Elden Ring Review

ELDEN RING is an action role-playing game that drops players into the Lands Between, an expansive otherworldly realm filled with foggy fields and forest thickets, castle ruins and dark dungeons. Taking on the role of a Tarnished -- a warrior cast out of this domain, now returned to reassemble a shattered ring and become the Elden Lord -- the player freely roams the land on foot and horseback looking for demigods in possession of the ring's shards. But defeating these powerful enemies is no small feat. Along the way to each boss, players will encounter many challenging enemies that must be overcome via skillful application of melee and ranged combat tactics. This involves switching between swords, shields, bows, and other armaments as the situation demands, learning how to effectively block, dodge, and parry incoming attacks, employing stealth if at all possible, and knowing when you've met your match so that you can beat a hasty retreat and live to fight another day. Death results in a temporary loss of all accumulated and unspent experience points, and these points -- used to upgrade the hero's base stats, making them stronger with each level -- will disappear forever should you perish before finding your way back to the spot where you died. 

Players can also increase their hero's strength by finding new weapons and armor and upgrading it with special resources and talismans. A crafting system that makes use of various plant, animal, and mineral resources found along the way allows players to make arrows and other items that can increase their odds when facing down tough foes. As a last resort, you can summon other players to your world to help defeat especially tricky bosses -- but be wary, because multiplayer can also be competitive, with other players "invading" your world to attack rather than help you.