Recent reviews by Zachary

Have about 30 hours on PS5 and played a bit on PC. It's an excellent game that takes the source material from 23 years ago and brings it up to today's standards. One of the biggest differences outside of gameplay is the acting, with some of the best motion captured and VA'd scenes I've seen since TLOU2's finer moments. There's a lot of details seen in James' rare emotional moments that it's almost uncanny in how realistic it looks.

Gameplay is a huge improvement over the original. Exploring and using the map is as prevalent as ever but there's a lot more to be explored now. AI are also smarter now to make up for zone transition and fixed cameras, so for example, AI can now hide around corners are scurry away from James into darkness waiting to attack. It's brilliant what's been done here, especially since making competent AI in Unreal Engine is very, very tricky.

Hitting enemies with melee weapons also feels very impactful (at least on dualsense, which I highly recommend you play with that controller). It lifts what was great from Callisto's combat and improves it by adding a dedicated dodge button and cunning moves that AI can do, like dodge attack or lunge. Combat is unpredictable which ends up doing this game a favor.

A lot of the new areas are also thoughtfully redesigned. The prison, for example, is made larger and even scarier. I won't spoil that section, but it required several breaks from the game for me to get through due to how anxiety producing it was. The elements used in these new redesigned areas seem so simple on paper, but execution is key and they did a great job at it.

Puzzles are also very fun. Gone are the extremely confusing puzzles, minus the very last one which I was not a fan of. The coin puzzle at the start of the game is so fun, I wanted to reload my save to do it again. There are also puzzles that require you to scan the environment and look for clues that are inscribed on the walls and ceiling of the room you're in. These are seriously, and without kidding, some of the best puzzles I've seen in a horror game in a long time. Easily clears all Resident Evil games by a long shot.

Anyway, this letter has gone on long enough. Just buy the game.

Just...not good. It's not even worth writing a detailed review because thinking about it pisses me off. You're way better off playing Dead Space, a game this one is trying so desperately to knock off.

Cloud is so hot.

The first portion of this review will be for the PS5 version, since currently the PC version is not running well. I personally recommend Elden Ring, but only for those who are already used to the combat of the Souls series. I see it being incredibly frustrating for someone new to the series hopping in and trying to figure out which areas they should (and shouldn't) be in. Since Elden Ring doesn't hold you hand like most open world games (or even From games in general with how linear they were previously), you're free to explore as you wish. While there are many benefits to this, one thing that could potentially happen is you'll find yourself in an area you *think* you'll do fine in, but it turns out that your character needs to be 10 or 20 levels higher than he/she should currently be. And it's like that throughout most of the game.

While I haven't gotten too far into the game as of yet though, enemy bosses are not like a conventional souls game either. Some bosses that would seem like a "starting boss" are actually mid-game bosses that should be dealt with later on, rather than focusing on them and dying repeatedly over and over again. I have no problem with this though and I feel most Souls veterans wouldn't either.

But I've said enough about the negatives regarding this game, what about the positives? To start off with, as always, the soundtrack in this game is amazing. But that comes to no surprise, every From Software game since Demon's Souls has had amazing soundtracks, and this one is no different. The gameplay for the most part feels extremely snappy and easy to understand. Combat has been a bit streamlined for this title due to just better controls in general. No more having to press buttons at the exact same time to do a jump attack for example, which is always welcome (by the way the jump attacks are the most useful attacks in the game, use them).

The overall world is beautiful. Think of it as having the detail of a Dark Souls 3 environment, and having that spread across several kilometers. It's vast, and it's beautiful. The dungeons are also another thing I need to talk about. While I haven't finished a single dungeon yet on PS5, it's truly amazing how unique each one of them are. And there are LOTS, even in the starting area. It elevates exploration to a whole new level for me and really should set the standard for how open world games are done.

Now on to the PC review.

Unfortunately the performance is not great on PC. I tested on two PCs, both with a Ryzen 9 5900, with one using a 3080 and another using a 6900XT. Both were below 50FPS with major stuttering during combat encounters.

I typically wouldn't mind stuttering in games, but this game requires precise timing to come out of a combat encounter alive. So with this in mind, Elden Ring is unplayable in its current state. I've refunded the game and got it on console instead, since that is a much smoother experience apparently, and I recommend the same for those who own a next generation system.

I will update this review when performance is fixed/have played more.