Elden Ring

Elden Ring is FromSoftware taming the monster they created, not by filing down its teeth and claws, but by giving players the weapons and armor to endure it.

Elden Ring is a stunning achievement from a literal video game architecture perspective, along with creating a difficult but not wildly punishing game that everyone, even non-Soulsborne devotees, should be able to enjoy. I have not been this impressed with an open world since Skyrim, and Elden Ring even surpasses that in many ways. It’s an easy game to recommend to anyone and everyone, and deserves the explosive sales success we’ve seen, dwarfing old FromSoft records. Elden Ring is a gaming achievement the likes of which we rarely seen, and you will be remiss to not pick it up and see what the hype is about for yourself.

More than anything, we must always stress that, yes, the Lands Between — the open world, therefore — is the main highlight. In an era taken by mediocre open-world games, it's refreshing to see that a company new to this concept got it so precisely right. There's no doubt about it: this is, indeed, one of the best games of recent years. If you're a fan of Open Worlds, no matter what level of challenge you're used to, give it a go. The chances of regret are almost zero. We often think of FromSoftware games in extreme ways. I love it. I hate it. It's amazing. It's unbearable. Elden Ring does bump into these dualities, but tends to be much more attractive to the public in general.

Not for the first time, a Miyazaki game has arrived and the landscape appears transformed. As you play, there is a sense of plates shifting beneath you, of the T&Cs of game development being hastily rewritten. We haven’t felt this way since “Breath of the Wild.” Here, as there, an open world means freedom and fresh air. [Issue#370, p.96]

Whether Elden Ring is perfect is beside the point. What matters is that it’s the ultimate expression of a blueprint first laid out in Dark Souls. It’s made my favorite game of all time feel like a practice run.

Elden Ring is a game with a breathtaking universe, with crazy ambition. The effective gameplay coupled with the immense pleasure of exploration that is always rewarded are matched only by the fierce requirements of the game. More accessible than other FS productions, it offers the opportunity to discover a world of crazy elegance, with an artistic direction that is quite simply masterful. A generous world we no longer want to leave. An absolute masterpiece.

Solid gameplay, over the top world design, terrifying boss fights, eye catching visuals, deep combat mechanisms, endless possibilities, and many, many other things can be said about Elden Ring, but non of them can truly describe it for what it is. Elden Ring is out of this world, and you will have to play it.

Never before has such detail and passion been offered to the open world genre. Elden Ring is a masterclass of game design. From the massive, dense open world to the like-clockwork dance of combat, the amazing character design and seemingly unlimited gameplay choices. Each element of the game has been carefully crafted with love and purpose, making every little or large moment something worth discovering. Elden Ring is truly something special and this is going to be an incredibly tough act to follow for any open world game that comes after.

I just wrote a 2800+ word review about a game that left me speechless. I cannot describe how smart, fun, surprising, engaging, challenging, rewarding and addicting Elden Ring is. This is not just another game - it's FromSoftware's Magnum Opus.

Elden Ring is a masterclass in world design. It improves almost all of the bases of FromSoftware’s previous titles and adds upon them many new ones, with its verticality, astonishing world and great combat and story. It is a penultimate soulslike title, and one that will be surely played and remembered for years to come, putting a high bar for action RPGs and firmly sitting as one of the best video games ever.

Here, exploration is everything. Elden Ring is an RPG but one which elevates role playing to the point of vérité. You are as much the stranger in a strange land as your avatar; basic controls and some mechanics are explained in what passes for the game's tutorial, but that’s about it. There’s no quest log, no icon-studded mini-map, no on-screen overlays or bread crumb trail telling you what to do next, or even where to go. Everything else must be learned, either decoded from oblique item descriptions in-game or gleaned from invaluable internet communities. Death is not so much a setback to be avoided as a necessary staging post on the path to enlightenment. It may sound daunting in theory but in practice it’s exhilarating. Every inch of progress in Elden Ring feels earned, and is thus infinitely more rewarding for it.

It’s all terrifically done, especially when coupled with the story, which is full of mystery and plenty interesting. Elden Ring gets the little things right, too; the music that backs your journey is some of the best (and most well-utilized) in gaming. And every enemy feels distinct; you’ll face plenty of soldier-types, but the dragons and wildlife and the giant ogre-types that pepper certain lands inspire plenty of awe.

Elden Ring took the best parts of previous FromSoftware games and expanded them across a living open-world with endless discovery, excitement, and danger. It's not lost the edge of previous titles, but it is the most approachable FromSoftware game yet, and is an excellent point for players to jump in on if they've not tried previous titles. While its technical issues can be annoying, even they can't dampen the experience of playing Elden Ring. FromSoftware's latest is an artistic, innovative and cultural achievement like nothing before it.

Elden Ring packs its intricately crafted world - a world which should be used as a reference point for open-world design moving forward - with more impressive boss fights and secrets than you can shake a giant greatsword at. Although its punishing combat system may not be to everyone’s taste, it is an essential experience both for FromSoftware newcomers and seasoned veterans alike.

Elden Ring sets a new standard in Open world games and it takes us to new horizons that has us excited for the future of Souls games.

Elden Ring is a superlative title, one of those works capable of becoming an event and becoming engraved in the collective imagination. It achieves this by remaining faithful to its formula and exporting its identity to the concept of the open world, achieving its own personal approach, resulting in a world that is visually stunning, and that works with overwhelming precision in terms of mechanics. An excellent videogame that also maintains the concreteness of its proposal.

A series so influential it becomes its own genre. That alone is FromSoft’s crowning achievement. For Elden Ring, the most recent iteration of that series, all superlatives fall short. This game is a timeless masterpiece that will go down in history as a milestone, not only for the genre and developer From Software, but for gaming as a whole.

An extraordinary milestone that will likely cast as long of a shadow over other open world games as Dark Souls already did over most action RPGs during the last decade.

While boasting an overwhelming amount of content, not once did the world of Elden Ring feel tedious. The game’s level design is simply astounding and its map is filled not with chores but with a magnificent sense of adventure. While the fundamentals of the battle mechanics are borrowed from Dark Souls, the speedier flow of action and additional freedom in customization of equipment, items and magic allow you to fight your own way. The story is more dramatic and easier to follow than in previous FromSoftware titles. This and many more features make Elden Ring a marvel of a game that could become a serious threat to the balance of your daily life.

It’s lore always feels epic, but is ultimately hardcore fantasy nonsense and what’s going to keep you in Elden Ring for the long run is the amount to discover and the versatility and challenge at every turn. It has been equal parts a pleasure and hell to play Elden Ring. Because this is an amazing game and the developers have built a mind-boggling but nightmarish world to live and fight in. But it’s also one incredibly tough cookie from the off, and - casual gamers beware - you’ll have a lot of frustrating setbacks as you slowly progress as a warrior. Another wonderful video game for 2022. It’s already becoming a top year for consoles.

Elden Ring is not only the best game FromSoftware has released to date, but it's also one of the best open world games I've enjoyed in recent years. We are facing a title that manages to perfectly mix each of its elements, and the results really could not be better.

I’ve absolutely enjoyed my time with Elden Ring, and while I’d say my expectations were high prior to playing the game, those expectations have certainly been met or even exceeded along my journey. It feels like a culmination of everything FromSoftware has accomplished in the genre so far, offering up a robust world with tons of exploration married to the unique combat we’ve come to expect from their previous titles. I can’t necessarily say that there’s enough changes here that will appeal to people who have bounced off of Souls games previously, but it’s such a great looking (and playing) game that I think if you enjoy action-RPG’s in the slightest that it’s still worth a shot. And of course if you’re already a FromSoftware fan, then I’d imagine you’re already on board, and I can safely say that you won’t be disappointed.

However, when judged on its own merits, Elden Ring is a phenomenal game that will disappoint very few. It has most of the components that fans of the genre seek: a wondrous aesthetic, a feeling of mystery that invites exploration, skillfully designed and intimidating adversaries, and rich gameplay with a lot of replayability thanks to the various classes and builds. In the end, Elden Ring is more than just an open-world Dark Souls. It is strong in its own right, with tweaks to the classic Souls blueprint that create a refreshing new experience that still feels familiar.

Elden Ring is a masterpiece. From its expertly crafted open-world design that rewards the player for taking the chance to explore to its riveting lore, FromSoftware has delivered what can only be described as a deliberate and thoughtful experience. While some of its visual stylings are starting to show its age already, Elden Ring’s gameplay is the result of years of fine-tuning to be as rewarding as it is challenging. Many wondered if FromSoftware could put the level of detail into an open world that they have with their previous games. They’ve achieved that, and so much more.

FromSoftware doesn’t rewrite the medium’s rulebook, but does tear its own tenets asunder while reconstructing them into a cohesive whole that outclasses all that came before it. The Lands Between invites you to explore it with an unparalleled level of freedom, offering up a plate of seemingly impenetrable challenges and intimately constructed stories that are always a delight to indulge in. This is, without doubt, one of the best games in recent memory.

Elden Ring is both a refinement and evolution of the Dark Souls formula, presenting an expansive world that's as hostile as it is inviting. Despite the occasional excess, suffering has never been as much fun as this.

With Elden Ring, we're in masterpiece territory. FromSoftware is consistently great, of course, and I don't mean to denigrate Sekiro or Dark Souls here, as they're all exceptional, but Elden Ring has all the potential to have a similar level of impact as Demon's Souls here. Spinning a richly evocative and carefully paced tale of darkness and misery, Elden Ring isn't the most easygoing game, either in terms of its storytelling or general difficulty. However, not only is it majestic in scope and vision, it is one of the most perfect examples of how an open world structure can be used to the thematic benefit of the game, rather than just be a massive space used to hurl worthless content at players. In this way, Elden Ring joins a very elite group indeed... and is has arguably topped it.

Elden Ring is exactly what fans want it to be, and it very likely will become many people's favorite FromSoftware title yet.

Elden Ring is the embodiment of From Software’s best work yet. Top-notch quality of another huge soulslike adventure persists, especially in the cryptically epic story co-written by George R. R. Martin and in the ingeniously vast and visually stunning world of Lands Between that sets the new standard for open world games. And of course, you can expect a lot of dying, rolling, and rage-quitting. Elden Ring is a must play for every fan, but it also makes so many good steps towards accessibility for a greater audience.

Elden Ring is a fantastic game that can still deliver the unmatched thrill of defeating a tough boss after an hours-long battle. Those who worship at the church of Souls-like will find a game that’s basically everything they ever wanted.

Elden Ring is the real next step for souls-like standards. It is unlike anything FromSoftware has created before, displaying an uncanny world that will keep on wowing players even as they pile up more and more hours of gameplay. Elden Ring is, thus, a prime candidate to become the 2022 GOTY.

Elden Ring is a crowning achievement of over a decade of Miyazaki’s and FromSoftware’s work, and an amazing example of how to find a whole new level of fun in a well-known and somewhat worn-out formula. The open world turned out to be a perfect fit for the genre and you can still tell this masterpiece was created by the famous Japanese studio. I honestly haven’t been so excited about a game since the first Dark Souls.

An uncompromising vision of wonder and terror, Elden Ring is the ultimate dark fantasy odyssey.

As an experience, it's one of the most wondrous and open-ended games I've played in years.

Elden Ring is a tour de force and is maybe the only example of a studio underselling a title. It's an M-rated Breath of the Wild, full of secrets, intrigue, and an enthralling world to explore. It's a game that makes me excited about gaming, and it's fantastic to see a highly anticipated title like this turn out so well.

Elden Ring is the true triumph that FromSoftware was striving for all those years. Complete and utter triumph.

Elden Ring is the culmination of everything Dark Souls brought before it, mixed with a fresh take on the open world genre that leaves no hand held with minimal boring sequences or clogged quest logs. Despite a few growing pains and the real fun beginning a few hours in, Elden Ring is what every game in its genre should strive to be; a challenging, mysterious adventure that never ceases to amaze, only getting better the more time you spend in its dark, yet absolutely beautiful world.

I'm joyfully exploring every inch of the land and delighting in my discoveries, and I don't see myself stopping any time soon.

Elden Ring is an exceptional, accomplished work that realises a fantasy world of solemnity, beauty, and menacing uncertainty you can’t help but lose yourself in.

Combining the deep and challenging combat FromSoftware is known for with a vast and varied world that's always a pleasure to explore, Elden Ring is quite simply incredible. From the moment you step foot into The Lands Between you'll be engrossed, and while you'll no doubt experience some setbacks on your adventure – such as a boss that at first seems impossible to defeat – there's always somewhere else to go to cool off, pick yourself up, and perhaps power yourself up before returning to have another go. That is to say, you don't just play Elden Ring; you live in its world for hours at a time. It will consume you, but you'll willingly throw yourself into its maw with fervour.

FromSoftware effortlessly immerses you into the beautiful world of The Lands Between, with challenging enemies, secret treasures, and deep lore tucked away into every corner. This is, without a doubt, FromSoftware's best project yet, showcasing a culmination of all their previous games.

Elden Ring is a constantly surprising adventure that has taken FromSoftware’s tried-and-tested formula to delirious new heights. One of the best video games of the last decade, and an absolutely essential release, Elden Ring really does confirm that 2022 is off to an incredible start.

Deep, wide, and absolutely packed with adventure, Elden Ring's immense, deadly open world is nothing short of game-changing.

An unrivalled feat of design and inventiveness.

FromSoftware has delivered a masterpiece with Elden Ring. The developer has put every lesson they've learned in the past into the game and perfected every gameplay-element. Add to that an enormous and diverse open world, the ability to travel and fight on horseback and the fact that Elden Ring is still challenging, while being more welcoming to new players. It's an epic adventure that not a single gamer should miss out on.

Instead of a new IP, Elden Ring feels like a swan song; the culmination of 13 years refining a genre. All the ideas and lessons of FromSoftware latest works converge inside the biggest, richest and exquisitely designed open world we've ever set foot on. It honestly feels like a game that won't be surpassed for years.

Elden Ring is an awe-inspiring achievement. Both a summary and bold step forward, it fuses FromSoftware's best and most effective ideas with an endlessly engaging open world. Its combat is the most refined of the series, challenging yet accessible to new players. Elden Ring includes an incredible amount of quality content. More importantly, it offers a captivating, polished experience fraught with danger and filled with beauty.

Elden Ring has, from now on, a place of honor in the pantheon of the best video games in history. From Software needed 13 years to refine to the last detail its vision of a genre that has influenced the industry like few studios before and give us a totally overwhelming title both for its content and for the sense that has every last object and pixel of the Lands Between.

A must play for action-RPG fans looking for deep combat systems and an expansive open-world that truly rewards exploration.

With Elden Ring, From Software establishes an ideal model in open world game design. Neither too empty nor artificially crowded, with each adventure bringing a significant reward, albeit proportionate to the intensity of the challenge. The game sets a new paradigm for the genre, as it strikes a perfect balance by rewarding the player for each task accomplished, exploration well performed, or each battle won. The journey is massive, full of content and with minimal repetition. Elden Ring delivers extensive customization and an even more enhanced combat system than its spiritual predecessors. This aspect, added to the online component, will surely ensure a healthy community for years to come. It is unfortunate that performance issues exist, but such a factor should not be an impediment for the community to enjoy such a special game.

Elden Ring delivers what it promises: it's a souls-like fantasy action RPG game developed by FromSoftware, with the influence of Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R. Martin, that brings a sprawling realm fully immersed in a rich and bloody story and that certainly will have every fan of fantasy and challenge ready to immerse themselves in this universe for hours and hours. Get ready for lots of action, epic battles, adventure, exploration and hardship.

All things considered, Elden Ring is a crowning achievement for FromSoftware but also for gaming. It takes the overused open world formula and flips it with a focus on exploration and freedom. It eliminates those limiting markers and quest objectives which every game since The Witcher 3 has used and that have really dampened the open world formula. For a game all about tradition, with its fantasy aesthetic and kings or rulers, it is amazing that Elden Ring breaks the mold and tradition by making such a compelling and intriguing experience. Once the bugs have been ironed out, there is no doubt in my mind that Elden Ring will be looked upon as one of the best games ever created despite the difficulty. It will be looked upon as a genre defining classic.

Elden Ring is a true soulslike that does some wonderful things with the concept of an open world, and its hands-off exploration. I haven't had so much fun with an open world since Red Dead Redemption 2. A difficult, satisfying, and otherwise excellent game!

Elden Ring is the culmination of all the Souls entries up to this point, creating a near perfect gameplay experience filled to the brim with incredible boss fights, gorgeous graphics, and an insanely large world to explore. A variety of new ideas, including crafting and the addition of the spirit horse Torrent, help bring a new level of immersion to the proceedings while simultaneously helping Elden Ring feel like a unique entry in the Souls genre. With gameplay tailored for players who want to experience the world solo as well as those who wish to play nearly the entire game in co-op, Elden Ring is a masterclass in design. Minor gripes about a couple of boss fights and the sheer density of the world to explore leaving many areas potentially undiscovered aside, Elden Ring is a nearly flawless experience which old and new fans of the Souls series will enjoy.

Elden Ring is exactly the game people were hoping it would be. It's the biggest FromSoft Soulslike to date, with a ton of polish and a bucketload of content. It won't change your mind if you don't enjoy the genre, but Elden Ring accomplishes what it had set out to do. Not every new feature hits, and it sometimes felt a touch too familiar, but when the biggest complaint I can think of is, "It feels like some of the best games ever made," that is a sign of its quality. Elden Ring is the game we've all been waiting for.

Elden Ring borrows a lot from Dark Souls and a bit from Bloodborne and Sekiro. With the blueprints of those games in their hands, FromSoftware started building and building. The result is a hugely good open world game that leaves an unforgettable impression in both scale and detail, but also scares.

Elden Ring feels like the natural evolution of a video game series that continues to reinvent itself after more than 13 years of its birth. FromSoftware is simply the best at what they do. While there are some technical issues and repetitive structures and creatures, Elden Ring is a cruelly wonderful piece of work and one of the best adventure games of recent years.

While it feels like the impact of Breath of the Wild is waning as the open world genre starts to stagnate again, Elden Ring stands out as not only an achievement in FromSoftware’s hall of fame, but also as an open-world RPG. Elden Ring is without a doubt, FromSoft’s most ambitious undertaking yet, and like Dark Souls before it, I believe it will leave a permanent mark on both the open-world genre and the games industry in general.

Elden Ring is the next evolution of the “Souls” genre. It feels both familiar and truly unique. Fans of previous “Souls” games will feel right at home, while appreciating the new features, mechanics and quality of life improvements the game has to offer.

FromSoftware surpass themselves and create a magnificent action masterpiece that is unique in terms of open world design.

Although I still find the original Dark Souls to be FromSoftware's magnum opus, Elden Ring is an undeniably amazing game. At the end of the day, it's sure to delight most Souls veterans but it probably won't convert many non-fans.

Elden Ring can be seen as the dawn of a new era on FromSoftware. The game is a really deep experience, with amazing visuals, an unique sense of freedom, and of course, the hard-fought battles that we all love to hate. A well-rounded RPG filled with challenges, many different places to explore and great mechanics. It's GOTY material.

Elden Ring serves as a testament to open world video game design. There is a true sense of accomplishment once that rock-hard enemy has been slain and, something that compels a player to relentlessly do it over and over again until they succeed is truly rewarding. The world is humongous and an epitome of how exploration should be encouraged, by intriguing players to see what is over the hill. Elden Ring is an unmissable, must-play, gaming experience with surprises galore.

Elden Ring is neither a step forward nor backward for the famed developer, but rather a shift to the side. It’s a different kind of FromSoftware game, one that mixes stampeding mounted combat in a vast world with more intimate, terrifying moments in dark caves and cramped castles. I’m having a grand time with it, make no mistake, but it’s not my favourite FromSoftware game to date.

Elden Ring is everything that I dreamed of and more. Although I did expect From Software to refine the Souls recipe, I was quite surprised by the large amount of new mechanics and how well the Souls formula has been implemented in an open-world environment. But it’s not just the exploration aspect that makes Elden Ring the best Souls game out there. The massive open-world that doesn’t feel empty at all, the huge number of bosses and dungeons, as well as the boss fights elevate it to an entirely new level. Elden Ring is From Software at its best.

A must have action-RPG with deep combat systems and an very interesting open-world. Sadly all is not perfect and graphics are totally outdated and AI have some problems.

Despite all of us playing the same game, what we experience in Elden Ring will be unique to each of us, and that is where the crux of its power lies. It is these differing experiences and its powerful emphasis on discovery that make Elden Ring a game that is worth discovering for yourself. Many will appreciate it, few will master it, but all will acknowledge it as a distinctive adventure that is as rewarding as it is dangerous.

FromSoftware is back with Elden Ring and although we had to wait a long time, it was worth it. The new approach with an open world works particularly well and that is partly due to the strong gameplay and beautiful environments that excel especially in style. In addition, the many bosses are incredibly cool and the soundtrack is fantastic. A must have, but know that the PS5 version has to contend with frame rate issues.

Sure, the new From Software title still operates like a typical Souls game insofar as it thrusts you into a mysterious world filled with beguiling monstrosities to kill. But enough tweaks have been made to create an experience that is, dare I say it, somewhat comforting.

Elden Ring is the definitive FromSoftware game. With a refined combat system packing new ideas and an open world perfect for exploration, it sets a new benchmark for titles of this ilk to strive for. This is the Japanese developer firing on all cylinders — far and away its best creation yet. Elden Ring is an utterly essential PS5 title.

Elden Ring is a very entertaining game that takes a lot from other FromSoftware titles. Its beautiful open world is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it invites you to explore, but on the other, it makes you face the same enemies over and over again until you are sick of it.

The years of waiting were worth it, Elden Ring is brilliant. It offers a huge amount of content, a beautiful world and addictive gameplay. But the series does start to feel a little bit stale.

The massive open game world isn't the earth-shattering innovation we expected from FromSoftware, but thankfully the Dark Souls foundation it's built over is just as strong and addictive as we've come to expect from the studio. It's the seventh piece of evidence that no one really does boss fights and epics as well as Hidetaka Miyazaki.

A masterful blend of Dark Souls and Zelda: Breath Of The Wild that makes high demands of its players and yet still remains surprisingly accessible and adaptable.

With its new open-world dimension, Elden Ring brilliantly fleshes out FromSoftware's already highly effective formula and offers Souls a spiritual sequel that is both ambitious and accessible. All the new features converge towards this last objective: the open world allows you to arm yourself more than ever with the epic and obligatory fights that the adventure reserves, without having the impression of walking around just to farm. And the best part is that it doesn't compromise the sense of accomplishment so important to the genre. Elden Ring is a complete, mysterious experience, where curiosity is tirelessly renewed by the feeling of discovering something for the first time. All with a sumptuous artistic direction, which makes you want to get lost, to explore. The title also welcomes new features that offer strategic choices in combat, without betraying their requirement. We only regret a slight lack of ambition for certain Legacy Dungeons, as well as the recycling of some assets and bosses. Overall, an exceptional title.

There are no other dynamics quite like it in games; they acquaint us with an array of miseries and charge us money for the privilege.

This isn’t just Dark Souls with an open world tacked on. Instead, developer FromSoftware weaves its familiar formula into a massive playground so expertly that we can’t help but wonder how we ever played Dark Souls without it.

Elden Ring feels like the game FromSoftware has been building up to ever since Demon’s Souls released in 2009. A huge open world filled to the brim with challenging enemies, characters sporting obvious influence from George R. R. Martin, and the typical drip-feed of lore FromSoftware is famous for crafting all combine to form an intoxicating adventure you won’t soon forget. Yes, the formulaic nature of these games is absolutely showing after three console generations, but as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Make no mistake, Elden Ring is to the Souls subgenre what Breath of the Wild was to the Zelda franchise; it took a classic dungeon-diving formula and opened it up, adding more choice, nuance, and combat flexibility in the process. It feels destined to kickstart a wave of "did you know you could do this?" YouTube videos, and a deeper discussion of build-crafting. Elden Ring isn’t Dark Souls 4 or just ‘Big Souls’, but it’s damn close, and represents the evolution the series needed and manages to be everything else we wanted it to be.

An enormous world which is always entertaining, an artistic and narrative coherence so strong that it reminds of Lordran, a sheer amount of content that is seriously overwhelming, and a near perfect concept design, make Elden Ring the best result that is possible to achieve within the “soulsborne” formula, with all its traditional strengths and weaknesses.

Elden Ring is more than a mixture of Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro. Its huge game world invites you to explore, and there is much more optional than mandatory content. There are some minor balance issues, but they blench out considering all the strengths. In total, Elden Ring does not quite reach its predecessors on the eye level, but the game is still a need to play for any action rpg fan.

Elden Ring is an unrelenting, engrossing, challenging, and marvelous experience. It brings the Dark Souls formula to an open world setting without skipping a beat, with all of its cryptic nature, punishing combat and wondrous level design. It's still not for everyone, but those who dare enter this realm may find themselves in one of the best games of the year.

Translating 13 years of legacy into a gigantic open world was quite a big challenge, and FromSoftware did it brilliantly with Zelda Breath of the Wild as a guide. But, to be honest, we don't share the opinion of most of our colleagues: Elden Ring is an excellent title, but it still lacks something to have the stuff of a GOTY 2022.

Elden Ring's engaging combat, mythology and dynamite orchestral soundtrack goes a long way to overshadow an aggressive open world that punishes exploration from the beaten path. Fans of the Souls genre are in for a treat, while newcomers will need to persist to reap the benefits.