I don't think I've mentally flitted around so much in my opinion of a game over 100 hours of playtime but after everything from hatred and exasperation to respect and admiration I've ended up feeling pretty positive indeed on my experience.
It's a hard game, and one I didn't think I'd particularly enjoy especially having bounced off Demon's Souls and Bloodborne quite heavily, but maybe it was the fact that I actually spent money on this (rather than getting it as a 'freebie' through PS Plus) but I persevered and had myself a good time. The feeling of satisfaction when you finally beat a boss is honestly hard to match, and the critical path 'dungeons' are easily the best part of the game - it makes me think that I need to give these previous games (and the Dark Souls series in general) another shake.
Did the open world help here? Maybe - I'm not sure it necessarily added that much to what was on offer other than having somewhere else to go if you got stuck, and I also don't think it's a particularly well designed one, but there were enough interesting places to discover that I went off the beaten track more times that I expected to. As for the story and lore of the world though, I was left underwhelmed - it was fine, but I knew I wasn't getting invested in the hows and whys of the main 'story' or the sidequests.
At the end of the day though, I was surprised. Surprised that I'd had such a good time after dying a lot and having to deal with a lot of minor frustrations caused by seemingly purposefully obtuse design decisions. Despite going through phases of loving and hating the game in equal measure at various points, when it works, Elden Ring is a great experience.
It's a hard game, and one I didn't think I'd particularly enjoy especially having bounced off Demon's Souls and Bloodborne quite heavily, but maybe it was the fact that I actually spent money on this (rather than getting it as a 'freebie' through PS Plus) but I persevered and had myself a good time. The feeling of satisfaction when you finally beat a boss is honestly hard to match, and the critical path 'dungeons' are easily the best part of the game - it makes me think that I need to give these previous games (and the Dark Souls series in general) another shake.
Did the open world help here? Maybe - I'm not sure it necessarily added that much to what was on offer other than having somewhere else to go if you got stuck, and I also don't think it's a particularly well designed one, but there were enough interesting places to discover that I went off the beaten track more times that I expected to. As for the story and lore of the world though, I was left underwhelmed - it was fine, but I knew I wasn't getting invested in the hows and whys of the main 'story' or the sidequests.
At the end of the day though, I was surprised. Surprised that I'd had such a good time after dying a lot and having to deal with a lot of minor frustrations caused by seemingly purposefully obtuse design decisions. Despite going through phases of loving and hating the game in equal measure at various points, when it works, Elden Ring is a great experience.