We have said it and we will say it again: there is a before and an after Breath of the Wild. With its first open world Elden Ringthe Japanese studio FromSoftware draws all the good lessons from the most recent Zelda of Nintendo, while retaining its DNA. Director Hideka Miyazaki signs a masterpiece that is already predicted, in March, that it will become our game of the year.
That is to say, we would certainly crown it with five stars… if we had had the opportunity to explore it from top to bottom. Despite repeated requests, The duty did not have access to Elden Ring before its release. After 16 hours spent in the fantastic realm of the Underworld, here are our first impressions, without final note.
Discover Elden Ring at the time of its release finally turns out to be welcome. Its connected world teems with life: the ghost images of other players exploring this single-player game are ubiquitous, and the memes left behind too (“ Try finger, but hole “). We even find help in the most obscure dungeons, those we unearth almost by mistake.
Above all, we find the magical era of the Game Boy, that of the time before the Internet and of these games which are self-explanatory. As we explore a universe that is fundamentally hostile to players, we happily share tricks, defeats and victories with our lucky companions. A common experience that we had not tasted for a long time.
That said, it’s hard to put your finger on the contribution to the scenario of the author of the Iron Throne, George RR Martin. The story ofElden Ring is all in all very close to those of its predecessors: a ring with mythical powers has been broken and lords have seized its fragments, thus corrupting the universe. It’s up to the player to restore order.
Passing the relatively linear formula of Dark Souls to an open world was a risky bet. We were so stuffed by big studios like Ubisoft with competently executed, but uninspired games that we lost all hope in the genre, considering Breath of the Wild as an exception.
But FromSoftware was able to draw the best ideas from it, while leaving aside its main irritants. From the start, you are left to your own devices: a light vaguely suggests the direction to take, but you are free to choose another. Every corner holds secrets.
Be careful, though, because the enemies are just as tough as in the studio’s previous games. No, Elden Ring is not fundamentally “accessible” to everyone, but we must respect the creative choice behind the repeated deaths that we impose.
Miyazaki’s studio nevertheless strives to make the experience a little less obtuse by explaining many of the game’s mechanics. However, several folds do not reveal themselves at first glance.
FromSoftware has strayed from the direction taken in its latest installment, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twiceeventually getting closer to Dark Souls 3. We are therefore dealing with a role-playing game that offers a host of different fighting styles. Knight, sorcerer, samurai, a mixture of all that: with a little (a lot) of work, you will find your account.
From this freedom is born a modulator with subtle and complex workings of extreme difficulty which has become synonymous with Dark Souls. In this sense, we are encouraged to “summon” other players to help us overcome the most imposing trials. Sometimes avoiding a troublesome enemy is the best decision to make. And the salutary passage to an open world allows, in the face of an impasse, to explore elsewhere in order to come back stronger.
You can also bang your head against the wall until the ice jam breaks.
Among all these decisions comes above all that of engaging in the gears or not. We strongly suggest it. We are in front of the phenomenon of the year, a game that will leave behind a legacy of the caliber of that of The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim. A grand challenge that will equally reward anyone who tries it.
Too bad thatElden Ring has many technical problems on PC, including very poor performance, problems absent on home consoles. That we passed so easily over a work of adaptation, however sloppy, says a lot.