Arise, ye Tarnished! Your quest to reforge the Elden Ring awaits. Elden Ring is the winner of TGA's 2022 Game of the Year Award. But how good is it, really? Read on to see Game8's review of From Software's latest title.
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Elden Ring Review and Score Explanation
Elden Ring Score Explanation
| Overall | The total rating of the game. The scores available range from 1-10 with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. The scores are added together, then multiplied by two. |
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| Story | Rating the plot, characters, as well as pacing, and overall depth of the story. |
| Gameplay | How we rate the gameplay mechanics and systems designed in the game. |
| Visuals | Rating how beautiful the game's graphics are as well as its user interface. |
| Audio | Rating how the game's music grips players during battle and cutscenes, and how well the voice acting and other sounds are done. |
| Value for Money | The base game's length, replayability, and time needed for 100% completion. |
Elden Ring Review: A Redefinition of the Open-World Action RPG Genre
If Game8 had a Best Open-World Action RPG award for 2022, we’d give it to Elden Ring for its superb gameplay, wonderful visuals, rewarding exploration, challenging combat mechanics, and hours upon hours of playtime.
The game appears to be a reversal of the standard template Western Open-World games are built upon, dropping players into its world with only the faintest of taps toward the right direction and nothing else.
This gives way to situations where the player has to rely on their wits to survive and progress until they finally beat it. Very few games can outdo, let alone match what Elden Ring offers.
Elden Ring Full Game Review
Pros of Elden Ring
| Things Elden Ring Got Right |
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 Tough but Fair and Rewarding Gameplay Expansive Open-World Exploration A Variety of Playstyles to Choose From Hauntingly Beautiful World Beautiful Audio and Sound Design Terrifying Enemy Mobs and Boss Designs |
Tough but Fair and Rewarding Gameplay
Elden Ring follows From Software’s tradition of hard but rewarding gameplay that made its mark since the time of Demon’s Souls and the first Dark Souls game.
Just like in those games, your player character will face enemies with a pre-defined, learnable set of moves. Learn how an enemy attacks, and you will know how to kill them when they inevitably leave openings for you to exploit.
But make a mistake by either dodging the wrong way, moving in too late or too early, or using the wrong weapon, and you will be in a world of hurt. No matter what level you are at, everything in The Lands Between can and will kill you if you are not careful. From the lowliest Lordsworn to General Radahn himself.
This is not a game where you can just charge into a group of enemies, flail your sword around, and expect to survive. The only thing such a tactic will bring is death. This is a game where you’ll have to play it like you mean it, because the game will fight you like it means it as well.
In exchange for your willingness to learn, you stand to gain items and ‘Runes’, Elden Ring’s in-game currency that doubles both as money and experience points. Die, and you lose the runes you’ve gathered so far and will have to re-collect them at the spot where you met your demise. Die again, and those runes are lost forever.
That’s why Elden Ring’s gameplay loop can be seen as follows: Fight an enemy, die (repeatedly), learn their movesets, fight the enemy again, kill the enemy, earn runes, level up, and kill bigger enemies.
This is welcoming to many veterans of the Dark Souls trilogy, as well as From Software’s other ‘Souls-like’ games, since it’s not much of a change from the old formula. But even more casual players can find this rewarding specifically because making mistakes is less punishing than in the old games.
Though your current runes may be lost forever, nothing is stopping you from earning them again. The game is never truly over until you decide to put down the controller. Resting a bit during a playthrough is recommended, however, since there will be moments when you feel like slamming your head into a wall.
But if you choose to soldier on, nothing describes the feeling when you finally beat a boss you’ve died dozens of times to just by yourself. Yes, without the use of Spirit Ashes. But using them is fine as well.
Expansive Open-World Exploration
In many mainstream open-world games, you are usually dropped in the middle of the game world with a mini-map and a plethora of map markers telling you where the next mission objective, side-quest, and everything else is.
In Elden Ring, you stumble out of the so-called Chapel of Anticipation, come across a freakish spider-like being called the Grafted Scion, and (unless you play your cards right) get killed instantly. Only to wake up in a dark cave, with the first NPC you encounter calling you “Maidenless”. All the while, you’ll have absolutely no idea of where you are, and where you’re supposed to go.
The closest thing you’ll get to guides are the NPCs you encounter, as well as golden leylines pointing toward certain directions at Sites of Grace (Elden Ring’s equivalent of Dark Souls’ Bonfires), but otherwise, you’re on your own. You’ll have to do what real exploration entails: Actually exploring the map while keeping a mental catalog of where to do what.
Going around without a minimap, quest markers, or other guiding crutches may be intimidating, especially to newcomers. But this also has a certain magic to it.
You have absolutely no idea of what you’ll encounter in The Lands Between. That lake over there? Go to the middle of it and see what happens. That cave? That’s no ordinary cave. Walk into that church. Wait, why are you fenced in? And who’s that red person running toward you…?
Without the map markers and minimaps we’ve more or less been spoiled with in the last decade, there are always surprises in store for you in The Lands Between.
The game is not afraid to let go of your hand and let you run amuck in the game world. From the get-go, you’re given a degree of freedom that most games in the genre simply don't offer, promising hours upon hours of gameplay.
A Variety of Playstyles to Choose From
In Elden Ring, you get to choose one of 10 classes. From the strong Hero, to the keen Astrologer, to the lowly Wretch, these classes affect your stat distribution as well as the character level you start with.
With these starting stats, you’re encouraged to lean on the classes’ strengths to build yourself into a more effective fighting machine. For example, with a Samurai, you’re supposed to build up your Dexterity to increase their katana damage, while Astrologers would want to build up their Mind stat for more Focus Points for casting spells.
By now, many players have made a variety of stat builds for each class, taking advantage of game mechanics like Bleed (hitting your enemy enough times inflicts ‘Blood Loss’ damage), Scarlet Rot (poison, more or less), and Madness (makes enemies lose Focus Points and take health damage).
So there are numerous ways to play the game, and these may change the way you view it as well.
Hauntingly Beautiful World
The Lands Between is a strange place. In the middle of the world is a Golden Tree. Surrounding it are regions defined by prominent geographical features.
For example, Limgrave is defined by having a lot of woodlands interspersed with ruins, with the sections near Stormveil Castle eternally buffeted by winds or rain. The Liurnia of the Lakes region is defined by having – surprise – a once vast forest that is slowly descending into an ever-expanding lake. And Caelid is defined by being a sordid hellscape covered in Scarlet Rot.
All of these areas, however hellish, however scary, are beautiful. Elden Ring’s graphics are very well done, and it shows in the detail of the ruins, the thickness of the forests, and the design of the ash-covered flora and fauna. The set design is amazing, with castles full of rusted swords, shields, and paintings of old glories, while forests are full of mushrooms and other lush plant life, and dungeons are filled to the brim with rotting corpses.
It is an environment that is familiar, alien, and breathtaking all at once. Only in this game did I find myself staring out into the distance to see the vastness of The Lands Between, hesitate to step forward, and go on anyway. If there’s any aspect that can detract from the quality of Elden Ring, the graphics is not one of them.
Beautiful Audio and Sound Design
The music in the Main Menu alone should clue you in on the audio quality of this game. A low din followed several gentle harps, then a harrowing crescendo before the climax: A mix of war drums, horns, violins, and a choir heralding the approach of a great and deadly battle.
Everything that follows is a soundtrack that fits the game so naturally that you may not notice it is there in the first place, just because the sound fits the environment so well. Gentle violins give a sense of foreboding in deep, lush forests. The beating of drums, as your HUD comes out and you see a pack of wolves right behind you. The sounds add to the atmosphere of each region, bringing you further into the experience.
Sometimes, though, even silent moments are packed with emotion. Just hearing the wind howl, the waves crashing onto the sand, and the birds flying in the air makes you think about your place in the world. You are no more but a lowly Tarnished with the sand to think they have a shot at becoming the Elden Lord. But you’re no less than that, either.
During boss battles, the music ramps up like you wouldn’t believe. Intense strings followed by drum beats, and horns, all aiming to drive home into your ears the sheer terror of fighting powerful beings like the holders of the Great Runes. But you may also draw from music the determination you need to overcome the boss as well.
Even the NPCs you encounter in the game are no slouches in their performances. The English dub has the game’s characters speak in an almost Elizabethan manner, and they deliver their lines decently, driving up the immersion factor a bit more.
Elden Ring is not just a good game. It’s an audio-visual treat.
Terrifying Enemy Mobs and Boss Designs
The Lands Between is a strange place, but stranger still are the denizens that inhabit it. Throughout your journey, you’ll encounter undead soldiers, giant ogres with stakes driven through their chests, giant insects, spider-like abominations with multiple sword-wielding appendages, and Patches. And that’s all in the starting areas.
Enemy designs get weirder the more you delve into The Lands Between. Most of the time, you may see something in the distance, squint a bit, think to yourself “What the hell is that?” and approach… only to be killed in two or three sword swipes. Or killed by a roving band of Scarlet Rot-addled zombies. Or mutilated by a giant bipedal mangy crow.
The bosses themselves are even more impressive. The very first boss that you’ll probably encounter, Margit the Fell Omen, looks like an old, and deformed prophet from fantasy stories… only with several horns sticking out of his head, and holy magic he’ll turn into various weapons to cut you down with.
The bosses that follow are more intimidating: the great size of the Starscourge, General Radahn, the majesty of Malenia, Blade of Miquella, and even Godrick can send shivers down your spine just by how they look.
Cons of Elden Ring
| Things That Can Be Improved |
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Obtuse Game Progression Easy to Cheese AI May Turn Off Casual Gamers Late Game Difficulty Spike |
Obtuse Game Progression
Though I earlier said that Elden Ring is not afraid to let go of your hand and let you run amuck in the game world, this can also go be detrimental to the experience in that it gives so little hand-holding that you won’t know where to go next.
For example, you can encounter an NPC named Kenneth Haight, who will ask you to clear out an old family fortress of his. Depending on how you interpret his instructions, you may end up thinking this is a small castle in the southern portion of East Limgrave appropriately called “Fort Haight”... or a larger castle directly south of Limgrave, in the Weeping Peninsula, known as Castle Morne.
With no map marker to speak of, you may find yourself clearing everything there is to clear in Castle Morne, only to go back to Kenneth and have him ask you to clear his family’s fort again.
Other quest lines can be even more obtuse, which would lead to either hours of what a player can consider pointless exploration, or the player seeking guides to find out where to go next. As a more casual player who has had experience with the Souls games before, I still found the progression fun, but somewhat taxing since you may end up having to drop one quest you are stumped with and pursue another one instead to not waste any playtime.
Players who are less serious and play just for the heck of it might find themselves even less willing to trod through the game’s quest lines.
Another problem is that enemies don't scale with your level. Some RPG fans will consider level scaling a big no-no, but Elden Ring does little to dissuade newer players from brute-forcing Stormveil Castle and exploring the Weeping Peninsula afterward, only to find that the region barely offers a challenge because they are overleveled.
Some players may like being more powerful than enemies in a game that has stomped them repeatedly, but others may not.
Easy to Cheese AI
For those who have already been playing the game for a while, you will find that certain enemies can be taken advantage of to farm runes to level up or buy items. Most of the time, the positioning of these enemies allows them to be distracted and engaged at a distance with bows, making them fall to their deaths and reward you a lot of free runes.
This may ruin the experience for some people who want to grow stronger because they explored the Lands Between, not because they had been farming runes in popular spots (which we will not be putting in this review, though they are well-documented already).
May Turn Off Casual Gamers
Just like with many games in the Souls-like genre, the tough gameplay may be a turn-off to fans who just want to play more casually. Elden Ring may be an action RPG, but it is by no means a Legend of Zelda title (not to say that games in that series are too easy, either). So more casual fans may not get as much fun out of this game as compared to other hack-and-slash games.
But if you keep an open mind and appreciate the punishing but oftentimes fair gameplay, then you might enjoy the title after all.
Late Game Difficulty Spike
In the interest of avoiding spoilers, we will not detail what happens in the endgame, but we'll say that it gets pretty intense. So much so that players might be caught off-guard. You thought the areas before Altus Plateau were hard? Oh, get ready. Having anything below 60 points in Vigor might not cut it, unless you're very good at dodging certain attacks.
This difficulty spike, however, might rub off the wrong way on players who have already gotten used to what they have dealt with in the game so far. At the very least, From Software could've done a better job at telegraphing this spike somewhat to give players an idea of what to expect in the endgame.
Elden Ring Story Plot
The realm known as the Lands Between is locked in a conflict that started with the Shattering, a war that erupted when the Elden Ring - an all-powerful Great Rune - was shattered into lesser Great Runes and Rune Fragments.
Queen Marika the Eternal, ruler of the lands between and mother of the now warring Demigods, has been bound within the Erdtree since the events of the Shattering, leading to the current succession crisis.
Now the Demigods of the Lands Between are grasping for power, seeking Great Runes to further their agendas. Some Demigods seek to restore the Elden Ring and the Golden Order of Queen Marika, while others seek to change the status quo.
You are one of the Tarnished, individuals who lost the grace of the Erdtree and were banished from the Lands Between ages ago. But the call of lost grace has beckoned your kind to return, in hopes that one of you will defeat the Demigods, acquire the Great Runes, reforge the Elden Ring, and become the new Elden Lord.
Like in From Software’s past games in the Souls-like genre, Elden Ring will pit you against enemy mobs and bosses who are harsh and unrelenting in battle.
Skills, weapons, and wits are the only things you have at your disposal to defeat them. But unlike the Dark Souls series, Elden Ring is an open-world RPG where you can go anywhere you want from the start of the game (yes, really). Provided that you survive the rot-scarred sands and knee-deep lakes, that is.
Offered to you is a vast array of weapons, equipment, and spells you can use to defeat your enemies. From a humble sword and a steel katana to large bows held by huge golems, to swords forged from Glintstone, there are many tools you can get for yourself to dispatch enemies and bosses with.
The question is, are you skilled enough to do that?
Who Should Play Elden Ring?
“Souls-like” Veterans
Elden Ring’s core gameplay has little changed from its predecessors, offering challenging gameplay to those who want to work hard to overcome their enemies with perfectly-timed dodges and accurate sword strikes, all with the perfect weapon in hand.
Newbies Interested in “Souls-Like” Games
Elden Ring is also accessible to those who are new to the Souls-like genre and would want to try it out for themselves. Death and making mistakes in general are less punishing in this game compared to From Software’s previous titles, with the only real challenge being how patient you are with yourself.
This game is the perfect title to get your feet wet with. But that does not mean it is easy at all. Far from it. So best be prepared to die. Repeatedly.
Is Elden Ring Worth It?
Elden Ring is Worth Your Money
I have spent roughly 40 hours in Elden Ring in my current playthrough, and I am not even close to being halfway done. Most of what I have been up to includes randomly exploring the Lands Between and looking for places where I can score easy runes and great weapons.
Some of the main bosses I’ve killed, I killed by accident while going toward a completely unrelated objective. You will get so lost in Elden Ring’s world that even the Two Fingers will wonder what’s taking their new Elden Lord so long to arise.
So arise, ye Tarnished! The call of long-lost grace speaks to us all. Cross the fog, to the Lands Between, to stand before the Elden Ring… or muck about collecting Smoldering Butterflies. It’s up to you, really.
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Elden Ring Trailer
Game8 Reviews
Elden Ring Product Information
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| Title | ELDEN RING |
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| Release Date | February 25, 2022 |
| Developer | FromSoftware Inc. |
| Supported Platforms | PlayStation 5 / PlayStation 4 /Xbox Series X|S / Xbox One / Steam (PC) |
| Genre | Action, RPG |
| Number of Players | 1～4 Players |
| ESRB Rating | Rated M |
| Official Website | https://eldenring.com |
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