At first, it’s happening so slowly that you barely notice it. Out on the rolling, introductory fields of Limgrave, every encounter, no matter how small, is a risk – one that must be carefully weighted and considered before launching yourself into the fray.
Elden Ring review
- Publisher: FromSoftware, Bandai Namco
- Developer: FromSoftware
- Platform: Played on PS5
- Availability: Out 25th February on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PC.
Every dank, echoing cave you step into could spell your doom, every seemingly sleepy ruin or settlement you pick your way through could be harbouring any number of twisted inhabitants seeking your cold, lonely end. Even out under the vast, open skies of these Lands Between you aren’t safe. Your trusty steed Torrent might speed you from certain dangers, true, but even he isn’t fleet-footed enough to outrun a tornado of dragonfire or a billowing cloud of poison spewed forth by a corrupted sentient flower. In this world, you start as nothing, no-one.
But then, little by little, your power grows. The lowly bandits and wolves and soldiers you cut down turn to runes, these runes are channelled into power that steadies your sword hand, bolsters your spellcasting intellect, and enhances your ability to withstand a troll club full to the face. Bandits and wolves and soldiers turn to demons and witches and fey, and your power grows again. You feel you might be strong enough to journey south, to a ragged peninsula where beasts have overrun a castle by the sea; to the West, where lush marshlands have swallowed whole a once great centre for scholarly learning; to the East, where desert sands are stained red with blood and rot, or to the North, where a great golden capital lies, or perhaps you’ll set off to a multitude of other faraway destinations between. As your power grows, so too does the challenge, and the wonder of the journey before you. Before long, you feel you just might be strong enough to challenge the demigods themselves.
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This is an ebb and a rhythm well-known to fans of From Software games by now. It’s a song of life, death and a fading world of monstrous beings, with every refrain a challenge to get back up and try and die and try again. FromSoftware games – namely Demon Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro – pride themselves on this particular genre of melancholic, masochistic action, and are in turn loved by fans for it – but they aren’t known for being all that welcoming or accessible to new players. It’s been clear for some time that with Elden Ring, the developer was hoping to satisfy core fans with ample challenge in a vast open world (the biggest the studio has ever undertaken), while courting potential new players with the promise of tools to help ease their passage through incredibly – and increasingly – unforgiving encounters.
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In this, Elden Ring is surprisingly successful. Veteran Soulslike fans will find stages set for epic showdowns set to test their resolve, while new players can call upon small and entirely optional devices that, while still demanding a certain level of skill before allowing you to carry on through the world, preserve the thrill without making you feel like you’re repeatedly bashing your head against a brick wall. A lot of enemy encounters and even boss fights are made instantly more manageable with the simple inclusion of a distraction to buy you seconds of breathing room, and this part is played by new mechanic Spirit Summons, reusable items that spring forth echoes of beings to fight by your side until their death or the death of your enemy.