I just finished Elden Ring, and oh boy do I have some thoughts.
Let’s just put this out there: I think Elden Ring is the greatest open world game since possibly Skyrim, and is arguably even better than Bethesda’s decade-old masterpiece. But a 10/10 videogame? Eh… I dunno.
Before I continue, I want to pre-empt any “git gud” responses by presenting my credentials for your consideration. I’m fresh off getting all the achievements in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and I was able to tick off every achievement in Elden Ring too. I eagerly look forward to doing the same in Bloodborne when (not if) it releases on PC. I assure you I am “gud” enough.
I don’t even think Elden Ring is that difficult. Once you get past the first ten or so hours, the game opens up massively and becomes a cake-walk until the very, very late game. I’ve spent longer on side bosses in Sekiro than I’ve spent on any story boss in Elden Ring, and I definitely spent longer on Isshin than I did on Radagon. I also don’t mind the framerate and stuttering issues on PC, even though I do think it ultimately should factor into review scores.
The major issues I had with Elden Ring are actually down to the way From Software designed its open world and boss fights.
There are many boss fights in the game that are unique, visceral, and an absolute delight to play through, but the majority of these are encountered while following the game’s various questlines. Quick aside: good luck completing all of this game’s side quests without following a guide, because I failed so many entirely on accident (and, to be clear, I’m fine with that).
When not following one of the major questlines – for example when spelunking through the game’s various mines, caves, or catacombs; or just running around in the open world – it quickly becomes clear that there are a lot of repeated boss fights. I cannot tell you how many Erdtree Avatars, Ulcerated Tree Spirits, and Tree Sentinels I fought. It got to a point when I groaned upon discovering an upcoming boss fight was another rinse and repeat, and I already knew I was about to experience the same annoying and painful combos… except this time in red instead of blue.
Which brings me to my second point, which is the seemingly infinite stamina all bosses, and some regular enemies, have. Some foes will absolutely combo you non-stop until you die. There will be no opportunity to heal, no way to create distance, and you will absolutely run out of stamina just trying to roll out of harm’s way before they close in for the kill. That’s frustrating, that’s not good enemy design, and From seemed to have really leaned into it in this game, more so than I’ve seen in their previous releases.
A minor addition to this gripe is the game seemingly being balanced around making use of summons, to the point that some bosses require you to either be a god or use a summon, with little to no middle ground. A friend set a personal challenge to finish the game at level 70 without using summons, and consequently spent almost three days stuck on a particular boss fight (Elden Ring players, you know the one). When they eventually triumphed, it was a bittersweet feeling of relief but also frustration at, in their own words, “the amount of bullshit this boss throws at you.”
My friends consequently enjoy memeing on the game by responding with, “10/10 game.” The idea here, of course, being that a perfect game has no criticisms.
So, how does a game with clear design flaws get a near-perfect rating on almost every known review site on release?
I have two theories here.
One of them is the simple fact that From’s “soulsborne” games are not for everyone. This naturally means that when a site is offered the opportunity to review the latest From game, it will likely go to someone who is already a fan of the developer. This bias – and bias isn’t necessarily a bad thing as any media studies student will tell you – leads to a natural preference for this style of game, which then inflates the impression one receives. That memorable boss fight is all the more memorable. The story, difficult as it is to understand, is so obvious if you’re paying attention. This pre-converted reviewer will fight hundreds of repeated bosses with bullshit moves, across many playthroughs. They don’t care, it’s dopamine and they need more of it.
The second idea I have is arguably a bit more controversial, but makes sense if you take the hundred-plus-hour investment Elden Ring demands, and the tight timelines reviewers typically are working to, from the time of receiving a review copy to the day the review – written or otherwise – is due. Perhaps some reviewers just didn’t play through most of the side content, and so didn’t experience the repeated boss fatigue that I did? I often wondered how many reviewers fought through the dozen or so Ulcerated Tree Spirits and thought, “This is absolutely perfect!”? Or how many managed to defeat the boss I mentioned my friend getting stuck on? Or, returning to something else I mentioned, how many reviewers failed questlines through no fault of their own but rather because the game’s massive scale meant there was just no good way to track an NPC across multiple interactions in order to progress a quest?
Debatable?
Either way, I think with From games, and Elden Ring especially, what you’re left with is a subset of reviewers that are predisposed towards rating the game highly, so all it really needs to do is show up and it’s going to score highly. This has been my experience with previous From games as well, most notably Dark Souls II which I reviewed a lifetime ago and attracted so, sooo much hate for giving it a 7/10. I imagine most From fans would agree with that rating in hindsight, but at the time it was akin to blasphemy. How dare I not praise the sun, or some such.
I want to re-emphasise that Elden Ring is a fantastic videogame, incontestably a masterpiece in open world design that few other games can compare to. That said, it’s nonetheless still a flawed experience. I think Sekiro – still so fresh in my mind, having just played through it – presented a more polished experience from start to finish; one I felt no qualms about playing through a second time with my freshly acquired skills. Elden Ring is From’s first attempt at an open world, and it’s one heck of an attempt. It’s just… not perfect. A solid 9 in my book!