It's more core Dark Souls. That's a good thing tho.

If you've played a Dark Souls before you know exactly what you'll get.
Just add big open fields between locations instead of directly connecting like in the old games.

Whatever Martin did for Elden Ring I havn't noticed so far, everything from the story to the world to the enemy design all feels very cookie cutter Souls to me.

Everything plays as good as ever, with a few great new additions, and the annoyances are there just like every souls.

From still can't do a decent camera when fighting big bosses, enemies still attack through walls, there are still broken animations and hitboxes, enemies will insta 180 turn mid attack to track you and because of all the 'open world' critters you now get the added fun of the game locking you onto a boar instead of the 120 ft dragon.

Still an easy recommend and a guaranteed 500 hours of playtime.

Added later:

The game goes from an 8.5 / 10 to an 11 / 10 after early game to mid game. One of the biggest increases in quality I've ever seen in a game. Midgame is truly fantastic.

In late game however the game nosedives into a bit of a tedious slog with more recycled bosses, enemies and inflated damage and hp than is in any way proportional for a fun game. It would be sort of fine if recycled bosses were in the 'Chalice dungeons' but they appear in the main story as well non stop and that is a bit of a letdown. It's like if a new Dark Souls released and they put Ornstein and Smough in every new area as minibosses, it actively hurts the world building.

It's more core Dark Souls. That's a good thing tho. If you've played a Dark Souls before you know exactly what you'll get. Just add big open fields between locations instead of directly connecting like in the old games. Whatever Martin did for Elden Ring I havn't noticed so far, everything from the story to the world to the enemy design all feels very cookie cutter Souls to me. Everything plays as good as ever, with a few great new additions, and the annoyances are there just like every souls. From still can't do a decent camera when fighting big bosses, enemies still attack through walls, there are still broken animations and hitboxes, enemies will insta 180 turn mid attack to track you and because of all the 'open world' critters you now get the added fun of the game locking you onto a boar instead of the 120 ft dragon. Still an easy recommend and a guaranteed 500 hours of playtime. Added later: The game goes from an 8.5 / 10 to an 11 / 10 after early game to mid game. One of the biggest increases in quality I've ever seen in a game. Midgame is truly fantastic. In late game however the game nosedives into a bit of a tedious slog with more recycled bosses, enemies and inflated damage and hp than is in any way proportional for a fun game. It would be sort of fine if recycled bosses were in the 'Chalice dungeons' but they appear in the main story as well non stop and that is a bit of a letdown. It's like if a new Dark Souls released and they put Ornstein and Smough in every new area as minibosses, it actively hurts the world building.