I give this game a rank S (97-98%)
Masterpiece - buy it now!!!
See my profile for more details about my reviews.

I first wrote a review that was 12 thousand characters long, and Steam refused it. So here is my 'shortened' version.
Why am I writing this review? Elden Ring has been out for a few years, bought by 25 million people, with 700 thousand reviews here on Steam... useless to review it. Except for one thing: to preserve my memory. Indeed I write this to remember what this game meant to me. If you read these words, you belong to one of two categories: either you know/played FromSoftware games (Dark Souls etc) OR not. If you did, and you loved it, you don't need my review: you should enjoy Elden Ring even more, it is one of their best games. If you never played a game by FromS, read on. If you want a short review, skip towards the end, or just remember: I give around 97% to Elden Ring, it is a masterpiece, buy it now!

If you heard about Dark Souls, Sekiro etc, and never played any game by FromS, but were always intrigued, you have a difficult choice ahead of you: either you start with this one, but then you may not enjoy their previous games as much, simply because Elden Ring is so amazing. Or you decide to start with their older games first (ie. Dark Souls trilogy) and in this case, either you do not like them at all (then maybe don't bother with Elden Ring, it is somewhat similar) OR on the contrary you like them! Then whether you found them too hard and stopped, OR fine in difficulty and finished them, just read on.

Quick summary of where I come from: I always wanted to dive in Dark Souls, but it was too hard for me, years later I got a friend to guide me through the whole trilogy in co-op. I really liked it, good games ranging around 7 to 8 out of 10. Many times it felt too hard, almost badly designed, quite frustrating, yet with great lore and atmosphere. (I did not play Bloodborne but I love Sekiro, although I did not finish it yet, too hard.) So when Elden Ring came out, everybody was raving about it, critics and players, and I am wary of that. Still, my friend gifted me the game, saying "Masterpiece, much easier than Dark Souls".

He was 100% right: I spent ~200 hours in Elden Ring (including ~50 hours in DLC), got all the achievements, and I give it an S, a rank I rarely give. It is a masterpiece. But not devoid of flaws! Elden Ring is not hard to describe: imagine that Elden Ring is a bit like Zelda... in theory! An action-adventure game with RPG features, in a wide open world, with a quite hard and demanding gameplay, not for casuals, very far from your traditional AAA game. Yet it is so much more than that!

Elden Ring feels a bit like Dark Souls... but you can jump! There is some tutorial but you can skip it AND it is quite minimal. After 5 minutes in the game, they drop you in an immense (I mean it) open world, they even give you a horse, and they let you gather resources to craft some items! Is this Breath of the Wild but for adults?! A cheeky joke, but I still stand by it: Elden Ring is a bit like Breath of the Wild, some sort of 'another Japanese take on the open world adventure game design' but entirely different.

Visually speaking, I am not afraid of this statement: I think Elden Ring might be the most beautiful game I have ever played in my entire life. Aesthetically speaking, Elden Ring is a paramount of Art, the meticulously crafted art only passionate devs can do. An example of what mankind can achieve for the pleasure of the eye. If you love paintings, movies, architecture, sculpture, photography, drawing... this game is a feast for the eyes from start to finish, every moment. Not a single cutscene, landscape, building, single room, single tiny item has been crafted by FromS without thinking of how to make it look unique and/or beautiful to look at. The choice in colors schemes, lightings, textures, EVERYTHING makes sense for the gameplay and the game design, but also for the aesthetics and the simple beauty of it.

Audio wise, I come from an era where the pleasure of a gamer was to recognize tunes and to be able to hum the melody of a level. Nowadays, this design has quite disappeared, as we get very abstract sound environments in most bigger games. I feel a bit sad about that, yet I can understand the reasons - so I grew okay with this evolution of design. Elden Ring does not differ from that observation: 90% of the music is not a tune with clear melodies, but consists mostly of ambient/mood/atmosphere-based wall paints of sounds, many cues linked together in gigantic and ominous (yet discreet) textural landscapes. And it sounds great! The soundtrack is so amazingly done that it ends up being thrilling and gripping, despite not having clear contours. Sure you will not sing along while riding through a field or creeping in some catacombs... but you will be marked and impressed by the music and sounds all the same!

Now, about the elephant in the room: the gameplay. Yes Elden Ring is largely similar to Dark Souls, no it is not that easy and most casual players may struggle or even give up halfway. Similar gameplay, you just fight lots of tough enemies and tougher bosses in mad and hostile environments. You can choose how to approach that adversity, as there is a ton of choices and possibilities: weapons (swords, axes, bows...), magic (spells, incantations, dragon transformations...), other features (perfume bottles, unique shields, whips...), such an insanely rich, numerous, complex content. Forage weird mushrooms or shiny flowers to craft some mysterious magical or poisonous grease out of it to put on your sword, find a very old, unique spell in a chest in a secret cave and memorize it to make it part of your arsenal. Make whatever build you want, experience whatever type of adventurer/character you want, for your typical, yet rich adventure RPG ala Skyrim. It is also easier than their previous games: LOTS of tools are here to make your journey a breeze. Creatures to summon and help you (Final Fantasy style), side characters to help you, magic flask to enhance you, odd items to consume and boost you... it might be hectic and overwhelming, remembering all the things you have to use before a big fight - but it is a low price to pay to make your life easier if, like me, you struggle by your lone self.

On this note, I would recommend to ANYBODY struggling with the difficulty in Elden Ring to adopt my playstyle: do NOT use your horse to travel! It transformed the game for me into an amazing and relatively easy journey. Always try to walk, and always be thorough in your exploration. If you feel like the next part of the story, ie. the next step in progressing the game is THIS way, then go THAT way instead, go every other way first. Explore every room of every dungeon. Grab all the items you can. This game rewards you for being thorough, for exploring, and if you are exhaustive in your search, your quest will honestly be made quite easier.

Now, all of these elements (video, audio, and gameplay) are all intrinsically linked to the lore, meaning that nothing has been made coincidentally or arbitrarily. Every enemy, every item, every building, every bit that you see, hear or do is linked to the lore, and that is a remarkable feat from FromS. The lore is gigantic, the story very deep and complex, but I will complain about the narration of this game: sadly, I don't like the narration formula in FromS games. I wish it was not so obscure, scarcely spread among item descriptions and very pretentious soliloquies. And the best for the end? the level design. Magistral, splendid, epic, grandiose.

In conclusion, I believe Elden Ring should be remembered in hundreds of years for being a brilliant accomplishment of what artists can create in the Total Art that is video game design. A Masterpiece for the Ages! (DLC is ALSO a masterpiece)

Hem is live on Hem & Watch[www.twitch.tv]

I give this game a rank S (97-98%) Masterpiece - buy it now!!! See my profile for more details about my reviews. I first wrote a review that was 12 thousand characters long, and Steam refused it. So here is my 'shortened' version. Why am I writing this review? Elden Ring has been out for a few years, bought by 25 million people, with 700 thousand reviews here on Steam... useless to review it. Except for one thing: to preserve my memory. Indeed I write this to remember what this game meant to me. If you read these words, you belong to one of two categories: either you know/played FromSoftware games (Dark Souls etc) OR not. If you did, and you loved it, you don't need my review: you should enjoy Elden Ring even more, it is one of their best games. If you never played a game by FromS, read on. If you want a short review, skip towards the end, or just remember: I give around 97% to Elden Ring, it is a masterpiece, buy it now! If you heard about Dark Souls, Sekiro etc, and never played any game by FromS, but were always intrigued, you have a difficult choice ahead of you: either you start with this one, but then you may not enjoy their previous games as much, simply because Elden Ring is so amazing. Or you decide to start with their older games first (ie. Dark Souls trilogy) and in this case, either you do not like them at all (then maybe don't bother with Elden Ring, it is somewhat similar) OR on the contrary you like them! Then whether you found them too hard and stopped, OR fine in difficulty and finished them, just read on. Quick summary of where I come from: I always wanted to dive in Dark Souls, but it was too hard for me, years later I got a friend to guide me through the whole trilogy in co-op. I really liked it, good games ranging around 7 to 8 out of 10. Many times it felt too hard, almost badly designed, quite frustrating, yet with great lore and atmosphere. (I did not play Bloodborne but I love Sekiro, although I did not finish it yet, too hard.) So when Elden Ring came out, everybody was raving about it, critics and players, and I am wary of that. Still, my friend gifted me the game, saying "Masterpiece, much easier than Dark Souls". He was 100% right: I spent ~200 hours in Elden Ring (including ~50 hours in DLC), got all the achievements, and I give it an S, a rank I rarely give. It is a masterpiece. But not devoid of flaws! Elden Ring is not hard to describe: imagine that Elden Ring is a bit like Zelda... in theory! An action-adventure game with RPG features, in a wide open world, with a quite hard and demanding gameplay, not for casuals, very far from your traditional AAA game. Yet it is so much more than that! Elden Ring feels a bit like Dark Souls... but you can jump! There is some tutorial but you can skip it AND it is quite minimal. After 5 minutes in the game, they drop you in an immense (I mean it) open world, they even give you a horse, and they let you gather resources to craft some items! Is this Breath of the Wild but for adults?! A cheeky joke, but I still stand by it: Elden Ring is a bit like Breath of the Wild, some sort of 'another Japanese take on the open world adventure game design' but entirely different. Visually speaking, I am not afraid of this statement: I think Elden Ring might be the most beautiful game I have ever played in my entire life. Aesthetically speaking, Elden Ring is a paramount of Art, the meticulously crafted art only passionate devs can do. An example of what mankind can achieve for the pleasure of the eye. If you love paintings, movies, architecture, sculpture, photography, drawing... this game is a feast for the eyes from start to finish, every moment. Not a single cutscene, landscape, building, single room, single tiny item has been crafted by FromS without thinking of how to make it look unique and/or beautiful to look at. The choice in colors schemes, lightings, textures, EVERYTHING makes sense for the gameplay and the game design, but also for the aesthetics and the simple beauty of it. Audio wise, I come from an era where the pleasure of a gamer was to recognize tunes and to be able to hum the melody of a level. Nowadays, this design has quite disappeared, as we get very abstract sound environments in most bigger games. I feel a bit sad about that, yet I can understand the reasons - so I grew okay with this evolution of design. Elden Ring does not differ from that observation: 90% of the music is not a tune with clear melodies, but consists mostly of ambient/mood/atmosphere-based wall paints of sounds, many cues linked together in gigantic and ominous (yet discreet) textural landscapes. And it sounds great! The soundtrack is so amazingly done that it ends up being thrilling and gripping, despite not having clear contours. Sure you will not sing along while riding through a field or creeping in some catacombs... but you will be marked and impressed by the music and sounds all the same! Now, about the elephant in the room: the gameplay. Yes Elden Ring is largely similar to Dark Souls, no it is not that easy and most casual players may struggle or even give up halfway. Similar gameplay, you just fight lots of tough enemies and tougher bosses in mad and hostile environments. You can choose how to approach that adversity, as there is a ton of choices and possibilities: weapons (swords, axes, bows...), magic (spells, incantations, dragon transformations...), other features (perfume bottles, unique shields, whips...), such an insanely rich, numerous, complex content. Forage weird mushrooms or shiny flowers to craft some mysterious magical or poisonous grease out of it to put on your sword, find a very old, unique spell in a chest in a secret cave and memorize it to make it part of your arsenal. Make whatever build you want, experience whatever type of adventurer/character you want, for your typical, yet rich adventure RPG ala Skyrim. It is also easier than their previous games: LOTS of tools are here to make your journey a breeze. Creatures to summon and help you (Final Fantasy style), side characters to help you, magic flask to enhance you, odd items to consume and boost you... it might be hectic and overwhelming, remembering all the things you have to use before a big fight - but it is a low price to pay to make your life easier if, like me, you struggle by your lone self. On this note, I would recommend to ANYBODY struggling with the difficulty in Elden Ring to adopt my playstyle: do NOT use your horse to travel! It transformed the game for me into an amazing and relatively easy journey. Always try to walk, and always be thorough in your exploration. If you feel like the next part of the story, ie. the next step in progressing the game is THIS way, then go THAT way instead, go every other way first. Explore every room of every dungeon. Grab all the items you can. This game rewards you for being thorough, for exploring, and if you are exhaustive in your search, your quest will honestly be made quite easier. Now, all of these elements (video, audio, and gameplay) are all intrinsically linked to the lore, meaning that nothing has been made coincidentally or arbitrarily. Every enemy, every item, every building, every bit that you see, hear or do is linked to the lore, and that is a remarkable feat from FromS. The lore is gigantic, the story very deep and complex, but I will complain about the narration of this game: sadly, I don't like the narration formula in FromS games. I wish it was not so obscure, scarcely spread among item descriptions and very pretentious soliloquies. And the best for the end? the level design. Magistral, splendid, epic, grandiose. In conclusion, I believe Elden Ring should be remembered in hundreds of years for being a brilliant accomplishment of what artists can create in the Total Art that is video game design. A Masterpiece for the Ages! (DLC is ALSO a masterpiece) [b]Hem[/b] is [b]live[/b] on [b][url=https://www.twitch.tv/hemandwatch]Hem & Watch[/url][/b]