Elden Ring Is More Than Just ‘Open World Dark Souls’
Elden Ring
Poorna Shankar Updated: Posted:
Category: Editorials 0
This weekend, I had the chance to check out FromSoftware’s latest opus, the upcoming Elden Ring. Developed in collaboration with George RR Martin, Elden Ring is a first of sorts for the veteran developers who effectively defined this subgenre. Can they do it again?
You’ve no doubt heard the term “Souls-like” or “Souls-Borne” to describe this subgenre of games. You know the type. Challenging but precise combat. Labyrinthian level design. Achingly gorgeous art direction. Massive environments. Epic boss encounters. And truly incredible enemy design pushing the limits of imagination.
If you’ve played any of FromSoft’s previous titles, Elden Ring should be very familiar to you in many respects. Enemies, apart from bosses, reset when you die. You have health, mana (called Faith here), and stamina bars. Killing enemies drops a resource, called Runes in Elden Ring, required to level up and purchase items at vendors. Site of Grace (this game’s version of bonfires) allow you to rest, level up, and act as fast travel points. And oh yeah, there are tons of bosses.
But calling Elden Ring, “open world Dark Souls,” would be a tragically narrow distillation of what FromSoft are trying to do with Elden Ring. In many ways, I believe Elden Ring to be the next logical evolution of FromSoft’s brilliant formula.
Let’s start with the mundane and work our way up to heart of it all. When I first booted up Elden Ring on PS5, I was immediately struck by its gorgeous art direction. It’s far closer to Dark Souls 2 and 3 than it is to FromSoft’s previous outing, Sekiro.
I played in framerate mode which targets performance up to 60fps with cuts no doubt to resolution and some graphical flourishes. There is also a quality mode which looks to push resolution up to 4K at more console-standard 30fps.
Unfortunately, I could immediately make out frametime inconsistencies which resulted in stutter. This meant even though the game might be pumping out 60 frames in one second, the delivery of those frames were uneven. And it is this unevenness which manifests as stutter and just feels bad.
Pop-in was very noticeable specifically on grass. This wasn’t a simple fade either, rather, a full-on appearance of vast chunks of grass where there previously was none. I’m curious to see how the visuals scale out on PC since I plan on playing on that platform. Given that this whole build is indeed a test and nowhere near the finished game (which releases February 22), there is still time for FromSoft to optimize here.
Elden Ring also includes dynamic weather and time of day.
This is more just a cosmetic inclusion. From my experience, I encountered enemies (and roaming bosses) at night which I honestly don’t think were present during the day. For min/maxers, or simply those who love exploration, this adds an entirely new layer into the mix. I love this as it gives you yet another reason to be diligent in your travels.
I couldn’t create a custom character as part of this test. I suspect a more robust character creator will manifest in the final game. Instead, I was presented with several classes ranging from more melee-focused to more pure magic.
I ended up selecting the Enchanted Knight which has high Intelligence and Strength, allowing you to play as mage or melee. I had a staff in left hand and a spear in right. This allowed for dealing magic damage at range, but also allowed for great reach with the spear if enemies closed the distance on me.
To my delight, magic is super powerful in Elden Ring. It honestly reminds me of magic’s potency in Demon’s Souls.
Magic attacks in Elden Ring can stagger some enemies, and you can seemingly cast them quite quickly. I love magic in fantasy, and always hate it when developers pull back from the potency of magic. In my view, magic is this ancient power and therefore should be super powerful. I’m so happy magic appears powerful in Elden Ring.
Overall, combat feels great. From Software are masters of this type of RPG, arguably pioneering it. When you kill things, you collect Runes (this game’s version of Souls). You’ll also find various Rune fragments. Consuming them gives you Runes. But I highly advise you only consume these fragments at a Site of Grace when you level up and not out in the world. This is because you drop your Runes upon death, but you can go recover them. Your death location is marked on your map and compass to help you navigate. Therefore, if you consumed several of these fragments, die, and are unable to recover them, they are lost to you.
Additionally, you have a Flask of Crimson Tears to refill health, and Flask of Cerulean Tears to fill up magic.
When you kill a group of enemies, your flasks are refilled. This, I suspect, is a concession to the open world design. Instead of forcing you travel to Sites of Grace to rest and heal, allowing the refill of these flasks through combat keeps you in the world without halting your momentum. This is simply good game design. It maintains the risk/reward gameplay of From Software titles, while simultaneously encouraging and enabling the open world exploration.
And we’ve arrived at last. The world. What a world. Called The Lands Between, this world really wants you to explore. This is a game for explorers in that you’re given almost no direction. The map itself is completely blank, devoid of the usual glut of icons we’ve been inundated with from other open world games.
However, FromSoft gives you tools to help you structure your experience. For one, Sites of Grace emanate a subtle golden streak in the direction of your objective. You can, of course, ignore it as I did.
But it’s there if you want it.
Additionally, you can create beacons on your map to guide you. These show up as literal beams of light shooting skyward making it quite easy to get your bearings in the world. You can also place markers on the map to notate things like danger, animals, herbs, treasure, and more.
You can navigate the world using the compass at the top of the screen as well. The compass also includes icons of various points of interest, but don’t expect it to get cluttered. Those icons are more of a, “hey there’s a thing over here you can check out if interested,” instead of, “here’s another activity you must cross off your checklist.”
These points of interest carry with them the great level design and mystery for which FromSoft is known. That sense of detail hasn’t been diluted by the addition of an open world. I always felt compelled to check the next ridge and peek around the next corner. And more often than not, something would be there.
For instance, I found a cave carved out of a cliffside.
Inside, I found some wolves and ultimately, a world boss. FromSoft’s brilliant enemy design and combat were on fully display. But that wasn’t the point.
The point is this: If you didn’t go exploring, you would never have known that cave existed. There isn’t some giant CAVE ICON on your compass desperately pointing you towards it. The Lands Between were here long before you. The world owes you nothing. It’s on you to go discover it. There’s a real sense of nervous excitement because you’re truly exploring the unknown.
Unlike other open world games which are so worried about you losing interest that they constantly barrage you with things to do, FromSoft completely pull back from that. Instead, they let your curiosity guide you. They fundamentally understand curiosity is far more powerful than a checklist of activities will ever be, and my experience was enhanced for it.
All of this is to say if you’re the type of player who needs structured direction, I daresay you won’t like Elden Ring.
For others who, like me, are natural-born explorers and prefer to make our own way with little handholding, I really believe you’ll enjoy and appreciate what FromSoft have created.
Even though I’ve only played a contained, limited-time slice of Elden Ring, it feels like the next logical evolution of From Software’s Souls-Borne formula. It’s so much more than just “open world Dark Souls” for all the reasons I laid out above. The incredible combat is there, yes. But there are now roaming bosses, actual dungeons, and the very real sense of exploring the unknown.
That last one is so crucial to selling Elden Ring that I spent nearly half this article describing it. I truly believe the world will end up being the most important character in Elden Ring. It’s not simply a treadmill funneling you from one mundane activity to the next just to give you “things to do.” It’s a place containing real secrets, one which actively rewards your curiosity.
The folks who will get the most out of Elden Ring will the those who brave the depths and search every inch of the Lands Between.
Bring on February.
Tags
impressions
beta
test
dark souls
Elden Ring
closed network test
How FromSoftware Could Turn the Gaming World Upside Down With the Next Dark Souls
By
Hank Whitson
FromSoftware’s tremendously influential action franchise has a golden opportunity to reshape gaming in the 2020-era with one bold change.
There is little dispute that Dark Souls is one of the best-loved franchises to emerge from the 2010s, setting trends and shaping game design tastes throughout the decade. Now, on the eve of the next console generation, FromSoftware has the potential to sweep the gaming industry off its feet all over again with its next entry into the Dark Souls‘ franchise, with one bold change to its established formula.
Even though FromSoftware released the original Dark Souls in 2011, and its spiritual predecessor, Demon Souls, in 2009, the Souls series is one of the most influential franchises of the past 10 years. Its sustained impact on game design is not merely a matter of inciting imitation. Rather, it is the ease at which one can apply Dark Souls’ core formula to other numerous existing genres and create novel experiences. Games bearing the «Souls-Like» and «Souls-Lite» tags feel familiar, but maintain distinct personalities.
RELATED: Dark Souls: 10 Things You Never Knew About Solaire
Why Dark Souls Influenced Everything
The core Souls formula can be loosely defined as a game featuring RPG character progression, a mechanic that provides players with a limited number of health recharges between checkpoints, and a strong risk-reward dynamic in how players collect and cash-in experience. That last bullet point is often accompanied by the extremely challenging enemies the Dark Souls franchise is known for, though punishing difficulty is arguably a flourish rather than a requirement for Souls games, with some saying Dark Souls should have an easy mode.
Triple-a titles like Jedi: Fallen Order proudly wear FromSoftware’s influence on their sleeve, paired with Metroidvania exploration, and elements of Uncharted’s cinematic action sequences. Indie hits like Dead Cells and Blasphemous translate that template to 2D platforming. Middle-weight successes like Remnant: From The Ashes are built on conceptually simple tweaks, like adding firearms and dedicated multiplayer, to the formula. The list of Souls-inspired games is long and full of overlooked gems, despite a few duds here and there.
How to Revolutionize Dark Souls 4
Given the extreme variety of competing titles, FromSoftware has to introduce bold new elements to keep things feeling fresh. The series’ existing games already give a glimpse at the answer: online co-operative and competitive play. As it stands, players can team up to take on difficult bosses, or conduct intense duels that feature the same, build-based meta as many other competitive online games.
FromSoftware could up the scale, possibly even making a massively-multiplayer Dark Souls.
It must be acknowledged that this would not be a simple change. MMOs come with a lot of baggage, beginning with how they are funded and maintained. The monthly subscription monetization model has been more or less replaced in favor of the more profitable but predatory Battle Pass format. And even if FromSoftware can make the money work, it would be a major game design undertaking to maintain the same level of tension and strategy while still making the game feel fair. It is a risky, extremely difficult challenge that could fail any number of ways—much like playing a Souls‘ game. But consider the possible rewards.
What a Dark Souls MMO Could Look Like
Many MMOs still feature combat systems that rely on static or limited movement, and optimizable ability rotations—byproducts from an era where slow connections would make more action-oriented combat unfair.
In contrast, breathlessness and improvisation are two reasons why established titles like God of War imitated Dark Souls combat system. For many players, farming souls (or shards) is already part of the Souls experience, but rather than being an exercise in tedium, players are always gambling with their progress.
Dark Souls‘ stellar-yet-soft-spoken narrative is also well-suited for non-linear progression for an open world. Players would have to plumb the depths of multiple dungeons to uncover the core threads of the ongoing Souls saga, which has yet to see a satisfying conclusion. In fact, narrative closure is one of the strongest arguments for Dark Souls 4 in the face of FromSoftware’s forthcoming Elden Ring, and its newer property, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
RELATED: Bloodborne 2 for PS5 Would Cement the Soulsborne Genre
As for solving the challenges of producing an MMO, potential solutions already exist in other titles.
Warframe‘s micro-transaction marketplace does brisk business and offers tons of customization options which will satisfy players desires for the full «Fashion Souls» experience. It also does not lock players into a contract-style Battle Pass, where free-to-play players inevitably—and permanently—miss out on cosmetics. As for concerns about mechanical fairness, clever balancing and management of instances could enable single player, cooperative, and full-PVP options to create an experience that is tailor-made to player preferences.
A wholly action-based MMO that demands the same degree of «Git Gud» grit as any other Dark Souls game would not only inspire imitators, but shift the current paradigm of MMO design. Grinding would become a test of skill, rather a general measure of persistence. For now, unfortunately, all FromSoftware fans can do is speculate about what might be, and wait for more news on Elden Ring.
Dark Souls Remastered is available now on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
MORE: Dark Souls: 10 Git Gud Memes That Aren’t For Casuals
A small selection of unusual races in MMO games — DTF games
\u0438\u0440\u0435\u043a\u0442\u043e\u0440 \u043a\u043b\u0430\u0434\u0431\u0438\u0449\u0430, \u0441\u0442\u0440\u043e\u0438\u0442 u0438 \u0431\u0438\u043e\u0438\u043d\u0436\u0435\u043d\u0435\u0440 \u0441\u0442\u0430\u043b\u0438 \u0430\u0439\u0442\u0438\u0448\u043d\u0438\u043a\u0430\ u043c\u0438″,»buttonText»:»\u041a\u0430\u043a?»,»imageUuid»:»cb93facb-1294-59bc-9fa4-65987add8c5d»,»isPaidAndBannersEnabled»:false}
We all know that every self-respecting game should have humans and elves (and half-elves, moon elves, dark elves, wood elves, oh god sorry elves again ). All the more pleasant to play for someone who stands out from this crowd of long-legged and golden-haired heroes. Of course, I collected not all of them, but those who especially liked.
1890
views
Guild wars. Sylvari and Asura
Sylvari , according to the lore of the game, the children of the Great Pale Tree, and therefore have excellent command of the forces of nature and have the ability to regenerate. In addition, they throw vines, summon tough forest hounds, and plant seed turrets.
Tiny Asuras are harmless only in appearance. Techies to the marrow of their bones, they create power suits, summon golems and conjure with radiation. Don’t underestimate them.
Crowfall. Centaurs and Keivy
For whom only did not pass MMOshki, but here it was not possible to play for the real brutal centaur before. The main feature of the race is already clear: this is both a character and a riding mount in one. Centaurs are strong, fast moving, and able to break through enemy armor.
And if, on the contrary, you want to be someone small and cute, you can choose Cavey , guinea pigs — duelists. They are agile, fast, have the ability to invisibility and can fight in both melee and ranged combat. nine0003
Perfect world. Amphibians
It seems strange that these guys got here, because in human form they look like ordinary K-pop soloists. But their transformation deserves attention (do you love fish as I love them?) The fish form allows amphibians to swim quickly and increase protection.
The Elder Scrolls Online. Argonians and Khajiit
Well, this is a classic, you need to know this. I can’t help but think of the scaly and cold-blooded lizardmen from The Elder Scrolls universe. nine0009 Argonians from the online game retained the ability to swim quickly and high immunity, and in addition received the ability to effectively recover.
I am almost 100% sure that everyone who is familiar with The Elder Scrolls universe has ever played Khajiit . Because woolen, tailed and just cats. Their innate stealth makes them excellent assassins, and they also regenerate quickly and deal heavy critical hits.
Neverwinter. Draconids (Dragonborn)
And Neverwinter has its own dragonborn, which they decided to transfer as Draconids. Powerful guys with excellent stats are perfect for those who like to play as warriors. They are healed 5% more and gain Dragon Fury, which increases their Power and Crit Chance. Well, the dragon in armor looks, of course, impressive.
Well, did you play for one of the above or do you prefer wondrous elves? And if you know someone else unusual, tell me! I’ll try with pleasure)
Is the first Dark Souls a legend or…? — Games on DTF
5792
views
Oh my God, is this the same game, the complexity of which was composed by epics, the same game, the mechanics of which formed the basis of many of the most popular games? Yes, she is Dark Souls. What? What are you saying? What about Demon Souls? After all, it was the first game of this genre. Yes, but… I think for most people it was the Dark Souls that came first, not the Demon Souls, since not everyone had a PS3. Even if Demon Souls was actually the first Souls-like game, I think the harsh hardcore players with a nostalgic tear remember their first «You died» intro from the first Dark Souls. nine0003
The brainchild is truly amazing. This is a game that tried to bring something new to the gaming industry and it succeeded. Dark souls have chosen a completely different vision of a computer game. The developers did not consider the player an idiot, so they didn’t poke his nose into every mechanic and feature, but forced him to use his brains, otherwise you won’t get the result. In general, yes, the game promises to be difficult. And actually…
Difficulty
I think when these two words «DIFFICULTY» and «VIDEO GAME» collide somewhere in the same context, most modern players almost immediately break out of the language of «Dark Souls …». Almost every game that gives the player at least some challenge is immediately inappropriately compared to Dark Souls, «Saw Cuphead ? Yes, this is Dark Souls in the world of platformers!». And it is precisely due to its complexity that Dark Souls has already become a household name in the world of the gaming industry. If these two words are used to describe any game, then it is immediately clear that they want to describe difficulty. But are the first Dark Souls really difficult, or are they just the lies of crooked casuals? Of course, when you are familiar with the mechanics of Dark Souls, you understand how to navigate in the game space, you know where everything is, then the game no longer represents any particular difficulty for you.Therefore, Dark Souls was truly difficult for its pioneers, for those who do not know what kind of game this is, they tried to beat the first fat-assed demon in the Undead Sanctuary with a stump of a sword.For these people, the game will be difficult.0003
When you first enter the game, the first thing that tries to set fire to your ass is misunderstanding. Misunderstanding where to go, what to download, what class and weapon to choose. You could easily turn to the benevolent skeletons at the Fire Temple and try to beat them. I think in the Crypt of the Giants, many people asked themselves the question «Am I supposed to always see only a meter ahead of me or what?» And if you also had a pirate in which online is not provided, then it is unlikely that you will be able to understand where to go and what you are doing wrong without outside help. nine0003
The locations were also not a friendly place for the player. The above-mentioned Crypt of the Giants is a confirmation of this. Nasty enemies in complete darkness with a guaranteed chance of falling into a cliff will give your ass some fuel. Moreover, you can’t use a shield either, because you need a lantern in your right hand (of course, you can find a luminous hat in Izalith, but I think not everyone went there at first). But what about Anor Londo (and for connoisseurs of Anal Rodeo)? Silver knights shooting at you with arrows the size of a small birch tree while you are trying not to fall from narrow ledges, I think, in principle, characterize the mood of local locations to the player. And yes, there is a location where you literally can’t see where you’re going (thank you Dark souls). nine0003
Bosses complete locations. And I think the bosses of the first Dark do not pose much of a threat to an experienced player, but again, we are considering the option when you entered the game in the first place. And in this perspective, the bosses justify the complexity of the game. The initial demon will most likely oneshot you and then you will guess that you need to run through the door and skip the boss. And then the demon of the calves, in which the damage is rather badly entered (you don’t know about the chip with a jump in his head). Next is Capra the demon, and here the difficulty is not so much in the boss, but in two dogs in co-op with him. And in words it seems simple, well, dogs and dogs, what is so special about them? But in reality, this is something, the dogs micro-stun you, and the demon finishes you off with a blow from above, and so on almost every try. I will not describe each boss further in the chronology of the game. I will say that looking at them from the height of experience of all parts of the DS, these are quite simple and not as difficult as they might seem on the first playthrough, the bosses. I will only mention the symbol of the first Dark Sols, or rather the symbols — Ornstein and Smough.
These guys will be the first terrible obstacle in the way of a newcomer to the games of the series, I think they simply destroyed most of them. Their main difficulty is that there are two of them, so it is difficult to carry out attacks. As soon as you swing at Ornstein, Smough’s hammer rolls over you. This will be your first dual boss, so finding the right rhythm to play with him at first will be difficult. Well, after the death of one, the other will take his power and become more powerful and larger in size. And, of course, if you die in the second phase, then when you come to them again, you will again have to beat them both. nine0003
And a little about the less obvious components of the difficulty in this game.
Enemies respawn after resting by the fire (interestingly, in the first Dark they do this endlessly, which opens up access to good farm)
You may well lose all your accumulated experience, expressed in this game in souls. If you were killed, and the next time you visited the place of death, you did not pick up the souls and died again, the souls will disappear forever.
Uncomfortable rolling. In this part of the game, somersaults are much worse than in DS3. The rolls of the first DS are harder to understand and harder to get used to. Therefore, in my opinion, it is much more pleasant to pass with the DS shield, especially for the first time. nine0003
There is no initial movement between fires, so if you forgot something somewhere, didn’t do it, you will have to go all over again.
Gameplay
The gameplay of the first DS is essentially simple, go clean the locations and kill the bosses. But there is something attractive and charming in it. And in many respects this is precisely due to the very complexity that adds the spirit of adventure to the passage, the joy of defeating the boss and the desire to find out what awaits you next. In general, death (i.e. loss) is the basis of this game, it should encourage the player to make new decisions and ideas that can help him get through this or that part of the game. And it works, it’s nice to understand that your scheme, tactics worked and you passed the boss. Well, the scattered nishtyaks around the locations add remarkable interest to their study. After all, you don’t want to pass by some object, because there may be something useful there. It delivers a very seamless game world, you can literally run through the whole world, almost without getting into dead ends. It makes the world of DS come alive, you perceive it as a whole, and not as a collection of separate locations. Also nice is that the game is very replayable. You can always organize a passage for another class, with a different weapon, come up with some kind of challenge for yourself. Therefore, I have no complaints about the gameplay of the first DS, this game is really interesting to play and learn. nine0003
ENT/PLOT
For most players, there is no plot in Dark Sols. And on the first playthrough, you will not understand much about the plot, although if you read the replicas of the NPCs, I think that it is the plot of the game that should reach you. It’s just that many players are too lazy to read dialogues with NPCs and descriptions of items, and this is normal. Everyone wants to beat epic bosses, and not tedious to read the description of some mob’s underpants. But the lore of the first part is something. Once you get to know him, you will never be able to forget and assume that there is no story in FromSoftware games. The only cutscene in the game is simply stunning in its majesty and scale of the story being told to us. The voice in the cutscene is simply incredibly well-chosen, it very well reflects the state of the game world and its mood in general. The initial video tells us that a certain era of dragons, an era in which there is neither time nor life with death, is interrupted by a suddenly flared fire, with the advent of which, life and death and light and darkness are born. And in this fire They (certain creatures) find the Souls of the Lords. Nito, the first of the dead, the Witch of Izalith, Gwyn, the lord of the Light, and a cunning dwarf who is so easy to forget. Using the power of these souls, they challenged the dragons. Thanks to the betrayal of the Naked Sith, the weakness of the dragons was revealed, their scales, which bestowed immortality, were highly vulnerable to lightning.
So a new Era has come — the Era of Fire. A happy time for the game world, and especially a happy time for the Overlords. But here the Fire dies out and the Era of Darkness comes. The world is fading, it was struck by a curse, and many inhabitants turn into hollows. In an attempt to prolong the Age of Fire, the Witch of Izalith decided to create her own fire, but something went wrong, and hordes of terrible demons entered the world. By that time, a huge number of people become hollow, and the gods decide to create special prisons for the undead. This is where our adventure begins. Our entire path will be based on an attempt to fulfill the prophecy of the chosen undead. We must ring two bells, thereby proving that we are suitable for the role of the chosen one, get Great Souls, and give ourselves to the fire, prolonging the Era of Fire. But it is worth noting that we can not engage in self-immolation and start the Age of Darkness. Let the plot of the game be beaten enough in its concept, but the lore of this world is unrealistically amazing.
