Elden Ring review – Tarnished by ambition - Xbox Outsider

Elden Ring is a truly ambitious game, but its lack of focus and inconsistent pacing bogs down the experience.

[Elda]

I put 150 hrs in so far & having a great time with the game. I have the final boss to tackle including about 8 more optional bosses then I'll be done with the game. The reviewer con says it doesn't really distinguish itself from previous games which I definitely agree with. To me it's basically DS4 that's now open world,one can travel with a horse & have the summons to help you fight everything else seems the same to me.

[SurgicalMenace]

Glad someone else sees it too. I'm a little tired of hearing how it's the best game ever made. I'm enjoying it but it has far too many short comings to be the best. Graphics, item management, disables abilities during coop, and many more elements that subtract from making it as great as people claim.

[Elda]

Exactly. Towards the end of the game if you need help with the bosses you can't randomly summon folks to co-op with you as you could earlier in the game. The game is fun but it's basically a Souls game & everything in the game is not perfect. I give the game an 8.5.

[esherwood]

Well for people that like souls games I’d say it’s pretty close to perfect. I’m not buying a fromsoft game for the awesome shooting

[SurgicalMenace]

As a Souls fan, Elden is very flawed as a game soul game. Demon's Souls, Nioh, Nioh 2, and Sekiro does it better. There's the opened world aspect but that's literally the only thing that stands out about it. After many hours of playing the game grows very tedius. Poor item management, no storyline, no character development, barren world, boring combat, and my lord what's with that random lockon system? If this is the idea of the best or perfect there's no hope for anything better.

It seems like it stands out so much due the lack of options in the genre, currently. I've personally been gaming too long to convince myself that this is better than what it is.

[Kosic]

That's not a bad thing. I haven't been a huge souls fan so not played the others properly. I've given them a try but never completed.

With elden ring, the open world feels rewarding to the xp per mob, or finding secrets that reward weapons.
The armours in the game felt a tad subpar. Starting off the vandagar (?) I have only just changed pieces of armour after 20 hours in. I wish they didn't give you such powerful armour right away as it felt a tad underwehlming to upgrade a few stats this far into the game.

But for this to be their first open world. I welcome more of this. I haven't stuck this many hours into a souls game or been this addicted to a game for many years.

[Elda]

The game is most certainly fun & addicting & that's a good thing...lol. But imo it's just an extension of the Souls games with some new mechanics such as being open to go where you want,many many bosses,a horse to travel & summons to help in battle.

[HeliosHex]

Have to say this review made many valid points. Wish the dungeons had more variety and the open world could have used more life activity other than the occasional deer, boar, goats etc. Using the same bosses later as mini bosses is lame. After fighting the cat statue for the third time it's hard not thinking about some other boss that should be there.
Elden ring is by no means perfect but it's still one of the best games to come out this year. It does more right than wrong and giving it a 7 is a bit harsh. I'd give it 8 minimum. Making it a must play for any gamer.

[SurgicalMenace]

Good game but not a must play, as it's not accessible to all gamer types at all. This is a hardcore game for hardcore gamers, casuals need not apply.

[andy85]

It's not that hardcore. Magic is basically easy mode and you can overlevel if you need to.

[SurgicalMenace]

A casual isn't going to even attempt to figure that out. They prefer to plug and play opposed to have to figure out how to play.

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

Completely agree with this. I've played and finished every souls game and Elden Ring has quite a few flaws that people have completely ignored (especially the reviewers). My biggest gripe is the re-use of bosses I think it's incredibly lame and while I know this is a hot take and nobody will agree with this but I don't see why this needed to be an open world game. It would have benefited from the more linear structure of the other souls games, yeah it's cool to run around on your horse but you can run straight past enemies or cheese them easily. You're basically running around trying to fight stuff at your level all the way through which is kind of tedious. Anyway it's still a great game and From Software deserve the success.

[PurpHerbison]

Reusing bosses is a page right out of Monster Hunters book.

[Redrex7000]

in a industry were 9 tend to be given out pretty easily when it come to big titles
i do feel the rating kind of lose all meaning

[Aussiesummer]

It is very much a continuation of dark souls with many flaws but I am having such a damn great time with it despite them. Great fun, great suffering. I'm glad it did so well for them and can't wait to see whatthey do next.

[EmperorDalek]

I read through it. I kind of agree with some of these points, but it's overly negative. To call horse riding "just a means of faster traversal with the addition of clunky combat" is an example. I thought the horse riding was great. The Torrent only double jump adds to the new platforming element for the series. The horseback combat was good. It's not clunky, you just can't charge and spam the attack button and expect good results, you need to time your attacks.

And to complain about having to level up your health... What kind of RPG can you get away with not leveling up your health?

This place is trying really hard here to justify giving it a 7, in my opinion.

[BABI-PANGPANG]

It's a very enjoyable game for sure but I still haven't experienced too many wow-moments yet. I thought the atmosphere was stronger in all the other games and that they've put more care into the dungeon areas (everything that's not approachable with your mount).

I felt like with the previous games the pace was much slower but way more intense and that there was a lot more to explore and secrets to discover. The boss fights look very cool but most of the time you're just blocking, rolling and fighting.

What I liked about the previous games is that there could be a bit of a trick to it, such as in DS3 where you have to find your way through the environment while dodging the fire breath of a gigantic dragon, end up standing above him and perform a deadly pierce through his skull. And that was just a way to do it, if you could figure it out but you were not limited to it as you could also just fight him with your weapon of choice.

Even though Elden Ring does a lot of things very good I feel like the things it does similar to the previous games, they did a tiny bit better. But like I said, it's a great game that I've already put quite some time in!

[Viljong]

Elden ring is dead open world game. Nothing going on empty world, enemies do nothing just stand still and wait for you. There is nothing going on. Technically the game is pretty bad aswell. This game 8.5 maxium

[Gianoni33]

Botw???? Overrated, your weapon broken all time!!!
Red dead redenption 2??? Overhyped, so clunky
GOW??? Dont deserve the score, i prefer the old ones
TLOU?? Dont get it, bad combat system
Hades??? I can play over 10h, to repetitive
Elden ring? DS4 with horse and easy mode

You know what? PLAY GAMES AND STOP COMPLAIN

[SyntheticForm]

You appear to be extremely educated.

[Father__Merrin]

The thing I loved Bout DS3 is after completing it you think about the time you started off in cemetery.

I hope this evokes the same feeling of progression

[anast]

The use of "ambition" and "bogged down" in game reviews is beyond cliché at this point. It is hard to give this review anything over a 7 for just copy and pasting clichés.

The game is a fun and an entertaining time sink that does everything a souls game needs to do and more, plus it doesn't beg the player to visit an MT shop every second or demand that I buy a season pass.

The game is objectively better than average, unlike the review, which made some good points, but its ambition was bogged down by being a clinic on how to write clichés. Yes, I can use clichés because it's not my job to figure out how not to; I am not a "professional" writer.

I am personally attached to the game. This why this review made me a bit salty. Thinking rationally just isn't my thing.

[SurgicalMenace]

That honesty at the end though. Have to respect it.