How do you talk about Elden Ring, the year’s most anticipated game in a tremendous year for gaming, without giving away all of its surprises and qualities? We are torn between waxing poetic about this great work of art and remaining as obscure as possible so that others can be as surprised as we were by how good it is.
TL;DR for those who don’t want to read spoilers or simply want to get to the point: This game is nearly impossibly amazing, a watershed moment in open-world design, and everything you hoped for. It’s also a good place for new players to start, as long as they’re prepared for less hand-holding than in nearly any other large game.
Elden Ring was announced in 2019 as the next “major” game from From Software, the developers of the Dark Souls series. After completing the great Dark Souls 3, blowing off some creative steam with the fierce Sekiro, and witnessing the recreation of precursor Demon’s Souls, From promised a grand new adventure – with none other than George R. R. Martin’s creative aid.
It was evident what we were looking at when gameplay was eventually demonstrated and described: “Open World Dark Souls.” Many people were taken aback by this. After all, open-world games might be dead and empty, or they can be massive task checklists or aimless sandboxes. Could From, with its ability in constructing frightening and claustrophobic constructions and locales through which the player walks in a more or less orderly fashion, create a better-feeling open-world game than the others? Yes, it is possible, as we are delighted to inform you. Elden Ring is not just the best open-world game ever made, but it is also the best game of the year, and it may displace some beloved titles off many people’s top ten all-time lists.
