Elden Ring

 PC
User Score
7.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 5812 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,862 out of 5812
  2. Mixed: 414 out of 5812
  3. Negative: 1,536 out of 5812

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  1. donanja
    Feb 27, 2022
    5
    - Formulaic storytelling that feels extremely derivative. It was acceptable to a point with the previous titles, but with Elden Ring, it feels like it's gone past that and now it just feels cheap and lazy.
    - This game is a galore of reused assets, animations, and everything in between. There seems to be very little to this game that's wholly unique; almost everything you see has been    - Formulaic storytelling that feels extremely derivative. It was acceptable to a point with the previous titles, but with Elden Ring, it feels like it's gone past that and now it just feels cheap and lazy.
    - This game is a galore of reused assets, animations, and everything in between. There seems to be very little to this game that's wholly unique; almost everything you see has been ripped shamelessly from Dark Souls 3 or Bloodborne and changed slightly (if even that).
    - No benefit to the addition of an open world. It serves no purpose to enrich the gameplay and in fact hurts the game as FromSoftware has had great level design in past games which can't be accomplished as well with an open world game. Furthermore, the world feels extremely empty and dead as there are ridiculously vast amounts of lands filled with nothing.
    - Crafting adds unnecessary bloat to a game that doesn't really need it and mounted combat trivializes the vast majority of fights, which is probably because the overworked developers didn't have time to design any of the fights against it.

    In conclusion, Elden Ring proves that FromSoftware is no longer the innovative game developer from a few years ago that was afraid to take risks and give us something fresh and new. Elden Ring is an exact, formulaic repeat of every Souls game that came after Dark Souls 2 that feels mediocre at best. This isn't Elden Ring, this is Souls 2K22.    … Expand
  2. ArchangelEST
    Mar 6, 2022
    6
    Not a terrible game, but has a lot of issues.

    The PC port is one of the worst of all time. There is no proper keyboard and mouse support, there are random locked keybindings for menu navigation. All the prompts are using controller buttons. A lot of people report stuttering and crashes. The game looks at least 5 years dated if not 10 years. Poor animations as if I'm playing "Risen"    Not a terrible game, but has a lot of issues.

    The PC port is one of the worst of all time. There is no proper keyboard and mouse support, there are random locked keybindings for menu navigation. All the prompts are using controller buttons. A lot of people report stuttering and crashes.

    The game looks at least 5 years dated if not 10 years. Poor animations as if I'm playing "Risen" or something. And the performance is similarly not in line with its looks. Comparing it to the recent Sony ports for example is like night and day. Games like HZD or God of War really showcases how little effort Elden Ring devs put in towards making the game look good and run well on PC.

    The open world aspect of the game suffers from issues that plague most open world games. There's a lot to explore and a lot of stuff to find but most of it is meaningless filler. 90% of the loot you find does not feel rewarding for the time and effort you invest into finding it.

    The story and narrative is a mess. It's as if someone wrote a book and then put all the pages through a randomizer. There's some kind of a story, but it's basically intentionally vague and confusing so that you wouldn't even bother trying to understand it and would simply go and fight monsters.

    And as for the fighting - enemy AI is dumber than dirt, as if often the case with fantasy games. When it comes to creating non-human enemies, developers default to "they see you and they will chase you" coding. That's all there is. No tactics, no nothing.

    Bosses are fun to fight, but at the end of the day, they all boil down to the exact same thing. You learn their limited move set and then you can beat them to death with a club while being butt naked and not even taking a single point of damage. There are no crazy tactics and cool strategies to beat bosses.

    You can pretty much run through the whole game naked and weaponless if you could memorize every boss mechanic.

    Personally, I find that it takes out a lot of incentive to explore and try to improve your character, because even with good gear, a lot of the bosses still have moves that decimate you. So no matter what, you still kinda have to learn how to beat them. So more gear and xp just makes enemies faster to kill. Which is different from a lot of other games where you kinda have to level and gear up because the enemies are literally not possible to beat otherwise.

    The developers also clearly ran out of ideas a quarter of the way through the game. As whole areas and boss fights end up being copy-pasted and refurbished. The scenery might change a little, the enemies might be differently coloured, but they're same as before.

    This again isn't new to most open world games, but it does add more evidence to why Elden Ring doesn't really do much anything that's "next gen" or creative.

    All in all, I would recommend most people to check out the game, if only to be aware of what's one of the most hyped up games of all time. But get ready to refund the game, because odds are, you will not be particularly impressed by it. If the game even runs on your PC at all.

    I got my copy refunded on Steam without issue, so do make use of their generous refund policy to demo out the game.    … Expand
  3. Redden44
    Feb 26, 2022
    6
    It's a good game and a decent open world attempt, but it's completely ruined by a horrible, poor, lazy and inexcusable port that made me regret spending 80 euro for it.

    The setting is intriguing, but while some enemies are cool and interesting, many are just unimaginative, extremely repetitive and boring, e.g. undead with lance, undead with sword&shield, undead with axe, etc.    It's a good game and a decent open world attempt, but it's completely ruined by a horrible, poor, lazy and inexcusable port that made me regret spending 80 euro for it.

    The setting is intriguing, but while some enemies are cool and interesting, many are just unimaginative, extremely repetitive and boring, e.g. undead with lance, undead with sword&shield, undead with axe, etc.

    Graphics is previous generation and the performance are abysmal with frame rate drops, stuttering and freezes.

    Sound effects are fine while music ranges from average to good; I bought the deluxe edition to get the 67 soundtracks but honestly I can't remember a single track I'd like to listen to again...disappointing.

    UI is made fro consoles... it's old, lazy and awful to use with mouse&keyboard.
    You can't use your mouse to interact with it.
    It is inconsistent, sometimes you use Enter other E, sometimes Esc others Q...who decided to waste one of the most comfortable button (Q) to use it just for closing a menu!?
    You open a menu with a button but you can't close it with the same button, you have to move you hand and reach another uncomfortable one. Why? Who knows...
    You can't rebind many controls, so you're stuck with a poor layout.

    You can add markers on the map but there are less than 10 icons and you can't add text, a very poor and lazy system.
    When you mouse over a location the tooltip doesn't pop out, you have to move a target icon with WASD over the location.

    When buying items you can't compare stats with what you're using...I have no words for this...it's just pathetic for a 2022 AAA 80 euro game...pathetic.
    While you can accept quests from the very few NPCs you find around, there is no quest log to remind you of anything you're supposed to do.
    In order to quit you have to open a menu, select an option, switch to the right window, select quit, return to the title screen, watch the titles, press any key, scroll the menu, select quit again...tedious.

    Controls are crap, some of them you can change others not and the default layout makes you think that whoever made it has never played a PC game before.
    To use quick items you have to hold E and press the Arrows letting the mouse go...instead of simply pushing comfortable buttons like 1-5 or QERFTGZXCV.
    Sprint and dodge are on the same button instead of Shift and At, this will lead to often dodgeroll instead of sprinting or you having to release the sprint and push it again in order to dodgeroll.
    You have to manually select Mouse&Keyboard prompts inside the Audio Menu (why!?), otherwise the game shows you XBox Controller shortcuts, even though you don't have a controller.
    It records commands while you're character is stuck in an animation and when the animations ends it fires them one after another...
    Can't climb which has become a standard in many Open World games.
    The trailers let you believe you get a flying horse of some sort, but the reality is that there are only a bunch of jumping pads positioned here and there.

    Camera is terrible and when you turn it, it keeps trembling and stuttering cause the script is fighting your command trying to constantly reposition the camera and giving you headache; sometimes it goes completely crazy and keeps turning in circles for no reason.

    AI sometimes is good others poor, for instance enemies can see you trough walls and attack you without checking the line of sight, e.g. archers keep firing at you even though you're are behind a wall.

    Combat doesn't have fixed rules, they keep changing so they can kill you easily.
    Some enemies get staggered when you hit them or block their attacks, others don't, and keep hitting you like nothing happened.
    Sometimes you can avoid a frontal attack by dodging towards the side or the back of an enemy, others the enemy while already in an attack animation, suddenly performs a 360° turn and hits you anyway.
    Projectiles like arrows, bolts, ballista shots, etc are guided missiles that turns midair following and hitting you even if you've moved sideways or dodged them.
    If while attacking your weapon hits a wall you get staggered, but when and enemy does it nothing happens, theirs animation isn't interrupted like yours.
    Spells are completely unbalanced and 95% of them are useless cause they deal much less damage then the basic one, making you think they didn't even test this game properly.
    They said you could play as an archer, but you simply can't cause you have to craft arrows and in order to do that you have to grind materials wasting more arrows, not
    to mention that sometimes you're going to die for hours while fighting a boss, which means you're going to waste thousand of arrows.
    A simple solution would have been letting you craft quivers with infinite arrows and enchant them to cast fire/poison/magic arrows, etc. Too complicated for these devs I guess.

    As I said, it's a horrible, poor, lazy and inexcusable port.    … Expand
  4. hungphan1305
    Mar 9, 2022
    6
    2012 graphics + YOU DIED + blind fanboi = best game ever ???
    This is the most overrated game ever. if Ubisoft or EA release this game it would be 7/10 or 8/10 maximum
  5. GandalfCzarny
    Aug 9, 2022
    7
    Yeah, Miyazaki and From starting to eats their own tail. I mean it's still a great game, but stylistics it's just another dark fantasy, with fallen kings, heroes and that stuff we saw million timies in other Souls games, and the gameplay is really nothing new or fresh in this formula. Bringing open world to dusty mechanics doesn't make a new game guys. It is shame, because Sekrio showsYeah, Miyazaki and From starting to eats their own tail. I mean it's still a great game, but stylistics it's just another dark fantasy, with fallen kings, heroes and that stuff we saw million timies in other Souls games, and the gameplay is really nothing new or fresh in this formula. Bringing open world to dusty mechanics doesn't make a new game guys. It is shame, because Sekrio shows that this team have fresh ideas to improve gameplay. But this is just one big step backwards.… Expand
  6. Dingobaron
    Oct 15, 2022
    7
    Overhyped and overrated. After milking dry the Demon's Souls formula for 13 years, From Software has created a Frankenstein's monster by slapping together a whole bunch of elements from other games, without perfecting any of them, while using a severely outdated game engine. They have combined combat mechanics from Sekiro and of course the Souls games, but it feels neither as fast-pacedOverhyped and overrated. After milking dry the Demon's Souls formula for 13 years, From Software has created a Frankenstein's monster by slapping together a whole bunch of elements from other games, without perfecting any of them, while using a severely outdated game engine. They have combined combat mechanics from Sekiro and of course the Souls games, but it feels neither as fast-paced and dynamic as Sekiro, nor as "strategic", punishing and claustrophobic as Souls. The difficulty stems from lazy and unfair enemy combos, as well as new enemy movesets that are simply frustrating and annoying. "One boss is too easy? Just put two of them into the same room then! Add a cheap area-of-effect move to every large enemy, as well as a thrust attack with insane range, with infinite stamina of course!".
    The open world was obviously created in BotW's image, except that it's much less beautiful, much less lively, much less fun to explore and navigate. From a technical standpoint, the game is a disaster.

    From Soft have rested on their laurels for too long and fell behind big time. Time to catch up before they go the way of Bethesda. That's unlikely though, seeing how the deluded fan cultists have turned this game into perhaps the most overrated title of all time. Next up: Elden Ring 2, with the same clunky gameplay mechanics, same outdated graphics, same lore and no plot to speak of.    … Expand
  7. CoolBR
    Oct 18, 2022
    7
    Basically, this game is Dark Souls 3 in open-world. IDK why so many people flattered this game like it was revolutionary.

    Story 2/10 - It has the same flaws as DS3, it has a story too subjective and I think Elden Ring's story managed to be even worse than DS because at least in Dark Souls the story was more philosophical and it gave meaning to certain things like why the Ashen One and    Basically, this game is Dark Souls 3 in open-world. IDK why so many people flattered this game like it was revolutionary.

    Story 2/10 - It has the same flaws as DS3, it has a story too subjective and I think Elden Ring's story managed to be even worse than DS because at least in Dark Souls the story was more philosophical and it gave meaning to certain things like why the Ashen One and the enemies don't really die. Also, there is no sense of progression, I don't even know why the character want to be the Elden Ring and why he need to fight so many enemies in the way.

    Surely my biggest disappointment about Elden Ring was the story since George R martin helped in the story production, I was expecting a story like Sekiro, not a DS3 story copy but way worse.

    Combat and gameplay 8/10 - it is the same way as DS3 but with more weapons, spells, and items and more elements (like your horse). I felt that the open world was very cool at first but after 15-20 hours of gameplay I didn't like it so much anymore, I rather play in the closed maps but well designed (and the game has many maps like that so it is fine too).

    One thing that keeps the same sh*t is that you obtain dozens of cool weapons with unique ash of war but you can't use 90% of them because you need to re-do your whole build and that is so difficult for no reason.

    Overall, it is a great game, it is really really long (it took me 107 hours to finish it) and with almost endless maps, secrets, enemies and bosses. I can see the devs really put their heart into this game. So my final score is 7/10.    … Expand
  8. ICDP
    Jul 13, 2022
    6
    I had toyed with the idea of scoring this low to counteract the utterly exaggerated 10 out of 10 scores, but in the end I scored it as I feel is fair.

    FIrst of all the combat against most enemies is fun and challenging. You do get a sense that you are improving as you level up and begin to take on those knights and other creatures easier. Unfortunately the world itself is large but    I had toyed with the idea of scoring this low to counteract the utterly exaggerated 10 out of 10 scores, but in the end I scored it as I feel is fair.

    FIrst of all the combat against most enemies is fun and challenging. You do get a sense that you are improving as you level up and begin to take on those knights and other creatures easier. Unfortunately the world itself is large but has no feel of life to it. Maybe that is the design direction the devs wanted to take but the entire place feels lifeless with no sense of meaning to it.

    Where the problems start arise is the lack of variety. Kill enemies, die lots, confront boss, die lots, kill boss, move to next level and start again. Each time you move to a new area you feel woefully underpowered again and it feels cheap and makes the entire exprience a grind.

    The lack of interaction also impacts gameplay negatively and makes for a very shallow experience. There is almost nothing to do but kill enemies and beat bosses and the only intercations are minor and trivial and delivered in a characterless and underwhelming way.

    What is really bad though, are the main boss fights. They feel hard because the enemy cheat or react to your key/button presses and they rarely run out of stamina. So you get destroyed over and over and over again until you figure out how to cheese them. Or you finally figure out the weapon and or character class you had been levelling up is worhtless against them.

    Melania or Radagon is a perfect example. My Mage build at level 170 was getting destryoed as they could teleport across the room instantly dealing two or three shots that I could not counter and that killed me. It felt like I had wasted hundreds of hours building a character that was just for nothing. The only way I could beat both of them was to respec multiple times. I eventually found out that 45 Dex and 50 Arcane with Rivers of Blood at level 10 was the only way I could beat them. I beat both stages of Melania in less than two minutes doing the corpse piler skill. Despite doing exactly the same thing with the same build and weapon dozens of times before.

    It just feels the main boss fights are not down to skill, but random number generation. You could do the same thing dozens, scores or even hundreds of times and finally it just works.

    Overall a decent game, but nowhere near a 10 out of 10 because 10 out of 10 impies perfect and there are too many issues for that to be accurate.    … Expand
  9. yourstupidmon
    Nov 20, 2022
    7
    Honestly I wish that they would go back to linear world next time. Open world didn't benefit this game at all, at some point there was too much stuff reused just to fill the map. Ds3 is overall better but gameplaywise this one wins :)
  10. kevin317
    Jan 30, 2023
    7
    Disclaimer:
    This is my first FromSoftware game, so I'm reviewing it from that perspective. I've played for about 90 hours but haven't finished it yet. I purchased it around Christmas 2022, so my experience with bugs has likely been better than that of those who started playing earlier.
    What I like: The world is huge. The legacy dungeons are well designed. The atmosphere is cool. You    Disclaimer:
    This is my first FromSoftware game, so I'm reviewing it from that perspective. I've played for about 90 hours but haven't finished it yet. I purchased it around Christmas 2022, so my experience with bugs has likely been better than that of those who started playing earlier.

    What I like:
    The world is huge. The legacy dungeons are well designed. The atmosphere is cool. You can tell there was a lot of attention to detail in the world design. The play style is fun even if the controls are a bit weird on PC. There are many ways to play with different builds.

    What I don't like:
    The story and quests aren't easy to follow. I don't want a game to hold my hand, but this goes to far in the other direction. While some level of challenge is good, there are certain areas and bosses that go overboard. Repeating the same section of dungeon or boss over and over until you learn what works gets boring and frustrating. Ultimately, there have been too many times that this game has felt like work rather than entertainment.

    Rating:
    This game is overrated by critics. That doesn't mean it's a bad game, but when I scroll through the list of games with metascores in the mid-90s, I see a lot of games that I enjoyed much more than this one.    … Expand
  11. Malak7
    Jul 21, 2023
    5
    I beat DS 1,2 and 3. I have Bloobdorne platinum. BB it's the hardest souls, bosses made sense, there was a specific tactic to kill each boss.
    Elden Ring gameplay fails at making sense, bosses are too fast, too strong, they can one shot you at level 120. Open world in a souls game is the worst decision FS ever made, you have to Google all time where to go next, the world is massive and you    I beat DS 1,2 and 3. I have Bloobdorne platinum. BB it's the hardest souls, bosses made sense, there was a specific tactic to kill each boss.
    Elden Ring gameplay fails at making sense, bosses are too fast, too strong, they can one shot you at level 120. Open world in a souls game is the worst decision FS ever made, you have to Google all time where to go next, the world is massive and you are cluelesss about where to continue. Invasions are a huge time wasting if you just want to proceeed with the story. Retarded messages from players everywhere, often lies, I never seen it in any other souls game (maybe too many zoomers playing ER?) Graphics are impressive and the designs are beautiful. ER is an open world grabbing flowers for crafting, pointless dungeons with same cloned bosses and very bad loots, caverns where the final reward is a .... muhsroom. This game style doesn't fit in the soulsborne genre.
    It is a really boring and disapointing game and the OST is very forgetable compared to previous FS games. Definetly very overrated.    … Expand
  12. alxcr
    May 15, 2023
    6
    Overall a good experience worth the pricetag, but personally a disapointment for a longtime fromsoftware fan. After the release of Bloodborne and Sekiro, as well as some comments from Miyazaki stating that the studio would expand it's portfolio beyond Dark Souls, people like me were naturally expecting new and innovative gameplay. Instead the game meets you with the same familiar combatOverall a good experience worth the pricetag, but personally a disapointment for a longtime fromsoftware fan. After the release of Bloodborne and Sekiro, as well as some comments from Miyazaki stating that the studio would expand it's portfolio beyond Dark Souls, people like me were naturally expecting new and innovative gameplay. Instead the game meets you with the same familiar combat system from Dark Souls but in an open world with brighter colours. This has no right to be a new IP, it is even less discernible than Bloodborne is to Dark Souls. On top of this, the trendy open world coupled with a myriad of accessibility features (spirit summons, OP magic, OP status effect, OP poise, OP weapons, OP shields and just generally OP and broken min-maxing builds due to poor balancing, a hidden pause button, mixing flask physique, a horse to escape fights, fast travel, as well as the usual ways to help yourself avoid challenge like player summons, helpful items etc etc et al) yeah well that just isn't it. People used to say if you used 'x' or 'y' you didn't really beat the game, now there is a whole alphabet of crutches that you can use simultaneously that anyone who tries to brag like this just comes across as newcomer and a clown. Elden Ring is, for all intents and purposes, baby's first souls game. Clearly an attempt to cater to non-fans of their games, which works to make money but hurts your reputation with those loyal players. And here is where things cascade. The large amount of resources spent in developing this open world, that would have preferably been spent on 2 or 3 smaller, better designed games, result in lazy game design in other areas, e.g. reused assets, many identical bossfights, dungeons on par with ubisoft's outposts, an unnecessary crafting system, poor balancing, bosses designed around glass cannon builds that amount to: *lazer them in 3 seconds or be lazered within 3 seconds* and not methodical back and forth rhythm combat, and level design that starts off well but falls head first down a cliff of frontloaded and barren areas. All of these factors, especially the copy pasting of bosses and minibosses, leave a bad memory of the experience, and due it it being a massive open world game, I just do not want to replay it because I know most of my time will be wasted traversing the vistas. On a more subjective note, I did not like the tone of this game as much as any of the previous installments, I get what they are going for but its too 'vanilla fantasy' for me and the art direction is a little mute and washed out with the erdtree being an eyesore that casts the dreaded 'piss filter' throughout many areas of the map. Multiplayer leaves much to be desired in the way of covenants, seemless co-op and oldschool invasions, open world isnt effectively utilised at all and adding the arenas was a good call but the gamemodes are not well made. They did a good job expanding magic and making it interesting I'll give them that, although it is completely broken and OP. In conclusion, I never expected a huge and impossible game from Fromsoftware. The long wait and enormous hype generated did not even meet the usual quality standards that they are known for with their previous games. Instead our patience was rewarded with this huge hype chasing flavour of the month title that rests on the laurels of it's predecessors. Very unnecessary, never underestimate a company's greed.… Expand
  13. Kiko95
    Feb 5, 2023
    6
    E' come giocare ad una versione open world di Dark Souls 3. Mi piace? Non proprio.

    La mappa è fin troppo piena di zone inutilmente vaste in cui si ripetono sempre gli stessi 2/3 tipi di nemici. Zone che puntualmente supero velocemente col cavallo perché mi fanno passare la voglia già solo a vederle (come il lago intorno all'accademia di Raya Lucaria o la zona enorme della marcescenza).    E' come giocare ad una versione open world di Dark Souls 3. Mi piace? Non proprio.

    La mappa è fin troppo piena di zone inutilmente vaste in cui si ripetono sempre gli stessi 2/3 tipi di nemici. Zone che puntualmente supero velocemente col cavallo perché mi fanno passare la voglia già solo a vederle (come il lago intorno all'accademia di Raya Lucaria o la zona enorme della marcescenza). Ovviamente c'è qualche piccolo punto di interesse più importante ogni tanto ma avrei preferito una mappa più piccola e più pregna di roba interessante.

    Ogni tanto trovo delle catacombe e, ahimé, anche queste non mi piacciono. Sembrano una versione più cheap dei Chalice Dungeon, e quella era la meccanica più noiosa di Bloodborne per me, con zone che erano estremamente simili e con mini boss che venivano riciclati più e più volte, qui è lo stesso, seppur le aree siano più piccole. E c'è anche la stessa identica meccanica del trovare l'ennesima leva che sbloccherà l'ennesima porta che porterà ad un altro boss probabilmente riciclato.

    Il gioco da il meglio di sè, a mio parere, in zone più lineari come il castello di Godrick e l'accademia di Raya Lucaria, con il consueto buon level design di From Software e boss unici memorabili. Ma la maggior parte del gioco è putroppo costituita dall'open world, un open world che poteva essere fatto meglio, ripeto, con una mappa più piccola ma meglio studiata, per incentivare di più l'esplorazione di ogni singolo angolo.

    Il sistema di combattimento è simile a quello di Dark Souls 3, nel bene e nel male, con qualche aggiunta ovviamente. E' bello dover studiare bene ogni mossa e cercare di personalizzare il proprio stile di gioco ma, purtroppo, sono rimaste le orribili hit boxes dei giochi passati e soprattutto l'ingestibile telecamera che qui, più che in qualunque altro souls, mi ha fatto morire più e più volte. Perché? Perché il numero di nemici ENORMI che qui si affrontano è più alto che in passato, ma la telecamera resta troppo ravvicinata e in troppi contesti fa quel che le pare, per non parlare del solito sistema di lock on che a volte prende nemici più lontani di quello che hai di fronte, oppure, invece di agganciare un nemico, ti resetta semplicemente la visuale facendoti perdere l'orientamento. inoltre ho notato la presenza di più nemici, anche non boss, che bishottano rispetto a Dark Souls 3, il quale era certamente più bilanciato in tal senso, anche nelle imboscate.

    Tecnicamente il gioco è traballante, non ben ottimizzato. In più, per quanto i dettagli rispetto al passato siano aumentati, il titolo sa comunque di vecchio, forse perché doveva girare sin dal principio anche su macchine di vecchia generazione.

    In definitiva sarà probabilmente il secondo souls di From Software che non finirò (il primo fu Dark Souls 2). In alternativa, se dovessi finirlo, passerà comunque molto tempo, perché purtroppo non mi sta tenendo incollato al pc come mi aspettavo. Peccato.    … Expand
  14. veckans
    Aug 2, 2023
    5
    Elden Ring is an OK game but what is all the hype about? Combat is fairly well done but simple, graphics are functional but nothing special at all. Adding the co-op mod to the game breathes new life into the game. Nothing about this game is new, it has been done numerous times before.

    I recommend it if you like co-op and use the mod, otherwise no.
  15. Phytom
    Jan 22, 2023
    7
    There was a huge amount of reused assets, which completely breaks the immersion. Also, due to the open world, you're always underpowered or overpowered, there are only a few scenarios where you're actually playing on the difficulty that you're supposed to. The Game is still very fun and the main levels are amazing. I also love the theme better than in DS3.
  16. FunMisery
    Jul 6, 2023
    7
    Fromsoftware just keeps getting better and more creative with their art style, but their bread and butter unnecessarily decreased in its quality and the difficulty feels powercreep’ed, which wouldn’t be a problem were the gameplay perfectly balanced. People seem to love elder ring, but the lack of balance killed the joy in mastering melee combat for me. In dark souls 3, the fast attack isFromsoftware just keeps getting better and more creative with their art style, but their bread and butter unnecessarily decreased in its quality and the difficulty feels powercreep’ed, which wouldn’t be a problem were the gameplay perfectly balanced. People seem to love elder ring, but the lack of balance killed the joy in mastering melee combat for me. In dark souls 3, the fast attack is low risk low reward, strong attack is higher risk but still consistent and special attacks were usually tricky to pull of, but very rewarding if used correctly. In elder ring on the other hand, most melee weapons contain an attack that is both the safest and very strong, ruining the flow of combat. Long gone are the days you interweaved different attacks, because jump attack/special attack is always superior. From other complaints, the narration and writing refused to progress. Some people love creating their own stories off small environmental details and the little information we get and I respect that, but there is no reason for the more exposed narration like dialogues and cutscenes to be this mediocre. Some details or fragments are intriguing, but that is not close to enough when you try to have more of a focus on the story than in previous games. The flaws doesn’t make this a bad game, but fromsoftware created an art peace inferior to their predecessors.… Expand
  17. JackFrostyG
    Jul 26, 2023
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Pros

    - Fluid combat, huge amount of choice.
    - Main Story bosses are well designed.
    - The Areas feel alive, I actually wanted to explore just to see new areas.

    Cons

    - The amount of reused bosses and assets in some of the the side dungeons / areas is fairly lazy. There are 2 Mohg's too, which really doesn't make since as he's a pinnacle boss.
    - Much of the story just doesn't make sense and feels low effort to make the player interpret much of what is going on.
    - The 'toughest boss' in the game's entire gimmick is waterfowl dance, the most unfun to react to ability in the game.    … Expand
  18. Ifalna
    Mar 28, 2022
    7
    TLDR: Open world DS3 with a few minor additions.

    Full disclosure: I have not completed Elden Ring and don't plan to for now. I bought into the hype and regret dropping full price on this game so I'm hoping my review might help those still on the fence about buying this game. I have beaten Demons Souls, Darks Souls 1-3, Bloodborne so I do have experience with prior Fromsoft games and    TLDR: Open world DS3 with a few minor additions.

    Full disclosure: I have not completed Elden Ring and don't plan to for now. I bought into the hype and regret dropping full price on this game so I'm hoping my review might help those still on the fence about buying this game. I have beaten Demons Souls, Darks Souls 1-3, Bloodborne so I do have experience with prior Fromsoft games and have enjoyed them. The technical issues with the PC port have already been covered ad nauseum so I'll go over some of the other aspects of the game.

    Gameplay:
    Basically the same as Dark Souls 3 with a few minor changes: 1) addition of jump button, 2) addition of mount and very basic mounted combat, 3) addition of guard cancel, 4) weapon arts are now equippable ("ashes of war" in Elden Ring). Veterans of the Souls series will feel right at home whereas the slower, calculated and methodical style of combat may take some getting used to for newcomers. Button mashing will get you killed very quickly in this game and even trash mobs can tear you apart.

    What was once revolutionary and spawned the whole subgenre of "Soulslike" games has become stale, predictable, and formulaic. Most of the enemies are reskins from the prior entries and in some cases, reused assets (eg. the giant crabs). Yes, the game is punishingly difficult but much of that difficulty is artificial from things like janky camera angles, busted hitboxes that pass through walls, gank squads in tight quarters, enemy projectiles defying the laws of physics, etc. Bosses attack relentlessly and you'll find yourself dodging for what feels like an eternity for a safe opportunity to counterattack, only to deal like 2% of their health. You'll likely die to greed, trying to get some more hits in on the boss because you're so bored of doing nothing but dodging yet another unending combo.

    For fans of the Souls series, this may be everything you wanted and for newcomers, this may still be fresh and exciting. For those who've played the Souls series and were hoping for some fresh gameplay, you won't find it here.

    World Design:
    The biggest change in Elden Ring from the Souls series is the introduction of an open world. For many, this is a breath of fresh air and one of their favourite features of Elden Ring. The world is massive and you can easily spend hours just exploring, opening up many possibilities for non-linear progression. Unfortunately for me, once I got passed the initial beauty of the world, I found it to be mostly empty and lifeless, and I found spending hours riding around on my mount looking for things to do tedious and boring. You will encounter random enemy mobs scattered throughout but the reward for killing them wasn't worth the effort so I just started riding around them. The optional dungeons I explored felt pointless, akin to the Chalice dungeons in Bloodborne.

    If you follow the recommended path through the game, you will likely be severely underleveled for the first main boss so exploration of optional content is clearly encouraged by design. Sadly, I don't find the exploration in Elden Ring to be interesting enough for the time investment required and this is the main reason why I don't plan on finishing Elden Ring, while I do plan on finishing DS3. However, many people love the aspect of exploration and discovery in Elden Ring so you may have a very different experience from me.

    Story:
    Like all the prior Souls titles, the story of Elden Ring is told cryptically in fragments mainly from NPC dialogue and item descriptions. George RR Martin was involved in the writing which I never would have guessed since the lore seems to basically be a reskin of the prior Souls titles. There are 1:1 equivalents for almost everything. The Elden Ring = First flame, Tarnished = chosen undead/ashen one, Site of Grace = Bonfire, Crimson Flask = Estus flask etc. Souls games have always required multiple playthroughs to unlock all the different endings and different NPC questlines to piece together the lore. The lore is often rich and interesting but I frankly don't have the time to go through the effort and will be watching some youtube lore videos to experience the story.

    Some people love this mysterious style of narrative and I enjoyed it with the prior Souls games as well. However, it really is just feeling like more of the same at this point and even the basic premise is similar to the prior games and I guess I was hoping for something fresh.

    Overall:
    Elden Ring is a very good game but isn't for everyone. Fans of the Souls series who just wanted more of the same will enjoy this and newcomers who don't mind the challenge will likely get sucked in as well. However, for players like me who enjoyed the Souls games but were expecting something new, Elden Ring falls shorts. Maybe I just don't like open world games? 7/10.    … Expand
  19. Kalidenza
    Mar 9, 2022
    7
    Where can we give feedback on issue for "Quality of Life" improvements for Elden Ring on PC, the Camera issues and Target Locking problems from making the Mouse both of the analog control sticks, PLEASE this is driving a lot of us crazy with constant uncontrollable lock switching and more key binding options, like actually being able to bind Maps to M FFS!
  20. BoomerZoomer
    May 7, 2022
    7
    you will get bored before you actually beat it cause game starts recycling enemies and assets
  21. QAOSbringer
    Feb 25, 2023
    5
    Elden Ring was a real disappointment. It is advertised everywhere with 100/100 scores. Nowadays, everyone is playing it, everyone is praising it, and the praises won't even end on every YouTube channels and game review site. I bought it because it was called as "Skyrim + Breath of the Wild" many times. But the result is just frustration.
    It is obvious that it was made without thinking    Elden Ring was a real disappointment. It is advertised everywhere with 100/100 scores. Nowadays, everyone is playing it, everyone is praising it, and the praises won't even end on every YouTube channels and game review site. I bought it because it was called as "Skyrim + Breath of the Wild" many times. But the result is just frustration.
    It is obvious that it was made without thinking about the PC. It was designed exclusively with the PS4/PS5 in mind. Gameplay mechanics and combat dynamics did not go beyond the Demon's Souls game I played in 2009. There is no such thing as "Online Co-op". Putting this game under the tag "Online Co-op" is just scam.
    But hey, "who pays money gets the hype marketing".
    Yahtzee actually gave the best review: "it's a FromSoftware Dark Souls game, and therefore, good."
    It is just another Dark Souls game, nothing more.

    5: Below average - It may not appeal to everyone, but there are interesting ideas from time to time.    … Expand
  22. Tunico_
    Mar 9, 2022
    7
    Elden Ring é um jogo superestimado, ele sim tem seus pontos positivos, porém os negativos me chamam muito mais atenção, a quantidade de recursos reciclados utilizados nesse jogo é assustadora para uma franquia "nova". A questão aqui é que o jogo não apresenta na MINHA opinião, nenhuma grande inovação no mundo dos jogos. Ele tem uma exploração cansativa, que não é motivante, muitas dasElden Ring é um jogo superestimado, ele sim tem seus pontos positivos, porém os negativos me chamam muito mais atenção, a quantidade de recursos reciclados utilizados nesse jogo é assustadora para uma franquia "nova". A questão aqui é que o jogo não apresenta na MINHA opinião, nenhuma grande inovação no mundo dos jogos. Ele tem uma exploração cansativa, que não é motivante, muitas das vezes não te da nenhum item que tu realmente fique feliz em ter pego, os inimigos repetidos a todo canto e com move set ou aparência reciclados faz com que eu sinta estar jogando os mesmos jogos que foram lançados já fazem 11 anos. Ter bosses diferentes, ou bem detalhados EU não considero grandes pontos positivos, pois isso é o básico, falar que esse jogo a vale o que é cobrado pra mim é piada, 97 de nota é piada, não adianta de nada ter uma baita história genial, contada de uma maneira "inovadora" se a gameplay durante as 60 horas de jogo vão ser enjoativas. Sem falar que a história é mais do mesmo, esse jogo se resume a preguiça. A dificuldade é o menor dos problemas, sendo que uma das maiores dificuldades que você vai ter jogando isso é a câmera bugada em vários momentos do jogo. Em resumo ele é não é surpreendente.… Expand
  23. SomeName
    Aug 20, 2022
    7
    It's basically Dark Souls 4, with slightly above average open-world mechanics. I enjoy it but would say that there is some obvious recycling from previous titles and even within the game itself. A smaller, more consciously designed world might have been better.

    Also, the PC release is just unapologetically bad in terms of bugs and performance. UPDATE: I finished the game and most of    It's basically Dark Souls 4, with slightly above average open-world mechanics. I enjoy it but would say that there is some obvious recycling from previous titles and even within the game itself. A smaller, more consciously designed world might have been better.

    Also, the PC release is just unapologetically bad in terms of bugs and performance.

    UPDATE: I finished the game and most of the bugs have been ironed out since then. My opinions on the world size and recycling of ideas definitely still stand though. It's a bit sad as From Software clearly put a lot of work into the game, but they bit off more than they can chew.    … Expand
  24. Muhannad1991
    Jan 30, 2023
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Unfortunately, the amount of drumming this game is not normal. True, it is a fun game, but 10 out of 10. Why does it mean a system copied from Dark Soul, the only difference is that there is more interest in magic and a disaster that magic breaks the cell game, a casual game, the easiest part in the Souls series of the world, its shape is sweet, but interactive enough I arrived, it's sweet. It's not enough for a generation. This needs something like Zita. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and don't settle for an open world. And give me the story. It's definitely better than the good souls, but stay in a million questions. This lore system is for donkeys. Nothing, unfortunately, the writer of Game of Trans, where does this mean, but something that makes you laugh, he says, "Oh, ELDEN RING." Van Boy's rubbish will buy, stay away from technical problems, and give me a 5 out of 10 game that is better than Souls trash games, but it was supposed to be called Dark Souls 6, not ELDEN RING, unfortunately, the passion is zero with the game… Expand
  25. kaiadams
    Mar 2, 2022
    7
    Even though Elden Ring is a great game, It didn't managed to meet our expectations.
  26. Midian00
    Jun 10, 2022
    6
    3 months after the launch and the game hasn't been properly patched. Not even close. That's just sad & disappointing.
    I'm will try to make it short and understandable:
    1. The game is build on the same engine as DS3 which was released in 2016. Game should not run with glitches, frame drops and crashes. But it does. 2. Fromsoft always had problems with camera but this time they managed    3 months after the launch and the game hasn't been properly patched. Not even close. That's just sad & disappointing.
    I'm will try to make it short and understandable:

    1. The game is build on the same engine as DS3 which was released in 2016. Game should not run with glitches, frame drops and crashes. But it does.
    2. Fromsoft always had problems with camera but this time they managed to make it worse. (mind-blowing talent). In ER when you lock-on to enemy and turn camera your lock-on will switch to whatever it wants EVEN THOUGH AUTO-LOCK-ON IS OFF. Sometimes this garbage can lock-on to enemies behind the walls. Sometimes it straight out will refuse to lock-on to a target that is in front of your face.
    3. Fromsoft made huge world but had no idea how to fill it. So they just started copy-pasting enemies and bosses. Especially bosses. Some of them you can kill more than 5 times. If you think that bosses change somehow - no. Their HP and DMG just get an increase.
    4. Exploration becomes really tedious and boring. Because you either get no rewards for it or reward is absolute garbage. Repetitive dungeons with repetitive bosses.
    5. Starting areas almost have no armor and no weapons. Only after 40-50 hours I started getting weaponry for my stats. Huge specific area was riddled with it. By that time I settled for specific weapon and had no desire to try new ones, nor I had upgrade materials to invest in new toys.
    6. End game is an epitome of UNBALANCE. Your stats mean ****
    Copy-pasted enemies from start-game locations which can kill you in three hits with bloated health. Absolutely bs bosses with endless combo attacks which can kill you in 2-3 hits with several phases.

    Fromsoft definitely **** the bed with this one. I still have hopes that all these issues will be resolved in coming year. If not - it's gonna be the worst soulsborne game to date. DS2 will be removed from its throne.
    This review comes from a person who spent more than 1k hours between ds1, ds3 and BB. Cheers.    … Expand
  27. sin_naoi
    Mar 6, 2022
    5
    Good looking. (Full sopp). Nothing else. Some reviewers dare comparing it to Witcher 3... those are 2 different levels though. Elden Ring has zero character developed, no relatable stories.....well no stories at all. Forced myself to play 10 whole hours thinking that I must be missing something...but no... I quit...
  28. Devez
    Mar 7, 2022
    5
    How Fromsoft can't do a proper pc port after 3 souls game and sekiro is one of the great mysteries of this world. Even though I can see that the game is good from my playtime so far, how can I give this more than a 5 when I'm getting killed because I can't see wtf is happening during some battles? And no it's not a "git good" problem, I've finished all dark souls games and sekiro, it's anHow Fromsoft can't do a proper pc port after 3 souls game and sekiro is one of the great mysteries of this world. Even though I can see that the game is good from my playtime so far, how can I give this more than a 5 when I'm getting killed because I can't see wtf is happening during some battles? And no it's not a "git good" problem, I've finished all dark souls games and sekiro, it's an optimization problem and Fromsoft clearly not giving a **** about pc gamers. The only 2 games where my pc started farting furiously as soon as they loaded are cyberpunk 2077 and elden ring and if you've heard anything about cyberpunk that alone says a lot. Even with all options turned down to the lowest possible I get 20-40 fps on 1080p in open world and these drop even more on boss fights. Not to mention the occasional stuttering which sometimes turns into death warrant. It's shameful asking full price for a game at this state and even releasing it at this state in the first place. Have we all just accepted that we'll be beta testing games from now on?… Expand
  29. BHTrix
    Mar 19, 2022
    5
    I honestly don't understand why people are writing raving reviews for this game.

    Let's start with the good before we move on to the bad and the horrendous that is "Elden Ring" - Gorgeous (bosses, world, art, etc.) - Huge - Mounted Combat (Casting is way better than the sword play though) - The game plays well - Lots of armors and weapons, that are cosmetically cool - Sound    I honestly don't understand why people are writing raving reviews for this game.

    Let's start with the good before we move on to the bad and the horrendous that is "Elden Ring"

    - Gorgeous (bosses, world, art, etc.)
    - Huge
    - Mounted Combat (Casting is way better than the sword play though)
    - The game plays well
    - Lots of armors and weapons, that are cosmetically cool
    - Sound design is really good

    Now the bad

    - Hyper aggressive Mobs that 2-3 shot you
    - Bend Curve for Stat Effectiveness but a Doubling Curve for monster health and difficulty, making end game extremely tedious and repetitive. Your char will shine midgame, but after that your increase in damage and survivability flatlines, while monster health triples.
    - Repetitive
    - Many, Many places, dungeons, etc. in the world are reused.
    - Depth of Field is confusing, the camera doesn't really have optimal rotation, you will often plunge to your death, and after you have you have to backtrack to your corpse, and hope that this time around you don't miss the jump, and if you do, lose all your runes... I mean... uff exhausting
    - The platforming and death from falling is absolutely horrendous.
    - Backtracking
    - The Combat just sucks, I'm sorry. It's fun in the first halve of the game, but when fights start to drag out to 5 minutes per normal mob up to 10-15 sometimes 20 minute boss fights that you have to restart if you make a few bad dodges, it just get's tedious. Not to mention you'll be using the same spells/combat arts most of the time, so it get's extremely tedious and repetitive.
    - Best way to play a lot of the game is just by running past and skipping everything.
    - Most spells suck.
    - Questlines are confusing at best, there's nothing to guide you to understand what the game expects of you, and sometimes if you missed a part of the quest and progressed too far, the quest dies.
    - Bugs.
    - Balance is ****

    This game is overhyped, and the user score reflects that.
    I would honestly stop trusting any critic reviews, they have no idea what they are talking about, and are most likely hyping the game for a paycheck

    I would avoid this game for a few more months, if not year, and grab it on a sale. It has some esthetic, and you'll get some fun out of it, and it will at points frustrate the **** out of you with poor gameplay design.

    I guess fun if you are a sadomasochist.    … Expand
  30. Pasic007
    Mar 8, 2022
    5
    Crap on PC - deleted after 50 hours.
    I cant deal with PC ports and this is one of them. Cant change mouse speed or key bindings. Aiming in game is clunky as f.
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Awards & Rankings

2
#2 Best PC Game of 2022
2
#2 Most Discussed PC Game of 2022

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
94

Universal acclaim - based on 60 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 57 out of 60
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 60
  3. Negative: 0 out of 60
  1. Cubed3
    Aug 29, 2022
    70
    Elden Ring is an experience that will not be forgotten in a hurry. It's a tremendous, hulking, massive achievement but because it is tremendous, hulking and massive, it is one that comes with many caveats. The shelves in CeX and conversations with people who stopped playing at Stormveil castle can certainly attest to some of those caveats. Much like any FromSoftware title, it's not going to be for everybody, but paradoxically it is one of their hardest and one of their most accessible to date. It offers huge value in one package, and perhaps is a little too much value, only becoming clearer when nearing the endgame. Don't be mistaken by the criticism, though. This is a phenomenal achievement with a moment-to-moment that is incredibly engaging and immersive. No doubt it will be deserving of the end-of-year accolades it will inevitably receive. One pushes through Elden Ring as one pushes through life, with all the highs and the lows that it brings.
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  2. Riot Pixels
    Apr 28, 2022
    82
    Elden Ring is massive, sometimes to its detriment. A thorough walkthrough might take up more than 100 hours to complete, and at some point it becomes clear that From Software did not have enough manpower to produce that much unique content. Still, it remains incredibly addictive even after those 100 hours pass…
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  3. RPGamer
    Apr 14, 2022
    90
    It’s hard to review Elden Ring without being comparative; that’s because Elden Ring is an evolutionary step, not a revolutionary one, and one can’t help but see how it’s built on what came before. Here is a massive undertaking of a game, not for the sake of chasing trends but as the natural progression of the style the company has been fostering for over a decade. It’s amazing how smoothly the transition to open world was and how much of the Souls identity is still present. In the short time since its release, it has already left a cultural mark, no doubt a result of the game’s increased approachability. Even after sifting past all the hype and grandiosity, there’s still an excellent game left and Elden Ring is a clear showcase of FromSoftware’s outstanding expertise in the field. Elden Ring really is just that good.
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