Sure, but I wonder how many of those were people who saw the glowing reviews and then said… uh… what is this combat now. I’ve seen many a Tweet or Reddit post of people coming into it based on the hype and not realizing what they were getting in for. After all this thread was started by someone who said, I’m seeing all the hype, is this ok for me because they knew something about the Souls series. Whereas a lot of casual players may not.
I don’t think so. The daily concurrent player count on Steam has been rising steadily since release. If tons of people were bouncing off of it, we’d be seeing dips and probably articles about mass refunds.
The Steam user review average is only at “mostly positive,” but I think a lot of that is based on launch-day performance issues rather than gameplay.
All of the negative reviews I read complained about PC stutters.
Last night I watched some of a streamer’s first few hours with this game. My thoughts:
- It doesn’t look all that good. Now, he was playing on ‘performance mode’ on a console to get 60 FPS and YouTube compression doesn’t do any favors whatsoever, but I still thought it was pretty bland.
- The world itself is empty and dull. What I saw looked bleak and uninteresting, like running through an MMO zone that had been mostly cleared out a couple minutes earlier by power levelers.
- The messaging stuff is stupid and distracting.
- The player “ghosts” running around everywhere are distracting.
- The combat looks dull and unorganic. Above comments about hitboxes were very apparent. The need to exploit very specific openings in enemy movement patterns means almost every single fight is roll roll roll roll roll roll ATTACK roll roll roll roll roll roll ATTACK. If you lose, it’s because you forgot how many rolls you have to do in which directions, not because you got outplayed. I’d hope combat gets more complex as you get more abilities and weapons, but it wasn’t a good introduction.
- Some of the enemy character models look very cool, particularly the armored humans. Credit where it’s due.
The streamer was having a great time, but watching him definitely burned away any lingering thoughts of picking it up.
That’s weird because I have read that the world is positively littered with things to find.
BUT…those things don’t really jump out at you. You have find them and that may mean being really, really close to something before you realize it is there.
Just what I have read though. I do not know myself.
Has anyone had a go at the fog gate you see almost immediately on spawn by the tutorial area? If you’re like me you forgot it was there - there’s a double stonesword key requirement to get in. Did it last night and it’s a fun puzzle sort of dungeon with one easy mini boss and one quite hard one, but you get a very strong item.
I think hitting it asap would be very tough to kill the boss, but coming back with a decent weapon and a few levels under you it’s OK.
The respawn at the stake of Marika option is absolutely massive. Seriously it’s a huge QoL boon. All those arduous Dark Souls run-ins from the bonfire to a hard boss that was already kicking your arse - thing of the past. Didn’t really notice it till now because the layout of the Grace sites is pretty generous anyhow, but there’s a giga-version of tree sentinel later on in the game who is a bit of a distance from the site of grace. Could just go at him straight away again (and again…)
Could be. It was the very early game (maybe even the tutorial dungeon?) he was playing, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it opened way up after that.
I take it online is optional. Is there a way to turn off online in the games settings?
Yes, you can set online or offline in the settings. I play in offline mode so I don’t have a million ghosts, blood stains and stupid messages all over the game world.
For those who are disliking the game: it’s OK. There are hundreds of video games released every year. This one isn’t for you. That’s not a judgment in any way, shape, or form. There are lots of games that aren’t for me - I found Skyrim the most interminable slog I’ve ever played, a game that did almost everything I hate in a game and almost nothing I like. This is fine, but it does seem like some of the people posting here are - angry? - that the game even exists or trying to frame other people liking it as a failing, which is… kind of a bummer, you know?
I like the FromSoft “thing.” I like the lack of a difficulty slider, and it would make the game worse for me if one was available.* I like that it’s hard; it means that the way my character is built and the skills I develop - both my avatar’s skills and my own as a player - really matter throughout the game. I love how every encounter is a puzzle with an infinite number of solutions. I love the strange, sparse worlds and the stretches of peace between violent moments. And so far, man, I love this game.
- With video games, I have major decision-making anxiety when it comes to starting out. With games that have difficulty options, I will agonize over which option will be best, to the point of starting over dozens of times trying different options if there are enough sliders. I enjoy that with FromSoft games, I hit start, choose a character, and go.
Interesting. I found that with Dark Souls I also ended up starting over a bunch of times using different classes because I didn’t know if I was screwing up by picking a bad set of attributes/abilities/equipment to start with. I certainly did more agonizing than just “hit start and go”.
I didn’t go through it since I wanted to get as much out of my 2-hour return window as possible, but as best I can tell Elden Ring has all that stuff. I’ve certainly read of people spending an hour+ just to get their character face right. Maybe it’s all cosmetic and you don’t care about that… but in any case, I’ve never seen an RPG without some kind of quickstart character with acceptable stats.
Personally, I had the problem in that the base class names did not map to anything I knew about. I kind of figured that an Astrologer was a wizard-ish type, but beyond that I had no idea. Prophet? Confessor? No idea. I ended up picking Warrior since it was the only one where I had a clear idea what it was (or thought I did–looking back at the stats, I think even that wasn’t really right).
I think it’s reasonable to be hostile to the “get gud” mentality that a number of Soulsborne players have. Not accusing anyone here of that, but it is common. And even when not explicitly stated, it’s often implied (like in the idea that the goal of a game is to beat it).
Beyond all that, I think it is interesting to probe the psychology behind why people play games. And I think it’s clear that there are vast gulfs between people, to the point where they aren’t even speaking the same language when talking about games. Some of that may come across as anger but I think it’s more just miscommunication.
If this thread was more active with people actually playing the game, I’d probably just leave it be for their discussion. But since we have a number of people possibly interested in it, and a couple that have tried it but bounced off… I think it’s worth diving into the whys.
I’m certainly not angry and I certainly do not expect every game to cater to my likes (for example, I don’t really dig racing games…that’s just me and it is great racing games exist for those who do like them).
My only “gripe” (which may be too strong a word) is the lack of a difficulty slider. I just do not get intentionally making the game only accessible to people who can manage its difficulty. As I get older my reflexes are slower, especially my twitch reactions. Elden Ring, because of no difficulty slider, is something that is by default almost unplayable for me.
Again, the devs certainly do not need to cater to my wants. It just seems to me a difficulty slider is a small concession that in no way ruins the game. They can have a, “How it is meant to be played” selection for those who like the difficulty as it is.
But again, to be perfectly clear, I am not “mad,” I am not losing sleep over it, I am not complaining across the internet. Even this is not really a complaint. Mostly I am just a little bummed because there are some things that look like I would have fun with and I would have liked to play it.
Weirdly, I only ever hear this condescending phrase when it comes to Souls games (and I’ve probably heard it at least a dozen times when it DOES come to Souls games). I mean, there’s tons of games out there with skill levels beyond my ability or interest but it’s never Bullet Hell players or Mario Maker level speedrunners or super-finicky sim players with the “This one isn’t for you but that’s okay [pats head]” thing, just Souls players. I assume it’s because of the fear among Souls players that one day their games will get nerfed so you get this “It’s okay, run along now and play something else” mentality.
I haven’t really seen that at all. I’ve seen several people say it’s too bad the game isn’t more accessible since they’d otherwise be interested but I don’t think anyone has said that people who enjoy the game are somehow failing or doing something wrong.
Weirdly, I explicitly used the same construction in the paragraph you’re quoting about a different game that “wasn’t for me” as part of a whole series of sentences about how lots of things aren’t for me.
“Not all things are for all people” shouldn’t be a controversial stance and certainly isn’t a condescending one. And it has nothing to do with the difficulty. There are games much easier than Elden Ring that are interesting to me and games much harder that are not. Entertainment either grabs you, or it doesn’t. This grabs me. It doesn’t grab you. There really doesn’t have to be anything deeper to it than that.
I mean, ultimately, if you think your response to my completely innocuous post - just as an example - doesn’t sound a bit weirdly hostile, then I’m not really interested in trying to change your mind.
My response to the cute little “This one isn’t for you” nonsense that you say wasn’t at all condescending? Sure. Mote, beam, kettle, black, etc
Seriously, why in the world is that condescending? It’s not meant to be “cute,” what are you even talking about? Have I lost my mind? Was I condescending to myself when I said Skyrim wasn’t for me?
Rather than waste a bunch of time, I’ll just say that it comes across as condescending and you can do with that information what you will: argue about it, deny it, remember it for next time, whatever.
I don’t think it’s particularly condescending, although I suppose there’s a tonal difference between “this game isn’t for everyone” and “this game isn’t for you.”
But no, I’m not mad about the game. I am disappointed about the design philosophy.
A difficulty slider would change exactly nothing for players who like the game the way it is, and would let other players engage with it. The only thing that would change is the ideological exclusivity created by excluding players who don’t want to put in the effort to ‘git gud.’
But for the creator - and it is his prerogative - that barrier is an essential element of the game. Souls games simply wouldn’t be his vision if everyone could enjoy them. And… yeah, that’s a little offputting.
I don’t really get how not having a difficulty slider is perceived as some sort of missed opportunity. Most games don’t have a difficulty slider. None of the classics did.
I don’t think it’s as simple as “put in a slider” to increase player damage/decrease enemy damage. I’ve read some articles to that effect. I’ll have to find them.