DO NOT BUY Elden Ring - Nothing Special

Hello, welcome back to a new video. So

recently I've been playing the brand new

Elden Ring game, and as an avid fan of the

Dark Souls series, I just had to play this

game. I couldn't wait to play it, I was so

excited. But unfortunately, so far it's

been pretty disappointing and lackluster.

So if you don't know what Elden Ring is,

basically it's a brand new game from the

developers of Dark Souls that's going to

be released next year. And as a game

journalist, I thought I'd just make a

video about my experience playing the

game, my thoughts on the game, and why I

don't didn't really like it. So first

impressions of the game visually, I would

say it kind of looks like a mishmash of

Zelda: Breath of the Wild and New World

and also The Witcher 3. And maybe you're

thinking, wow, that sounds amazing, I love

all those games. But the problem is the

game doesn't really have a soul of its

own. It doesn't really have like this

unique individual look of its own. It just

kind of looks like a blend of a bunch of

different games. It really reminded me of

Breath of the Wild. Especially some of the

bosses that were mounted on horseback and

the way the camera pans from below and

you've got this vista in front of you and

the rolling hills and the mountains. Even

a lot of the abilities and spells reminded

me of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with that

kind of astral spectral blue glowy spirity

weapon thing. So there's a bunch of

different playstyles in the game, the very

obvious and predictable ones. You got the

warrior with the big sword and shield,

you got the magical ability class, and you

got a class that can use these minions.

You can defeat enemies and resurrect their

spirits, and they aid you in combat, kind

of like Pokémon. You know, it's nothing

new. It's very bog-standard,

run-of-the-mill kind of dark fantasy

tropes that you'll find in any other game

of this sort. So the game is set in this

kind of gloomy open-world fantasy-looking

magical place, and it looks a bit like New

World but less beautiful and less full of

life. It's kind of like a very soulless

Dead version of New World where there's no

other players because it's not an MMO and

you're just on your own and there's like

no life in the world. The world looks

okay, I guess. It's not really quite up to

my standards and it definitely isn't as

good as the world in New World. The

lighting effects in the game just kind of

flat looking and not very vibrant.

There's no kind of beaming sunlight that

beams in between the branches of the trees

that kind of moves as the sun sets and

rises like you'll find in New World. And

as for the dynamic lighting effects,

well, they're not dynamic. For example,

this campfire you can see over to the left

should be casting a shadow from the pyre.

The shadow should be cast towards the

right, but it's being cast towards the

left, which doesn't make any sense if you

have a basic understanding of lighting and

physics. The character control and the

movement in the game looks kind of floaty

and weird and clunky, and it didn't really

feel very satisfying to move the character

around the world. He just feels like a

very slow old man that you're trying to

maneuver around, and the attacks are very

slow and not very snappy when you pull

them off. I actually had the same

complaints when I was playing Witcher 3

when moving Geralt around the world and

fighting. He just felt very clunky. It was

like maneuvering a tank, like a very slow

old man. And if you thought that was bad,

it's way worse in Elden Ring. And pretty

much any Dark Souls game is very similar

to this. But if you're the kind of person

who enjoys clunky, slow-paced action

combat, then maybe this won't really be a

problem. Problem for you. But as for me,

someone who likes the action melee combat

to be a bit more snappy and responsive,

it just wasn't quite my cup of tea. Now,

the main meat of the game would have to be

the epic boss battles. Dark Souls is

famous for its huge boss battles that take

hours to defeat, and if you make one

mistake, you gotta start all the way from

the beginning. I personally don't really

enjoy boss battles. I think they're

annoying, they're frustrating. You've got

to learn all the patterns and the

techniques that the boss will do. And if

you make too many mistakes, you'll end up

dying, and then you've got to start the

whole boss battle from the beginning. And

usually these bosses have like 2 trillion

points of HP, and it will take ages.

You're just like chiseling away at the

health, and eventually, after chiseling

away long enough, you'll eventually defeat

the boss, and then it's over. I just

didn't really find the boss battles to be

fun, engaging, or very challenging, apart

from the fact that you've got to learn the

patterns. And once you've learned the

patterns and you can predict what they're

about to do, it's very easy to dodge and

block and evade their moves. Another thing

that really bothers me about Elden Ring

and also the Dark Souls franchise in

general is the character model designs.

It's, it's just kind of like the person

who is in charge of designing the

character models and the character

designs, he doesn't quite have a proper

understanding of body proportions and

dimensions. The bodies in the game just

look weird, like the torsos are too long

and too big, the heads are way too small

or they're way too big. Like that woman,

the girl, the hooded girl who has that

kind of gray silverish hair. Why does she

have a really small face and like the top

of her head is massive? She must have a

forehead big enough to land a plane on. I

mean, I guess you could say that was the

art style direction they were going for,

but for me personally, I just think it

looks very weird and not great. If I had

to describe the game briefly, basically

it's like New World, but they made the

world look uglier, darker, less

interesting, less lively. Basically, they

removed all of the fun bits of New World

and it's just like very bare-bones

open-world experience. Honestly, the game

really doesn't look that much different to

previous Dark Souls games. You got

dungeons, you got the brooding atmospheric

ruined castles, you got the monsters, the

skeletons, the ghouls, and the demons. It

really looks the same as every other Dark

Souls, but it just looks better

graphically. All of these new features

that they're boasting about have been done

so many times in all these other games,

none of it's new. And for some reason

they're boasting about their map system,

how you can put pinpoints and waypoints so

you don't get lost. I mean, every single

game has a map in it where you can place

waypoints. It's not special, it's not

interesting, it's just a bloody map. And

unfortunately, I just cannot really get

excited for this game. I feel like there's

a lot of hype building around the game,

and we know how that ends. Remember

Cyberpunk? When the hype just builds up to

such an insane level, when the game

finally releases, I just feel like people

are building themselves up for

disappointment, and we'll see when the

game releases what people actually think.

And I don't have very high expectations

for the game. I think it's not great,

it's not bad either, but it's nothing

special. So if I had to give the game a

score in its current state, I would have

to give it a 4.9 out of 10, which would be

average in my scoring system. And also, I

don't think I'd buy the game straight away

on release. I would wait a little while

for it to come down in price. And maybe

wait a little while for some of the bugs

to be ironed out. And yeah, that's what I

think of the game. Let me know what you

think. Thanks for watching.