Elden Ring's Open World is An Antithesis to Traditional Open-World Games
Very few games see such a limelight that nearly every gamer, from all corners of the gaming industry (both as casuals or professionals), is talking about it and/or playing it. Among games like The Last of Us 2, The Witcher 3, or Grand Theft Auto 5, not many gaming enthusiasts would've anticipated that a FromSoftware game would end up in that position. Dark Souls and Soulslike games have earned a notoriety for difficulty, and yet, that hasn't steered away the average players from Elden Ring. Plenty of factors contributed to Elden Ring's massive popularity, but a big contributor to the game's longevity so far has been the transition of a Soulslike to an open-world design.
Open-world games have certainly come into their own as a unique subgenre, encompassing everything from first-person shooters to third-person action-adventure games. Different flavors of open-world games have come from a variety of developers and publishers; whether it's Ubisoft's brand of content-laden worlds filled to the brim, or Nintendo's carefully curated world in Breath of the Wild. Both developers have taken on unique approaches to open-world game design and helped inspire plenty of other open-world games after them, but Elden Ring is rightfully different. Even in its inaugural effort, FromSoftware has managed to innovate open-world game design.
Elden Ring Fans Are Speculating About Malenia's Shadow
Open-world games aren't all created equal. Despite both releasing in 2017, Horizon Zero Dawn and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild were two almost-diametrically opposing approaches to creating an open-world RPG. Horizon Zero Dawn places the focus more so on the diversity of inhabitants and the intrigue or immersion of the narrative within its world,
Read more on gamerant.com
