Elden Ring – Worth a Buy?

Hey guys! I’m Arihead from Electronic First and today, we’re gonna be talking about Elden Ring. Elden Ring has finally been released and everyone is raving over it, and for good reason. Developed by FromSoftware, the creators of the Souls series and written by the esteemed author, George R. R. Martin, Elden Ring is an unforgettable experience. Even now, I feel like playing Elden Ring. It’s just that addictive.

However, the game IS a little hard for newcomers to get into, as you’d expect from FromSoftware; although Elden Ring feels more accessible than games like Sekiro and Dark Souls 3. Don’t let this fool you into thinking it’s easy, though. Save for a few exploits, of which I won’t get into here in this episode, Elden Ring is a difficult game and is not for the faint of heart. It’s not for everyone, but I would recommend trying this game even if you are new to the Soulslike genre. Before I dive in though, be sure to check out our store. At Electronic First, we sell the best games at the best prices, including Elden Ring. So what are you waiting for? You’d rather finish the article first? Pff, fine!

Elden Ring takes place in the Realm of the Lands Between. You play as one of the Tarnished, warriors who lost the grace of the Erdtree. Following the shattering of the Elden Ring, the Tarnished are summoned back to restore the Elden Ring by obtaining its shards. Of course, this is a Souls-like game, so scary, distorted-looking bosses hold these shards and are ready to give you a hellish time. You’ll be fighting them as you aim to restore the ring and ultimately become the Elden Lord. Now the story is definitely more complicated than this. I’m just giving you a rundown so you have a general idea. Playing Elden Ring, one of the things that really struck me was the unmatched freedom I was given. Even at the beginning of the game, you are free to go almost everywhere once you arrive at The First Step.

You aren’t forced to explore much of it, but the main plot is only a small part of what makes Elden Ring so good in my opinion. Moreover, the world is as dense as it is vast. There are almost too many things to discover while traversing the lands. It’s downright unpredictable, but in a refreshing kind of way. Whether you’re greeted with hidden loot, quest lines or an untimely ambush, you’ll love every second of it. And you’ll be doing most of these things at the comfort of

your own horse, Torrent, a speedy steed that can be summoned in open fields. Oh, and the horse can even jump. Okay, maybe you’re not impressed yet. Well, Torrent can double jump. You’ve heard that right. Elden Ring has given us quite possibly the most convenient mount you could ever ask for in a game.

Fighting on horseback does have its advantages too, especially against certain enemies, like against the Black Knight, who also fights on horseback. Personally, I’m not much of a horseback knight fighter kinda guy, but people do seem to like it.

Elden Ring is not the Open-World we are used to, but it’s the one we never knew we needed. Combining an amazing top-tier open-world with the FromSoftware gameplay we are all familiar with couldn’t be better, and will have you begging for more as you continue to play. There’s just so many things to do. You can play for hours and hours, discovering stuff, fighting bosses, clearing dungeons, playing pvp or just goofing off before you even fight the first major boss. In signature FromSoftware fashion, the bosses here are terrifying, twisted and challenging. In fact, nearly every enemy is. And the kicker here is that almost everything in this world has gone mad due to the shattering, which makes for the perfect Souls-like setting. There are enemies lurking everywhere, often with deliberate strategy required to beat them. And there are a million different ways you can do that here in Elden Ring. That’s the fun part. The sheer customizability allows you to create a build that best suits your playstyle. Before you start the game, you get to choose one out of 10 classes.

All have their clear advantages and disadvantages. They all start with their own set equipment and, most importantly, different stat spreads. Choosing the right class is crucial and makes a big difference here, as you can’t change it later into the game. I recommend choosing a class with a stat spread that correctly matches with your weapon of choice.

The Prisoner and Astrologer, for example, excel using an Intelligence-based build, while the Vagabond and Samurai are great with Strength and Dexterity builds respectively. These are just some of the classes you can use to start your journey. As you viciously kill enemies prowling everywhere, you will obtain Ruines; Elden Ring’s equivalent to Souls from the Dark Souls games. You’ll get to upgrade the stat of your choice every time you level up. Picking the right weapon is definitely the tricky part though. With so many different weapon types with unique movesets and varying scalings of which can be manipulated with ashes of war, optimizing for the right build can get pretty complicated.

As you can see, I’m mostly using the Vagabond with dual straight swords. Its L1 attacks are both fast and strong, making it a decent option for a lot of the game’s content. Generally, this game seems to favor a hit and run poke sort of playstyle, so weapons that have fast and ranged moves tend to be the ideal choice. But maybe you’re not a fan of melee combat, preferring spell casting or archery in battle. Well, you can use this playstyle pretty comfortably in this game too.

In fact, you can pretty much use any of the 25+ weapons you like and win. This insane level of diversity is one of the things that makes Elden Ring so much fun. Oh yeah, and you can even sneak around and backstab enemies. It’s not a very strong stealth system but is very useful in a lot of the game’s offline content, especially early game. With offense, comes defense though, and shields are very useful in this game. Parrying works similarly to other souls games, but they’ve also added a useful counter attack that can be performed after blocking a hit normally.

This tends to deal a lot of damage, not to mention, it has strong stagger properties, allowing you to perform a powerful critical strike when you do happen to stagger an enemy. These special attacks can only be used when an enemy’s stance is broken or when your enemy’s back is facing you. One major mechanic FromSoftware added to this game is jumping, something that was introduced in Sekiro. No, I don’t mean the horse, I mean the character— you. Yeah, you! You can jump, and honestly, jumping is a real game changer. Not only does it make traversing the open world a lot better, it also gives you more options in combat. In particular, jump L2 attacks are really strong in PVE content.

Of course, the complexity doesn’t end here. In Elden Ring, you get to equip Ashes of War with most weapons. Some ashes of war are extremely powerful and can be obtained early on, such as the Quick Step and Bloodhound Step. These skills give your character tremendous mobility and make a huge difference in combat. There are so many ashes of war, but these are just some of the most notable you can obtain. By using an Ash of War, you can also change your weapon’s scaling, so even a spellcaster can use a weapon with Intellect scaling to adopt a hybrid sort of playstyle. However, there are special weapons with their own unique Ashes of War. These ashes of war cannot be changed, but do give birth to a lot of variety when building your character. I’ll admit though, I’m still pretty new to the Soulslike genre, but this game has got me committed to fully grasping the mechanics. 

Pvp, which can range from 1v1 action to invasions, immediately makes building your character way more fun, giving players a clear goal for their build later into the game. After all, one issue with RPG games is that you can become extremely overpowered with a specific strategy or build and just breeze through much of the game. While this may or may not be true in the PVE content of Elden Ring, PVP is another thing altogether. You know what they say: when everything is broken, nothing is broken! It’s probably not everyone, but it sure is fun for all the competitive gamers out there.

I came across all sorts of enemies, like a spell caster with a shield and a power stanced thrusting sword user who adopted a very aggressive hit and run playstyle.

Another cool online feature is co-op, so you can summon other Tarnished into your world and fight together. Players can also send out messages to others. The community tends to be pretty nice, so there are a lot of short and helpful messages scattered around the Realm of the Lands Between, like hints and recommendations. When it comes to Elden Ring, there’s way too much to talk about. In particular, I can discuss the combat elements for hours on end. It’s extremely deep and engaging, attracting veterans and newcomers alike to the vast world of Elden Ring.

I’ve only really scratched the surface of Elden Ring to give you guys my thoughts and opinions about the game. Elden Ring is amazing. The only thing more massive than the game’s exploration, story and diversity of builds is perhaps FromSoftware’s ambition. It’s probably gonna end up being the best game of the year. So, is Elden Ring worth a buy? Well, duh! I mean, I may as well be an Elden Ring propagandist at this point. I’m losing sleep over this Elden Ring, and I have no regrets. How about you? Are you as obsessed as I am? Let us know in the comment section below. We definitely wanna hear from you. If you liked this propaganda pie- I mean Worth a Buy edition, be sure to check out our other articles, where we give you info on the latest and upcoming games. Stay with us at Electronic First, where we give you info on the latest and upcoming games. This is Arihead, signing out, and signing right back into Elden Ring!

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