HOH BOY.
Where to begin...

I could ago ahead and say what everyone else has said-
How amazing this game is, but it has so many bugs and what-not.
It does.
How you should wait before playing.
You should.
And how this game has so much content.
It does.

But what I'm instead going to talk about is how immersive this game is.
Holy cow, you can really get sucked in. I played from the moment I was able to, and since then I spent nearly 2/3rds of all my time playing Elden Ring.
Not 2/3rds of all my waking hours, no. Including the time I've slept for, 2/3rds of all of it has gone to Elden Ring.
Now, I'm out of college, and I'm unemployed. I have, right now, nothing but free time to play a game like this, and I am lucky for it.
This is a hell of a game, and just what I had hoped for when I heard Fromsoft was working on an open world game. I had my worries, and most of them were washed away upon my first foray into Limgrave. Consumables are renewable (with few exceptions that... might also be renewable, we just haven't found out where yet), and so there's little reason not to spam them around every fight.
Sure, farming up materials and runes (souls) can be a bit of a grind, but each time you go clear through an appropriately challenging area, you usually get more than enough runes for whatever you need. If not, go through another. (or go slap a boss)
That said, if a boss is proving a tough call? Walk away. Come back later. You don't need to throw yourself at it again and again, or fight the same corridor of enemies to level up enough to beat it. You just need to walk away, go find another dungeon, get some new gear, come back later.
The heart of this game is in its desire for the player to adapt. You are going to be challenged heavily if you go through this fight with a single, rigid build. It won't be impossible, but some bosses may feel like brick walls. Prepare to vary your setup.

And also don't be afraid to respec. Once you've unlocked it, there's no cost besides an item you can find around the world. There are about 12-15ish of them, so that's 12-15ish times you can try a totally new build.
Upgrade materials are farmable from monsters, and also some bosses reward you with the ability to buy them too. Don't be afraid to experiment with new equipment.

Fromsoft challenged themselves with something new, and it paid off. Now they want you to do the same. Be creative, be adventurous and most importantly, go at your own pace.

This game is very accessable, but make no mistake in thinking "accessable" means "easy". It doesn't.
The bosses hit hard as anything, and the chaff is hardly a cakewalk too. This is a Fromsoft game, and that, for sure, shows.

Admittedly, I've only had three bugs present in my saves-
1. Poorly loading terrain leading to me falling through the world (at one point into a boss arena I shouldn't have been in)
2. Poorly loading enemies, leading to me being able to run through empty dungeon rooms, where there should have been packs.
3. Large moments of game-halting stuttering, leading to the game falling down to one or two frames per second inexplicably.

These issues need to be fixed, and I've no doubt they will in time. It's a fresh game, and early day bugs are bound to show with so many people now able to experience them across so many varieties of hardware and software. Have patience, a fix will come.

That said, there is only one gripe I have with this game otherwise.
The quests.
Normally, in the souls-like series, the world is linear, and the NPC's locations reflect that. Typically showing up somewhere later down your linear path, or at least in a predictable location you've been to already.
Point is, there are only so many places to look for an NPC.
That way, the NPCs can afford to be vague with their directions and quest dialogue.
Now, it's well known already this game is open world. The NPC's quest dialogue has not changed to reflect that.
They are still as vague as ever, leading to you running around practically an entire continent just trying to work out where this single NPC is, based on their vague hints. Sometimes they don't even give hints. Sometimes they're tucked away in an obscure corner. God knows how the wiki-makers found them.
But, like any other game of this type, you can screw up questlines royally before knowing they even existed.
The quests are really well written, and the ones I found were really fun to play through, but the wiki was a must-have.

And finally, to close my complaints, I have but one more. Not one with the game, though.
The wikis.
A game like this relies on *very* inquisitive players. To track down items, to poke the item at every NPC, to find hidden things (like NPCs literally disguised as bushes or a barrel... Yes, that's a thing, please keep an eye out in-game).
The main downside to a game being this new, is that the wikis are unfinished and unreliable.
Don't expect to be able to hit every point on your first playthrough. It won't happen, even with the wiki.


But, in summary,
This game is a masterwork. Fromsoft put a lot of time, effort, and even heart into this and it shows.
From familiar names, familiar faces, and all the poison swamps you can dream of, it's a must-buy for from-fans.
If you're the patient type and can look past the occasional bug and stutter, I strongly recommend buying it.
If you aren't, and those things infuriate you, I still do. Just... wait until it's patched.

Happy Hunting, Tarnished.