Elden Ring Review - Page 5
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Besides, the game's world was created in collaboration with George R.R. Martin, the author of A Song of Ice and Fire series of fantasy novels. And while his contributions were apparently limited to the big picture lore, you can clearly feel his influence on the game's story where most of the important characters are connected on some personal or familial level.
That is of course if you bother looking into that stuff. In the true FromSoftware fashion, Elden Ring's lore is primarily delivered through cryptic conversations and item descriptions, and it's up to you to piece everything together. Alternatively, you can just ignore all that stuff and hit skeletons with a big club. Your experience won't be diminished by that approach.
But should you choose to at least try and figure out what's going on in Elden Ring, you'll be dropped into what is perhaps the most complex FromSoftware world to date.
On the most basic level, you'll be tasked with restoring the Elden Ring, a divine artifact that was shattered at some point in the past, plunging the Lands Between into a purgatory state where no one can die for good, and all the nobles who got a hold of the ring's shards were gradually transformed into oversized monstrosities. Collecting those shards will make you the Elden Lord and supposedly restore order in the Lands Between.
Of course, nothing can ever be so straightforward in a FromSoftware game. During your journey, you'll meet plenty of factions and individuals who think they know of a better way to steer the Lands Between into a bright or not so bright future, and even the seemingly good guys don't necessarily have your best interest in mind.
The game's story continues the trend of everything being bigger in Elden Ring. While I can't say with any degree of certainty that I know exactly what's going on in the game after beating it just once, from what I've seen, it combines just about every possible inspiration and reference you'd expect from a collaboration between George R.R. Martin and Hidetaka Miyazaki.
You have plenty of Lovecraftian elements bubbling under the surface, with most of the game's factions being influenced by some Outer God or other. Magic, in the true Miyazaki fashion, once again has something to do with crystals, but this time around they're crystals from outer space. Ancient civilizations are stacked on top of one another like a layer cake. And there's a distant possibility that just about everyone in the world is a mimic thinking it's people.
What was a bit surprising, though, is how much Elden Ring clearly borrows from The Lord of the Rings. The ring part is obvious of course. But then you have these big divine light-giving trees. A race of demigods called the Numen. And one of the main bad guys goes by Morgott. I'm sure there are other less obvious things, but this is surface-level stuff, and there's plenty of it in the game.
What's also impressive is the game's commitment to its mystery. If you just play Elden Ring without looking anything up, there's a good chance you'll miss huge chunks of it. Entire large areas here are hidden behind secrets upon secrets. In fact, to fight one of the major bosses showcased in the intro cinematic, you'll need to join the game's "bad guys" acting as Elden Ring's Darkwraiths. Alternatively, you can die in a very specific way in a very specific spot, and then engage in some platforming upon being magically transported to a new area. But that's Elden Ring for you. There's almost always another way.
On the negative side, due to the game's scope, its side quests are now way too convoluted. Without reading any guides or just getting insanely lucky, I don't think it's possible to follow any of the game's side quests to their logical conclusion. It almost feels random where you need to go and what you need to do to advance most of those quests. Thankfully, they're a relatively minor part of the overall Elden Ring Experience.
Technical Information
Ever since the game launched, there have been reports of it being a bad PC port. And while I can't guarantee that you'll be able to run Elden Ring without a hitch, I personally didn't encounter any stuttering or major frame drops during my playthrough. The game crashed on me twice, and that's pretty much it as far as major issues are concerned.
