Weather and time of day influence gameplay
FromSoftware also knows how to blend grotesque, brutal, and disgusting cruelty with beautiful imagery as usual to create a strange mix of peaceful tension.
The atmosphere is further enhanced by the new system of dynamic day-night cycles and dynamic weather effects. Because time of day and weather have a great influence on how the landscape appears to you at that moment.
A wide, open plain can suddenly sink completely into fog. A bright and blood-red illuminated, terrifying landscape can become gloomy and colorless through rain.
At night, visibility is reduced, making it automatically feel more threatening. These are elements that repeatedly provide astonishment.
The weather generally has a more superficial effect in most games and serves more for immersion. In Elden Ring, it can make a gameplay difference in certain situations.
Overall, the game world of Elden Ring is very diverse and offers various biomes with its different areas.
The Land Between is beautiful, but the performance is not always
Elden Ring has a few weaknesses, the most annoying of which was the performance and some minor issues that I noticed with the PC version of the game.
- There are frequent severe FPS drops that can sometimes lead to seconds-long freezes.
- This seems to be independent of hardware, as my PC exceeds the minimum and recommended requirements.
- I still had the same problems even at low settings and lower resolutions.
- Aside from that, Elden Ring runs stably at a maximum of 60 FPS.
I also noticed some pop-ins while playing, especially on grassy areas, which may not appear until about 15 meters away.
On release, there will be a day one patch that is supposed to improve performance. This has already been confirmed to us by publisher Bandai Namco. I don’t know how it will affect pop-ins. However, both Sekiro and Dark Souls 3 ran excellently on PC at release.
I did not notice any real bugs or glitches otherwise, only in battle with a dragon did it have some issues with the landscape and floated oddly in the air.
Unfortunately, there is no photo mode and I really hope that FromSoftware will add it later.
Additionally, I noticed that the button layout for the new stealth function on controllers is quite unfortunate and can be distracting in battle when you accidentally crouch.
Our conclusion on Elden Ring
Yes, this review sounds quite euphoric. I can’t really hide that and I don’t want to. From the first minute to the 50th hour, my enthusiasm for Elden Ring remains unbroken.
In terms of gameplay, visuals, and content, the action RPG is exactly what I, as a longtime Dark Souls fan, had dreamed of and more.
Elden Ring takes almost all the important aspects from FromSoftware games of recent years, optimizes them, mixes them differently, adds new things, and delivers an even better game.
By the way, the developers have created what I consider the best open world that has ever existed in a game. The Land Between has instantly become my favorite game setting.
Aside from Dark Souls and Co., I love good open-world games. The more I am annoyed by the trend of recent years towards formulaic game worlds designed only to keep us players busy. Elden Ring is one of the few games that addresses and implements the points that are important to me.
I was expecting a good Dark Souls-style game, but received an even bigger package. So don’t be intimidated by the difficulty. Because once you overcome the initial hurdles, there is hardly any other game that rewards your time and efforts better.
Tarek Zehrer
Freelance author for MeinMMO
MeinMMO author Irina Moritz was also able to play Elden Ring extensively and can even compare it to another major open-world game released this month, Horizon: Forbidden West:
I was able to test a more “classic” open world with Horizon Forbidden West a few weeks before Elden Ring, and the contrast couldn’t be stronger.
In Horizon, I always knew at every moment where I was, what to expect, and that I had 100% control. This control was completely taken away from me in Elden Ring.
The feeling of being completely lost and not knowing what awaits you behind the next hill is conveyed by the FromSoftware game like no other. It throws you into this desolate and dying world where you somehow have to cope, and it feels great.
You slowly work your way forward, explore the surroundings, and place various markers at important locations.
I felt like a true explorer and often wandered aimlessly for hours because there was something interesting to see around every corner.
At the same time, Elden Ring provides all the gameplay elements that SoulsBorne games are famous for: Crisp difficulty, great level design, and a lot of environmental storytelling. As a fan of the old games, I immediately felt at home.
Irina Moritz
Community manager at MeinMMO
Since Friday, February 25, you can play Elden Ring on PC via Steam, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.
Now you can form your own opinion and see if you share our impressions. Anyone who has played earlier Dark Souls games already knows what to expect. Newcomers should check out our overview and a few gameplay videos to get an impression of Elden Ring.
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