Nobody was as surprised as I was post-E3 2021 to discover that the game I thought looked the best of the show was Elden Ring. A Soulsborne of all things, what will people think of me! The Souls franchise and I have always had our differences as I typically shun games which pose more than a slight challenge. You need only watch the E3 presentation for yourself to discover why, as the gameplay and world truly captured my imagination, leading me to follow every morsel of information revealed between last summer and Elden Ring’s launch in February this year.
Selfishly releasing mere days before I got paid, and as I’d already shelled out for Horizon Forbidden West on PS4 (it was cheaper and came with the PS5 upgrade for free you silly sausages) all I could do was wait and watch how the internet reacted to the new tough-as-nails game. Reviews dropped two days before release with a deafening roar of approval from the reviewing community, with more 10’s than a gallery of my self-portraits, and before the gaming populace could even access Elden Ring it was clear we had a powerful contender for 2022’s Game of the Year on our hands.
I finally picked up my copy after reading countless opinion pieces on the game and, steeling myself for a tough time, I jumped into the world of Elden Ring. At time of writing one week following my start date, I have just hit level 33 and am around 9 hours into my experience. To those who have played the game I can easily summarise my progress for you: I’m still in Limgrave! That’s right, the very first open area. The Elden Ring equivalent of the opening field where players get to grips with the controls and rules of the latest From Software experience.
If you are thinking that by now I must be getting frustrated and feeling my usual default emotion of anger towards a game that doesn’t roll over and let me beat it to death at my convenience, you would be wrong. I am having simply the best time. Oh sure, I’m getting passed around like a plate of profiteroles by the locals but there’s a deep satisfaction to being bullied by a local squad of knights guarding an ancient ruin, only to return a couple of hours later and carve them into bloody chunks for making fun of my weird robes earlier.
Pretty much every time I play I discover something new. A new area, a short-cut, a different approach to a challenge which has been thwarting me for days, sometimes even a new weapon which more suits how I want to play (violently), or an intimidating enemy I can instantly wedgie as I’m arguably over-levelled for this stage of the game. If I wasn’t enjoying myself I would simply stop playing, but the simple fact is that I am hopelessly enraptured exploring Limgrave.
Be in no doubt, I suck at the game, and Margit has defeated me more times than I care to admit. I chose to play as an Astrologer, partly because they have the best mixture of stats to start with but mainly because Reddit told me to if I wanted an easier experience. I have since watched a YouTube guide on how to make the entire game a cakewalk but, ever the hypocrite, now I don’t want to. I live for the feeling of crushing a foe beneath my mighty tread after spending hours avoiding or fleeing from them. Across one of the south facing bridges you’ll find a caravan of enemies almost two dozen strong who sent me scurrying back into my hidey-hole the first time I encountered them. Now however, I cut them all down with ease, including the two gargantuan ogres towing the caravan, allowing me to plunder its treasure.
I haven’t been able to stop jabbering on about Elden Ring throughout this week, and there’s no end in sight for my playthrough. If you have always been an outsider of the Soulsborne games then this is your time to shine, and die! To start you on your adventure, here are seven quick tips from an Elden Ring fan boy who wants to bring more gamers out from the cold into the warm feeling of perpetual anger and satisfaction which this game delivers on time and time again.
1 – Don’t just jump in blindly if you can help it. Do your homework and know which character build you want to use so you don’t need to spend time making these decisions while you could be playing.
2 – Don’t waste your time in the character creation screen as you’ll equip the first armour you find and never see your masterpiece again.
3 – Try to remember the game is punishing you deliberately and that you’re not suddenly awful at gaming.
4 – Level up as soon as you are able to. Losing your runes can be a massive pain but provided you don’t get cocky you will usually be fine. I used a system where as soon as I was 50% towards the requirement to level up I’d quickly grind up the rest in a familiar area so as not to lose progress. If you lose anything below 50% which will be a pain to retrieve, don’t bother. Call it a practise run.
5 – Do not fight the enemies on horses early on. This isn’t Red Dead Redemption, they will demolish you.
6 – Always use your horse to travel when outside. The scenery isn’t so good that it’s worth remaining on foot to see more of it and you’ll discover new secrets, weapons and abilities the more you explore an area.
7 – When in trouble, gradually retreat back to sites of grace (healing locations) while fending off attackers. If / when you die it’ll be much quicker to recover your dropped runes if you die at / near the respawn point. If you die in a boss fight, it’s your call if you try again immediately or go off and explore elsewhere for a bit.
I love Elden Ring. I love that it simultaneously beckons me to explore it whilst also making me appreciate every step I take which doesn’t kill me. If I were reviewing the game now I’d give it 10, but I’m not, and will withhold final judgement until after I’ve beaten, at the very least, the first main story boss. Knowing my track record with challenging games, that could be more of an if than a when, but time will tell!
Thanks for reading and I’ll be back next week with more Elden Ring rambles so I will catch you then!
