8/10, 9/10 with seamless coop mod

I love FROM games. This one was amazing experience and I look forward to the DLC, but FROM needs to innovate really soon. They clearly know how to make engaging open world which is a joy to explore, but don't follow Bethesda's example of never innovating please. For example:

*The coop summon system*
- Ditch it or build it from ground up, please. Seamless coop proved one person can make way superior coop experience than FROM's entire department. Playing with two friends as dedicated roles (heal, DPS and a tank) was the best experience I had in Elden Ring. Doing it "vanilla" would be unreal.

*Spell inventory*
- I always wanted to play caster in Souls games, but flipping through the spells feels so clunky. The pocket hotkeys are amazing addition, but being able to bind spells to those slots would make it so much more convenient to play as a caster. Also I play on mouse and keyboard so I have a lot of buttons available. Being able to bind keys to specific items and spells would be great.
Also why do I have to use third party software as AutoHotKey to rebind keys FROM? Why are hard-bind keys a thing?

*Too many reused assets*
- Repurposing thralls or the Asylum Demon animations and altering their models was clever, but fighting Tree Avatar 10+ times was too much. Haligtree was such a disappointment. Level design was great, but I was expecting more than retextured Godrick soldiers, misbegotten and other enemies I fought way too many times.

*Unintuitive quest design*
- I love the fact I had to remember quests and there was no distracting visual bloat, but if I need to reload a specific area multiple times to trigger quest progress, that is not an immersive experience anymore, but faulty design.

Elden Ring was praised as a masterpiece but only because the bar for games is so damn low. I hope FROM will wake up soon and start truly leading and innovating the industry. They are the shortsighted ones among blind. There is nothing wrong with using the same formula with little bit extra on top, but you don't have to carry over the formula's shortcomings.

8/10, 9/10 with seamless coop mod I love FROM games. This one was amazing experience and I look forward to the DLC, but FROM needs to innovate really soon. They clearly know how to make engaging open world which is a joy to explore, but don't follow Bethesda's example of never innovating please. For example: *The coop summon system* - Ditch it or build it from ground up, please. Seamless coop proved one person can make way superior coop experience than FROM's entire department. Playing with two friends as dedicated roles (heal, DPS and a tank) was the best experience I had in Elden Ring. Doing it "vanilla" would be unreal. *Spell inventory* - I always wanted to play caster in Souls games, but flipping through the spells feels so clunky. The pocket hotkeys are amazing addition, but being able to bind spells to those slots would make it so much more convenient to play as a caster. Also I play on mouse and keyboard so I have a lot of buttons available. Being able to bind keys to specific items and spells would be great. Also why do I have to use third party software as AutoHotKey to rebind keys FROM? Why are hard-bind keys a thing? *Too many reused assets* - Repurposing thralls or the Asylum Demon animations and altering their models was clever, but fighting Tree Avatar 10+ times was too much. Haligtree was such a disappointment. Level design was great, but I was expecting more than retextured Godrick soldiers, misbegotten and other enemies I fought way too many times. *Unintuitive quest design* - I love the fact I had to remember quests and there was no distracting visual bloat, but if I need to reload a specific area multiple times to trigger quest progress, that is not an immersive experience anymore, but faulty design. Elden Ring was praised as a masterpiece but only because the bar for games is so damn low. I hope FROM will wake up soon and start truly leading and innovating the industry. They are the shortsighted ones among blind. There is nothing wrong with using the same formula with little bit extra on top, but you don't have to carry over the formula's shortcomings.