Main Game Review

I love this game. My first playthrough felt like the journey of a lifetime, and I continue to discover new secrets over 200 hours later. There is so much to do and see, it's hard to believe that a game of this magnitude could possibly exist in the first place. Definitely a must-play game and one of the greatest of all time.

DLC Review

As for the expansion, I can't praise it enough. It's almost perfect, and it feels more like an entirely new game than a DLC.

So far, I've been loving all the new weapons, they have fun and varied movesets with my favourite being the light greatsword. I only wish that the new weapons were better distributed amongst the new weapon "categories", as some received several new weapons while others consist of only a single new weapon. Thankfully, there are many new Ashes of War to compensate for this.

The game is difficult, but refreshingly so. The scaling difficulty mechanic is fun as it prompts exploration in order to power up, mirroring the lessons learned in the base game (but which 40% of initial Steam reviewers seemingly forgot).

Something I have been convinced of upon playing this expansion is that the creative staff at FromSoftware must be some sort of gaming wizards with how much expertise they are pouring into the level design, despite Elden Ring being their first and only open world game project to date. Exploration in Shadow of the Erdtree feels much more rewarding than in the base game, which was already set at a high bar. There are secrets and sneaky paths hidden in every corner of the map, and the layout of the world prompts genuine curiosity as you constantly spot interesting landmarks in the distance, while navigating the three distinct layers of the map. The level design in the legacy dungeons is phenomenal, and it really reminded me of some of the more memorable locations in Dark Souls 3. Amazingly, they also managed to sneak in some unexpected Dark Souls 3 fanservice (IYKYK). In spite of all this praise, some regions are (still) unfortunately underpopulated, a weakness carried over from the base game. I can certainly appreciate stunning art direction and beautiful vistas, but it feels a bit wasteful to invest so many resources in creating something which is all but empty from a gameplay perspective (Cerulean Coast I am looking at you).

Having finished the DLC now, I have to say that I think FromSoftware needs to level up their quest and story design. I don't think that the quests and story in the expansion are substantively bad, just that they feel technically underdeveloped. I think that FromSoftware absolutely nailed questing as a gameplay mechanic in Armored Core 6, and that game also has plenty of animated cutscenes which really brought the story to life. If they carried this over to a future Elden Ring successor, and improved the clarity of quests - like making it easier to track your progress and find your next objective, without relying excessively on metagaming (as is currently the case) - it would be a massive improvement and would quell one of the main criticisms of FromSoftware's portfolio.

The bosses in this expansion have been amazing, because they've had unique and challenging attack patterns which forced me to change my approach and develop new, original strategies from my own experimentation in order to beat them. It feels cathartic when you defeat a boss by relying solely and entirely on your own skill and wisdom. Messmer, and especially the Final Boss, are DEFINITELY my new favourite bosses in the entire series, even surpassing Gael from Dark Souls 3. The Final Boss fight was just so phenomenal on so many levels, perfectly balancing difficulty, spectacle, and sound track to deliver an unforgettable climax to this incredible expansion.

In summary: game is harder than expected, map is way bigger than we were promised, loads of cool bosses, combat is vastly expanded through new weapons and skills, fun and mysterious main adventure, feels like playing a brand new game again.

In its entirety, Elden Ring is hands down the best game I have ever played in my life.

[u][h1]Main Game Review[/h1][/u] I love this game. My first playthrough felt like the journey of a lifetime, and I continue to discover new secrets over 200 hours later. There is so much to do and see, it's hard to believe that a game of this magnitude could possibly exist in the first place. Definitely a must-play game and one of the greatest of all time. [u][h1]DLC Review[/h1][/u] As for the expansion, I can't praise it enough. It's almost perfect, and it feels more like an entirely new game than a DLC. So far, I've been loving all the new weapons, they have fun and varied movesets with my favourite being the light greatsword. I only wish that the new weapons were better distributed amongst the new weapon "categories", as some received several new weapons while others consist of only a single new weapon. Thankfully, there are many new Ashes of War to compensate for this. The game is difficult, but refreshingly so. The scaling difficulty mechanic is fun as it prompts exploration in order to power up, mirroring the lessons learned in the base game (but which 40% of initial Steam reviewers seemingly forgot). Something I have been convinced of upon playing this expansion is that the creative staff at FromSoftware must be some sort of gaming wizards with how much expertise they are pouring into the level design, despite Elden Ring being their first and only open world game project to date. Exploration in Shadow of the Erdtree feels much more rewarding than in the base game, which was already set at a high bar. There are secrets and sneaky paths hidden in every corner of the map, and the layout of the world prompts genuine curiosity as you constantly spot interesting landmarks in the distance, while navigating the three distinct layers of the map. The level design in the legacy dungeons is phenomenal, and it really reminded me of some of the more memorable locations in Dark Souls 3. Amazingly, they also managed to sneak in some unexpected Dark Souls 3 fanservice (IYKYK). In spite of all this praise, some regions are (still) unfortunately underpopulated, a weakness carried over from the base game. I can certainly appreciate stunning art direction and beautiful vistas, but it feels a bit wasteful to invest so many resources in creating something which is all but empty from a gameplay perspective (Cerulean Coast I am looking at you). Having finished the DLC now, I have to say that I think FromSoftware needs to level up their quest and story design. I don't think that the quests and story in the expansion are substantively bad, just that they feel technically underdeveloped. I think that FromSoftware absolutely nailed questing as a gameplay mechanic in Armored Core 6, and that game also has plenty of animated cutscenes which really brought the story to life. If they carried this over to a future Elden Ring successor, and improved the clarity of quests - like making it easier to track your progress and find your next objective, without relying excessively on metagaming (as is currently the case) - it would be a massive improvement and would quell one of the main criticisms of FromSoftware's portfolio. The bosses in this expansion have been amazing, because they've had unique and challenging attack patterns which forced me to change my approach and develop new, original strategies from my own experimentation in order to beat them. It feels cathartic when you defeat a boss by relying solely and entirely on your own skill and wisdom. Messmer, and especially the Final Boss, are DEFINITELY my new favourite bosses in the entire series, even surpassing Gael from Dark Souls 3. The Final Boss fight was just so phenomenal on so many levels, perfectly balancing difficulty, spectacle, and sound track to deliver an unforgettable climax to this incredible expansion. In summary: game is harder than expected, map is way bigger than we were promised, loads of cool bosses, combat is vastly expanded through new weapons and skills, fun and mysterious main adventure, feels like playing a brand new game again. In its entirety, Elden Ring is hands down the best game I have ever played in my life.