments just further prove my point. Dark Souls was never about being hard just to be hard and neither is Elden Ring. Elden Ring is just a poorly designed game with bad balancing that encourages you to exploit all of it's mechanics to the fullest. Where people begin to think the game is "difficult" is when they deprive themselves of using magic and spirit summons when it's very clearly an intended gameplay mechanic.
On the matter of the basegame, it has to be one of the worst designed open world games I have ever played. To put it simply, the world is not open. Areas are incredibly segmented and force progression in a linear way while also telling the player nothing of how progression is actually achieved. You need to kill 2 remembrance bosses to open up Leyndell but the game never tells you this because they expect you to do it anyway. In an open world game! 9 times out of 10 you will not be able to travel to vistas you see in the distance because the world is segmented and linear. Just another game trying to ride off of the success of Breath of the Wild for what I'm concerned.
Elden Ring is NOT a masterfully designed game, this and the basegame. I don't know who brainwashed the populace into believing this game is good but it's not. Gaming is so fucking over. This DLC truly brought back the feeling I had when I played Elden Ring for the first time.
Everything is the same as the basegame, they even reuse bosses like the magma wyrm. Caves and catacombs are still the exact same in design and every normal enemy 2 shots you or has a boss moveset. The "open" world is still as empty as the basegame, there is absolutely nothing to do except follow the trails of grace that literally POINT you to where you have to go. Lots of essential NPCs that you can't kill just because the game says so, I thought souls games were supposed to let you kill every NPC?
There's a new progression item that increases your attack and defense in the DLC area for some reason. It just makes the DLC as poorly balanced as the basegame, even if you plan on building a character for the DLC everything is still going to 2 shot you.
The first boss Divine beast dancing lion is a joke, it has so little health but also never stops moving or attacking. Nothing else to say, just a boring and easy boss, beat it in 3 tries.
The inevitable "but it's a skill issue" comments just further prove my point. Dark Souls was never about being hard just to be hard and neither is Elden Ring. Elden Ring is just a poorly designed game with bad balancing that encourages you to exploit all of it's mechanics to the fullest. Where people begin to think the game is "difficult" is when they deprive themselves of using magic and spirit summons when it's very clearly an intended gameplay mechanic.
On the matter of the basegame, it has to be one of the worst designed open world games I have ever played. To put it simply, the world is not open. Areas are incredibly segmented and force progression in a linear way while also telling the player nothing of how progression is actually achieved. You need to kill 2 remembrance bosses to open up Leyndell but the game never tells you this because they expect you to do it anyway. In an open world game! 9 times out of 10 you will not be able to travel to vistas you see in the distance because the world is segmented and linear. Just another game trying to ride off of the success of Breath of the Wild for what I'm concerned.
Elden Ring is NOT a masterfully designed game, this and the basegame. I don't know who brainwashed the populace into believing this game is good but it's not. Gaming is so fucking over. This DLC truly brought back the feeling I had when I played Elden Ring for the first time.