I had been playing Elden Ring for just shy of 30 hours when I finally beat the game’s second main-story boss. Given that the “Soulsborne” franchise/sub-genre from developers From Software – of which Elden Ring is the latest addition – is infamous for its murderously unforgiving difficulty, you would think that my rather extended playtime vs my seemingly scant progress was evidence that I had spent a large chunk of those hours running up against a proverbial wall of blades, flames, and death, over and over again. That’s not true though. Not quite. And therein lies the secret ingredient of Elden Ring’s success.

It’s a success that has seen Elden Ring earn a landslide of critical praise (so many 10/10 scores that it bordered on absurd) and easily take the Game of the Year frontrunner slot. It’s seemingly all the gaming world has been buzzing about since this open-world fantasy RPG released a few weeks ago. It even comes with major star power appeal as legendary video game creator Hidetaka Miyazaki turned to Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin to craft the game’s sprawling tale of fallen gods and eldritch destinies in The Lands Between, a massive world inhabited by warring armies, monsters, and dragons, in which your character – one of the “Tarnished” – has been thrust.

With such a pitch, you may be wondering if maybe you should also see what all the fuss is about. However, you know the reputation From Software games have and you’re feeling rather nervous about committing the time and money (these games ain’t cheap!) to it. Well, that’s where this article comes in. So let’s just kick this off with the big question…

DO YOU NEED TO BE A SOULSBORNE VETERAN TO PLAY THIS GAME?

Here I can answer a definitive “No!” as I would definitely consider myself a Soulsborne newcomer, or “noob” to use the appropriate nomenclature. Years ago, I tried out the three Dark Souls games for a scattering of hours each, but neither of them took – besides for the difficulty (which I don’t mind if the rest of the game grips me), the mopey grim fantasy aesthetic just didn’t gel with me – and I subsequently skipped right over Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and Demon’s Souls. Even with those poor credentials, I have fallen in love with Elden Ring. And it’s all because of that secret to success I mentioned above.

A TRULY OPEN OPEN-WORLD

It doesn’t take long to complete the game’s opening sequence and find your first Site of Grace. These serve as both checkpoints where your health, focus (magical ability), and items are replenished as well as markers in the game, literally pointing you to the next area of interest. Except, there’s absolutely no reason to follow that guidance. In fact, it’s best not to as the game intentionally points you straight in the direction of Margit the Fell Omen, the first main-story boss, long before you’re actually ready to face him and his cheap attacks. Instead, you should go somewhere else. Anywhere else. And I really mean ANYWHERE.

Elden Ring’s The Lands Between is a living, breathing world that is often hellbent on killing you, but which also vehemently encourages exploration of its every nook and cranny. There’s been many a comparison to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and for good reason, and that’s because Elden Ring, like that Nintendo masterpiece, gives you complete freedom as to how to tackle its world. With the exception of a few story-related locked doors, there are virtually no restrictions once you step into Limgrave, the first region you find yourself in, irrespective of your character level in the game. You can approach any location/enemy in any sequence. If there’s anything noteworthy you can see in the distance, you can go there to check it out. Even when you can’t see it.

Unexplored areas on your map are covered in shadow, but you can still travel these routes and hopefully find specially marked totems that open up that portion of the map. This is where I spent the bulk of my playtime thus far, traversing the expansive landscape freely to find dungeons to explore; to meet colourful characters that gave me quests and filled me in with tidbits on the game’s lore; to encounter merchants that sold me better gear and supplies; to even be invaded by other Tarnished (both other human online players and AI-controlled opponents) and invade them in turn in Elden Ring’s version of multiplayer; and, of course, facing (and often running away from) lots and lots of enemies.

The exploration and running away parts are made much quicker and easier than in any of Elden Ring’s predecessors through the use of Torrent, your spectral steed, AKA a magical horse-goat that you can summon out of thin air to ride. It allowed me to experience and fall in love with this sprawling world, always excited by the fantastical possibilities waiting just over this sun-dappled hill, just under that stygian cave, just past those eerily glowing bogs. There was always something calling me on. Even when, more often than not, that something resulted in my death.

DIE, DIE, AND DIE AGAIN

Elden Ring is arguably From Software’s most accessible title, but that isn’t to say that it welcomes newcomers with open arms and a gracious smile. It is steeped in the mechanics that have become synonymous with these Soulsborne games, most notably brutal enemies that will end your existence in seconds. However, unlike most other game franchises where dying is the ultimate undesired roadblock forcing you to reset your story, dying in a Soulsborne game is more of a series of inevitable and necessary stumbles on the path of completing your story.

Whether you’ve customized your character to focus on crushing close-quarter melee, stealthy long-range weaponry, world-breaking arcane magic, or some combination of them all, combat is still a chess match of patience, study, and timing. Each boss you face – irrespective if they’re the toweringly epic main story ones, or the many lesser bosses roaming the open world – have their own tactics and patterns you will need to learn and prepare for by memorizing combos, equipping gear and using items that help to negate their attacks. And you can only know to do so through the constant cycle of death and rebirth.

Of course, that death often comes in the most humbling of forms. One minute you’ve mastered and destroyed a massive dragon-wielding demi-god in a gothic castle and the next you’re bitten to death by a mangy dog behind a dirty shack. Dying also means losing all your acquired runes – the currency/XP you earn when dispatching enemies, and which is used to level up you character’s many statistics. Those runes can be reclaimed as they’re left lying at the site of your death though, encouraging you to go right back to the spot of your previous demise to face your vanquisher armed with the foreknowledge of their behaviour. Or you may realize you are vastly outmatched – a frequent occurrence – and would prefer avoiding those enemies/that area until later when you are higher level. Either way, the cycle repeats.

This is the core gameplay loop of Elden Ring, one that is every bit as rewarding (nothing beats going back to trounce a beastie who previously ragdolled you) as it is nerve-wracking (if you die again before reclaiming your dropped runes, they’re lost forever). Despite the serenity and beauty of traversing the weather-swept lands, this is most certainly not a game in which you can just relax and lose focus in, no matter how seemingly banal the area you find yourself.

DIY TO THE EXTREME

One of the main reasons for this necessary state of permanent alertness is that quite often you don’t know if the thing you’re doing is what you should be doing or how you should be doing it. That freedom you have in the exploration extends to every facet of the game as Miyazaki and co outright refuse to hold your hand. Many players will die in their first few enemy encounters simply because they don’t know the basics of combat. They would have learned those basics if they had done the game’s early tutorial, except it’s exceptionally easy to miss, being literally hidden down a massive hole. Well played.

The same even applies to some game items that would assist players: A whetstone knife to add special abilities to your weapons easily, a sewing kit to customize your appearance, a trap item designed specifically to assist with the almost-unfairly difficult first major boss. All these and more are there, available very early in the game… if you happen to find them (simple messages that can be left by other players in the world often offer hints of something significant in the area… That is when they’re not trying to troll you into an undignified death). Elden Ring gives you every tool you need to survive this sandbox but almost never hands any of them to you directly.

WHAT AM I DOING HERE?

For some, the level at which From Software leans into this fundamental concept of freedom is a celebrated Breath of the Wild breath of fresh air; for others it will require a tectonic shift in thinking when it comes to these types of games. And that even permeates through to the storytelling.

Despite my extended hours of gameplay (admittedly still a fraction of its closer-to-100-hours total length), I’ve still only gleaned a smattering of Elden Ring’s narrative. There’s more direct storytelling in the combined six-minute runtime of the game’s announcement and story trailers than in the in-game cutscenes I’ve experienced, as the hefty tome of fantasy lore penned by Martin for the game is secreted away in item descriptions, environmental clues, brief dialogue exchanges, and the like.

Luckily, there is also a rabidly dedicated community that has sprung up around these Soulborne games. Several YouTube channels are dedicated to the painstaking detective work of piecing together story scraps into deep narrative explainers as engrossing as they are creative. What is the Elden Ring, the Shattering of which, by the god-empress Queen Marika, prompted The Lands Between being turned into a landscape of war and torment? Who are the demi-god offspring of Marika, warring against each other for heavenly power? Why are you, one for the formerly disgraced warriors known as the Tarnished, back to lay your own claim on godlike majesty? If you want truly complete answers to these questions and more then be prepared to probably get them outside of the game itself.

IT’S WORTH IT

This is the thing with Elden Ring though. It’s a game that feels too large, too epic to be contained in the restrictive virtual box most RPGs find themselves in. Would I prefer that some items/mechanics are less obscure? Definitely. Not everything needs to be a cryptic puzzle. Especially not things that are fundamental to the way the game is played. Did I want a little more narrative setup at the start of the game? Undoubtedly. I may just be weird this way, but I prefer actually knowing why I just disembowled some random soldier with a Greatsword twice as long as he is tall, other than the fact that doing so will grant me enough runes to up my Endurance stat and thus let me roll around on the ground more before tiring.

However, the palpable sense of wonder found in the exploration of this world in which every creative element feels deliberately placed to evoke a response is so overwhelming, that it becomes addictive. Decisions about how to tweak the intricacies of my character build have consumed my thoughts. Regrets of picking one weapon or path over another weigh on my mind. Like so many other players, Elden Ring has me thoroughly in its clutches and I’m loving the embrace. And thus putting in that extra effort to understand its many peculiarities becomes less a chore and more another layer of gameplay to get utterly lost in.

As I have essentially just scratched the surface on everything Elden Ring has to offer, I’m very hesitant to call this lengthy write-up a review. But when looking at other reviews do I think this game is as perfect as many made it out to be? Honestly, no. What From Software has managed in their maiden effort to transplant their established genre into an open-world is astonishing, but there’s still room for improvement. Besides the abovementioned gripes, the game’s visuals look very much like the previous generational title it actually is. There are also some seriously annoying details in the game that will have every player raging, such as inadvertently consuming one of your precious health flasks even when your health is already full.

So no, Elden Ring is not a perfect game. But that’s not the question I sought to answer when I started writing this article so long ago. Is this the perfect game for those Soulsborne-averse gamers like me to finally sink their teeth into? That definitely rings true to me.