3.5/5 ★ – Mr__Chew's review of Elden Ring.

It’s a great game that represents everything I want out of gaming these days in terms of value and quality of life changes and innovation in a franchise such as fromsoft’s games that are well known for their similarity. In that regard this game is 10/10. But where this game fell really short for me was the combat ai and boss battles felt like they had taken a huge step back since dark souls three. The reused bosses were fine I guess but never too challenging besides the gargoyles that messed me up pretty bad early on. The only time I really enjoyed the game was fighting the big bad bosses that give you their souls that you can trade for weapons. All of those fights were for the most part fantastic. But there were only like 9 of them and some of those even felt very similar. It took me about 90 hours to finish my first playthrough and the entire time I was playing I kept thinking “when does the real game start” because I was so bored of dungeon bosses that were gank bosses or uninspired boss fights that posed little challenge as I progressed through the main path. Sorry, not sorry but this game won’t stand the test of time in terms of likability and replayability when compared to things like bloodborne and dark souls 2. The open world is amazing and gives a great sense of wonder as you explore but gives you no reason to go back to any of it on further playthroughs because of the awful bosses in those areas.