DYING TO UNEARTH THE TRUTH
Also for: Playstation 4, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Playing Elden Ring, the latest masterpiece by
FromSoftware, is one of those rare experiences where I repeatedly have to pinch my arm to make sure I'm not dreaming. It contains some of the
rarest sights I've set my eyes upon in a fictional landscape. Taking place in
The Lands Between, an enormous fantasy realm between realms, it seamlessly crosses between dimensions, between dream and
reality, between the Terra Firma and the cosmos. This world might have
borders, but it has no limits.
Sadly, this amazing world is laid to ruin by its own history of rulers led astray by their own grand ambitions. They were all corrupted by madness, human experimentation, civil war,
ecological disaster, disease or divine intervention. Left is only widespread tragedy. You awaken to
the aftermath of this inferno as "The Tarnished", a silent protagonist with no
idea of what happened, what to expect or what to do about it.
You explore The Lands Between through the third person perspective, with some directions occasionally
given by magical beams of light and vague pointers by some illustrious NPC:s.
But above all, the world lies open, ready for you to explore at your own behest. Much of
the story is hidden, and must be unveiled through the aid of people who only
speak in riddles. You can sense in the air, and see in the
crumbling architecture and the sickening color of the skies
themselves, that things are out of order.
And therein lies your ultimate quest. Elden Ring essentially depicts a big,
broken world stuck in an impossible state, waiting for someone to conclude its
story and become "Elden Lord". It's as if the chronicles of the lands lie open
on their last blank page, and your task is to uncover the tales that came
before and close it with the epilogue you deem fitting.
Until that happens, the wizened lords and their minions fight by instinct, with all the
waning strength still left in them, to keep that from happening. In the spirit
of a FromSoftware game, their power is superhuman, and the skill it takes to
bring them down is a testiment to their former glory. As you travel the world
and lay them to rest, you feel less like a hero, and more like an undertaker.
Unless, of course, they make you give up out of frustration - some of them are still
almost impossible to beat. Luckily, you can skip
some of the hardest and still beat the game.
FromSoftware were also the creators of Dark Souls, and the fabulous
Souls-formula echoes strong throughout Elden Ring. You explore, fight, and you
die repeatedly, only to reawaken at the nearest Site of Grace (a.k.a.
checkpoint). There, you can tweak your character and then run off and fight some more.
Or you can fast travel to a different Site of Grace where the opposition is easier. Combat is central to the experience, and it is burdened by realism. If you take a swing or two, you'd better make sure to have enough stamina in store for the retaliation, which you can block with a shield or attempt to dodge.
Elden Ring presents a new approach to the Souls formula by being open world, which makes it
considerably more beginner-friendly and forgiving. If a certain area or
dungeon is too difficult, you can always explore an easier area and return
when you're stronger. You can test your mettle against monsters, animals and
humanoid encounters of an astonishing variation out in the wilderness. Most are simple, but some are
extremely tough; a YouTube-video I once saw depicted a simulated battle
between a strong overworld runebear and the game's toughest boss. The bear won
by a landslide.
Throughout the world, friendly characters and masters of different combat arts
or the arcane teach you their ways. Searching ruins, castles, villages and
dungeons for treasure will uncover powerful weaponry and armor that you might
upgrade with smithing stones. A mysterious maiden strengthens your attributes
in exchange for runes (a.k.a. experience points). All of these ingredients
are familiar to Souls veterans, and we know how alluring they are.
Because of its immense scope, Elden Ring naturally also comes loaded with boss
fights. It allegedly holds a record-breaking 238 boss encounters, but again,
because of its size, many of them are reskins or variations of previous ones.
In terms of unique fights, I cannot say I'm particularly impressed. In fact, the lack of
boss variation and the uneven quality of the encounters themselves is one of the game's worst aspects. Especially when compared to the amazing
qualities of earlier works like Dark Souls III and
Bloodborne.
But Elden Ring is still FromSoftware's most ambitious title to date - and my
personal favorite - with seemingly endless variations on how to build your
character. Putting all my hopes on one of the most powerful early weapons you
can find, the Golden Halberd, I opted for a strength/faith-build that carried
me through the game up until the final string of bosses.
When they totally wrecked me, time after time, I almost had a mental
breakdown. I realized then, that channeling your runes into strength is about as hard as you can make
it for yourself. You may hit like a truck, but because of the sluggish movement, it's hard to find a window for a solid hit at all. In the end, I could only beat the game by priming my secondary
weapon, a more manageable sword, which also meant redistributing some of my
character's attribute points.
The toughest bosses have a frenzy about them I have not seen in other
Souls-games (I still haven't played Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice). As
a clunky heavy-hitter, you can do little to protect yourself. Every stamina-draining swing
leaves you open to devastating counter attacks. You may distract your opponent
with the aid of summoning ashes, that creates an AI-controlled ally to fight
alongside you. Casting different spells and utilizing some weapons' ranged
properties are risk-free ways to dish out damage from afar. But that is no
less true of other, more nimble builds as well.
No matter your method it's still a hopelessly difficult game, and a long one
at that, taking hundreds of hours to complete. My campaign clocked in at a
whopping 138 hours. And the story is not served on a platter. You have to work
for every sliver of progress, figuring it all out for yourself, piecing the
puzzle together from what you find. Entire areas are barred from entry
until you meet certain story requirements that you cannot possibly
fathom until someone, in-game or outside, explains them to you.
You have to delve deep within all of its different realms, scouring the depths
of the world, speaking to the eerily lifeless residents still around, and
reading up on item descriptions for knowledge. And in the end, you won't
probably get the entire scope of what has happened, only bits and pieces of
it. The exquisite world design is so mesmerizing, I haven't been able to resist the
temptation to become an online sleuth. Different lore videos go through
the story in great detail, and it truly holds some fascinating tales of esoteric
allure.
The world map keeps expanding throughout, and its topography only provides you
with vague ideas of where to explore. It contains no quest markers apart from
the ones you insert yourself. Early on you get a steed, called Torrent, who
carries you gracefully across the lands. Elden Ring has some of the best horse
mechanics I've seen, with horseback combat not only possible - it's actually
preferrable against certain bosses in the overworld wilderness.
And for once, Fromsoft do everything they can to unburden your progress. Gone
are the tedious boss rushes; almost every boss fight has a checkpoint right
outside the arena. Your health flask replenishes by simply vanquishing entire
packs of enemies, no matter how easy they are. You can quickly gather
ingredients for crafting life-sustaining stuff and bare essentials, like
arrows, bolts, daggers and bombs.
It's not so much the characters or the story - it's the world building that is the star of the show, turning Elden Ring into FromSoft's
most mesmerizing game to date. It provides the game with the unique
thumbprint that makes it a timeless classic. The skies are ablaze with doom
from above and the vapors from the sickening world beneath. The Lands Between
is a totally unique post-apocalyptic fantasy, with deeper layers of cosmic
horror deep beneath the surface.
It was shaped by the imagination of FromSoftware's Hidetaka Miyazaki in collaboration with famed fantasy author George R.R. Martin (Game of Thrones), who wrote some of the underlying lore. I was
already a huge fan of the studio's earlier fabled works, but nothing
could prepare me for the overwhelming scope of Elden Ring.
One of the most astonishing moments involves finding a crater in the ground,
opening up to an entire underground settlement; an entire world beneath the
huge map above. In spite of its underground location, the skybox is covered
with stars, and the feeling is that of a different dimension altogether. Spirits of old residents, not quite human, still linger and keep intruders at
bay.
"You are not welcome here", Elden Ring constantly seems to communicate,
which naturally only provokes me to dig deeper, thinking: "What are you
hiding? What are you so afraid that I'll find?!" The game rewards my efforts
with an ever-expanding map full of secrets. Elden Ring is a game for
searchers. Everyone will get something of value, be it spectacular sights,
exciting new equipment, magic or just challenging enemy encounters at the end
of long dungeons. The sense of awe and wonder makes it an impossible game to
put down in spite of its brutal difficulty.
But there's more to it than just the surface level spectacle and
hard-as-nails gameplay. The whole game is steeped in mysticism and architectural wonder,
enticing to people with an archeological predisposition as well. Long high
roads in the sky are wider than anything human hands could've put together. In
the ruins of remaining ancient architecture you might come across the husks of
colossal rulers half buried in the rock, or resting petrified in thrones the
size of buildings. Just beware the dragons, watchdogs and wyrms that have
taken residence there.
Finally beating the game brings no conclusions. No matter what drove you to
this world, the replayability is almost endless. "Has the gaming community
found it all? Are there more secrets out there?", I keep asking myself. I keep
wondering how I would fare with another character build. Every weapon, shield
and piece of armor represents a potential second playthrough. I keep recalling
characters whose sidequests never got concluded. Is this "Elden Ring" an
infinite loop? Will it ever leave my mind? I seriously doubt it.
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