This game is darn near fantasy RPG perfection, held back only by hardware restrictions (such as limiting your FPS on a PC) and a substantial number of bugs and technical concerns that will almost certainly be addressed regardless. I should mention I played this game on PS5 for the most part and just tried it for a few minutes on PC since the game is not optimised for PC gamers.

First things first, not a game for everyone and I don't believe that everyone should pick it up and play it. In terms of story/lore and the evolution of both the main and side missions, Fromsoft has created an open world experience that is every bit as hazy and enigmatic as its more restricted products. The information is available if you seek for it, but many gamers aren't used to paying close attention to context hints in their environment, such as listening to NPC talk that isn't kept in a player log for later reference ECT. In compared to its contemporaries, this game can and will appear to have no plot or direction. All of this is without even mentioning the complexity and design philosophy of the gameplay, which is so unlike to most other modern open world action adventure/rpg products that any casual gamer unfamiliar with Fromsoft's previous titles would quickly grow frustrated and quit up.

All of this is to imply that the negative reviews for this game are mostly based on three sorts of experiences. Casual gamers who were woefully misinformed about what to expect from their purchase, longtime fans who get more hung up on technical issues, poor PC optimization, and changes to PVP that favour the host over the invader (unless you use a specific item that evens the playing field, which all of these people completely ignore), and contrarian trolls who resent the game's praise and typically state things that are objectively and demonstrably false.

When all is said and done, Elden Ring is the absolute pinnacle of both the "Soulslike" genre created by Fromsoft and open world action RPGs in general, and I strongly recommend it for anyone willing to learn and grow as a player to push through the difficulty curve and begin to experience this world on its own terms.

This game is darn near fantasy RPG perfection, held back only by hardware restrictions (such as limiting your FPS on a PC) and a substantial number of bugs and technical concerns that will almost certainly be addressed regardless. I should mention I played this game on PS5 for the most part and just tried it for a few minutes on PC since the game is not optimised for PC gamers. First things first, not a game for everyone and I don't believe that everyone should pick it up and play it. In terms of story/lore and the evolution of both the main and side missions, Fromsoft has created an open world experience that is every bit as hazy and enigmatic as its more restricted products. The information is available if you seek for it, but many gamers aren't used to paying close attention to context hints in their environment, such as listening to NPC talk that isn't kept in a player log for later reference ECT. In compared to its contemporaries, this game can and will appear to have no plot or direction. All of this is without even mentioning the complexity and design philosophy of the gameplay, which is so unlike to most other modern open world action adventure/rpg products that any casual gamer unfamiliar with Fromsoft's previous titles would quickly grow frustrated and quit up. All of this is to imply that the negative reviews for this game are mostly based on three sorts of experiences. Casual gamers who were woefully misinformed about what to expect from their purchase, longtime fans who get more hung up on technical issues, poor PC optimization, and changes to PVP that favour the host over the invader (unless you use a specific item that evens the playing field, which all of these people completely ignore), and contrarian trolls who resent the game's praise and typically state things that are objectively and demonstrably false. When all is said and done, Elden Ring is the absolute pinnacle of both the "Soulslike" genre created by Fromsoft and open world action RPGs in general, and I strongly recommend it for anyone willing to learn and grow as a player to push through the difficulty curve and begin to experience this world on its own terms.