Despite having two major shortcomings (lack of Ultrawide support and no PS icons for my DualSense controller), I can't help but want to give this a thumbs up. I'm not unaware of "Souls" games, but the main series left me cold. I fell off Dark Souls 1 and 3 with around 10 hours played total! That said, I enjoyed Souls-like games such as The Surge 1 and 2, and the open world nature of this convinced me this would be different. And it is!

All of the Dark Souls trappings are still here but with the addition of so much more content to distract you from throwing yourself at a challenging boss over and over. Every corner of the map has something interesting and something deadly (often both at the same time). From Software has taken the Breath of the Wild concept and improved upon it with their brand of aesthetic, which is a perfect combination. Plus there is no weapon wear and your horse is far more useful than anything in that Zelda game. Also, where BotW was mostly empty, Elden Ring's world is packed with content.

I read a review that said 80 hours to complete, and I scoffed. Not that that seemed unrealistic, but that I didn't think I would even come close to that. I've had the game less than a week and I'm at 25 hours played. Getting to 80 hours seems a given now.

Despite having two major shortcomings (lack of Ultrawide support and no PS icons for my DualSense controller), I can't help but want to give this a thumbs up. I'm not unaware of "Souls" games, but the main series left me cold. I fell off Dark Souls 1 and 3 with around 10 hours played total! That said, I enjoyed Souls-like games such as The Surge 1 and 2, and the open world nature of this convinced me this would be different. And it is! All of the Dark Souls trappings are still here but with the addition of so much more content to distract you from throwing yourself at a challenging boss over and over. Every corner of the map has something interesting and something deadly (often both at the same time). From Software has taken the Breath of the Wild concept and improved upon it with their brand of aesthetic, which is a perfect combination. Plus there is no weapon wear and your horse is far more useful than anything in that Zelda game. Also, where BotW was mostly empty, Elden Ring's world is packed with content. I read a review that said 80 hours to complete, and I scoffed. Not that that seemed unrealistic, but that I didn't think I would even come close to that. I've had the game less than a week and I'm at 25 hours played. Getting to 80 hours seems a given now.