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Elden Ring might be one of the most overrated games ever!

Kssio_Aug

Member
I have been playing the game for quite some time now, but I expected so much better specially given how well received it was. It has so many flaws that would never have a pass for pretty much any other 3rd party franchise, that I can't even comprehend how it has been so highly regarded.

First, the main issue: The open world exploration SUCKS TREMENDOUSLY! I haven't been that much bored by exploration for so long. Not even Far Cry and Assassin's Creed have been this boring to explore, and I do consider them quite boring nowadays. There's no reward to wander around the map, other than that sense of finally finding a cave with some sort of decent level design to go through and fight a boss. The open world is basically a huge useless HUB which you need to traverse to find the actual content of the game.

And talking about caves, good Lord, they were definitely not ashamed at all to recycle content. I have been in pretty much the same catacomb numerous times. Dungeons with extremely similar looks and patterns: you get into a cave, rest at the state of grace, go down stairs and find a locked door, then make your way through this little dungeon, pull a lever, come back to the start, the door is open, fight the boss. Also, the boss might be one you have already fought like 3 or 4 times already before, with slightly variation of attacks and carrying a different weapon. Still, it's already MUCH better than wandering that barren open world.

I'm also under the impression that From Software can't figure out anymore how to make the game more challenging to it's players other than making bosses faster, with extremely high poise, and with big combos that will lock you until they manage to break your defense and fuck you up. This is the "easiest" Soul game because you basically need to kill dozens of optional bosses in order to overpower the main ones.

Also fighting with big and slow weapons is a chore now, because the window you have now to damage the bosses is minimal before they restart their combo cycle. The balance that the previous games used to provide is pretty much gone.

And I won't even talk about the graphics and performance, this game runs worse in my computer than a lot of others that looks way better. But this is no surprise, and it's something that I can ignore as long as I'm having fun with the game.

But anyway, Elden Ring is like two steps backwards compared to all their previous games. Up until now, I always praised the level design of any Souls games, Bloodborne and Sekiro; but it is almost nonexistent in ER. After what they've done to Sekiro, I believed From Software was gonna be able to deliver their best next Souls game, but instead they gave me an unbalanced Boss Rush game with a useless and boring open world hub.

Disappointed Kevin Sorbo GIF


Edit: And because of this, some people in this thread traced my profile. A lowly degenarate that spend the day playing and praising Far Cry, Assassins Creed and Horizon, at my mother's basement, requiring for attention. The game might disappoint, but the hardcore fanbase never does.

Edit 2: Wow, thanks for the Gold, I really appreciate it!
 
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TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
I expected open world Dark Souls, and that's what I got. Pretty happy with the final result, with only two complaints: recicled bosses, and chalice dungeon-tier side-dungeons.

Aside from that I really enjoyed it. Exploration was quite fun for me, the world it's not too big, so you can find new things at every turn. Even copy pasted places, like ruins and such, all had their own motive or secret to uncover. So yeah bro, I have to disagree with you there because for me the exploration aspect was excellent.

Add that the main bosses and main dungeons are amongst the best shit in the series, and that the game offered me 160+ hours of absolute fun, and it's one of the best modern games ever made, for sure, imo at least.

Give it another chance in a year or so, maybe you see it with different eyes.
 

MHubert

Member
I have been playing the game for quite some time now, but I expected so much better specially given how well received it was. It has so many flaws that would never have a pass for pretty much any other 3rd party franchise, that I can't even comprehend how it has been so highly regarded.

First, the main issue: The open world exploration SUCKS TREMENDOUSLY! I haven't been that much bored by exploration for so long. Not even Far Cry and Assassin's Creed have been this boring to explore, and I do consider them quite boring nowadays. There's no reward to wander around the map, other than that sense of finally finding a cave with some sort of decent level design to go through and fight a boss. The open world is basically a huge useless HUB which you need to traverse to find the actual content of the game.

And talking about caves, good Lord, they were definitely not ashamed at all to recycle content. I have been in pretty much the same catacomb numerous times. Dungeons with extremely similar looks and patterns: you get into a cave, rest at the state of grace, go down stairs and find a locked door, then make your way through this little dungeon, pull a lever, come back to the start, the door is open, fight the boss. Also, the boss might be one you have already fought like 3 or 4 times already before, with slightly variation of attacks and carrying a different weapon. Still, it's already MUCH better than wandering that barren open world.

I'm also under the impression that From Software can't figure out anymore how to make the game more challenging to it's players other than making bosses faster, with extremely high poise, and with big combos that will lock you until they manage to break your defense and fuck you up. This is the "easiest" Soul game because you basically need to kill dozens of optional bosses in order to overpower the main ones.

Also fighting with big and slow weapons is a chore now, because the window you have now to damage the bosses is minimal before they restart their combo cycle. The balance that the previous games used to provide is pretty much gone.

And I won't even talk about the graphics and performance, this game runs worse in my computer than a lot of others that looks way better. But this is no surprise, and it's something that I can ignore as long as I'm having fun with the game.

But anyway, Elden Ring is like two steps backwards compared to all their previous games. Up until now, I always praised the level design of any Souls games, Bloodborne and Sekiro; but it is almost nonexistent in ER. After what they've done to Sekiro, I believed From Software was gonna be able to deliver their best next Souls game, but instead they gave me an unbalanced Boss Rush game with a useless and boring open world hub.

Disappointed Kevin Sorbo GIF
I disagree with everything you wrote. Except for it being the easiest souls game.
 

Luipadre

Member
Agree. I love souls games but ER was a disappointment. Music was disappointing, except for 1 or 2 tracks, bosses were disappointing and the amount of reused stuff was insane. I also missed the satisfying shortcuts, only 2 legacy dungeon felt like old souls level design. BB is still king
 

Ozriel

M$FT
My, such an unique and thread-worthy opinion, pretty sure never heard that anywhere before.


Feels like we get one of these every month.

People need to understand that others could have vastly differing opinions from theirs.

We used to get similar threads for BOTW.


The only thing everyone agrees on is that Morbius was shite.
 

CheeseCake

Member
The entire point of elden ring is you challenging the game. It's a learning process.
Making it like other games, is a cheap way to look down on the game.
There is a reason why everyone enjoys it.

Not everyone has the time or the patience to go through the soulsborne "learning process" (LOL, oh please) of liking something that makes you rage and quit over and over again.

There's only one soulsborne game that I like and that is Bloodborne. But here's the thing, I like the game but that's it. I wouldn't say Bloodborne is in my TOP games of all time because this isn't really my genre of games that I like to begin with.

I tried playing Demons Souls Remake back when I had a PS5 and dark souls. I gave up very, VERY quickly. The combat is just too slow and methodical for me.
 
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Elios83

Member
The game overall is great, I spent 110h in it and it was a long time I wasn't so dragged in a game.
BUT yeah imo it's overrated just like RDR2, Zelda BOFW and many other games that got these crazy scores.

It's essentially open world Dark Souls.
The open world adds in terms of exploration and sense of surprise but also worsen some issues usually found in the From Software games.
You can basically miss so much, *too much* about the lore, NPCs and side missions unless you follow a guide and that's just not good design.

Also the game is unbalanced, there are bosses that are almost impossible to beat without a magic based build or summoning people online to help.
Many secrets and powerful weapons are restricted again to powerful faith/magic builds.
Yes you can respec your character but if you're totally fine with your build and it's just to beat specific bosses it seems like it's just a band-aid solution they added in the game.

They also got all sort of free passes on the technical side that other games would have been heavily criticized for.
 
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kingfey

Banned
Not everyone has the time or the patience to go through the soulsborne "learning process" (LOL, oh please) of liking something that makes you rage and quit over and over again.

There's only one soulsborne game that I like and that is Bloodborne. But here's the thing, I like the game but that's it. I wouldn't say Bloodborne is in my TOP games of all time because this isn't really my genre of games that I like to begin with.

I tried playing Demons Souls Remake back when I had a PS5 and dark souls. I gave up very, VERY quickly. The combat just feels too slow and methodical for me.
That is your issue. Has nothing to do with the game.
 

Chukhopops

Member
Seems like it wasn’t the game for you OP. I disagree with every point you made but I think a very good game can’t please everyone. It’s the price you pay for bold game design.

Also what do you even explore in Assassins Creed? All the points of interest are on the map once you do the eagle sync thingy.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
OP is about to get a long-ass lecture from those overzealous Souls fans who wrote academic papers about combat and level design in Fromsoftware games.
Combat could be better, and I'd prefer a level design with even more branching paths and puzzles rather than just combat and secret hunting.

But still... The sum of all the parts that form Elden Ring is better than anything else I've played recently.

It's also ballsy on their part to make such a big game, and make most of it totally optional and missable. Makes finding that content even more rewarding. I'll never forget finally being able to explore the whole dungeon at the Volcano Manor, after finding the secret entrance all by myself, instead of the game spoonfeeding it to me.
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
Seems like it wasn’t the game for you OP. I disagree with every point you made but I think a very good game can’t please everyone. It’s the price you pay for bold game design.

Also what do you even explore in Assassins Creed? All the points of interest are on the map once you do the eagle sync thingy.
I wish Elden Ring showed me on the map all of the points of interest, so I wouldn't need to waste time wandering around without finding anything useful. :messenger_weary:
 

Guilty_AI

Member
Feels like we get one of these every month.

People need to understand that others could have vastly differing opinions from theirs.

We used to get similar threads for BOTW.


The only thing everyone agrees on is that Morbius was shite.
Indeed, if i made a thread for every highly acclaimed game that i thought was overrated, i could make a new one every month.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
I expected open world Dark Souls, and that's what I got. Pretty happy with the final result, with only two complaints: recycled bosses, and chalice dungeon-tier side-dungeons.

Aside from that I really enjoyed it. Exploration was quite fun for me, the world it's not too big, so you can find new things at every turn. Even copy pasted places, like ruins and such, all had their own motive or secret to uncover. So yeah bro, I have to disagree with you there because for me the exploration aspect was excellent.

Add that the main bosses and main dungeons are amongst the best shit in the series, and that the game offered me 160+ hours of absolute fun, and it's one of the best modern games ever made, for sure, imo at least.

Give it another chance in a year or so, maybe you see it with different eyes.
Exactly how I felt. The smallest irk I had was recycled bosses, and even then it was the smallest gripe.

It's FS's first true open-world game, and for that I think that they did an outstanding job. Is it perfect? No. But it did some things better than the "pros" did IMO, which is pretty huge.

OP, it's okay if you don't like it, that's your opinion. But my experience was vastly opposite of yours. I personally felt like the exploration and art was absolutely top tier. I can't remember the last open world game of this size where I did absolutely everything. It was a wonderful experience that exceeded 200 hours. For you, it just may not be your thing, and that's totally fine.

Basically....
e26.jpg


Not everyone has the time or the patience to go through the soulsborne "learning process" (LOL, oh please) of liking something that makes you rage and quit over and over again.

There's only one soulsborne game that I like and that is Bloodborne. But here's the thing, I like the game but that's it. I wouldn't say Bloodborne is in my TOP games of all time because this isn't really my genre of games that I like to begin with.

I tried playing Demons Souls Remake back when I had a PS5 and dark souls. I gave up very, VERY quickly. The combat is just too slow and methodical for me.
Sounds like the games just aren't for you either, and that's fine.

I think the annoying part is seeing fans respond to folks in a way that reads or sounds like, "Hey, you're just doing it wrong" or something that makes it sound like they just don't get it. It's not like that, you just may not like it, and that's it. Maybe one day it will click for you like it did for me? I mean, I used to absolutely despise these games, but then when I played the Demon's Souls Remake something clicked, I absolutely love them now, and I went back and played them all. Maybe that day will never come? Who knows, but it's something that certainly isn't forced, you're either into it or you're not.
 

kingfey

Banned
I have a sneaky suspicion that many people who played a souls game for the first time this year either loved it or hated it completely. There's no in between imho.
That is for every game. People hated doom eternal too.
No game can have all people agree with each other.

That doesn't mean a game is overrated.
 
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It's fine to not like something. Everything is not for everyone....but that does not make it overated just because you don't like it. If the majority love it then it is what it is. It's just not your cup of tea.
 
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MOTM

Banned
Hmm was about to give in and buy this as my first Souls like game ever because of the hype ..
 

Chukhopops

Member
I wish Elden Ring showed me on the map all of the points of interest, so I wouldn't need to waste time wandering around without finding anything useful. :messenger_weary:
Honestly I get it but that’s what people enjoy, for once in a while it’s cool to have no quest log, no map marker, have to actually search for something. ER is actually nice enough to show you NPCs on the map and has less cryptic quests than previous games.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
There are quite some things to be found on the map though. I enjoyed finding hidden caves, or spots with high tier materials. Or NPC's and merchants. There is just about enough. And you might find an hidden city somewhere.
 
This is the problem with having such hive mind reviews. I've put in 68 hours into elden ring so far and it's a personal 10 out of 10 for me despite having obvious flaws.

BUT no game is for everyone and it would be nice if this got represented on metacritic. Personally I think no game should be getting 95+ metacritic scores.
 

kingfey

Banned
Yes. He made some excellent points and my matches my experience with the game.
The problem is calling something, which majority of people enjoy it an overrated product.

Its ok to have issues with the game, which you don't like it. But calling it the most overrated, because you have issues kinda defeats your point.

Just like how you have issues with the game, people like those issues.

After decade of boring open world, elden ring is the new fresh of open world. Too many dangerous stuff, and it makes you use your brain.
 
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