I’m still talking about reviews because I can. And because I find it an interesting topic. I detoured into what I disliked about Lies of P (Round8 Studio/NEOWIZ) in yesterday’s post. It wasn’t completely on topic, but it wasn’t completely off it, either. The part that wasn’t off topic was that reviewing is so subjctive. I think most people would agree that Lies of P was a really good first game for a developer. I also think most people would agree that it’s pretty iterative, though it did bring a few new things to the table. I would go further to say that many people were questioning if it’s too much like Bloodborne with a Sekiro mechanic tossed in for good measure.
I knew that most people loved the game, but the question of accessibility is still pretty woeful. That’s not just for the game, but also in general. The thing is, though, that even aside from the combat, I found this game seriously lacking in several areas. I will say that it’s stylish and looks really good. The designs are slick, but they fell falt for me for several reasons.
This is not a review of that game, though, so I will tear myself away from it with difficulty. My point with hapring on that game is that reviews are objective to a certain point, but it’s more subjective than objective. Yes, there are things that can be ojectively judged, but at least to me, they are not nearly as important as the subjective criteria.
One of the debates that raged about Elden Ring when it came out was whether it was innovative enough or not. Many people, even those who really enjoyed the game, said it wsa basically an open world Dark Souls. By the way, I never understood why that was a bad thing even if that really was all the game turned out to be (which it wasn’t). Even that in and of itself is new and ecxting. Yes, some people have gotten a bit bored with the Dark Souls formula, but marrying it almost seamlessly with an open world setting is incredible. I think people don’t give it enough credit because they did it with relative ease.
One thing that I don’t think they got enough kudos for is the map. I have heard that Breath of the Wild had a similar map, but I never played that game. I was so skeptical of tnhe map before the game came out. FromSoft did not do maps except the joke map in Sekiro which was worse than meaningless. My theory on that based on nothing was that Activison was insistent on a map so FromSoft threw in a shitty one to get Activision off their back.
One of the trademarks of the prior FromSoft games was that you went through the areas over and over until you learned that area. I can go through the first Dark Souls with my eyes closed, and I can point out each enemy along the way. Well, at least the first half of the game. It’s the same with Dark Souls II (Scholar of the First Sin) and te third Dark Souls game. Eevn for someone as spatially-challenged as I, the games were laid out in a way that made it possible for me to memorize the areas.
That wasn’t going to happen in Elden Ring, obviously, not with how many open areas there were in the game. I will say that in the first half of the game, I still know chunks of the games like the back of my hand–just not every area completely. I think that’s a fair trade-off given how vast the game is.
I have said over and over again that I was skeptical of a map. I knew there had to be one, butI did not know how they were going to do it in an acceptable way. I hate open world games in general beacuse of the maps and how they’re marked with everything that can possibly be done. It makes me feel constricted and panicky. I’m not the only one as I’ve heard several games journos say they feel the same way.
In the last year or so, I decided to try out Horizon Zero Dawn (Guerrilla Games) because it was free somewhere on the PC. I didn’t think it would be my thing, but I wanted to go into it with an open mind. I wanted to like it because it had a female protag who was a badass. But, alas, I did not like it from the very beginning. Baby Aloy was not my thing, and the whole story felt contrived. The combat felt stilted, and the stealth was not my cuppa. The worst part, though, was when I opened the map. It was so littered with icons and all sorts of markers, I immediately shut it once again.
I fully admit that I absolutely hated the map. So much hatred. I played maybe a half hour and then came to the scene where a couple of boys throw a rock at baby Aloy. I had three choices as to what I could do, and not one of them was beat the shit out of the dickheads. That’s when I quit out of the game and never went back.
It was not a bad game. I’ve seen people play it, and i’ts beautiful, thrilling to sneak around the giant mech animals, and seems like it would be a good time for the right kind of person. It’s just completely not for me. I found the buttons awkward, did not like the combat/stealth one whit, and I wanted to punch everyone in the nose. Yet, I would have given it at least an 8 if I was pressed for a number, which is still a pretty good number! Or rather, I would give it maybe a 6 for games that I want to play, but 8 overall as a game.
That’s the other thing that I have to balance when I’m reviewing a game–how much of it is purely what I want to play and how much is what other people will want to play.
The video I included is Skill Up reviewing Elden Ring. He is a reviewer I trust because he’s very clear about what he likes and doesn’t like in a game. He’s also honest about when it’s purely subjective and when there is some objectivity in it. He never thinks his view is the only one, and he’s very open about the fact that he thinks people should watch different reviewers because his is only one point of view.
I don’t agree with him all the time, but I can always understand where he’s coming from. I know enough about his tastes to know if I’ll agree with him about a game or not. He’s consistent with his criteria, which is the important thing. I’m not going to be surprised with his reviews. That’s what I aim for with my own, but it’s harder because I don’t even know all the time what I like and don’t like in a game. I guess that’s where the fun comes in.