Review: Elden Ring (PS5) - by far the best game of all the time of Software

Elden Ring is a special type of game, once in a generation. You can feel it when you push all the double doors overlooking the Limgrave opening area and start exploring the vast open world at your feet. It is an amazing feat, because the Japanese developer fromSoftware adapts its wide but finally linear levels of the past to adapt to open exploration and discovery. If there were not the few too many disappointments under the hood, Elden Ring would already have most of the game prices in the key.

FromSoftware can always be incredibly proud of its achievements here because it successfully translates the Dark Souls formula into an open world environment. The Japanese developer did not relax his commitment to the difficulty, and you now have the freedom to find this masochism of almost anywhere on The Lands Between Tipculiar Card. A surprising part of the world is open from the outset, allowing you to either borrow the main path, starting at sunset in the direction you judge appropriate.

And these hours of opening and exploration are simply captivating. Falling on high-level areas, reversing Optional boss battles, discover secrets and hidden quests, spot enemies and strange but captivating places in the distance: Elden Ring carries out wholeheartedly this fantasy of a fromSoftware experience in the world Open, merging triumphantly difficulty, freedom and intrigue.

Limgrave plant the decor, with his green fields, his dilapidated buildings and the imposing Castle Stormveil sitting at the top of his cliff in the distance. You could lose dozens of hours in the area alone, exploring its underground dungeons, seeking new objects and improvements, and fighting the strange and wonderful enemies that inhabit it. However, what was included in the closed network test last year is only the tip of the iceberg.

Beyond the relatively ordinary borders of Limgrave are areas of another world that would not appear displaced during the Blood Moon phase of Bloodborne. To the east are the toxic swamps of Caelid, with a redesigned sky suspended above. Meanwhile, the closer you get closer to the Erdtree to the north, the more the places become magic.

Some places take place in golden sunny energy while others seem to have been drawn from the Grungy depths of the valley of defilement in Demon's Souls. All have their beauty, however, and it's a captivating hike to venture through them all. Another MasterClass in the artistic design and direction of FromSoftware.

The navigation in The Lands Between is a breeze thanks to the inclusion of a card and a compass in the game - a first for this type of game by the Japanese developer. Using your own intuition and your curiosity, you can place markers and icons to basically create your own landmarks, labeling the locations you would like to visit in the future. The main path is highlighted by some Bonfires Sites of Grace, but these are all the advice you will get. This means that you can walk in high-level areas, meet a much too powerful boss for your current level and lose all your soul runes. Although there may be a touch of frustration after the test, it is more knowledge acquired during the bold getaway.

Without Ubisoft Style Objectives and Tower Markers that mark the activities and quests on your card, Elden Ring allows you to create your own trip through The Lands Between. Find the places you want to explore and the enemies you want to fight. While the rest of the game will seem quite familiar with Fanatics from fromSoftware, the open world and its infinite possibilities offer a new captivating way to shape your own adventure.

Comfort can be found in the fight, which has been considerably extended to be inclusive for almost all game styles. The standard configuration of the sword and shield will always be viable, but the magic capabilities are now more important than ever. A wide range of spells can be started to shoot down the enemies at a distance, with even more options from ASHES OF WAR. These are special skills attached to the weapons that considerably extend your capabilities by offering a different type of attack that can be invoked if you have enough FP juice (Focus Points). From a great magic sword to temporary wind attacks, which they provide during activation can change the course of the battle.

In addition, the invocations have been expanded to the point where you can call help from the Objects menu only. Spiritual ashes are a new type of invocation, using souls trapped inside. They take many different forms: a pack of wolves, an army of skeletons or jellyfish to name a few. Combating at your side until their health bars are exhausted, they are vital for fighting, providing distractions to the enemy while you retain health or you go to town with a dam of attacks. from behind.

Elden Ring then borrows in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice with some simple stealth mechanisms that facilitate the setting up of Backstabs and falling enemies much more easily. Hide in the tall grass while an enemy without a mistrust goes or squatting on the battlefield to reduce the chances that a group of fighters notice you. You can even fight straddling while overlapping your faithful Spectral Torrent Destrier. Some enemies and boss actually require this approach, because trying to fight them on earth is basically a failure.

With as many options to consider, the fight has a true variety. You can take your construction in so many different directions, giving priority to the most magical elements of the game or by engaging your upgrade points to force and dexterity. Between the two extremes is a plethora of potential.

Like his predecessors, it will always be a difficult title. Chronography properly your attacks and manage your endurance gauge is the daily bread of the Foursoftware games, and Elden Ring is no different. That's what you do between these attack schemes that really move things. Combining Dark Souls's traditional combat with Sekro's stealthy elements: Shadows Die Twice, then adding new ideas, Elden Ring looks like everything the studio has built. It is the fight fromSoftware at its peak; The definitive versions of his old titles collected in one.

Your skills with these magical weapons and capabilities will, of course, be tested in exhausting boss battles. As the tradition does, many of these meetings have completely unique enemies with exclusive attack schemes. This is another factor that surpasses its predecessors through impressive main battles. The bosses dramatically change their weapons during phase changes and even go so far as to change the arena in which you fight to adapt it to their more powerful capacities.

In addition, there is a frankly absurd amount of optional bosses in the game. Some simply wander in the open world while others are hidden in dungeons, caves and catacombs. The only problem is that some of them are just a little bit. Whether it's reoriented enemies from the continent or posing little threat in general, they can be very random. And as they are so numerous, we sometimes have the impression that they are only there to expand a little more the game. The problem is far from being a problem of Dark Souls II, but a little more care and d Attention for these secondary battles would not have been wrong.

The same can be called non-mandatory dungeons: the first will be exciting adventures in the unknown, but you will quickly begin to spot their oddities and general provisions. Many of them begin to look alike as you play, with a simple puzzle of finding a lever to unlock a door being the task behind many of them. They are nice enough, but do not expect to find anything revolutionary in their depths.

To compensate for this slight disappointment, the main areas, which are all consistently designed with their own set of enemies and layouts. The ramparts of Stormveil's castle are needed as you climb their outdoor walls before going to the rooms filled with treasures inside. Directly north of the fortress is a region drowned in water and wrought iron dwellings. Then comes the Academy of Raya Lucaria, an enchanted place full of spell launchers. Each region feels distinct; Each domain has something of its own. And when one can freely visit these places on horseback, crossing their borders a few minutes from interval, it is difficult to imagine a more varied world.

If you prefer not to bask in this landscape, some improvements in quality of life greatly facilitate travel. You can quickly travel from anywhere on the map to the grace sites with which you have interacted - you no longer need to visit one to quickly get somewhere. Then there are the issues of Marika, which serve as checkpoints for boss battles. Their inclusion eliminates the boss races of previous games, where you had to run to the nearest fire anti-fog gate. You can now reappear right at the entrance and start again immediately.

However, where the game fails, it is in its visuals and its performances. There is no way to get around the problem: Elden Ring does not look as good as the PlayStation 5 Demon's Souls launch title. BluePoint Games did a remarkable job by repeating the classic of 2009 for the modern era. In comparison, Elden Ring looks... well? There is a sharp drop in global visual quality, but the artistic direction of fromSoftware shines with scenes and breathtaking environments.

What is not acceptable is the framerate. The game has two options: Performance mode targets 60 frames per second while quality mode improves graphics. The vast majority of our reading was conducted in performance mode, and the title has rarely maintained a frequency of constant images for a decent time. We are not talking about dramatic drops that slow down the game, but rather constant...