Opening Hours: Elden Ring

You cant look anywhere on the internet at the moment without seeing reviews, guides and walkthroughs of Fromsoftware's most recent release. It's souls-like that forms the culmination of everything its developers have learnt from the five other main games in their series. 

This is in no way a review. It's a first impression: to give an inkling of what to expect and ultimately to aid you in the decision of whether to buy the game. I have 21 hours in it so far and i've recently beaten the first story boss... bare that in mind. Full Story spoilers will be avoided. 

The Options Menu: (Scroll down to gameplay if you don't want to read this... part-timer).

Previous entries into the series have been slaughtered upon release, on PC, for poor porting, non-sensical issues (some return) and baffling network problems, but it's clear that taking time to release a half decent port was on the priority list this time. 

The game, for the most part, runs very smoothly at 55-60fps in 1440p on my slightly ageing hardware (GTX 1080 TI). For the most part. There're random falls and spikes in frames around particularly dense areas, however, these should be ironed out with incoming patches. The graphical options are well thought out: antialiasing and SSAO provide an easy solid route to more FPS for those less powerful systems, lots of lighting, water and shader choices mean there is room for squeezing out those extra frames, on any system in fact.

Of course, MOTION BLUR = OFF. Urgh.  

Controller options are plentiful. By the way, play it using a controller and save yourself the trouble. They still have the controller button prompts on the screen, all the time, anyway... although it can finally be changed! I just love the nostalgia for poor 2010's ports too much to be rid of them.

If you're more patient than me there are fully customizable keyboard controls. There's a display blood option, subtitles, brief network options and resolution choices. 

All in all, it's a much better port than the games I've played in the series prior and it's been given about as much consideration as a PC port, for a game of this magnitude, should.

Gameplay:

As mentioned, this game is a souls-like. Demon souls, Dark Souls and Bloodborne all make up part of its DNA. However, Elden Ring is more than any of its older siblings. For one, it's an open-world game. You make a character, in the series' best character creator yet, and then you enter the small tutorial area, where you learn the very basics. Then, without warning, you're thrust into the game world that starts off with no map and no set objective. You simply follow the "grace": a golden trail that points in a vague direction to head.

However, exploration is the key gameplay pillar this time around because no one other than those without souls could beat the first boss, where the "grace" leads you, from the offset, without levelling first.

Exploring this beautifully realised world is a real pleasure. It has a unique art style, it's vast, it's filled with monsters and breath-taking vistas. You'll regularly stop to take screenshots...

More importantly, you'll need to explore to level up, because the first boss, for the most part, has been labelled as far too hard. Admittedly, mostly by newcomers to the series. I explored the starter area for about 20 hours before beating him, with relative ease. This is a game for those with a tendency to love exploring games and not to be too reliant on hand holding. As such it's not for everyone. 

What it is though, is a love letter to the fans. It's a magnum opus that takes the issues with previous titles and improves on (almost) every aspect of them, while maintaining the core gameplay and longstanding appeal of the series. 

The combat for example is more refined than it's ever been. Boss designs are cooler and more varied, progression is more rewarding, the camera is less of an issue, multiplayer is expanded and the lore is plentiful.

Most importantly though, interesting design is prioritised over straight difficulty, once again.

Conclusion:

I've really enjoyed my time with this love letter to Fromsoftware fans. It's the most interesting, humbling and engrossing entry into this legendary franchise. So, if you don't mind not having your handheld in an open-world game, or simply having it sliced off, then check it out.

One last screenshot: