ELDEN RING

RELEASED 2022 | LAST POSITION New entry

Nat: EldenRing is not my favorite FromSoft (what’s up, Bloodborne?) but it is the most FromSoft game, a Soulsborne of such dizzying, terrifying scope that rolling credits on it feels akin to finishing the entire extended cut of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. A true epic, one in which the memories of first setting off from the pastoral fields of Limgrave feel like a lifetime ago.

There is so much stuff in EldenRing that it’s dizzying, but almost all of it—even major bosses—is optional. On my first run, I systematically eliminated every lord, shardbearer, evergaol and catacomb boss from the game in a slow, 160-hour ordeal. On my second, I sprinted straight to the midpoint of the game in 90 minutes.

Sarah: There’s nothing that beats the feeling of killing a boss for the first time, especially if you’ve been struggling with it for days—I’m looking at you, Malenia. Even after I finished the game, I spent an obscene number of hours exploring every corner, hoping to find something lore-related that others had missed.

Dave: EldenRing’s been the first FromSoft game I could stand, or even actually play (I’m not very good at games) and its mix of exploration and reward really struck a chord. But deep down I know there will come a time when I can no longer cope with some attritional boss I cannot beat and will quit the game for good. For now it still lives on my SSD as wonderful gaming potential, though I’m actually now a bit scared to dive back in lest I arrive at that expected hard stop and it negates all the fun I’ve had in the game. I have issues.

Ted: Playing EldenRing had me feeling like the food critic in Ratatouille, only instead of a bucolic French cottage it sent me back to playing DarkSouls on a dorm room floor in 2014. It has just the right level of challenge, a dizzying array of character build options in a fantastic combat system, and the best setting FromSoft has created to date.

Robin: Like Dave, I never quite clicked with From games before. I liked DarkSouls and Bloodborne well enough, but they didn’t really stay with me. EldenRing, though, burrowed right into my mind the minute I stepped out into its open world. I don’t think it’s the easiest From game, but it’s certainly the most accessible, combining clearer storytelling with a setting that lets you choose your own challenge and pace. It’s a more familiar fantasy world than Dark Souls’, and yet is still shot through with From’s distinctive identity, at every turn contrasting wonder, sadness and horror.

And who knew that From’s organic approach to environmental design would be such a perfect fit for an open world? It can’t be overstated how refreshing it is to explore a landscape and just find cool stuff around every corner without a map marker or a quest log in sight. The sense of true discovery is magical, and the land’s stories are told not through journals and exposition, but just in the physical scenes you creep your way carefully through.