When Elden Ring dropped, it was showered with rave reviews. They are, for the most part, deserving, but I take issue with the 10s. I might be too hard with my rating, but to get a 10, a game has to be pristine. There have to be no flaws, which is not the case with Elden Ring. Even putting aside the big issues with the PC port (because they’ve been fixed for the most part, at least on my high-end machine), this is not a perfect game. Is it a very good game? Hell to the yes! But not perfect. I’ll tell you why.
First of all, there are things I hate about From games that I’ve noted in the past. I’ll quickly rattle them off here. Janky platforming. If you are not a platforming game, just don’t do it. You’re not going to nail it; I guarantee it. I will fully admit that it’s partly me. I have spatial issues that make it difficult for me to gauge things like where it’s safe to jump and where it isn’t. But that’s not completely my fault. It’s also the games. As I’ve said in the past, platforming is precision gaming. There’s an art to it. that’s why platforming games can be so elegant, delicate, and beautiful. The platforming in From games are none of those–it’s heavy-handed, clumsy, and frustrating as fuck.
It’s worse in this game because there’s the addition of Torrent, your adorable spirit steed. I love Torrent. He is cute with his demon horns and makes it easy to traverse across the vast lands. He’s my buddy and he makes the open world manageable. In other words, I am not dissing Torrent. At all. But in terms of combat and jumping, he is the worst.
Wait. Let me rephrase that. In terms of jumping, it’s frustrating because he does not have precision control. He can’t stop on a dime (which, duh. He’s a horse) so the finicky little platforms you have to land on make it a real hit or miss whether you will stop in time or plunge to your doom.
As for the combat, it’s not good. At all. Most of the time, it’s me whooshing by someone and missing them with my weapon. If we’re both on horseback, then it’s comical as we keep circling each other and missing. I nearly always resort to using my magicks while I’m riding Torrent because sword to sword is just rubbish.
While we’re on the topic of combat, let me unload all my frustrations with it. I’ve talked about how I hate copy-and-paste bosses. From has always thrown in clone bosses, which is not my favorite, by any means. Usually, though, it’s kept to a minimum so I can either ignore it or take care of it with haste.