Oliver Coote

Elden Ring is nothing less than a Masterpiece. I had never played a souls game before this and wow am I glad I picked it up after speculating about whether it would be as good as the hype around it was on release. First off, this game is the most beautiful game ever. The world building, art style and use of beautiful buildings and vistas aswell as sheer size of the map form together a beautiful concoction for players to navigate. I loved travelling the world, and discovering new areas, seeing all the new enemies in each little pocket of the map, and seeing just how far the map goes. As I quickly learnt, FromSoft hide some of the best content of their games in secret parts of the maps, with the underground areas being some of my favourite. The combat was very challenging for me at first. You get those moments of 'I can't do this' and wanting to quit when you are bested by a colossal halberd wielding beast, though taking my time to learn and conquer the mechanics, the anguish in facing difficulty is heavily rewarded when you fell an big boss - Just nothing beats that feeling. The unique variety of bosses in this game is astounding, with some of them housing some of the best spectacles in gaming. (Placidusax is definitely my favourite) I ended up 100% ing this game as I wanted to experience everything FromSoftware was serving me, and I still can't get enough (so excited for the DLC). I loved it so much I am currently going backwards through their games, having already 100%ed Sekiro, and currently on DS3! If you love video games, you have to give Elden Ring a shot. It is so different to anything I had experienced before, but I would pay any amount of money to go back and experience it for the first time again. It is a emotion filled journey that every fan of gaming needs in their life!