Elden Ring: A First Timer’s Thoughts

I’ve been fortunate enough to play a lot of games over the years from all different kinds of genres, from shooters, platformers, racers, walking simulators, horrors and pretty much everything and anything in between that tickles my fancy, except for Souls games. For the most part I’m usually always up for trying something different, but the aspect of having to “get good” to properly enjoy a video game completely put me off.

I’ve always shied away from Souls games, so when Elden Ring launched to critical acclaim last year, I was sat on the side lines playing literally anything else whilst my Twitter feed was flooded with some rather gorgeous screenshots from The Lands Between. Fast forward to almost a year post-launch and I now find myself on the journey to become an Elden Lord. I must admit, during the run up to launch and even more so after launch, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious about Elden Ring, due to the more supposed forgiving nature of the open world.

£60 is a lot of money to waste on a genre of game that really doesn’t appeal to you. Especially when you feel like you’ll end up playing it for an hour or two and giving up. I wrapped up some games over Christmas break and was mostly just hooked on Gears 5’s MP going into the new year, thinking about that next game pick up. I needed something to fill the void in the run up to the launch of the Dead Space remake at the end of January.

After a little bit of convincing from a friend, who has wanted me to start Elden Ring alongside him for a while, I decided to plunge head first into The Lands Between.

What a journey it has been. From stepping into Limgrave at the very beginning, tackling that annoying Fire Giant along the way, all the way to taking down the frustrating Elden Beast in the finale. I’m as surprised as anyone else is that I have actually managed to pick up and play a Souls games, let alone complete one, too!

Ever since loading it up for the first time around 3 weeks ago, I have found it hard to put it down to play anything else. There really is just something special about Elden Ring. It could well be the fact I have just been opened up to a whole new genre of video game I had previously shown little interest in.

Elden Ring smashes the Souls formula together with a big open world, the latter being an aspect that usually puts me off of a game, rather than interest me. I feel it just works so well here as you aren’t pestered with silly little fetch quests or faced with an overwhelming amount of icons on an in-game map. The lack of icons/quest tracking isn’t all good, however.

A lot of this game is being free to roam at your leisure, explore The Lands Between how you see fit and tackle the world and it’s bosses however feels best. That said, I would often times find myself lost or confused as to what to do next to progress the main story.

It really isn’t a big gripe though and part of this issue I feel is down to me as an individual and the way I play. The game certainly could have made it clearer about what to do in places as I realised that important info can be found in the description of some items or after exhausting an NPC’s full dialogue. (which is easily missable for a newcomer like myself)

Progression didn’t prove to be a daunting hurdle and in the end, I was met with some breath-taking displays. Walking up to Stormveil castle to fight Margit and Godrick, you’re met by a stunning piece of architecture.

The same can be said when you’re on the approach to fight Morgott and Maliketh among other main bosses, this isn’t even including the countless side bosses scattered around. Each boss fight really does feel like something special and a spectacle in their own right.

The cutscenes prior to a boss fights are absolutely brilliant and look great thanks to the art style, building up nicely to some engaging and memorable boss fights.

Outside of bosses, the different biomes you stumble across are truly stunning and left me taken aback every time I was venturing into a new area. It’s certainly a game that will make you trigger happy with your screenshot button, despite it not being a “graphical powerhouse.”

The feeling of overcoming what feels like an unbeatable boss is incredible. I sighed relief when I finally managed to take down the Fire Giant and screamed at the top of my lungs when I managed to defeat the Elden Beast!

Community plays a big part in this game. It feels so good to play along with friends and discuss tactics, weapons and builds. Chatting with the mutuals on Twitter who are always keen to lend a helping hand. Even calling upon them for some backup against a boss is just amazing.

The Fire Giant gave me some real trouble and I was having a hard time defeating him so I called upon Guggsey and Metro to lend a helping hand. What was becoming a tiring cycle of spawning and dying turned into an epic and intense battle that was finally overcome. Instantly becoming a moment I’ll remember and one that will be hard to recreate.

Others like Molly and Ziggy were always on hand to offer me some much needed advice, or Linc helping me with progression and showing me some of his good YouTube videos. A lot of the Souls community are very warm and welcoming with certainly helps with the overall perception and I couldn’t be more grateful for it.

I’ve even been able to summon random players who were online helping people trying to defeat bosses. It’s just a completely different experience, one I’ve never had before.

To top all of this, Elden Ring comes equipped with an amazing soundtrack that compliments the game throughout. The eery hum as you enter a foggy landscape, to the massive rumbles into an epic orchestra leading up to a boss. It really adds to the overall tone, which comes together to be incredible. I particularly like the audio cues you hear when discovering a new Site of Grace, or even finding an item out in the wild, it’s the little things, huh?

As a complete FromSoft noob, I am incredibly happy I took the plunge into The Lands Between. Having already racked up around 90 hours of playtime and completing the game, I didn’t hesitate to start new game + instantly. I’m not someone who will always push for that 100% completion, but this game is something special, so I will certainly be giving it a good shot.

Overall, if you forced me to try to criticize this game, I’ll circle back to my one gripe about story and progression. After a while though you get the hang of the progression and learning where to go, even if it feels like a steep learning curve at the start. As for the story, I kind if got the gist of it, and I do find a lot of joy in deep diving into lore videos on YouTube so, while I’d have liked to know more along the way whilst playing, it’s no harm done in my opinion. Every other aspect of the game held this up the entire way through for me, anyway.

I can’t see myself putting this one down anytime soon and would very much recommend Elden Ring if you’ve been sat on the fence about it. I’d recommend it to anyone who fancies trying something different, you might be quite surprised with it, like I am. Every aspect of Elden Ring comes together perfectly, creating a near masterpiece of a game, a game that I think is going to be a very challenging one to beat.

Don’t sleep on Elden Ring.

(This wasn’t started as a review, but more so somewhere for me to piece my thoughts together in one place but, whilst I’m here, I might as well give you some pros, cons and a rating)