Put the next point on the map, follow the lines marked on the road, complete the mission, and repeat the process. I love the open worldsbut for some time now I had lost the illusion for them and I took them as another linear action game.
I wasn’t lying when I said that Subnautics I had ruined exploration games. What has been achieved by a chosen few thanks to the creation of their worlds is very difficult to replicate. Luckily Elden Ring it has given me back that illusion.
At the level of Subnautica and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
I commented on it back in the day to talk about the reasons why I had gotten into Elden Ring despite being a one-armed Souls, but it’s worth remembering briefly. I was not drawn to the difficulty of it, nor its challenging boss fights, nor a lore that I have not yet heard about. In fact, all of that was what had gotten me out of gaming. Software until now.
However, between little warfare and little warfare with his journey through the Middle Lands, what Juan did infect me with in his analysis in nightmare mode, was the passion for that world. That “Well today I was going to this and actually I got lost doing this and this other“It was just what hooked me first in games like the one mentioned Subnauticsbut also others even better known like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Death Stranding.
in the how Elden Ring it inevitably forces you to it, and it ends up exploiting it with an insatiable appetite, it is precisely what has me totally trapped with the game -until so many in the morning a couple of days ago because there is a city that is bigger than my town and after every corner has something interesting to see or pick up.
When I’m playing it I can’t stop, and when I stop playing it I can’t get it out of my head. And I don’t think about which weapon to upgrade, or how I’m going to vent the boss I’m stuck on, no.
The thing that constantly has me thinking about the game is where am i going nextor what godforsaken cave am I going to manage to find on my next walk if instead of that infinite path that I took yesterday, I take the one that was in the opposite direction.
a master lesson
I do not know if Elden Ring It will end up taking this year’s GOTY or not, but much more than that, I would care that the stage and level design of this game deeply permeate the industry. Even more than those of Subnautics or The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
It is incredible the care that is put into each area. Huge biomes that you can scrutinize to the millimeter and will still hold surprises in the form of a dungeon whose door you had missed or an underground passage to another city that had been hiding under your feet all this time.
It is no longer just how well made it is and to what extent it has an almost sickly attention to detail – Leyndell and its collection of streets, avenues, little houses and churches is perfect for one of those afternoons in which you pay the will to the guide who takes you and explains each curiosity-, is that the narrative that secondarily unravels each enemy that appears or each change in the scene is of a fine success.
I understand how much of an exaggeration it may sound to those of you who haven’t been able or wanted to get in yet, but please, either now or when they give the game away with the cereal 15 years from now, give this a chance because it’s a master design class.
Back to the origins
Why is it different from any other open world games or titles from other genres that encourage exploration like metroidvania? In the first place, as was the case with Subnautics, breath of the wild and Death Strandingfor Liberty.
You know that you have a more or less clear objective and you could reach it without problems almost from the beginning in a more or less straight line, but you would be missing everything that is around you. You have to lose yourself, and inevitably you do, to really understand all that is hidden in plain sight.
It is the opposite of what happens to you when you put a point on the GPS of any open world action game, where you end up more aware of the lines on the ground or the point on the mini map than what you have around you. Whenever you think”I’m still missing something“, that style of play pushes you in one way or another to see what they have created for you.
Either with a path that leaves you with an impressive panorama, or with a main mission that takes you through what might be interesting to explore later because it smells like a secret or a side mission. “You have seen it, haven’t you? Sure? The same if I put a neon sign on it, you’ll see it better, that’s why I’ve done it, so you don’t miss it for the world“.
An excursion that continues to surprise me daily
Much of the grace Elden Ring it is precisely in that sensation of discovery. You haven’t been crushed by wandering around his world like crazy, nor are you going to see him unless you do your part. Not because you can’t, mind you, that option is always there, but you must explore on your own or follow the clues that the game leaves you to get the most out of it.
Nothing to do, for example, with what the metroidvanias limited to blocks until you have an ability, which means redo paths 20 times and have a prodigious memory -or a minimap for the elderly as yours truly-. I can’t handle it, and it takes a lot out of me.
Here I know that, yes or yes, following a path has a reward. You can, just like in Subnautics when you got in where you shouldn’t, a chest teleports you to a mine full of goofy bugs that paint your face, but you know that whenever you want you can go back there and try again.
It’s a crap. When I got stuck with the first boss a few weeks ago, I had the idea to start looking for a guide to the area I was in. As soon as I saw everything that I had left to see only on that stage, despite having kicked it ad nauseam, I understood that Elden Ring I wasn’t going to be disappointed. What I didn’t expect was that, towards the end, the game continues to surprise me almost daily. How can I not love him madly?