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Elden Ring is the best open world game so far in terms of exploration

jorgejjvr

Gold Member
cant say i feel the same, theres a lot of little things that doesnt allow me to enjoy it quite as much. Pretty bad performance, looks like a last gen game, and it all just feels 'clunky', from combat, to menus its all just...meh

and simply from a aesthetic standpoint, im not the biggest fan of this kind of dark, gloomy, setting

my 1st souls, dont come with pitchforks plz lol

the 1 to 1 bosses/challenge I do appreciate

Botw def still holds that spot for me for best open world
 
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ClosBSAS

Member
yes, it is...too bad a lot of gaffers will say AC games have better open worlds...BAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHA....none are as good as elden rings and it should be the new standard. I spent 6 hours last night playing , just epxloring, didnt do a single dungeon, just explored everything i could before heading into altus and found so many things to do it was incredible.
 

Interfectum

Member
Playing Horizon 2 and this game back to back is pretty crazy to see the difference. In Horizon 2 it took like 10+ hours for them to let go of the leash around my neck pulling me where they want me to go. Elden Ring dropped me into the open world and said go within a few minutes.

It's pretty awesome to see an open world crafted around pure exploration from a developer who doesn't treat you like an idiot.
 

iQuasarLV

Member
cant say i feel the same, that doesnt allow me to enjoy it quite as much. Pretty bad performance, looks like a last gen game, and it all just feels 'clunky', from combat, to menus its all just...meh

and simply from a aesthetic standpoint, im not the biggest fan of this kind of dark, gloomy, setting

my 1st souls, dont come with pitchforks plz lol

the 1 to 1 bosses/challenge I do appreciate

Botw def still holds that spot for me for best open world
Out of all the counter arguments I can relate to your point of view. While I am contrary to your view I have to say that as my first real deep kool-aide souls experience it hit all the notes for me. With that said I can relate with your view and accept it while at the same time agreeing with the OP.

Perhaps I am just older and Zelda's kiddo friendly atmosphere just does not do it anymore, but I was really starving for a really good dark fantasy game. Glad one came along.
 

hemo memo

Gold Member
Playing Horizon 2 and this game back to back is pretty crazy to see the difference. In Horizon 2 it took like 10+ hours for them to let go of the leash around my neck pulling me where they want me to go. Elden Ring dropped me into the open world and said go within a few minutes.

It's pretty awesome to see an open world crafted around pure exploration from a developer who doesn't treat you like an idiot.
To be fair, Horzion 2 has an actual story though.
 

iQuasarLV

Member
Not to hijack the post with too many back-to-back replies, but I just want to lay this down.

Skillup honestly reviews the game within the context of what the OP is posting about. I was watching to pick a moment when he talks about a purposeful open world, but his whole review just speaks to this thread. Take a watch and agree/disagree I think this aussie has really well thought out feelings on this subject.
 

jorgejjvr

Gold Member
Out of all the counter arguments I can relate to your point of view. While I am contrary to your view I have to say that as my first real deep kool-aide souls experience it hit all the notes for me. With that said I can relate with your view and accept it while at the same time agreeing with the OP.

Perhaps I am just older and Zelda's kiddo friendly atmosphere just does not do it anymore, but I was really starving for a really good dark fantasy game. Glad one came along.
never was a fantasy kid, so maybe its that. On the contrary, that botw 'kiddo' feeling is what gets me going, i dont wanna say forbidden west is a better game, but its aesthetic, color palatte, setting etc, also makes me want to explore it more

this game also feels like it has input lag lol, idk, it just screams --- clunky to me. But maybe it takes time, at first i also didnt understand monster hunter, felt it was slow, until things clicked
 
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Interfectum

Member
To be fair, Horzion 2 has an actual story though.
So does Elden Ring... What you mean is Horizon 2 wants to be a TV show as much as it wants to be a game so there will be a constant leash around the player's neck to follow the correct path. Elden Ring's story is very much in the background and doesn't disrupt gameplay.

Both viable options for gaming but the latter feels like a breath of fresh air as we seldom get it.
 

Buggy Loop

Member
Playing Horizon 2 and this game back to back is pretty crazy to see the difference. In Horizon 2 it took like 10+ hours for them to let go of the leash around my neck pulling me where they want me to go. Elden Ring dropped me into the open world and said go within a few minutes.

It's pretty awesome to see an open world crafted around pure exploration from a developer who doesn't treat you like an idiot.

Here’s a painted ledge AND Batman vision to be sure you can grab or jump here! 🤣

Games designed by marketing comities.. I think I had an overdose of that.
 
Input delay and extreme lag.


Bosses do animationless 180 degree spins and hit you, or slide into position taking large leaps forward without moving their legs. Enemies read your inputs and attack when you release block. Shields are nearly useless, even after being buffed in the last patch. Tons of glitches, can't do any follow-up attacks on enemies that get knocked down half the time. I've been hit through walls a dozen times. Boss balancing is busted.

I don't think half you guys know how to assess a combat system at all. You tell me if that's good or not, because I don't know how you guys judge these things. The combat has some elements that are fun, but has a lot of substantial issues.
Damn…that sounds fucking terrifying. I do remember Demons Souls(og) having similar issues crop up. I kinda wish I did more research before ordering😵
 

DZ_b_EZ

Member
I disagree. The experience is good, but it doesn't really stand out. I run around, discover, come across enemies. The experience hasn't really blown me away. That's my opinion.
 

iorek21

Member
After around 120h of Elden Ring and coming back to Horizon FW, you can really feel the difference.
As pretty as Horizon is, the exploration is basically meaningless since everything is either marked with a ? or a !
You know exactly what it is and rely too much on the compass and the map by design.
Also, the huge amount of dialogue in HFW really breaks the pacing and overall experience, I’m pretty sure even side quests have longer dialogues than Zero Dawn, Witcher, Valhalla and other similar games.
On the other hand, Elden Ring is just pure exploration with little to no handholding, lots of secrets and worthwhile rewards.
 
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iQuasarLV

Member
It's still worth playing. The open world is definitely skillfully designed. But it's not a flawless game.
Agree not flawless, but not horrible either in combat game play. I would say the combat requires adaptation against your expectations of what you would assume is common sense combat order.
  • The knock through walls is uncommon to rare.
  • The no follow up to knocked down enemies is, I think, by design to avoid a free critical but give you interruption benefits.
  • The 180 spin / sliding / input reading is all the same thing I have discovered. Its all an attempt to punish you for panic inputs. instead of being reactive or proactive to punish the enemy AI. Watching level 1 kills and naked kills highly reward those who KNOW the fight and exploit openings of bosses.
 

Moonjt9

Member
Elden has inspired me to revisit Dark Souls 2 after I finish it. It has a similarly high boss count and warping to locations is key. Elden is a huge leap in quality and content, but it reminds me a ton of DS2 which I always felt was underrated.
I was thinking the same thing. Dark souls 2 had a great sense of adventure. I can see some definite inspiration in Elden Ring. Even a lot of the music reminds me of DS2 music.
 

Dynasty8

Member
I've never enjoyed exploring an open world game like this before. The lack of waypoints and quest markers made it more mysterious, surprising, unpredictable, and rewarding imho. There are a ton of secrets and cool stuff to come across.
 
Zelda is still superior, by far.

An open world where exploration is constantly hindered by literally everything that moves being able - and more than willing - to kill you, and being able to do so in 4 hits tops on a busy day, gets old very quickly. You haven’t even opened your mouth to say “wow” that something massive has already crashed into you, and I can’t believe people aren’t sick of it halfway through the game.

Elden Ring is also very, very formulaic. Oh, there’s ruins? Then there must be an underground cave with a chest or a boss. Lots of gravestones? Bet there’s a ghost on a boat around.Hillside path? What better place for a dungeon. The dungeons and catacombs are extremely repetitive, too.

BOTW rarely did the same thing twice throughout the game, save for the challenge shrines. No two landscapes looked alike, ever. The game’s geography was incredibly varied. And discovering something didn‘t systematically mean you were in for another round of spanking and/or anal violation.
Most of all, BOTW had the wonder. In ER, most of the time, there’s just… content.
I don't see how one can call elden ring formulaic when BOTW gameplay loop is basically 4-6 activities maxed on a loop. Outside of the glider exploring the world isn't nearly as fun. It felt very flat to me as I lost interest exploring since it was the same rewards/activities over and over and over. Plus the art design in elden ring is better to me making me want to explore its world more.
 
Correct. While playing BOTW I kept wondering when it was going to become interesting. After finishing it I found out the answer: never
In a nutshell, it was like "my first open world game" where it was being praised for being open world since nintendo never makes them but the world was baaaaarren. It basically said we going to follow in skyrims footsteps not assassins creed and since we don't get alot of skyrim style open worlds anymore it felt "new".
 
Completely disagree. In fact after Limgrave I thought the exploration was immensely disappointing because you realize that despite the different vistas the fundamental structure is copy pasted all across the map. Crypts/mines/ruins with basement/evergaol/dragon/mounted miniboss/asylum demon next to minor erdtree/reskinned merchant, rinse and repeat. It also doesn't help that the only significant interaction in the game is combat so you essentially explore with very limited and braindead traversal to find the next encounter in what feels like a glorified boss rush mode. The only remotely interesting scenarios I found in dozens of hours were the frenzy inducing tower near the Dectus lift which gave me a nice eye of Sauron vibe (even if like other traversal challenges you can just brute force it by chugging Estus and get rewarded with a terrible incantation) and the inverted tower minidungeon in Liurna which was a neat callback to Symphony of the Night and Majora's Mask. As for rewards the immense majority is completely pointless because they don't fit your build.

And since FromSoft fanboys can't help but mention the game everytime like the insecure redditors they are, BotW's exploration completely demolishes Elden Ring's, traversal wise because mobility options are much more engaging, visually because you don't need to check your map to find your way and can just find a vantage point and look around and in terms of gameplay scenarios because there's much more surprises than yet another spastic boss with delayed signposting (minigames, environmental puzzles, wandering NPCs, actual lived in towns and settlements, large scale action setpieces and just weird creatures and events to witness just for the sake of it).
" Crypts/mines/ruins with basement/evergaol/dragon/mounted miniboss/asylum demon next to minor erdtree/reskinned merchant, rinse and repeat."

You named like 8 different activities, said rinse and repeat like thats not more than most games have to offer right there alone...not including random encounters, legacy dungeouns, story based bosses, unique open areas to explore...one thing people can't use against this game is how deep it is...easily the deepest open world game ever made when it comes to the variety of things there are to do. People who say it's rinse and repeat need to show a game that has more activities in an open world.
 

Aldric

Member
" Crypts/mines/ruins with basement/evergaol/dragon/mounted miniboss/asylum demon next to minor erdtree/reskinned merchant, rinse and repeat."

You named like 8 different activities, said rinse and repeat like thats not more than most games have to offer right there alone...not including random encounters, legacy dungeouns, story based bosses, unique open areas to explore...one thing people can't use against this game is how deep it is...easily the deepest open world game ever made when it comes to the variety of things there are to do. People who say it's rinse and repeat need to show a game that has more activities in an open world.
What "variety", they all boil down to combat encounters and grabbing loot. It's one of the most repetitive open worlds specifically because the gameplay is so basic and samey. Some guy earlier said that it didn't make sense to talk about the combat because the thread was about exploration, but what exactly do you find after exploring? Combat encounters. That's all there is to the game because the quests are ridiculously obtuse and uninteresting and the puzzles are TloU2 tier. And the combat largely sucks, same old FromSoft rollfest with zero depth that wasn't good in 2010 and still isn't good today.
 
What "variety", they all boil down to combat encounters and grabbing loot. It's one of the most repetitive open worlds specifically because the gameplay is so basic and samey. Some guy earlier said that it didn't make sense to talk about the combat because the thread was about exploration, but what exactly do you find after exploring? Combat encounters. That's all there is to the game because the quests are ridiculously obtuse and uninteresting and the puzzles are TloU2 tier. And the combat largely sucks, same old FromSoft rollfest with zero depth that wasn't good in 2010 and still isn't good today.
All games are a process of repetitive actions leading to a bigger goal...How you go about achieving that goal is where variety come in. Elden ring is an action game where you can do a vast amount of task mostly centered around exploring and action but it does those two at an all time level. The variety in combat can be vastly different in your build and since it leaves exploration in your hands no two journeys are the same...if you boil it down to just "you fight to get a reward" yes...but thats just going from point A to Point Z trying to diminish all the amazing journeys in the middle that people actually love. As a BOTW fan you know that the reward wasnt getting a seed but the journey on the way to that...what elden ring does best is make that journey inbetween start and reward far more compelling than most games.

Also say I didn't play the game without saying I didnt play the game...it punishes you for trying to turn it into a roll fest...easily Fromsofts most diverse game on an action stand point.
 
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Aldric

Member
All games are a process of repetitive actions leading to a bigger goal...How you go about achieving that goal is where variety come in. Elden ring is an action game where you can do a vast amount of task mostly centered around exploring and action but it does those two at an all time level. The variety in combat can be vastly different in your build and since it leaves exploration in your hands no two journeys are the same...if you boil it down to just "you fight to get a reward" yes...but thats just going from point A to Point Z trying to diminish all the amazing journeys in the middle that people actually love. As a BOTW fan you know that the reward wasnt getting a seed but the journey on the way to that...what elden ring does best is make that journey inbetween start and reward far more compelling than most games.

Also say I didn't play the game without saying I didnt play the game...it punishes you for trying to turn it into a roll fest...easily Fromsofts most diverse game on an action stand point.
It doesn't punish you at all for rolling what the fuck are you talking about, rolling is still by far the game's universal defensive maneuver because jumping is only useful against certain very specific sweeping attacks/AoE and will result in you eating shit in the vast majority of cases, and blocking requires investing a lot of points in STR to use greatshields and the barricade ash of war if you don't want to see your stamina bar melt in two hits against mid to late game bosses so a valid option only for certain builds.

The rest of your post is basically saying nothing so I'll just ignore it.
 
It doesn't punish you at all for rolling what the fuck are you talking about, rolling is still by far the game's universal defensive maneuver because jumping is only useful against certain very specific sweeping attacks/AoE and will result in you eating shit in the vast majority of cases, and blocking requires investing a lot of points in STR to use greatshields and the barricade ash of war if you don't want to see your stamina bar melt in two hits against mid to late game bosses so a valid option only for certain builds.

The rest of your post is basically saying nothing so I'll just ignore it.
You named one specific play style and said thats all you do...the game does everything it does to teach you that you don't have to roll hit roll...the stagger mechanic is designed around you timing you R2 at the right time which is often impossible after a roll due to the smaller window...theres a ton of play styles in this game...thats not even subjective. Again just name open world games with more variety in the over world.
 

NickFire

Member
It doesn't punish you at all for rolling what the fuck are you talking about, rolling is still by far the game's universal defensive maneuver because jumping is only useful against certain very specific sweeping attacks/AoE and will result in you eating shit in the vast majority of cases, and blocking requires investing a lot of points in STR to use greatshields and the barricade ash of war if you don't want to see your stamina bar melt in two hits against mid to late game bosses so a valid option only for certain builds.

The rest of your post is basically saying nothing so I'll just ignore it.
Focusing so much on the sign off sentence while intentionally ignoring the first paragraph looks like a retreat. His first paragraph was a pretty good explanation of a big part of what makes the game unique.
 

Aldric

Member
the stagger mechanic is designed around you timing you R2 at the right time which is often impossible after a roll due to the smaller window...
You're talking complete bollocks. The combat encounters outside of magic builds mostly boil down to rolling through enemy attacks and then using jumping R2 to stagger them and land a crit. I have no idea where you saw that the recovery frames after a roll were so massive you somehow couldn't take advantage of the openings left by a boss. Sounds like the one who hasn't played the game here is you.
 
I absolutely loved it. My one compliment, and this will only become apparent if you do all the side stuff, the further you get into the game it gets a little "samey" and stuff starts repeating. Best attempt at an open world thus far in my opinion.

*I have not played BOTW
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
It's still worth playing. The open world is definitely skillfully designed. But it's not a flawless game.
Banned.

Damn, wonder what happened and if it involved ER? lol. I started to notice some posters on a downward spiral since this game released. I dunno, Miku always seemed like an entertaining gaffer.

I feel so naive.

OT though, I think my favorite thing about exploring the map are the changes in environment/color.

Making it to Atlas Plateau I instantly said, "Oh wow...." It's just so damn pretty, looks like Fall time. My favorite time of year. Not the greatest photo but couldn't really find anything on google images. Standing above the trees is fantastic, love the orange leaves.
Elden-%EB%A7%81%EC%97%90%EC%84%9C-Greatbow%EB%A5%BC-%EC%96%BB%EB%8A%94-%EB%B0%A9%EB%B2%95-1024x576.jpg


Same thing with Caelid, I got there early into the game and was just completely taken aback at how gorgeous and frightening it looked.
 
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BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
Prior to this game, I was not a fan of the genre at all. I even shit on this game a little, saying things like "it's just going to be another Soulsborn game, but you'll ride a horse between dungeons". Wow, was I wrong. This is the most well-realized and macabre world invented within a game ever. The world itself tells a story - the player can put together what may have happened in any given region or area simply by observing it.

This is weird, but after playing this my hype for Breath of the Wild 2 pretty much evaporated, especially if it retains that item breaking system. Lets be honest here, I am a huge fan of the Switch but the thing is basically running on customized mobile hardware from 2014. After ER, I don't care to explore some open world pushed by that hardware. It just won't be enough now and I know that.
 

Strategize

Member
I've had a think about this, I think Fallout 4 deserves a mention on the exploration front, you could say other Bethesda games aswell, but I think 4 was actually a decent step up from a world and gameplay standpoint compared to their previous work. However there are two big issues that stop it from being an exploration GOAT.

One, although the combat is better than prevoius bethesda works, it's still not polished, balanced or good enough to stand up to Souls. That would be forgivable if, two, it offered things in expolration outside of combat/looting, which Elden Ring does not. Now you may be thinking "what are you talking about Fallout 4 does offer things outside of combat, it has actual dialogue coverstations" and you're right, the problem is they suck, both in choices it offers and in quality.

This is the next step above Elden Ring, to offer free non hand-holding exploration, chalaneging combat that you can't just do in your sleep, while also offering some actual good stories/characters in whatever direction you decide to explore rather than just combat and cool looking art. So basically mostly the bethesda formula without being shit in one or multiple aspects, it's hard, but doable.
 
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