Elden Ring Finally Realizes FromSoftware's Full Potential
Dark Souls 3’s mantra was that if you could see it, you could go to it. Elden Ring realizes that potential 100-fold. Right out of the gate, you can spot illustrious castles in the distance, monolithic towers, and a domineering tree that floods the sky with its golden leaves - yes, you can visit all of that. But it’s not just this mantra that Elden Ring lives up to, it’s FromSoftware’s core design philosophy. It makes no sacrifices in interconnected level design or meaningful exploration - you will never find yourself stranded in an open field with nothing to do. Every single inch of Elden Ring is packed with as much oomph as any past Souls title.
Looking way back to the ‘first’ Souls game, Demon’s Souls boasted a diverse collection of explorable areas. You start in a medieval castle fighting knights and footsoldiers - and gooey sludge things with shields - but you can also travel to sand dunes where miners slave away, poisonous swamps with rickety wooden scaffolding, and a storm-laden peak infested with metallic skeletons. There’s a breadth in its exploration, but it all feels disjointed.
RELATED: Elden Ring Has Ruined Other Open World Games For Me
You find each area by teleporting so none of it feels cohesive. We’re told this is all Boletaria, but I still can’t piece it together in my head. How do the peaks lead into the castle? How do you reach the mine? Dark Souls cut fast travel from the game’s first two acts to fix this problem, making Lordran a 3D Metroidvania with looping levels that tied into themselves, using verticality to keep everything flowing. But that only made the world feel smaller and even then, you’re taken to Anor Londo by flying bat demons. But Elden Ring lets us take the beaten road, stealing loot
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