Stepping outside into the world of Elden Ring, a vast open plain called the Lands Between, is a different experience. In other words, veteran FromSoftware fans should feel right at home after learning the local dialect. The combat itself is nearly identical to that of FromSoft’s most recent fantasy action RPG, 2016’s Dark Souls 3. There are the requisite items to summon other players to your world, the colorful stones that one can leave behind as breadcrumbs, and a pair of flasks to refuel one’s health and magic points. Instead of harvesting Souls as the all-purpose currency, players collect Runes. Instead of finding relief at Dark Souls bonfires, players rest and recover at Sites of Grace. Longtime Dark Souls players will need little of this education beyond brushing up on new jargon. In the beta’s opening area, there’s a section called the Cave of Knowledge, a tutorial zone that teaches players the basics of Elden Ring. Playing through a few hours of the game’s upcoming network test - a beta version of the game that offers a walled-off slice of Elden Ring’s large open world - felt like slipping back into a game of Dark Souls 3, only bigger, wider, and with sundry new things to see, to collect, and to battle.īut it will assuredly feel familiar, especially if you’ve been playing the new breed of FromSoftware game pioneered by Demon’s Souls more than a decade ago. Elden Ring, the new game from Dark Souls and Bloodborne developer FromSoftware, feels like reconnecting with an old friend.

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