Recent reviews by Dollmaker

Well just completed the game, gotta say, it was pretty good, the artsytle and music were good, the puzzles do make you think outside the box every now and then, for a Platformer/Puzzle game, id say its good.

The story is largely explained trough Collectibles and Flashback-like cut scenes rather than dialogue, which is an interesting choice.

It is a slow paced game, despite its relatively short length, took me a couple of hours to complete the main story.

A few complain i gotta say though:
This one is more nitpick, but i think the HUD could have been designed better, specially the menu.

Another would be that the game sometimes fails to explain certain mechanics in the game, a got stuck in a puzzle cause i wasnt aware that Rose (The flower girl) could hide in barrels, which i dont think it was ever mentioned outside of a scripted cutscene where she fall on one by accident and starts rolling before breaking, which is unrelated to using the Barrel to hide from enemies.

Some puzzles can also be a bit too precise.

But what i think was the main flaw, was the "bosses" in the game, theres two as far as im aware, while the bosses themselves are ok, the problem is that theres no checkpoints for both of them, so failing at any point forces you to start the fight from the start, which can be very frustrating since you cant make any mistake, cause a single hit kills you, and the fights can take mins to defeat, specially the last one.

Other than that, i would say it was a solid game.

Im also aware the game allows you to play timed versions of the levels where the objective is to complete the levels as fast as possible and several achievements are tied to that, so those looking for a challenge have that to look forward to.

Also some achievement are quite funny and you are likely gonna get them by accident, something that make me laugh when i first saw it was how Rose has next to no skill at landing, if the fall is even slightly high, she falls face first into the ground, which was kinda adorable in a weird way, speaking of which, gravity is LETHAL, dont underestimate a fall, or you will likely die.

Anyway, its a decent puzzle game, i recommend it.

Overall the Single Player experience was solid, it felt repetitive at times on the Open World content, but when it came to the main bosses of the game and Legacy Dungeons, it really gave that feeling that previous Souls game had, and some of the main bosses became my favorite of the franchise.

Theres also the combat system being an improvement, spells casting is at its strongest with a huge variety, the addition of Ashes of War gives a lot of fun for Melee builds, a proper Dragon build, etc.

The world is also amazing to explore, with areas really giving you a surprise when you first see them.

If you only care about the SP aspect of this game, then i would definitely recommend it.


Sadly... i cannot say the same for the Multiplayer one...

The game as a lot of connection issues, which often lead to disconnects, making both Co-Op and PvP a hassle, i know those are likely getting fixed, but its currently pretty bad.

But, the problems are worse, several design choices severely hurt Multiplayer, specially Invasions:

1.- The removal of Solo Invasions decreased the pool greatly, taking longer to Invade, and pushed a lot of the invasions towards Co-Op players, which ultimately caused the fight to be greatly against the invader.

2.- The balance of the game is downright atrocious, several weapons and Ashes of War and spells are notorious for doing excessive amounts of dmg, to the point that you can instantly kill people with them, this caused fights to be nothing but one shots, and its honestly boring, in previous games it was a fight of skill, in this game, its a fight of who brough the most broken thing, the fights barely last anything.

3.- Reduction of the Lobby, in DS3 i believe you could have up to 6 players in the world, while here it was reduced to 4, this hurt Fight Clubs greatly, as well as removing a lot of the fun in Invasions which could be chaotic due to the amount of players involved.

4.- Removal of Covenants, this was a terrible choice, Covenants were a huge aspect of Multiplayer, for both Co-Op and Invasions, and it allowed all kinds of PvP to happen, and also you were rewarded for progressing on them, getting powerful spells and gear.


I could go on, but i think i made my point.

Conclusion:
Elden Ring is a great Single Player game, but really mediocre on the Multiplayer side, which requires a lot of work to fix.

If youre a Souls players and are looking for a great Single Player experience, go ahead and buy this, you wont regret it.

But, if you cup of tea is more headed to the Multiplayer Experience, specially PvP, its a bit harder to recommend it.

I would give it a 9/10 for SP aspect, but a 5/10 for the MP side.