Elden Ring has achieved almost mythical status since its reveal. The Soulsborne community have collectively hailed it as the title that will cure gaming, ridding blight from its body and ushering in a prosperous future for the medium. It’s all become a little overblown, but given the masterful status of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:FromSoftware’s previous games, I can understand the🌠 hype.
Now that I’ve spent a handful of hours with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Elden Ring, its lineage is abundantly clear. This is a Souls game, right down to its foreboding atmosphere and abstract narrative that seeks to alienate you as much as it embraces. The moment I step out into its battered and broken world I’m given the freedom to discover it on my own terms, throwing aside the destiny planted upon me and pursuing goals that are mine and mine alone. It’s magnificent, and combines the strongest aspects of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dark Souls, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Bloodborne, and Sekiro into a sprawling fantasy experience that could easily go down as one of the generation’s 𓆏best.
The Elden Ring network test was a fairly modest taste of the game, providing just enough to kindle my interest while leaving me wanting more. If you’ve been chosen, you’ll be able to play it for yourself this weekend, doing battle with a selection of bosses while toying with classes that occupy all of the archetypes we’ve come to e🐼xpect. I opted for the Bloody Wolf, a fearsome warrior wearing rusted armour and wielding a classic sword and shield combo. An illustrious mane spread down their back, a grey reminder of years spent on the battlefield. Upon picking my class, of which there are five to choose from, I awaken in a cave littered with corpses and debris as small flickers of light showing the way forward.
I can choose to jump into the Cave of Knowledge below, which is basically a tutorial that runs down the essentials of combat, stealth, exploration, and other mechanics that Elden Ring otherwise doesn’t explain to you. But I’m a gamer, so I ignored it and absolutely not because I failed to notice it was even there on my first playthrough. So off I go to The Lands Between, a mysterious place that exists in a plane of existence all its own. It's dark, mysterious, and beautiful - while housing myriad threats that wish to wipe The Tarnished from this place until they have a chance to find its ultimate treasure.
An NPC greets me outside the tomb, laughing in my face as he learns that I, like many others, have come here to find the Elden Ring. I don’t know what this object does or why it is so valued, I’m simply aware that my mission dictates I retrieve it. Like all of the games before it, story details and precious nuggets of lore are hidden amidst environmental details and item descriptions, asking you to seek them out as the world itself does all of the talking. It works perfectly, even in a setting that is significantly more open tha🅷n anything that came before it.
After murdering this creepy guy because this build had no consequences, I stepped into the un🐻known and started bo♎unding up a hill, using the newly acquired jump ability to ascend cliff faces that would otherwise be insurmountable. Soon I stumble across a patrol of undead guards holding torches, but they aren’t aware of my presence. I crouch into the tall grass and creep toward them, executing a stealth attack that exudes the same sense of reward as a perfect parry in Dark Souls or Bloodborne. It feels incredible, and opens up an entirely new dimension of play for Elden Ring. This is no longer a gauntlet of battles you must conquer, it’s a layered open world with mechanics and interactions that feel more akin to Breath of the Wild than anything else. I manage to deck a couple of guards under the cover of darkness until I’m spotted, and then combat drifts into a more traditional Souls affair.
You attack, block, parry, and learn the movements of enemies before using all of these things against them. Foot Soldiers go down easy, while heftier generals wielding larger shields and spears can take further punishment. I failed to notice that I’d backed 𓆏up into a ruined outpost filled with patrolling enemies, who swiftly ambushed me as I fell victim to my first death - one of many to follow. Like its predecessors, Elden Ring is a punishing game that refuses to hold your hand. Discovery is accompanied by challenge, stepping into each💃 new environment is met with a level of trepidation as you curiously peek around each corner to access the threats that might await you. Yet you soon come to conquer each new landmass, learning the inner machinations as you waltz through with a confidence that could only come from a seasoned warrior.
Even in this brief technical test, I felt this triumph as I blasted through fields on horseback slashing away at creatures who hadn’t a chance in hell of dismounting me. If I let my guard down it was all over, but that’s the beauty of it. Part of me was afraid that transitioning to an open world would rob Elden Ring of the complicated nuance that helped make its progenitors so special. Dark Souls and Bloodborne are immaculately detailed works of art, each miniscule item placed with a purpose that reinforces its own existence. There’s a reason fans have spent years combin🌌g over these places and uncovering new details, piecing together theories that provide a cemented purpose that so few games manage to achieve. It’s special, and I’d hate for it to fade away.
Elden Ring walks away from this deliberacy, seeking to broaden its horizons with a sprawling world that hopes to achieve an equal measure of scope and intimacy. Much like Breath of the Wild, this isn’t a world that feels dictated by lazy icons and tired quest design. You could begin walking in any conce♈ivable direction and come across something worthwhile, whether it be a hidden boss or a crumbling landmark hiding treasure that helps build out the wider mythos. There are large areas of the map that have nothing to do with the main quest, they exist to be pilfered through of your own accord. The beach is a perfect example, it was one of the first locations I decided to explore and it had nothing to do with the main objective, yet it was gorgeous.
Subtle waves drifted into shore as they washed over the rotting tentacles of strange creatures that occupied the sands, capable of wiping me out in a single swipe if I stumbled too close. Underneath a rock formation sat a weathered man by a fading campfire. I approached, hoping to strike up a casual conversation, but he immediately withdrew his weapon and engaged me in a duel. I wasn’t ready for a fight, but I met his 🐲mettle and struck him down. A slither of sadness ran across me, that I’d just killed this man who might have been my friend under the right circumstances. I walk over his corpse and collect whatever treasures he left behind before continuing my journey. This felt like a meaningful anecdote, reflective of my experience with Elden Ring and how its world feels built to inspire creativity.
Elden Ring is filled with moments like this, stories of your own that naturally materialise as a product of your own curiosity. Your character doesn’t speak, so your thoughts inevitably become their own as you build them into a legend who will go down in history. I sadly couldn’t customise my avatar with the exception of weapons and s💜pells in this network test, but I can already tell that I’m going to lose countless hours creating a daunting huntress that will take this land and crush it beneath her boots. Bosses treat you like dirt, unworthy of facing them in battle until you eventually conquer them, pressing onto the next challenge that will inevitably best you again and again and again.
The general flow of combat and movement will be familiar to anyone who has dabbled in FromSoftware’s library before, but I embraced that familiarity. Within moments I felt at home, engaging in battles where I emerged victorious with so trouble at all, but I still felt pressured to succeed, like one s💯imple mistake could spell my doom. While battles like this are excellent across the open world, they truly come alive in legacy areas. These are curated dungeons that feel more traditional, often nestled into certain parts of the map with their own distinctive design and structure. I only saw part of one in the network tes🌺t, an abandoned castle with rotten rafters and undead guards that wouldn’t be amiss in Demon’s Souls. Bonfires are replaced by Lost Grace, small collections of golden light where you can rest to upgrade your attributes and assign spells. Here you will find Melina, a young woman who speaks in hush riddles and melancholic verse, much like the guardians of the flame before her. Fast travel can be done from anywhere once you’ve unlocked points of interest, or you can avoid it altogether and follow flowing streams of golden light that act as abstract directions towards new objectives. You can follow it, or forge your own path.
I’m certain some will𓆏 prefer these areas, but they gel perfectly with the open world in ways I didn’t expect. You seamlessly transition into them, no loading screens obstructing The Lands Between as its vast ambition. Allies can be summoned to help you navigate such fortresses or to defeat boss battles, with Elden Ring offering more flexibility compared to previous games when it comes to bringing someone in to carry you. The world is so arresting that I think this approach is welcome, providing newcomers with a way forward if certain encounters prove too challenging. Small signposts are littered across the map that increase the likelihood of summons being successful, while also being an obvious indicator that if you’re having a bit of trouble, don’t be afraid to use these mechanics to your advantage.
It’s too early to tell how the sheer size and scope of Elden Ring will come across in the full game. Even in this small network test, the forest environment I explored was filled with diverse biomes and enemies that all felt distinct, like they’d carved out bespoke ecosystems that feel like a natural part of this world. While Dark Souls is a visual product of death and decay and Bloodborne is symbolic of the bloodlust that accompanies the pursuit of corrupt power, Elden Ring feels like a defeated place that nature is slowly starting to reclaim. Leaves crawl up the surfaces of cracked cobblestone, while ruins are wracked with flowing lights and slick moisture that are both filled with life. The morbid creatures that roam this land are dead and buried, almost like they don’t belong and are trying to claim The ⭕Lands Between as their own. It’s your job to take it back, or to cleanse this region of whatever blight is shackling it from achieving greatness.
Elden Ring is shaping up to be something special, even if its foundations will be keenly familiar to anyone who has dabbled with FromSoftware’s output in the past. Yet this comfort is transcended by a vast open world and a slew of gameplay options that make the possibilities presented before you almost limitless. There’s an inviting melancholy to The Lands Between that is downright enrapturing, pullin🎉g you in and refusing to let go in a way that only games of this ilk are able to achieve. Hidetaka Miyzaki is a genius, and with the correct approach this could be crowned as hiꦫs greatest work yet.