100%PC

Yes this game is great, and like all the other Fromsoft games, has flaws and clunkiness which are overshadowed by all the good parts.

Easily one of the best games I’ve ever played.

The combat and gameplay are the best they've ever been, along a giant world to explore. It's at the very least well worth its price.

40%PC

xd

70%PC

Base game is fun.
- The combat is okay but having the option to explore elsewhere when you are struggling with a certain boss is nice. The game is massive. The exploration is probably the best part as there is so much to look around for and find. The story is very minimal and you pretty much have to look up guides for any of the side quests since they are not direct in any fashion or easy to follow along.
- My biggest issues are malenia's waterfowl attack, the amount of bosses that have incredibly delayed attacks followed by extremely fast attacks that you have to reflexively react to, the lack of weapon moveset variety considering how many weapons there are, the severe lack of armors/ clothes for fashion in the early and mid game compared to previous games, and that the co-op in the unmodded game is garbage and only playable with the seamless co-op mod.

DLC was more enjoyable than the base game in every aspect. My only real gripe is the controls for dodging and running being bound to the same button caused a lot of issues with the harder bosses for me and how I play the game.

100%Xbox Series X/S

When Elden Ring was first announced, complete with flashy trailer and artwork, there was no small amount of scepticism from both the games media and the soulslike player base, including myself. The Dark Souls series was always an immaculate, incredibly well-thought-out affair; the pinnacle of atmosphere and level design. And now you can … ride around on a horse? Many of us began to grumble in dark corners of the internet, reminding everyone just how bad open world games had become, mired by uninspired side quests, monotonous and repetitive activities, and bloated, empty environments.

Boy, oh boy, were we wrong, for fromsoft managed to do to open world games what they previous did to action-rpgs : revolutionize the genre and show just how spectacularly amazing an open world soulslike can be.

To me, Elden Ring’s greatest triumph is its freedom. Freedom to go where you want and do whatever you want without it ever becoming overly frustrating or overwhelming. As soon as you exit the tutorial area you are faced with innumerable different paths, all leading to something new and unique. In fact, you can explore a full third of the map without ever facing off against this first boss.

What’s so impressive about this design choice is that it eliminates the biggest barrier of entry to the soulslike genre : its difficulty. Fromsoft’s earlier efforts did sometimes offer branching paths, but the smaller environments meant these all inevitably led to an unavoidable boss encounter. Elden Ring is so expansive with so much to do that the player is never wasting their time. If a boss is too hard, it’s easy to just go somewhere else and get stronger, or find a new weapon, or sometimes even an alternate path that allows you to bypass the boss completely. It’s a game that is constantly drip-feeding you with new places to go, people to meet, and things to kill, to such an extent that you never get bored. Yes, there are some assets reused a few too many times (the crypts, for example, can get a little monotonous), but for the most part, every new location filled me with wide-eyed amazement and a lust for more exploration.

The exceptional art and level design helped create memories that will forever be seared into my brain, even after my third playthrough. Sprinting across a moonlit desert with a host of allies at my side as stars fall from the sky. Descending into the bowels of the earth and realising the map is much, much bigger than we first imagined. Stepping through a portal under a bell tower and being transported to an otherworldly place where hurricanes are tearing an ancient city apart. It’s a testament to the creativity of the developers that after so many games they are still able to evoke such a sense of awe.

So, is Elden Ring the perfect soulslike? That’s a tricky one. I’d say maybe, depending on what you are looking for. Because despite avoiding most of the pitfalls of open-world games, it doesn’t manage to mitigate them completely. The north-eastern snowy area, for example, is my least favourite of the game, conspicuously empty and less interesting to explore than the rest of the map. The story, while serviceable, does lose some of its impact due to the shear size of the game : you can spend dozens of hours in an optional area without progressing the main quest at all, only to come back and having it all feel a bit disjointed.

Finally, the open nature of Elden Ring means you can over-level. I mean seriously over-level, to the point where all but the most tenacious bosses won’t pose much of a challenge. This, again, is great for newcomers, but may disappoint some souls veterans (though there is still the dreaded Malenia for those seeking a true test of strength).

That being said, these little niggles are minuscule blemishes on the rich, engrossing, spellbinding tapestry that is Elden Ring, one of the greatest soulslikes Fromsoft have ever created (along with Dark Souls 3, which probably still holds the crown for me personally), and, consequently, one of the greatest games of all time.

5%PC

Nothing special, same as every other souls game.

80%PC

Deducted some points for the miserable PC Port.

100%PC

Reignites my love for video games. My first souls game and my 3rd favorite video game of all time :)

50%PC

Okay

100%PlayStation 5

One of the best single gaming experiences I ever had. Even though I was skeptical at the beginning. The longest single game I have played. Probably the best world design ever, only after WoW.

Strengths:
World. Enormously vast and fantastic land of different landscapes. When you just come out of the initial cave and look into the horizon seeing gorgeous castle and thinking about how hard it will be to get there... going through other parts of the first zone, Limgrave... and only then you start realizing that it is all just a small part of the huge world, that lies ahead. Absolutely insane amount of work done. It made me remember sweet days of playing WoW and immersing myself in a huge fantasy world as a child.
Landscape diversity. This is what makes this Fromsoft game especially special. It is not visually monotonous and it leads you through all kind of different fields, mountains, swamps, cities and castles, dungeons and undergrounds.
Verticality is on another level. Classic feature of the greatest level designs of Fromsoft games is verticality. Making this feature real in such a huge world is just insane.
Game mechanics and combat. Complexity is interwoven with perfection.
Bosses and other enemies. Decent amount of mandatory bosses, "big" optional bosses and all kind of mini-bosses. Many of them are absolutely gorgeous, ones of the best soulsborne bosses. Movesets are very complex and diverse. This is what could make the game probably the hardest souls-game, when played without "easy-modes" like OP-builds, summons etc.
Fairness where it fits. Good shortcuts to the bosses, decent amount of "bonfires" (site of grace), ability to level up, to change your build, to summon NPCs. All of that gives the player a fair choice how hard he wants to play the game.

Weaknesses:
Getting lost in open world is frustrating no matter how beautiful this world is. Inevitable disappointing consequence of the huge open world.
Questlines many (if not all?) are too much not obvious to follow.
Lore is vague as it is traditionally in Fromsoft games, but in this case isn't as catchy as in all previous series.

My tier-list for bosses Just Remembrance- and obligatory bosses, all aspects considered, from low to high
B: These fights are either "visually cool and impressive" or "mechanically good fights", but not both at the same time.
- Regal Ancestor Spirit (beautiful but not remarkable);
- Morgott the Fell King (cool, but just a duplicate of the first boss);
- Sir Gideon the All-Knowing (very hard and frustrating fight when fought with his full combos);
- Lichdragon Fortissax (just pew pew dragon);
- Hoarah Loux (brutal but not very remarkable boss);
- Renalla Queen of the Full Moon (beautiful and weird, a little bit clumsy fight);
A: these fights are not as hard as S-tier bosses, but visually just phenomenal.
- Dragonlord Placidusax (one of the best dragon fights in the whole game).
- Mohg Lord of Blood (bloody and fancy);
- Malenia Blade of Miquella (great iconic fight, very hard, but a little bit overrated imho);
- Radagon / Elden Beast (very decent for the final boss);
- Astel Naturalborn of the Void (one of the most beautiful and mystical creatures, somewhat clumsy fight);
S: these fights are very hard, intense and intricate; or they are a visual pinnacle of the game.
- Margit the Fell Omen (icon of the ER early difficulty)
- Maliketh the Black Blade (very elegant and cool looking boss)
- Fire Giant (not that hard, but the most impressive giant and the best fight using the mount)
- Starscourge Radahn (amazing war festival setup, bizarre look and brutal fight)
- Godrick the Grafted (everything about this boss is just perfect)
- Rykard Lord of Blasphemy (quite easy, but insane and brutal look with favourite cutscenes)

Special mentions to Fallingstar Beast, Gargoyles (especially double), Commander Niall & Gaius, which gave me the most suffering (but not lasting long though, since you can simply overlevel them).

My tier-list for locations from low to high
B: Caelid and Dragonbarrow (easy to get lost in, to follow wrong direction and be in the wrong time), Weeping Peninsula, Mt. Gelmir, Consecrated Snowfields, Crumbling Farum Azula
A: Altus Plateau and Capital Outskirts, Stormveil Castle, Raya Lucaria Academy, Miquella's Haligtree, Elphael Brace of the Haligtree, Mountaintops of the Giants, Undergrounds (Deeproot Depths, Ainsel River, Mohgwyn Palace)
S:
- Limgrave
- Volcano Manor
- Siofra River and Nokron the Eternal City (the best of the marvelous ER undergrounds)
- Leyndell the Capital (absolute masterpiece of fantasy city design)
- Liurnia of the Lakes: the most loved zone, the most mystical one, which keeps most of the game secrets and mysteries

100%PlayStation 5

Jogo foda demais!!! O ápice do Souls-like, apesar de não ser o meu favorito, ele leva o genero a um outro patamar. Visualmente, consegue ser um dos jogos mais bonitos que eu ja vi. Que aventura fantástica, em todos os sentidos.

80%PlayStation 5

Incredibly fun to explore in its novelty especially Limgrave and Liurnia. Music is great, artstyle is the best its ever been for a From game. As for legacy dungeons, Stormveil, Raya Lucaria, Leyndell, and the Haligtree are some the best they've ever done. Overall amazing stuff except a few things. A lot of the bosses are a little ridiculous with attack strings, especially if you try fighting them without summons. And even then, there's a chance that the summon will trivialize the experience making it worse. Of course there are standouts but even for some of the amazing optional ones, it gets ruined by rehashing them further in the game. It removes the impact when you see them again and all they do is add some gimmick to the fight and make it worse. You could argue since the boss attack strings border on parody, it's putting positioning back into focus. In the sense that you'll look for smaller openings to beat them faster. Is this game actually elegant in how it handles difficulty? Having to purposefully not take advantage of what it's giving you to make it funner is a bad way to do it.

After talking about how amazing Limgrave and Liurnia was, some of the endgame areas pale in comparison but I do still consider them alright. One thing I'll say is that did this game really need to be open world? It has no dynamic systems that take advantage of the format. The world is completely static. Or in a game like Death Stranding where traversal is the challenge. A lot of times exploring, I'd wish it'd just take me to the good parts and on replay, engaging with most of it felt like a waste of time. The legacy dungeons are so much better than any other part of this, would this game not be better if it focused more on that? It's not like linearity would be guarenteed without the open world. Or is it that the perception of choice is more important than coherent design?

95%Xbox Series X/S

O jogo é absolutamente INCRÍVEL! não acho que preciso falar nada sobre pois tudo ja foi extensamente dito a esse ponto. Porém acho que de todos os 3 jogos da From que joguei até agora ele é o meu menos favorito. Acho que sim, o mundo aberto cansa um pouco e o design de alguns dos bosses principalmente os do final são feitos de um jeito que não achei divertido. Alguns como Malekith e Malenia não são dificeis, eles são chatos, e falo isso depois de zerar sekiro duas vezes porque os bosses são dificeis porém muito divertidos, já aqui, são só frustrantes mesmo.

95%PlayStation 5

Going in totally blind is fun but also confusing as most fromsoft games are but this one is more forgiving in the open world, giving you more oppurtunities to escape an encounter and having basically 0 run backs by having the stake of marika right outside most boss rooms. The world was amazing to explore and was so full of life and areas to explore, on every playthrough i came across something new each time. Overall i loved this game and it is a one of a kind.

95%PC

-5 points just because fire giant

100%PC

Master piece.

Y:95%

100%PC

No long review ahead, therefore praise the message and behold, something incredible!!!

2022's Game of the Year ELDEN RING is astoundingly fun, beautiful, brilliant, and emotionally tumultuous. Your first playthrough of the game is magical. It's like "woaaahhhhh holy crap this game is gorgeous," followed by "WHY DOES EVERYTHING WANT TO KILL ME AGHHHH," to "gee this is super fun!" and then back to "I HATE THIS GAME I HATE THIS GAME I HATE."

The soundtrack, open world, combat, physics, characters, and story are all incredible. Wasn't surprised at all when I discovered George R.R. Martin helped with this project.

Overall, a 9.5/10, would very highly recommend.

TL;DR - Play ELDEN RING. You'll hate and love it, and it's a beautiful balance.

100% on NG+7: 147 hrs (including first playthrough)

P.S. Oh and by the way, when I was deciding whether to play this game, I hesitated when I heard people saying there wasn't much of a story or plot driving the gameplay. This was very, very wrong. ELDEN RING's characters and stories, both main and side, are rich and incredible.

100%PlayStation 5

Would recommend to nearly anyone who wants challenging experience

100%PlayStation 5

Peak

65%PC

Main Gameplay - 15/30
Side Gameplay - 21/30
Story - 3/5
Replayability - 6/15
Graphics and Soundtrack - 20/20
65/100

100%PC

best

100%Xbox Series X/S

Muito bom, concerteza vou zerar outras vezes com build diferentes.

100%PC

It fried my Monitor tho T_T

100%PlayStation 5

Juego impresionante

Favor:
-Estilo de arte hermoso.
-Diseño de enemigos y jefes memorables.
-Musica impresionante.
-Jugabilidad perfecta.
-Revolucionario por implementar la mecánica souls al mundo abierto de manera tan acertada.

Contra:
-Puede abrumar un poco, nada grave.

95%PC

Okay, so I'm marking this as completed even though I never actually finished Promised Consort Radahn. I loved Elden Ring, I felt like it really lived up to the hype for me. I would consider it a must-have for anyone interested in the ARPG souls-like genre.

100%PC

SotE DLC Review: 6/10

Too much empty space and terrible loot diminishes the incentive to explore despite the impressive visual design of the open world. Most of the DLC bosses did not feel particularly fun to beat, with the overly-aggressive chain-attacks and ridiculously high poise making them a chore. The old formula of dodge rolling just to poke a boss a couple times before going back on the defensive needs re-evaluating. In saying all this, the Shadow Keep may be the best legacy dungeon FromSoftware has ever created.

100%PlayStation 5

I took my sweet time with this game. I am family guy. To be able to play 100 hours it takes me around 5 months.I completed this game in 2 months an 1 week. I used no guide up until hour 85 when I wanted to complete the side quests for the endings. I got 5 endings (You just need 3 for achievements, Elden Lord, Frenzied Flame and Ranni). I was able to get the 5 endings in one play through with the save trick at the bon fire before selecting the rune. I killed every achievement boss in the game.

90%PC

I went into this game very worried that I would give up within the first 10 hours. I have previously only played Dark Souls Remastered and Bloodborne and got about half way through each before hitting a brick wall and feeling like I couldn't progress. I thought Elden Ring would be similar but worse due to the open world and I worried that the main story would be the "easiest" path along the same difficulty as previous games with extra areas being more difficult.

I was very wrong. No matter which way you go, there is something to do and you will absolutely be able to find something you can progress through. If you get stuck, just go somewhere else for a bit and level then come back. If you get stuck on the main story, just go off to one of the other massive areas and explore and level for a while then come back when you feel prepared. Its got the satisfying, pattern based combat of previous Souls-like games with the fantastic "Whats that over there?" exploration of Breath of the Wild. It makes for a brilliant combination and I was never bored during my near 60 hours of gameplay as there was always a challenge to overcome or an interesting part of the world to explore.

100%PC

my love for this game is immaculate i think i can say this is my fav game with hollow knight maybe being a close second. I got to know about the game from yt and i only had a mobile at the time no pc or console and i just used to watch it so much like i was addicted even though i discovered it in 2022 i was prolly addicted not in 2022 but in like 2023 and beyond and still am. i got my first console in 2024 but i did not get Elden ring on it because yk i wanted to play mods and stuff and had a plan to get a pc/laptop anyways so i waited more than a whole year even after getting my ps5 to finally play it.i must have watched 100s of hours on yt already by this time if those hours counted it would definitely be my 2nd most played game but they don't count.

100%PC

Incredible story. Incredible soundtracks. Incredible Gameplay. Incredible Legacy Dungeons. Mediocre regular Dungeons. Amazing Open World. Masterpiece. Easy 10/10

100%PC

I'm bad at the game, and I'm probably spending far too much time in the beginner's area of Limgrave, but I'm learning more about how to play/vibe with this game purely from learning how 2D fighting games work. I'm probably never going to be super good at the game, and I'm likely overleveled for getting the full experience of the game, but I'm enjoying the learning process nonetheless.

100%PlayStation 4

I'm still playing it, but so far it's amazing.

100%PC

Isso aqui é o puro suco.
Jogo incrível, ambientação incrível, trilha sonora impecável, boss fights de tirar o fôlego.
Simplesmente o jogo mais premiado de todos os tempos.
Jogo obriga você a se adaptar se quiser vencer, assim como na vida.
Mais que um jogo, uma filosofia em forma de arte.
GOAT.

100%PC

Only soulsborne game I've 100%'d. Amazing games, repetitive bosses bog it down a bit but the DLC and main game are plenty entertaining, especially after building up a world of lore after the soulsborne games.

90%PlayStation 5

Gameplay 10/10
Storia e Personaggi 8/10
Audio Design e Musiche 8/10
Direzione artistica e Level Design 10/10

Complessivo: 9

95%PC

Close to the Peak of the Souls games, Dark Souls 3 just beats it narrowly tho.

95%PC

This is the longest single player game I have ever beaten. Rarely does a game outside of multi player keep me hooked for close to 30 hours, but I have been almost nonstop playing this game for a month and a half. It is also my first souls-like I have ever beaten. To be as concise with my feelings on this game as I can, this game is phenomenal. The only bad things I have to say about it would be about the absolute lack of direction for quests outside of the main story and fucking waterfowl. I will be 100%'ing this game. (I have in fact 100%'d it)

90%PlayStation 4

In terms of narrative, without completly abandoning their typical obscurantism, I'd say this is "the best story telled the best way" by From, which sounds logical if you know George RR Martin was involved. Every area in the map is interesting to explore. Maybe some bosses are reused too many times.

60%Xbox Series X/S

Here's Elden Ring:

First 20% = enthralling exploration, great first few bosses, intriguing music

Middle 60% = copy-paste open fields, linear castles, boring reused bosses, a million items you don't need, pointless dungeons, some really nice vistas

Last 20% = a grueling gauntlet of annoyingly multiphase boss fights

I've completed six of the FromSoft souls games and Elden Ring is by far the least interesting and fun.

The open world feels bland and repetitive and it destroys the risk-reward tension and level balance that make these games work. The initial exploration was fascinating and then becomes pointless. Limgrave/Stormveil (the initial area) is so good and then every major area after is essentially the same but with a new color (grey, red, yellow, white, etc.). There are several side/hidden areas as well, some look cool but there's not much substance. The art and vistas are absolutely amazing but the lack of environmental effects and janky animations make it a pretty ugly game.

And all the old FromSoft problems are here: camera issues (other souls games like Lies of P and Nioh proved this can be fixed), lock-on issues, wiki-dependent quests (kills immersion for me), item bloat, loquaciously cryptic NPCs, awkward platforming, unexplained systems, etc. This stuff was charming in 2011, but now it's just annoying.

Overall, the game feels like a mess.

On the positive side, a handful of bosses are fun to fight, there are no bad boss run-backs, and the linear sections are decent.

For reference, I always play an extremely basic melee strength build with no magic, no summons, no throwables, no multiplayer, etc. It feels like maybe this game was designed more for people who use all that stuff. It made me nostalgic for DS1-2.

90%PC

Has occasional minor issues on windows PC, like frame-drops etc
on Steamdeck works like a charm ♥

90%PC

Engrossing open world experience. Character and enemy/boss design is the best. Skill-bassd combat is great. Plot's opaque; still no idea what happened. Many questlines feel like they'd be impossible to discover without guides. Biggest accomplishments: killing horsey tree dude right at the beginning, wandering into some tower basement and beating the Godskin Apostle at level 50. Weapon and armor progress feels weird - some of the best are found early on. A little long (even with all the stuff I missed); could've skipped the recycled bosses, and pacing at the end didn't feel as good as the rest of the game. Final boss was pretty anticlimactic. And the end of the game came abruptly with no warning, but I guess it's consistent. Journey definitely worth it.

100%PC

Cinema.

90%PlayStation 5

Not my favorite Souls game still was very enjoyable and kept me entertained for the entire playthrough

100%PC

What can be even said about Elden Ring? Nothing really, the game speaks for itself while I love DS3 more in regard than Elden Ring the game itself is better in most of the aspects. I was thinking I would hate exploring in this type of game but I could have not been more wrong. There is one thing I can say that is pain in the ass are the multiple playthroughs since you have to do so much stuff if you wanna try and different and specific build but am going off rails now and most people arent gonna do more runs and more characters so that is my one niche thing.

100%PC

100/10

100%PC

Amazing game. Almost zero flaws

85%PC

This is the first souls-like game that I have finished, so it stands out in my memory. The satisfaction of beating a boss you've been stuck on for hours is unmatched. The world felt alien and hollow in a way that added to the overall experience. My biggest gripe is that incredible questlines are locked behind easily missable objectives.

100%PlayStation 5

shit was epic