Elden Ring: The Pre-Review
Elden Ring, were it to receive a numerical rating, would receive a perfect score. I will not provide you with a numerical rating, as this ludicrously long and winding essay should provide the necessary reasons for the reader to glean actual consumerly advice whether or not to purchase Elden Ring.
Noah Young
nty1001@plymouth.edu
Managing Editor
A “review” on the hotly anticipated video game, Elden Ring, before it releases on Friday the 25th of this month. I have not played it, but I have read several articles and I am too excited to wait. I will channel the totality of my learning about Elden Ring and my years long experience with Dark Souls to give you a “Pre-Review”.
Elden Ring is going to be a big deal. It is already a big deal. As the anticipation for this game has reached its zenith and news of a master version of a game being shipped AND the network test performing as well as it did nearly a month ago, people are rightfully excited about this piece of interactive digital entertainment. Why am I so excited and confident that the game will do well? Read on.
Keep in mind that I am currently out of my mind with excitement about Elden Ring. I pre-ordered it weeks ago, and in the weeks since I have beaten all of the mainline souls games. This includes Dark Souls 1, Dark Souls 2, and Dark Souls 3. I am working on Sekero upon the writing of this pre-review. I have beaten Bloodborne so many times that I can draw you a map of each of its areas. I will beat it one more time after I beat Sekero, and before the release of Elden Ring.
These games are my favorite, and hold a special place in my heart. They still serve as a great ways to stay in touch with my friends through “jolly cooperation” and talking about bosses and watching speedruns. They were almost the only thing I played in High School. I remember playing Dark Souls 2 on my Surface Pro 3 in High School, as it was unable to run Blighttown in “prepare to die edition”, which was the only way to play on PC at the time. I have almost 500 hours in Dark Souls Two as a result of this performance issue. I played Dark Souls 3 upon release on the same Surface Pro 3. I ran it at 1280 by 600 and at around 30-35 frames per second at the lowest settings possible. It wasn’t until I purchased a PlayStation 4 slim edition in 2017 that I was able to play it in HD. This blew my brain out my eyes with how beautiful the game was. I purchased along with the PlayStation 4 Slim, a copy of Bloodborne, which I needed to play with my whole being. Having it locked behind the wall of a PlayStation exclusive sold the system to me over an Xbox, despite my Xbox 360 ownership (although the myriad issues I had with the system may have also done that).
With that being said, the level of excitement I feel for Elden Ring is something I haven’t felt for years. Since Breath of the Wild. So take this pre-review with a grain of salt that all of the gameplay and news is being interpreted by somebody who is wearing rose tinted goggles, glasses, and eye contacts when viewing discourse and news about Elden Ring. Elden Ring, were it to receive a numerical rating, would receive a perfect score. I will not provide you with a numerical rating, as this ludicrously long and winding essay should provide the necessary reasons for the reader to glean actual consumerly advice whether or not to purchase Elden Ring.
Even with that caveat – the game looks perfect. The blend of gross Dark Souls levels and Sekero un-gross gorgeousness.
Part 1: Exploration
The Dark Souls series has always rewarded player exploration in meaningful ways. Dark Souls One rewarded particularly perceptive players by having the game’s map wrap around itself in such an intricate way that straying from the path would revel more efficient ways of getting places. All of the Dark Souls provide meaningful rewards for the player looking for better equipment, interesting NPC interactions, and challenging optional bosses and covenants. In order to 100 percent any of these games, one must gain an encyclopedic knowledge of the map and its items and NPC interactions.
Based on the Network test, this has been elegantly brought to Elden Ring. This is where a lot of large open world games fall flat. I would like to think of Elden Ring as the exception, as each of the dungeons and nooks and crannies of the large field the lucky few in the Network Test experienced diverse enemies, loot, and bosses contained in a cave that Breath of the Wild would have given you a fire sword and a korok seed.
This is what it means for an “Open World Dark Souls” The player feels that their time spent exploring the map is rewarded by more than countless same task, same reward system seen in Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, or GASP Breath of the Wild? The freaky bosses are here from Dark Souls, the wandering enemies actually wander, rather than standing in wait for the player to cut them down like a tower defense game. The world is living. Which is interesting due to how much dying we’re going to be doing when it releases.
Part 2: The World!
There is always an excellent period of exploration, followed by mastery, then perfection of how players traverse through the game worlds of Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekero.
Speaking of the world: it is gorgeous. Dragons pop against the foliage of trees and particles fall from the now (semi) destructible environments. This one area revealed in the Network Test feels more Sekero than Dark Souls solely since it isn’t completely gross. The openings of all of the Souls games place the player in a place that is pretty gross. This ranges from a gross prison, to a gross field full of zombies, and a cemetery, in the mud (each respective to Dark Souls 1, 2 and 3 (with Dark Souls 2’s opening being the least gross)) This plays into the power fantasy that your character becomes awesome through the conquering of the game by the player’s action. Although this is likely to change in later levels, or even the non-network test version of the first area. In an interview, From Software’s director, Hidetaka Miyazaki describes “the joy of designing poison areas” in an interview with Polygon, it quotes him as ““rediscovered [his] love for making poison swamps.”” Having the environment affect the character is so much fun, and knowing that the poison swamp level’s position as a key element of FromSoftware games is secure. Miyazaki is also aware of the online discourse regarding the feelings of such areas like the infamous Blighttown of Dark Souls 1.
Part 3: The Graphics:
Games are made out of graphics, so they are important for the game to function. There is a lot of commentary of Elden Ring’s graphical fidelity, especially over how it looks compared to Demon’s Souls on PlayStation 5. This could not matter less. The core game of Demon’s Souls remains unchanged from 2009, but looks like it comes from the future. It was developed by Bluepoint Games, not FromSoftware, and presents itself as a supremely playable and deliciously exclusive tech demo for the PlayStation 5, not as a regular release for normal people without a space computer. The souls games have never been about graphical fidelity, but rocksolid art direction. It envelops you in an environment that protects its secrets with gross screaming monsters you don’t need an RTX 3090 or a PlayStation 5 to achieve that.
With environments as pretty as these, will my “Last Gen” console be able to handle it?! The network test was available on all of the hardware that it will be releasing on, and even a base model PlayStation 4 dealt with Elden Ring admirably. It hits a solid 30 fps, which is playable to everybody except snobs. We’ve played Dark Souls 3 for years at this level of performance and I have beaten that game more times than I can count. Thankfully, when the PlayStation 5 eventually comes out*, the disc and digital version will allow players access to the PlayStation 5 version of the game. If you’re playing on PC and you can play Dark Souls 3 at a reasonable level of performance, you’re already good. This isn’t Cyberpunk. I for one, will be playing it on the aforementioned PlayStation 4 slim, and will be very happy when I do.
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN?!
Based on how well the Souls Games convey their story to the player through subtle item descriptions, environments, and haunting dialogue, FromSoftware did not need the help of George Martin to make another great video game. This will only make a better video game. It will also draw in more fans of George Martin’s work such as a song of ice and fire and its tv adaptation that some people watched. Do keep in mind that Game of Thrones’ terrible ending had little to do with Martin, as everything after season 5 is ahead of its own source material. Where’s the next book?! I would encourage fans to pick up “A Knight of Seven of the Seven Kingdoms” by George R.R. Martin, which takes place 100 years before “A Song of Ice and Fire” and features a freelance knight, Sir Dunk the Tall, and his adventures with Aegon Targaryen, or Aegon the Unlikely, or simply “Egg”. It features a wandering hero that intersects their life with various charismatic and interesting characters. It is the closest work that I can think of that I have read, that acts as a bridge between what a video game would look like were it written by George R.R Martin. I look forward to seeing how it all falls together in Elden Ring.
So. If you have only the monetary power to purchase for yourself exactly ONE 60 dollar prestiege video game this month, I would personally suggest Elden Ring, over the other releases this month.
Tiny FAQ:
Do I need to play the other Games?
No, but you should! Elden Ring is not related to the story in any way, and is only mechanically similar to the previous FromSoftware games. All of the souls, Bloodborne, and Sekero games are excellent.
Is Elden Ring at all related to The Lord of the Rings?
Not in a story way, but Lord of the Rings’ DNA lives inside all pieces of Fantasy. Reading them is a great gift you can give to yourself as a fan of fantasy literature, world building, or plain good literature. They also share the word “ring” in the title.
Does Plymouth State University’s 2022 Ski Day line up with Elden Ring’s release?
No. I really wish it did and it comes so close.