![[REVIEW] Elden Ring, the consecration of FromSoftware in the open world](https://www.gamereactor.es/media/28/eldenringviser_3492863b.jpg)
And finally the day came. After months of anticipation, bombardment with news and more or less successful coping hype through the community Elden Ring came into my hands. I’d already sunk a tooth into it a few days ago (here’s my final impression) and had a very satisfying glimpse of what the final game would look like. When I first started playing the game, I did so with the fear that it would be possible for a game so different in concept and so ambitious in scale to fulfill the almost impossible expectations of the games’ fans. soulborn. How wrong I was Elden Ring is much, much more profound, fascinating, challenging, satisfying and beautiful than I could have imagined.
First off, it would be easy to classify it as Dark Souls due to its parallels in many of its mechanics with that series, but it’s far from that. Software games in general (with the exception of Sekiro) have shown us scenarios and stories about fantastic places that are dying or dead, where you’ve made your way through their ruins, tracing the story through the debris, memories and objects that left their inhabitants long ago. In the Elden Ring, the Midlands are in serious crisis, yes, but they are a living world populated by a variety of enemies, factions, monsters, animals, and characterseach more charismatic than the previous one.
The conflict that draws the destruction of Elden circle and the corruption of golden order It puts us in the middle of a war of attrition between the bearers of the Shards of the Circle, demigods descended from Queen Márika and now insane about the power they wield. The lightless one (like our character) are warriors exiled long ago who, thanks to the grace (the light that will guide us in our journey and give us places of rest) that emanates from the Golden Tree, can return to these lands and try them to claim the crown of the circle and thus restore order.
Advertising:
Among both the great chiefs and the rest of the Dark that populate the Midlands, there are differing personal interests in their involvement in Grace’s designs, and among them there are several factions with different goals that clash with one another. In these intrigues and ambiguities of allegiances that both the great enemies and the secondary ones have You can feel that crooked pen of George RR Martinand lays the foundation for what is undoubtedly the most epic and powerful story in a FromSoftware game, and possibly one of the most complex and richest backdrops I can recall in a video game.
Elden Ring is the culmination of a decade of games in which Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team have introduced and refined various approaches to combat, and the bottom line is here. Take on the aggressiveness of Bloodborne, the combat of Dark Souls and the movement of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. And this merging of strategies converges in the greater variety of fighting styles in a game like this.
“Various forms of combat combining Bloodborne’s aggressiveness, Dark Souls’ fighting and Sekiro’s movement”
Advertising:
Although its main supporter is Dark Souls III, the jumping mechanic completely changes the approach to scenario exploration and approach to confrontation and evasion. The ability to mix and match different character builds has also been made more flexible, allowing everyone to customize their game mode to the extreme. This means that we no longer have to choose between fighting exclusively with weapons or magic, but can create a combination of both that best suits our tastes. It doesn’t matter what weapon or sorcery you start with, as both gear and spells will gradually but unstoppably change until you have the most perfect sense of control.
The protagonist Sinluz begins with one of the 10 starting classes to carve out his own path as a warrior through his victories and discoveries until he becomes the new one lord of the circle. There are hundreds of weapons, armor, spells and wonders that we can use to face any opponent that comes our way. In addition, weapons and shields can be strengthened with it Ashes of War, combat skills and magic that will allow us to give new power to our weapons and carry out devastating attacks. This ash can be coupled and uncoupled from our gear, allowing us to field test until we find the one that works best. In addition to small power-ups such as talismans, there will be another novelty Great Runes
Advertising:
And we’ll need every advantage we can get to take on their world. For although it is still the requirement of a Souls (They haven’t deducted an iota of trouble and bad blood) we no longer go through isolated areas or corridor scenarios. A vast, diverse, and interconnected open world with always new corners or directions to explore, the Midlands is quite possibly the best the Elden Ring has to offer.
Unlike others like Genshin Impact or Immortals: Fenyx Rising that have adopted the Breath of the Wild formula, this was the first game that not only appropriated it but managed to combine it with its personality and to enrich. Elden Ring is not pure Souls, nor is its progression. If you want to get the most out of it, you’ll have to approach it as one long journey of discovery rather than walking through Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The entire map is full of points of interest and only the player’s own curiosity counts to explore them. In each zone, we always have the main objective in mind, whether it’s a huge castle on a cliff or a fortress jutting into the sky through a sea of fog in the swamps. And all that stands between the player and the goal is total freedom to go where you want and explore the endless camps, dungeons, ruins and locations with their his tory and background, and that’s where the magic of the game lies .
Accessibility is another of his virtues, since the swift journey between places of grace or using the torrentera mount means that when the adventure gets too complicated we can escape most difficulties and move to an area where we can level up a little more comfortably. In addition, now we do not have to worry about buying arrows or consumables to eliminate the poison for example, since we can create these consumables at any time and we will be better prepared for any situation. There are even multiple ways to access the same area by getting the object yielding in different locations and situations, making the feeling that this is your adventure and only you are experiencing it even more unique.
“It’s not pure Souls: if you’re going to exploit it, you have to think of it as a silent exploration of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.”
As if that weren’t enough, the day-night cycle of some character encounters and the appearance of some of the characters vary the most amazing enemies, the number and variety of which is overwhelming. There are many that we have never seen and others will be known to those who have already played other souls, even with some obvious winks entering the realm of the fan service. Maybe a bit forced at times, but always satisfying (You again, Patches?). There is also a large number of secondary characters with their corresponding quest lines and encounters that will reveal and even influence the game’s mysteries different endings.
And all of that is great because Elden Ring is also artistically and technically great. Some small frame drops in heavy rain scenes or when driving fast, you can see a little load in the background, but little else. No cutscenes between zones, with millimeter-accurate gameplay and a sensational soundtrack with epic themes that rumble even at the end of the game session.
The only downside is that I wasn’t able to test the multiplayer, either cooperative or competitive, presumably due to the lucky few of us traveling the world at the time, although that will change in a few days. FromSoftware threw in the rest and made Elden Ring the whole a celebration of the genre they shaped over the years. It is daring to have taken its particular formula a step further and masterful for an execution bordering on perfection. A true masterpiece that is sure to set a new standard for future developments in the genre.
