Elden Ring review – prepare to praise

metro.co.uk:

The makers of Dark Souls present an open world take on the Soulsborne formula that may be the biggest, and most difficult, game of the year.

In just over a decade FromSoftware has managed to go from an obscure Japanese developer, with not a single mainstream hit to their name, to one of the most revered studios in the world, whose every new game is subject to the same level of anticipation and scrutiny as a top tier Nintendo or Naughty Dog title. Much of that is due to director Hidetaka Miyazaki, whose work on the original Demon’s Souls was largely overlooked but who changed the face of gaming with Dark Souls, which made it fashionable for video games to be unforgivingly difficult.

As far as most modern video game design is concerned having a player fail, or not know exactly what to do at every moment, is a cardinal sin but Miyazaki sees both as essential features. There’s no cloying safety net in any of his games, including Elden Ring which despite the name, and the details of the plot, could easily be retitled as Dark Souls 4.

There are two main reasons why it’s not, the first being that it has a much bigger budget, and therefore more technically advanced graphics, than any previous From game. The second is that it is open world. All the previous games were to at least a limited degree but Elden Ring is open world in the modern Ubisoft sense of the phrase. At times it’s very easy to see this as Zelda: Breath Of The Wild’s older, goth brother but the heart of the game is a very familiar Dark Souls style combat system… and the agony and ecstasy that its precision-based action brings.

The names may be different but most of the basic concepts in Elden Ring are the same as Dark Souls, and indeed Bloodborne and Sekiro. Runes