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. plato1123
    Apr 29, 2022
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Ok the goood about this game...

    1) beautiful and diverse open world
    2) integrate fighting style

    Needs improvement:
    1) The fighting style is great but the reaction and timing from your opponents is completely arbitrary, meaning you have to die from every boss 3 times to know his time. It becomes clear pretty quick it's not based on skill or hand-eye coordination but how many times you've died to that exact f'ing boss. That is the cancer of the dark souls series, the fighting is cool but there's no consistency AT ALL. Oh this boss has a magic insta-move that kills you instantly, oh you didn't know about that?

    2) the thing the dark souls a-holes do where you lose your experience if you don't run to where you died... is f'ing stupid and is intended to make you churn up the same scenery over and over again. It's a dumb stunt and yes it makes your blood pressure boil on the spot but it inhibits your overall satisfaction of the game(s)

    Overall they did a lot of things right, this is better than Dark Souls which was addictive but then you were like ... why did I play that f'ing game for 8 hrs, what is wrong with me    … Expand
  2. oklapie
    Mar 26, 2022
    6
    Great game with lots of potential, the first 30 hours of this game were amazing, but largely over hyped. 50 hours in, and the game falls apart. After beating certain story bosses, the difficulty level scales dramatically and largely invalidates any work you've put into building your character. Boss design repeats itself over and over. The PC performance issues don't seem like they're goingGreat game with lots of potential, the first 30 hours of this game were amazing, but largely over hyped. 50 hours in, and the game falls apart. After beating certain story bosses, the difficulty level scales dramatically and largely invalidates any work you've put into building your character. Boss design repeats itself over and over. The PC performance issues don't seem like they're going to be addressed either.… Expand
  3. FedorBondarchuk
    Jun 19, 2022
    6
    Dark souls with a hourse and jump buttom, same combat, same cheap game design. But there is empty open world which is basicaly a huge landscape with nothing. there is no plot like in previous From software games deep meaning of what is going on in the game exists only on internet forums and fandom . Games terrible UI and clunky unresponsible controlls make it frustrating, playing 6thDark souls with a hourse and jump buttom, same combat, same cheap game design. But there is empty open world which is basicaly a huge landscape with nothing. there is no plot like in previous From software games deep meaning of what is going on in the game exists only on internet forums and fandom . Games terrible UI and clunky unresponsible controlls make it frustrating, playing 6th installment of dark souls not giving me that much joy overcoming the same game design ideas that i overcome 5 games earlyer. On top of this game runs like crap on pc (rtx 2070/r73800x) with frame rate dipping below 60 no matter ettings i used. I believe critics if you can say so are really biased and the big name of Miyadzaki sold them this game and thats not right you need to be objective as a journalist you need to tell people the truth about the product that they are buing.… Expand
  4. MadMaxxieXD
    May 12, 2022
    6
    The majority of the game is very fun and addictive but, and this is a huge but, the boss design and balancing is insanely bad, certain bosses are made to be roadblacks that must be faced, there are some that actually punish you for not cheesing them, there are loads that are way too aggressive so they literally leave no room to get an attack in and some builds will have no way to counterThe majority of the game is very fun and addictive but, and this is a huge but, the boss design and balancing is insanely bad, certain bosses are made to be roadblacks that must be faced, there are some that actually punish you for not cheesing them, there are loads that are way too aggressive so they literally leave no room to get an attack in and some builds will have no way to counter them until after they somehow beat the boss. There are a lot of places where you will, without warning, end up teleported and stuck, unable to level up, reallocate flasks, upgrade anything, so you can end up losing your save if you get sent in unprepared which goes against exploration because there is no way of knowing when or if you're strong enough without entering and then you can't leave. There is a lot of that and it really ruins the experience and flies in the face of the "dust yourself off and try again" appeal of these games when a lot of bosses actually have nothing to do with skill, if you have the wrong build, you just may not be able to react fast enough to do anything without being killed as a result, you went caster? Tough luck, you literally have no time to charge your spells. You went tanky with a shield? Tough luck, this boss does a room length piercing attack that will stagger through the best gear available until after them and then they go into a one shot combo before you can control your character again and they patched out one early material could have let you upgrade one gear piece, like your shield, so you wouldn't stagger, could dodge the combo and then punish but instead we have this because boss design and balancing sucks. The fact even diehard players went after the material because without that upgraded piece, some builds could not beat the boss blocking them from progessing the story and accessing other areas, or at least would require such perfect play, it's beyond what even a Souls style game can realistically ask. In summary, the good is very good but the bad will make this game literally unbeatable for a lot of people.… Expand
  5. dafunkk
    Feb 28, 2022
    6
    If you've never played a Souls game, PLEASE do not start with this one. Every other game in the series is a better place to start, I worry that for someone who starts with this game, they'll miss out on the rest of the series because hey, this is the newest one so it MUST be the best. It's not, it's near the bottom of this great series. Maybe at the bottom entirely.

    So... another Souls    If you've never played a Souls game, PLEASE do not start with this one. Every other game in the series is a better place to start, I worry that for someone who starts with this game, they'll miss out on the rest of the series because hey, this is the newest one so it MUST be the best. It's not, it's near the bottom of this great series. Maybe at the bottom entirely.

    So... another Souls game. Not saying that's a bad thing. The combat is fair and challenging, the presentation is solid, the graphics are... alright, certainly not 2022 stuff (unless this is just a bad PC port... which now that I look over the reviews, it sounds like I got off light, it just looks old and blah, it's not stuttering *anywhere* near as bad as many are experiencing)

    This is not a bad game, 7/10 is not a bad score. It's alright... but I'd wait for it to be on sale for like $20... While it retains many of the elements that made prior Souls games great, what it cuts out was essentially the heart and what it adds in simply doesn't work. The open world is boring, the enemy placement is lame, I didn't feel any sense of wonder or world building that even comes close to the rest of this series. The game feels rushed and more like From was told to make a game they didn't really want to make.

    As a huge fan of Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Bloodborne... I'm not disappointed per say... but I'm certainly not wowed either. I don't care for how open the game is, it really ruins what makes these games great. I don't care for the setting, take Bloodborne for example, the setting was the best thing about it. I don't care for the random hodgepodge haphazard placement of enemies, it honestly feels like an early 2000s MMO when you look at how things are laid out...I certainly would put this near the bottom, maybe just above DS2, in terms of souls games. That being said, 7/10 doesn't mean this is a bad game and DS2 isn't bad either. It's just not anywhere near their best work, which I'd recommend 10x over this title.

    Again, not horrible but it's not worth $60 and From Software clearly didn't put much effort into this port. Sigh... maybe I am disappointed, writing this really made me feel that way.

    6/10, skip it. 7 is too high of a score for how much of a fall from grace this is, especially with how bad the port is for PC.    … Expand
  6. 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
  7. ukszupuk
    Mar 2, 2022
    6
    Gone is the natural progression that was characteristic to previous DS titles. I don't fancy giant empty spaces between the bits of content that are left of it. Horseback combat is chaotic and awful. Game looks ok, but engine locked at 16:9 60FPS is a faux pas.
  8. Sepherim
    Mar 31, 2022
    6
    Elden Ring es un juego entretenido, pero no una obra maestra. Resumidamente, es Dark Souls 4 con un mundo más abierto. Si esperabas una historia como la que prometieron, con JRR Martin involucrado, olvídalo, es la misma historia, el mismo worldbuilding y la misma forma de contarlo que en DS3. Si esperabas un mundo abierto lleno de cosas, olvidalo también, es un mundo abierto lleno deElden Ring es un juego entretenido, pero no una obra maestra. Resumidamente, es Dark Souls 4 con un mundo más abierto. Si esperabas una historia como la que prometieron, con JRR Martin involucrado, olvídalo, es la misma historia, el mismo worldbuilding y la misma forma de contarlo que en DS3. Si esperabas un mundo abierto lleno de cosas, olvidalo también, es un mundo abierto lleno de combates pero poco más; ocasionalmente un minipuzzle, o algún NPC con el que hablar, pero igual que en los mapas de DS, y un mundo abierto que especialmente en zonas interiores y a partir de la mitad del juego rápidamente pasa a cerrarse cada vez más. El combate es el mismo de siempre, con la adición de caballo que funciona igual que en Mount and Blade. La progresión es la misma de siempre. Los enemigos se repiten un montón en diferentes zonas, incluidos los bosses. Y ya.

    Gráficamente el juego es muy bonito... al principio. Luego la ejecución sigue siendo excelente pero los modelados se repiten de zonas anteriores e incluso las zonas nuevas se sienten rápidamente "ya vistas antes" porque podrían perfectamente ser zonas de Arnor Londo o cualquier otro lugar de DS. No en vano uno de los comentarios que más veo en la gente es "esto se siente familiar". El sonido tiene un valor decente pero me ha decepcionado especialmente una banda sonora que encuentro muy anodina, carente de temas memorables. La IA es más bien tirando a mala, tanto en amigos como en enemigos. Y el juego tiene un montón de bugs, desde el pobre optimizado que lleva a caídas de FPS, a glitches gráficos con la iluminación, a enemigos que atacan a través de paredes y finalmente salidas a escritorio.

    Por todo ello, no es mal juego si, como a mi, te gustan los Dark Souls, pero no es una obra maestra, y representa un paso atrás después de todas las innovaciones que From había introducido en Sekiro. Y, además de la falta de pulido, hay que señalar que el juego se siente sin terminar, con questlines que quedan en el aire y un cierre creciente fruto de "tener que terminarlo". Un 6.

    PD: Como nota final, una cosa muy personal, que puede que al resto no le ocurra. Como siempre, quería jugar un personaje de armadura pesada, escudo y espada larga, un clásico en mi. La mejor espada larga para un personaje con una build de fuerza la encontré nada más salir del tutorial... y ahora todo el juego con la misma espada. La mejor armadura la conseguí antes de la mitad del juego y antes de eso encontré el escudo. Desde entonces, el mismo equipo, todo el rato, lo cual se vuelve cansino. Le quita toda la gracia a obtener nuevo loot cuando sabes que va a ser peor, llega un punto en que ya ni lo miras. Y es un error de diseño que se produzca así, cortando toda la progresión en equipo de una build que puede ser genérica pero no debería ser olvidada tantísimo como para que la mejor espada se consiga con 1 hora de juego y luego ya no quede más que refinarla. Y no me importa por cuestión de stats, sino por la sensación que da de repetición y pérdida, que hace que solo busque loot para conseguir los talismanes. Una decepción a mayores para el juego, aunque como digo, muy personal.    … Expand
  9. corsyus
    Feb 27, 2022
    6
    I wont go into the obvious PC issues that have already been mentioned numerous times. I'm sure most of these will be patched eventually.

    If you like Dark Souls games, which I do enjoy, then Elden Ring is like Dark Souls on steroids.. It borrows soo much from the Dark Souls series, I'm thinking they should of named it Dark Souls IV. That's where my issue with the game comes in. I do like    I wont go into the obvious PC issues that have already been mentioned numerous times. I'm sure most of these will be patched eventually.

    If you like Dark Souls games, which I do enjoy, then Elden Ring is like Dark Souls on steroids.. It borrows soo much from the Dark Souls series, I'm thinking they should of named it Dark Souls IV. That's where my issue with the game comes in. I do like the Dark Souls series, however with George R.R. Martin writing for this game, I was expecting a story rich adventure, in the world of a new franchise. Elden Ring does not feel like that new franchise offering a new experience which I had high hopes for. It's an ok game, but doesn't offer anything original.

    If you want to play Dark Souls 4 then you'll love Elden Ring. If you are expecting an original experience to immerse yourself in the writings of George R.R. Martin. Then I recommend passing on this game, or wait for a sale.    … Expand
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. BloodPainter
    Mar 3, 2022
    6
    Looking at purely from an artistic standpoint, the game is really cool. However this has to be one of the worst pc ports I have ever seen. Optimization is just non existent and it has some very noticeable pop in. Game really needs to get optimized stat.
  13. scyre
    Mar 9, 2022
    6
    Honestly an overhyped RPG only because of it's developers reputation from the dark souls games. It got a good open world and interesting developments for your character but lacks a good story line (which is the core of an RPG) and the movement response is mediocre at best. You could say, it works as designed but for me it sounds like an excuse to make a combat response more accurate. AlsoHonestly an overhyped RPG only because of it's developers reputation from the dark souls games. It got a good open world and interesting developments for your character but lacks a good story line (which is the core of an RPG) and the movement response is mediocre at best. You could say, it works as designed but for me it sounds like an excuse to make a combat response more accurate. Also it's full of bugs & exploits, dunno where those rating coming from.… Expand
  14. 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
  15. kyleb2112
    Mar 3, 2022
    6
    This is currently sitting ABOVE God of War on the metacritic score. That would be the God of War with the fantastic graphics, story, combat, exploration, acting, and PC optimization. After playing Elden Ring for a few days now, I'm just here to point that out. Read the siliconera.com reviewer who gave it a 70. Apparently he's the only critic who escaped the FromSoft reality distortionThis is currently sitting ABOVE God of War on the metacritic score. That would be the God of War with the fantastic graphics, story, combat, exploration, acting, and PC optimization. After playing Elden Ring for a few days now, I'm just here to point that out. Read the siliconera.com reviewer who gave it a 70. Apparently he's the only critic who escaped the FromSoft reality distortion field. The graphics, the bad pc port, or the bugs ALONE should be putting any score above 80 out of reach for this game.… Expand
  16. BenFauWriter
    Apr 11, 2022
    6
    Don't expect an open world full of things, this is a soul game, so you'll die a lot and the "open world" will be full of tough monsters/knights to farm in order to level up. Unfortunately, you'll have to rely on guides to find what to do at the beginning. The game is good, but certainly not goty! Graphics are disappointing for ps5/xbox series x, there's a lot of bugs. Gameplay is archaic.Don't expect an open world full of things, this is a soul game, so you'll die a lot and the "open world" will be full of tough monsters/knights to farm in order to level up. Unfortunately, you'll have to rely on guides to find what to do at the beginning. The game is good, but certainly not goty! Graphics are disappointing for ps5/xbox series x, there's a lot of bugs. Gameplay is archaic. Fan of the Souls serie will love it, but again isn't for everyone and is certainly not as good as all the reviews says.… Expand
  17. lizzardsQueen13
    Jul 23, 2022
    6
    An open world game that is based on repeating bosses and also becomes tedious to investigate should never be a GOTY. It is entertaining? Yes. Is it one of the best FS games? No, definitely.
  18. jani7
    Mar 22, 2022
    6
    Absolutely dont understand who can give 10 points to this game. No story, stupid AI, almost nothing new or improved - friendly characters absolutely without any sense or action, you find them in some place and they say their two stupid sentences and stay there like idiots in same position till the end of the game. Enemies looks quite deaf, sneaking behind them in full gear is ridiculous. IAbsolutely dont understand who can give 10 points to this game. No story, stupid AI, almost nothing new or improved - friendly characters absolutely without any sense or action, you find them in some place and they say their two stupid sentences and stay there like idiots in same position till the end of the game. Enemies looks quite deaf, sneaking behind them in full gear is ridiculous. I dont see any new original thing in this game enemies are very nicely done but thats all, everything else was already here several times. Absolutely no reason to call this game of the year or give any higher score.… Expand
  19. Leoscar
    Mar 27, 2022
    6
    Painfully average game that doesn't meet the expectations. It is by no mean bad, but it was designed with quantity in mind instead of quality, and it shows.

    I'll get the technical issues out of the way now : Easy Anti Cheat is a massive joke that leeches performances like nothing while being useless to prevent cheating. Disabling the anti cheat is easy, greatly improves performances but    Painfully average game that doesn't meet the expectations. It is by no mean bad, but it was designed with quantity in mind instead of quality, and it shows.

    I'll get the technical issues out of the way now : Easy Anti Cheat is a massive joke that leeches performances like nothing while being useless to prevent cheating. Disabling the anti cheat is easy, greatly improves performances but prevents online play. Worth it if you ask me. The game simply doesn't run well on otherwise decent PCs.

    The combat is as low as it's been in all souls game. I did not play as a caster so I can't tell if it's better, but melee combat is so repetitive and unsatisfying for a few reasons : Elden Ring has Dark Souls 1's style of poise coupled with bosses that do nothing but spam force you into a reactive, passive playstyle where you only exploit the small opening to use one ash of war/charged attack/jump attack to go back to dodging.

    The world is also incredibly repetitive, once past the first area you'll have seen most of the structures, enemies and bosses. A lot of them are simply copypasted and it gets old fast.    … Expand
  20. 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
  21. StarkAgentos
    Feb 26, 2022
    6
    Поиграл всего 1 час. Игра мне в первое время даже понравилась, пока я не понял, что не могу просто добраться из точки а в точку б и почти никого не могу одолеть...
  22. CausticMisery
    Jan 28, 2023
    6
    The open-world formula does not improve the Souls-genre, and rather bogs it down.
  23. UmberLink
    Mar 22, 2022
    6
    It's fine if you like the current path FromSoft is going down. Otherwise not really

    Horrible PC port, locked to 60 fps, horrible performance issues, horrible graphical settings. Unacceptable for a supposed "10/10". These reviewers are embarassing themselves with these reviews and showing a complete lack of substance and credibility when they write these inane, pandering reviews. The    It's fine if you like the current path FromSoft is going down. Otherwise not really

    Horrible PC port, locked to 60 fps, horrible performance issues, horrible graphical settings. Unacceptable for a supposed "10/10". These reviewers are embarassing themselves with these reviews and showing a complete lack of substance and credibility when they write these inane, pandering reviews.

    The combat is what it is, the now well established degeneration of the souls de facto series. Roll and poke. The most major addition is the lazy abundance of delayed attacks, the only thing FS could think of to spice things up for veterans. No mechanical diversity, virtual all bosses are a variation on the same theme, with just a slight different attack skin on top.

    A far cry from an amazing game, let alone the perfect masterpiece people are deluding themselves into thinking it is.

    A solid 6    … Expand
  24. OUTbrain
    Mar 1, 2022
    6
    So much vasted potencial. This game is just for a few gamers with unlimited time and inclination to masochism.
    No pause, you cant crouch when opening chest and maaaany other bugs from 90ties.
  25. ArcZ7
    Sep 1, 2023
    6
    Want to start off saying that I have 24 hrs into the game. I tried multiple times to get into it but every time I quit as I am simply lost in the game. The core of the souls game simply does not translate well into an open world game. With previous games as in all dark souls and demon soul, we were given a relatively linear experience. With a game being linear you can easily make a storyWant to start off saying that I have 24 hrs into the game. I tried multiple times to get into it but every time I quit as I am simply lost in the game. The core of the souls game simply does not translate well into an open world game. With previous games as in all dark souls and demon soul, we were given a relatively linear experience. With a game being linear you can easily make a story that is more cryptic and you do not need to hold your players hand. Sadly from software has not changed anything in regards of their quest and story telling making me feel completely lost with no goals to try to reach.

    Characters telling you only parts of what you need to know works fine for a linear game, but when you have an open world and some character tells you to go north to find x thig then really that is as vague as it can get for open world. I am not asking for pointers or marker in the game but rather an option for characters to be more descriptive and precise on what they are talking about as wandering through the same areas over and over again gets boring pretty quickly when you cant figure out what to do next.

    The world has few unique locations, but a lot of times you will travel through empty fields, come across the same copy paste dungeon with slightly different bosses at the end and same enemy camps that will make you feel deja vu. My orientation in the game was completely broken as there has been very few landmarks through out the world to be able to navigate it properly.

    Overall I wish from software returned to their old game design and scrap the open world as they are definitely not able to put the souls mechanics with it.    … Expand
  26. Blacksad
    Feb 26, 2022
    6
    The design of the game is impeccable. However, the release is pretty shoddy. The game is nowhere near graphically intensive enough to run this poorly on high end hardware, and the stuttering is insufferable. I have a 3080, 58800x, and 32gb RAM, yet this clunker often struggles to hit 60 fps. Cyberpunk 2077 ran smoother, had much higher end graphics, and also had an open world. That, pairedThe design of the game is impeccable. However, the release is pretty shoddy. The game is nowhere near graphically intensive enough to run this poorly on high end hardware, and the stuttering is insufferable. I have a 3080, 58800x, and 32gb RAM, yet this clunker often struggles to hit 60 fps. Cyberpunk 2077 ran smoother, had much higher end graphics, and also had an open world. That, paired with the 60fps cap and the ham fisted lack of Ultrawide support kind of ruins this. It's even more annoying because the game is rendering everything behind the black bars on Ultrawide as has been illustrated by many people, yet you have no option to remove them and they're entirely cosmetic. Just poor decision making and planning.… Expand
  27. Santiersnoob
    Feb 27, 2022
    6
    Combat is excellent and bosses are fun to learn. There are a bit more default attack moves which allow for more ways to approach every fight, not to mention the open world giving you more angles. Cooperative is very fun given there's an immediate boss/objective before us.
    Unfortunately the pacing isn't as good as the more linear Souls games due to some bad open world designs and how    Combat is excellent and bosses are fun to learn. There are a bit more default attack moves which allow for more ways to approach every fight, not to mention the open world giving you more angles. Cooperative is very fun given there's an immediate boss/objective before us.
    Unfortunately the pacing isn't as good as the more linear Souls games due to some bad open world designs and how gathering materials has bloated the map. Crafting and gathering is just not good. I'd rather more materials be dropped from enemies instead of being gathered on the ground.
    Sadly the open world adds considerably less content than the space it takes up and the introduction area doesn't do it any favors. The rewards for exploring aren't comparable to the effort it took to find and get there unless it's to progress the main story. If there's no point of returning to an area why allocate such huge space for it? This is without mentioning you cannot use mounts in co-op. The pace becomes incredibly slow at many times.
    Luckily many of the enemies are engaging and rewarding to defeat. It makes you wonder why there is so much space between you and the actual fun.    … Expand
  28. He1n
    Mar 4, 2022
    6
    Stutters with stupid stunt lock combos that they put in for every single enemy this is not a game that really thinks of what kind of enemies should have what kind of attack it seems like fromsoft just put in a bunch of those combos to make sure the game is harder
  29. Kaetoo
    Mar 7, 2022
    6
    Let's start for de beginning, the game is a dark souls 4, the history resembles dark souls 1, a ring shatter is like the flame. The tarnished is like the guy with the fourth flame.
    The grafics is amezing even in the low settings and bla bla bla.
    Gameplay sucks, it's literally just difficult fight, nothing else, none sidequest remarcable. The map is big which can look really cool at the    Let's start for de beginning, the game is a dark souls 4, the history resembles dark souls 1, a ring shatter is like the flame. The tarnished is like the guy with the fourth flame.
    The grafics is amezing even in the low settings and bla bla bla.
    Gameplay sucks, it's literally just difficult fight, nothing else, none sidequest remarcable.
    The map is big which can look really cool at the start. But even the boss look the same. There is litteraly 6 or 7 enemy who is a knight. the gradon the same the only difference is the element of them. and the map has not much to offer.    … Expand
  30. BobJosh
    Mar 8, 2022
    6
    I have to say that this is a really good game overall, but it's a very bad soulslike game, and as a longtime fromsoft fan, I expected a soulslike rather than a traditional open world RPG, which is the reason for my low score.

    THE BAD: Fromsoft made the game more accessible, but that killed what made their previous games memorable. The adrenaline rush you felt after killing harder    I have to say that this is a really good game overall, but it's a very bad soulslike game, and as a longtime fromsoft fan, I expected a soulslike rather than a traditional open world RPG, which is the reason for my low score.

    THE BAD:
    Fromsoft made the game more accessible, but that killed what made their previous games memorable. The adrenaline rush you felt after killing harder bosses/mini bosses and overcoming challenges was amazing. But in Elden ring I felt no such accomplishment at all, I didn't feel challenged at all. No boss or miniboss took me more than 5 tries, and i did not use summon nor sorcerer builds. Of course the game could've been challenging, if I level up less, upgrade my weapons less, don't use ashes of war but... if I have to actively avoid using the games mechanics to make the game challenging then that is just simply bad design. Previous fromsoft games had a natural progression to them, unless you went out of your way to farm you did not overlevel. Also there were quite a few bosses in ds3 that had high magic res and gave mages a tough time to balance things out, ER does not have such things.

    There are some other minor issues as well, lot's of overused minibosses, repetitive catacombs, mounted combat is boring. Bosses are not fun, all the delayed attacks ruin the flow of the fights that ds3/sekiro/bloodborne had. Lot's of downtine between action, not so action packed as previous titles.

    THE GOOD:
    Visually amazing world, combat is improved, ashes of wars and spells are fun to use, boss mechanics and visuals are also really cool.

    Overall: IMO they should've sticked to the non open world format, the open world hurt the game more than it added, but it could be fixed with some balancing/tuning. Multiply the healthbar of every enemy by 1.5-2x, I think that's easier to do than nerfing everything.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
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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