Should I Be Playing Elden Ring?

If you haven’t seen the countless reviews, Twitter threads, or YouTube video suggestions, then maybe you’ve seen the Elden Ring TikToks. Since the game launched last week, most of them agree that it’s beautiful, detailed, and absorbing, but intimidating for newcomers. While critics seem to concur that it will stand as one of the best video games of the year, we’d also suggest that Elden Ring isn’t for everyone, exactly. People looking to zone out or relax can move right past this one, and so can those who don’t have the patience to deal with repeated failure in a game. Beyond that, deciding if Elden Ring is for you depends a lot on how and why you play video games to begin with.

What is Elden Ring?

Platforms: PS4 and PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S
Price: $60
ESRB rating: M
Elden Ring is available on Steam for PC, but based on early reports of poor performance and a good number of bugs, PC players may want to hold off until additional patches are released.

Elden Ring drops you into a massive dark-fantasy world where you set out to explore—think The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, if you’ve played those, but drawn by Frank Frazetta or Zdzisław Beksiński. This world is filled with strange animals and creatures that want to kill you, goofy non-player characters who drop enigmatic info about the fragments of the Elden Ring, and an abundance of cryptic secrets in the environment. The game leaves the decision to engage with its story up to you.

The first thing most people tell you about Elden Ring is that combat is difficult and the world is obtuse. That’s the point, in part. I’ve taken to describing Elden Ring to curious friends as a mashup between The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with its wide-open spaces and basic-in-theory combat, and the maddeningly obtuse logic of the ’90s CD-ROM game Myst. The approach of Elden Ring will be recognizable if you’ve played any games from the same developer, FromSoftware, including Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne. Over time these games coalesced into a subgenre called Soulslike (or Soulsborne), and Elden Ring is an evolution and continuation of those ideas.

Exploration in Elden Ring is all about finding interesting loot—you’ll encounter a variety of fantasy weapons, including scythes, katanas, maces, whips, bows, crossbows, and more—and coming across strange puzzles and characters. Then, if those puzzles and characters don’t kill you, you have to figure out what the heck their deal is. Elden Ring also introduces a magical horse, which makes exploration far more enjoyable than in other Soulslike games not only because your horse can double-jump but also because you can easily run away from danger.

Who might like Elden Ring and who might not

If you play video games to relax and zone out, or if you don’t have a lot of time to play and you tend to dip in and out of games, we feel pretty comfortable telling you to pass on Elden Ring. The game asks you to remember what you’re doing if you don’t want to die constantly, so it tends to be more enjoyable if you can stay tuned in, recall details or make notes about details, and keep track of your own progress. That said, compared with its predecessors, it’s still a better point of entry for people who’ve been curious about this genre. Consider whether any of the following descriptions sound like you when you play video games:

• You can learn to be patient. Soulslike games have a reputation for difficulty that can be off-putting. There is truth to the idea that Soulslike games are hard, but I prefer to think of them as exercises in patience. You’re going to die a lot, but the trick is to rewire your brain to care less about death. It’s fine! You’ll die. Elden Ring is often about watching an enemy, learning its patterns, and then attacking when it’s safe, almost like a puzzle. It’s also about knowing when you’re outmatched, and knowing when to run away.
• You love secrets. Elden Ring is filled with weird people and strange secrets. You will come across a lot of things that you probably won’t understand at first, but have an explanation buried somewhere in the game. Be warned: Unlike almost every other game of this type made by other developers, there is no quest log of dangling tasks and obligations to return to in Elden Ring, and it’s easy to forget all the people you’ve talked to and the requests they’ve made. It’s the type of game, like Myst, that works well paired with a good notebook filled with places you want to come back to. (I came across these special-edition Underland Field Notes memo books that feel like a perfect fit for the game.) Elden Ring is also happy not to tell you basic features of the game, and it’s completely possible to miss entire systems.
• You like research. Unlike games such as Breath of the Wild, which have clear systems that you learn intuitively by playing, Elden Ring’s systems are obfuscated, and you learn them by either beating your head against a wall or researching them online. Elden Ring has a lot going on with it, and you can easily miss basic features. The online community around the game has discovered an abundance of hidden tricks (video) and all sorts of tips for making the game easier on yourself—whether that’s overleveling your character, finding extremely powerful weapons and magic, or breaking the game in other ways yet to be discovered.
• You want a long game. You can pour a lot of hours of your life into this game and still have stuff to do. Even a “quick” play-through will likely take most people dozens of hours.
• You’ve tried Soulslike games before and almost liked them. Elden Ring introduces a few quality-of-life improvements, and the structure of the game doesn’t test that patience as much as previous games did. It guides you back to the spot you died so you can regain your “runes,” (which act as both currency and points for character leveling, and which you leave at the site of your death when you’re killed), and it has frequent checkpoints, fast travel, and more.

If you’re still unsure but don’t want to spend $60, Dark Souls: Remastered is often less than $20 and is as good a place to start as any.

Getting started, more easily

If the world, gameplay, and challenge all sound good, but you’re still put off by the difficulty, you can find plenty of resources out there, and I think you can find ways to enjoy the game by utilizing them. Don’t be afraid to take advantage of the community forming around the game.

If you’ve never played any of FromSoftware’s games, this beginner video from VaatiVidya walks you through the basics of combat all the way up to what specific items in the early parts of the game are and how to get them. Then, check out Polygon’s guide to the stats and starting-class choice. Once you start playing, GameSpot has a useful video guide (and text, if you prefer) for where to go at the start of the game if you’re feeling overwhelmed.

As for resources during the game, the Fextralife wiki is one of the biggest sources of Elden Ring information. One page to bookmark is the game progress route page, which will help you figure out where to go next if you’re lost without ruining any surprises. If you find yourself stuck, Polygon and IGN both have great guides for many parts of the game.

Elden Ring can feel impenetrable, and if you prefer a more welcoming experience, there are other games you’re likely to enjoy more. But even though much of this game’s appeal is based on mystery and discovery, that doesn’t mean you have to go into it with no knowledge whatsoever or stay lost and confused in its world. The key to enjoying this and every other Soulsborne game might just be a little help getting started, as well as a little patience.

This article was edited by Arthur Gies and Mark Smirniotis.