Elden Ring (Xbox Series X|S)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): February 25, 2022
- Release Date (EU): February 25, 2022
- Publisher: Bandai Namco
- Developer: FromSoftware Inc
- Genres: Action RPG
- Also For: Computer, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One
Game Features:
I’m fairly new to FromSoft’s great Soulsbornekirings series, or however they combine the their titles nowadays. Starting with Dark Souls Remastered on the Switch after seeing it on sale a few years ago, I was completely enthralled. Though these games have a reputation for their difficulty, what stood out to me was the carefully-crafted world I found myself exploring. How intentionally each enemy was placed, and how, given time, you could overcome any obstacle. To me, Dark Souls was a game of guided exploration and learning with a difficulty that scaled with your knowledge to keep your encounters satisfying and your victories triumphant. Since then I’ve spent a bit of time playing each game in the series, but none of them quite captured the same spark the bonfire of Firelink had kindled for me. For the first time in many years I wanted to beat a game that wasn’t the first one, I wanted a game to completely captivate me from start to end. It turns out I just wanted Elden Ring.
The Souls series as a whole is one defined by several notable aspects, the biggest of these for me being its combat. Weapons are heavy, attacks are intentional and both designed to punish and be punished if used poorly. Since my time playing the first Dark Souls game and moving through the franchise, I’ve noticed the combat speed up. It’s become more fluid, but it’s still undeniably Dark Souls. Elden Ring feels like a natural step forwards from what was on offer in the third game; frankly it’s a joy to play. You have 31 weapon types to hold in two hands, each with unique actions when hold, two handed, and even when dual wielded. Though much of this was lost on me when I first played due to solely using one or two weapons, my second run opened my eyes to the scale of diversity and variance on offer. I’ve used twinblades and moved into two unique short swords in my most recent run, and I just found myself having more and more fun as I stumbled across caves I’d previously missed and grabbed a weapon I’d never seen.
It’s not just the weapons though. Much like Dark Souls 3, each weapon also has a skill. Where Elden Ring differs from Dark Souls 3 however is that, for the most part, skills are equipable and transferable—to be swapped and used as you wish. These skills, called Ashes of War, only go to put a cherry on the top of this divine cake of combat. The arts vary greatly in function. Some will apply a buff to your weapon, some will cast magic or incantations without the usual casting requirements. My favourite art is something much simpler though: Bloodhound Step. It’s a fairly basic art. You vanish for a moment and then reappear in a different place. It’s a fancy dodge, and it absolutely transformed how I used the otherwise slow and immobile Greatsword thanks to how far you can move and the invulnerability granted while using it. It was like going from the Greatsword of Monster Hunter World to the Greatsword of Monster Hunter Rise with its wirebug addition, as an easy comparison for the hunters out there.
But that’s just one art. There are so many that completely change how you play the game, not to mention the few unique arts that lie within special armaments. Not to spoil them for you, but some strong to the point of being game-breaking. I can’t fully express just how fun it is to wander around the map and stumble across a weapon or art that completely shifts the path you’re on. Something so unique or fun that your entire build pivots to accommodate it. There was just too much for me to try in one journey, leaving me excited to explore the rest in subsequent playthroughs.
This scale is present beyond the game’s diversity in combat however, bleeding into the design of the world and how you interact with it as a whole. Elden Ring isn’t going to be boasting about having the biggest map to grace the open world scene, but what matters is that what is there is filled with life—with a story unfolding naturally and regardless of your presence. Enemies might be fighting amongst themselves, sat around a campfire, patrolling a road or pulling a carriage. Some may run to fight you, but others will just carry on with their lives. The world is large, but not to the point of feeling empty. Micro-narratives are organically presented throughout, leaving you with an incredibly rich and interesting landscape that you’re likely to view differently based on which parts you ended up visiting. I never thought an open world could feel so intentional in its design while still giving the player the freedom to engage or not engage, but here we are.
Naturally there’s another aspect of this world I’ve neglected to mention to this point. Perhaps the most notable aspect of this franchise out of its notorious difficulty: the bosses. You’re looking at more than 150 of these red-barred menaces, and while these aren’t all unique, I was surprised to see how well the duplicated encounters were handled. One fight that stuck with me was the Godskin Apostle. I first encountered this dastard in a small rectangular room in a basement area. He’s a large enemy that mostly relies on close-range attacks and closing distance quickly. In this arena, you had limited room to run away and nothing to really hide behind when in peril. It was a methodical process of learning attack patterns and finding openings to attack up-close. There just wasn’t the room to use the magic I had to that point favoured. It was a fight I enjoyed a lot, despite it not being the flashiest affair. It was a few days later where I found myself exploring a new area where I stumbled across this familiar face, now standing in a very open part of the overworld at the top of a hill. In this setting, I had more space, the ability to put distance between myself and the boss. On top of this I had access to fighting on my horse should I want that degree of mobility. These factors gave me a choice in how I wanted to deal with this enemy, transforming it into a completely different fight. Later yet into the game I came across my old Apostle friend, this time paired with another enemy for a duo boss fight. One more time this familiar boss was transformed, putting a heavier reliance on positioning to split them up from their partner and rewarding the use of spirit summons that could aid in drawing attention. I’m not going to pretend every boss fight is a joy—I ran into plenty of frustrating walls on my first playthrough, most of which I just left along for a while. What I do appreciate however is how far these small changes can go in putting a fresh face in what could otherwise end up feeling like a repetitive fight. It’s an attention to detail that really makes me look and laugh at the state of Izalith in the first Dark Souls game, and celebrate just how far we’ve come.
If I had such fun with the bosses that appeared multiple times, it should go without saying the unique bosses are spectacular. In not wanting to ruin somebody’s first encounters with these foes I’ll keep the details light, but each major fight managed to solidify itself as a milestone in the journey. Some of these bosses are fresh takes of previous creative ideas, but others are completely fresh and utilise everything that’s been put into the game. Of course on top of these you have a few optional bosses behind the scenes that act as a true test of strength, and I feel these are where the devout fans will find the most fun.
Though I somewhat glossed over it in an earlier paragraph, having access to a mount in Elden Ring really is a gamechanger. As something you can collect in the first ten minutes of play, the game guiding you towards the location you get it from, the horse is essential in making the open world work well. Instantly summonable at the press of a button, you’re free to hop on and off to aid in traverse the map, flee from battle, or even engage in cavalry combat. However you choose to use your horse you’ll find yourself appreciating the fluidity of summoning it. One button and it’s there and you’re riding. No annoying menus, no pause as you wait for it to stroll across the map and no awkward jostling to climb onto it. This is how every mount should be, and it shouldn’t be overlooked.
Outside of your horse, there are a huge number of summonable entities in the Summoning Ash items. Giving you convenient access to NPC allies that you can pick and choose between, Summoning Ashes can be brought into boss battles and certain areas to aid you in your quest while you’re otherwise playing solo. I adore this system. Though you only start with one ash in a lovely trio of wolves, you’ll find a brilliant variety of ashes on your journey, each with their own benefits and each able to be levelled up for better utility. You might have skeleton archers, punchy crystal friends, or a happy hawk assisting you from the sky. With the ability to only summon one of these in your fight, you might find yourself picking or choosing, or just focusing on one that you like. The best part of this system is that it’s completely optional, and doesn’t replace NPC summons in the game. If you think having three wolves gnawing at the knees of a pointy-hatted lady with little in the way of poise trivialises the fight, you’re still free to tackle it in the way you find most fun. These options are great, and while they don’t necessarily provide the game with the easy mode many people ask for with these titles, I feel they go a long way in aiding accessibility and enhancing your available arsenal when you come across a fight you struggle with.
Really though, Elden Ring is a game that’s as difficult as you want it to be. Thanks to its more open design, it’s by far the most accessible Souls title to date, assuming you’re happy to embrace everything the game has to offer. There’s many a deeply challenging experience to be had. Playing with no armour, fighting only the essential story bosses, beating the game without levelling up, or even just cutting out the new features like Spirit Ashes. That core challenge still exists for those who want it. But for people new to the franchise, they have so much to play with to ease themselves in. The game gives you so many tools, and I don’t feel there should be any shame in using them. Elden Ring doesn’t have to just be one gruelling session of learning boss pattern after boss pattern. It can be, and frankly is, so much more.
This is a very unique pain.
As a brief note before finishing off the review, it’s worth saying this review is based in its entirety on my experience playing the Series X version of the game. You can find great analysis of the game’s performance on other sites, but I can at least say the game felt great for me as I was going through it. It’s definitely not a solid 60fps experience even in performance mode, but the Series X supporting VRR meant I really didn’t feel the shifting framerate. The single exception to this was in one of the final fights of the game, where an enemy swings a hammer with a large AOE effect coming after slowing the game for a moment. While I did buy my copy at launch, Bandai Namco also provided us with a PC code which I handed to Chary to see how it held up on that platform in particular. You can see her thoughts below:
Chary —
Elden Ring, for the most part, performs well on PC. Even with the multitude of issues the game had at launch, the quality of the PC port was enough to progress all the way to the end with only the occasional annoyance. You will need a large amount of RAM to get by, because Elden Ring enjoys its memory leaks, and there definitely are drops in the framerate in outdoor areas, but the majority of the experience runs well.
Played on two separate rigs, one running a Ryzen 3600X and GTX 2060, and a Ryzen 3700X and GTX 2080 Super, Elden Ring achieved 60fps at 1440p on mostly high settings. Parts of the open world would occasionally dip to 50fps at random, but at the very least, the drops weren't in fights. Anywhere in enclosed spaces even in the midst of large enemies tearing up the terrain with massive attacks, the framerate would stay rock solid.
My three files at the time of writing; the first is my original journey, the second is a close-range dex run, and the third is bow-only!
Elden Ring is the best game I’ve played in many years. It completely captivated me from start to end, and is also the first game I’ve got every achievement for in many years. Having said that, it is still a Souls game. Despite the leaps and bounds it’s made, I don’t think this is the game that will change the mind of somebody who knows they don’t enjoy this style of game. And that’s fine. For those of you who have been patiently sitting on the fence though, and most certainly for those of you who have played and loved a past title, Elden Ring is a masterpiece. It’s everything I look back fondly on from my first playthrough of Dark Souls on a grander stage and executed magnificently. If you get the chance to pick it up, I can only suggest you do so.
Verdict
- Fantastic transition to an open world
- World full of meaningful things to do and find
- Combat feels like a natural evolution of previous titles
- Larger game design makes this the most accessible Souls game to date
- Convenient and hassle-free mount to navigate the world
- Incredible variety of weapons and tools to overcome obstacles
- Performance issues across the board
