In the 87 hours it took me to beat Elden Ring, I was put through an emotional rollercoaster. There was sorrow from losing hundreds of thousands of EXP to some of the toughest bosses FromSoftware has ever created. There was a lot of anger, especially at certain enemies I absolutely hated. And, of course, there was exhilaration when I finally overcame a battle I’d been stuck on for what felt like an eternity. But more than anything, I was in near-constant awe of the game—its breathtaking vistas, the sheer scope of its enormous world, the harrowing enemies, and the way Elden Ring consistently rewarded my curiosity with interesting encounters, valuable rewards, and often something even greater.
Elden Ring takes the ball that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild started rolling and runs with it, creating a dense, fascinating open world focused on freedom and exploration while still managing to weave a full Dark Souls experience into the mix. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Elden Ring turned out to be one of the most unforgettable gaming experiences I’ve ever had.
From the outset, all you know is that you play as a tarnished of no renown, blessed by grace, compelled to journey to the Lands Between and become an Elden Lord. What that actually means, how you go about it, and what the deal is with that giant glowing golden tree are all things you’ll have to figure out on your own. Like other FromSoft games, the story is difficult to fully digest on the first playthrough, but it’s one that I enjoyed piecing together as I went. Interestingly, it was the organic side stories that captivated me most, rather than the grand overarching plot, which credits Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin as a scenario writer.
FromSoftware smartly keeps much of the gameplay the same as its previous titles like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro. As you explore, you naturally meet characters and become involved in their personal problems. There are no quest markers, no exclamation points on the map, and these characters don’t always flag you down for help. They’re just people with their own agendas, whose stories are shaped by your actions—or lack thereof. This approach felt especially refreshing in an open world as vast as Elden Ring, and it was always exciting to encounter a familiar face later, eager to learn what had brought them to a new part of the world and how their journey had evolved.
The trade-off is that, without quest logs or markers, it’s easy to forget about certain plot threads and leave them unresolved. That’s a bit of a bummer, and I regretted missing out on some stories that my colleagues had experienced. But for me, it was worth it. Even after 87 hours, I never felt the usual open-world fatigue where I’m overloaded with a map full of unresolved side quests. Besides, any missed quests just give me extra incentive to dive into New Game Plus.
Freedom is the core of Elden Ring’s design, and it’s woven into every aspect of the game. From the moment you step into Limgrave, the first region of the Lands Between, you’re completely free to go wherever you want. Sure, open-world games have been doing this for years, but Elden Ring handles it in a way that feels truly extraordinary. You could spend hours just in Limgrave, exploring every mini-dungeon, fighting every boss, meeting every NPC, and leveling up for what’s to come. Or, if you prefer, you can follow the Light of Grace toward the main path and first major dungeon, or even find a hidden path to a more challenging area and skip the first dungeon altogether. Maybe you’ll find a cool weapon early while you’re at it.
What sets Elden Ring apart from other open-world games like Skyrim is that it doesn’t scale enemy levels to match your progress. If you venture into a higher-level area, you’ll face much stronger enemies, making the risk-reward dynamic very real. The way different areas are connected also adds to the sense of discovery. Limgrave is designed with a specific path in mind, leading you through Stormveil Castle, but finding ways around that path feels like uncovering a hidden passage—a rewarding feeling that’s rare in many open-world games.
You also have more freedom in how you approach combat than in any previous FromSoft game, thanks to a number of new systems that are used in interesting ways. You can crouch-walk to sneak past enemies, fight on horseback, craft items on the fly, summon a variety of creatures to fight for you, and, most notably, equip Ashes of War to your weapons to change their affinity and skills. The most important aspect of Elden Ring, however, is the freedom to simply walk away and do something else when you hit a wall.
Elden Ring is hard, as expected from a FromSoft game, but its difficulty surprised me, even as a veteran of the Souls-like genre. I hit several points where I unlocked paths to multiple bosses and just couldn’t make any headway. But even though I hit dead ends, there was always somewhere else I could go.
In Elden Ring, there was never a moment when I was at a complete loss for what to do. A region I hadn’t fully explored, an NPC quest I’d put off for later, or a Light of Grace indicator I hadn’t followed—there was always something to discover. Every time I ventured down a different path or explored new areas, I would find new gear, items, level up my stats, or learn new spells and skills, which often gave me the extra edge I needed to overcome a boss that had been giving me trouble.
But it wasn’t just the promise of making my numbers go up that motivated me to explore every corner of the map. The Lands Between is absolutely brimming with riches, intrigue, and danger at every turn. Much of what Elden Ring does well with its open world can be traced back to the same principles that made Breath of the Wild so memorable. It’s that feeling of starting out in a world with little explicit guidance, spotting something that piques your curiosity, and doing whatever it takes to reach it, only to be rewarded for your efforts.
The key difference, though, is that in Breath of the Wild, I could usually predict what would happen when I reached that glowing point of interest on the horizon. It would be a puzzle, a shrine, maybe a temporary weapon and a spirit orb. That was a rewarding pattern, but it became somewhat predictable. In Elden Ring, on the other hand, my expectations were constantly upended. I’d head to a lake expecting some minor crafting materials, only to get ambushed by a dragon. I’d follow a river thinking I was just exploring, only to stumble into a dungeon filled with enemies and traps. I’d enter a cave thinking it was a harmless detour, only to be attacked by goblins. And then there was the elevator that seemed ordinary at first, but kept going deeper and deeper until… well, you’ll need to experience that for yourself.
Best of all, these excursions were never without reward. Whether it was a new weapon, an Ash of War, a valuable consumable, a new creature to summon, a new spell, or an NPC to meet, there was always something worthwhile to discover. The amount of valuable rewards scattered throughout the world ensured I never felt disappointed by the outcome of my explorations.
What’s also impressive about Elden Ring is that, amidst all this open-world exploration, there are a number of legacy dungeons—large, linear levels that Souls fans have come to expect. These are massive castles, forts, manors, underground labyrinths, and more, filled with secret areas, challenging bosses, and interconnected paths. If they were strung together without being tied to the open world, they could easily serve as the foundation for Dark Souls 4. The combination of open-world design and traditional dungeon crawling creates a sense of discovery and excitement that sets Elden Ring apart.
When it comes to combat, Elden Ring feels most similar to Dark Souls 3, characterized by heavy, deliberate attacks, careful stamina management, and a slower pace than games like Bloodborne or Sekiro. The two big additions to the combat system are the guard counter, which allows you to block an attack with your shield and immediately follow up with a crushing strike, and the jump attack, which provides melee fighters with a new way to stun enemies and set them up for critical hits. Both are great additions, offering new tools for melee classes, but overall, FromSoftware sticks to what works, refining rather than reinventing.
What really makes the combat in Elden Ring stand out, though, is the variety of enemies and their design. Many of them are terrifying, and some of the baddies are vicious, throwing wild swings and combos that seem to go on forever and hit from outrageous distances. Others are more methodical, hiding behind shields and waiting for the perfect moment to parry or punish your attack. Some enemies are weak individually, but deadly when they ambush you with a grab attack that can kill you instantly.
Elden Ring is a difficult game, but its difficulty isn’t just about fast reactions or twitch reflexes (though those certainly help). It’s about learning enemy patterns, adapting to them, and exploiting their weaknesses. Deciphering the tells of each attack and seizing moments of opportunity is a huge part of what makes the combat fun and rewarding.
And then there are the bosses. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there are a handful of them that are among the most visually and mechanically impressive encounters FromSoftware has ever crafted. It’s no exaggeration to say that Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s largest and most ambitious game to date, and that ambition pays off in spades. Even after 87 hours of blood, sweat, and tears—including some of the toughest fights I’ve ever faced, and countless surprises—I still have bosses I missed, secrets I haven’t uncovered, side quests I didn’t complete, and tons of weapons, spells, and skills I’ve never used. On top of all that, there’s the PvP and cooperative play, which I’ve barely scratched the surface of.
The sheer variety of viciously designed enemies and brutal but surmountable bosses has taken the combat to a new level. Even with all the threads I didn’t pull on my first playthrough (and I’m sure there will be many), what I experienced can easily stand among the best open-world games I’ve ever played.
Like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild before it, Elden Ring is one of those games we’ll look back on as a milestone that pushed the genre forward.