Elden Ring is a masterpiece, what more needs to be said? Well, other than the fact that it's an imperfect and flawed masterpiece of course. I love Souls games and Souls-likes so I'll keep this review short and sweet, but everything that people say about Elden Ring, at least for the base game, is absolutely to be believed. There's so much to do, so much to explore, so much cool stuff to find and it really captures that incredible feeling of adventuring through a war-torn but whimsical fantasy world that fully invites the player to brave the perils and dangers.

The combat is obviously very much Souls, and while it's always quite simple compared to the majority of most action games, it's always one of my favourite combat systems as far as RPGs go. There's so many weapons and shields of many different types, so many cool armour sets, so many fun spells and incantations and a ton of really cool strategies and builds to form the combat into something you can really enjoy and master - so long as you don't mind pressing the roll button half of the time if you're not using a shield.

However I do have my issues with the game; the camera can be very wonky and unwieldy at times, some bosses can be extremely difficult to punish, a multitude have enemies have crazy fast multi-hit combos that can be a nightmare to deal with even with well-known strats that most deem reliable. It's an incredibly challenging game and I love the learning process as I find cool and interesting ways to tackle problems, but some enemies and bosses can be a bit too much and sometimes nullify certain builds more often than I'd like.

Luckily the issues only really crop up in the late/end game content, and is still a very enjoyable ride if you don't mind taking several hours learning a boss, engaging in co-op or using summons like the fan favourite Mimic Tear to help out.

Also the modding community also deserves a ton of praise, as plenty of dedicated fans have crafted a bunch of really cool, unique and interesting mods that effect gameplay, visuals, difficulty and more, so there's a ton of highly replayable game here that many different people can enjoy for hundreds or even thousands of hours.

If you haven't played Elden Ring yet then please do, you won't regret it.

Elden Ring is a masterpiece, what more needs to be said? Well, other than the fact that it's an imperfect and flawed masterpiece of course. I love Souls games and Souls-likes so I'll keep this review short and sweet, but everything that people say about Elden Ring, at least for the base game, is absolutely to be believed. There's so much to do, so much to explore, so much cool stuff to find and it really captures that incredible feeling of adventuring through a war-torn but whimsical fantasy world that fully invites the player to brave the perils and dangers. The combat is obviously very much Souls, and while it's always quite simple compared to the majority of most action games, it's always one of my favourite combat systems as far as RPGs go. There's so many weapons and shields of many different types, so many cool armour sets, so many fun spells and incantations and a ton of really cool strategies and builds to form the combat into something you can really enjoy and master - so long as you don't mind pressing the roll button half of the time if you're not using a shield. However I do have my issues with the game; the camera can be very wonky and unwieldy at times, some bosses can be extremely difficult to punish, a multitude have enemies have crazy fast multi-hit combos that can be a nightmare to deal with even with well-known strats that most deem reliable. It's an incredibly challenging game and I love the learning process as I find cool and interesting ways to tackle problems, but some enemies and bosses can be a bit too much and sometimes nullify certain builds more often than I'd like. Luckily the issues only really crop up in the late/end game content, and is still a very enjoyable ride if you don't mind taking several hours learning a boss, engaging in co-op or using summons like the fan favourite Mimic Tear to help out. Also the modding community also deserves a ton of praise, as plenty of dedicated fans have crafted a bunch of really cool, unique and interesting mods that effect gameplay, visuals, difficulty and more, so there's a ton of highly replayable game here that many different people can enjoy for hundreds or even thousands of hours. If you haven't played Elden Ring yet then please do, you won't regret it.