Elden Ring Review: Moe Gives It a 9.1 / 10

FromSoftware took the Dark Souls formula, opened the map up, and dared you to get lost in the prettiest nightmare ever shipped. The Lands Between is huge, mean, and packed with things that want you dead in creative ways.

The build freedom is the best in any FromSoftware game. You want to bonk dragons with a hammer the size of a door? Valid. You want to melt bosses with magic from across the room? Also valid. The game respects every style right up until a boss teaches you manners.

The game respects every style right up until a boss teaches you manners.

And the bosses do teach. Margit put a generation of players in their place in the first few hours. The late game difficulty spike is real too, and a few recycled bosses show up once too often in the smaller dungeons. The story is told in item descriptions and ruins, so if you want it handed to you, you are in the wrong church.

I respect this game more than I relax with it, and that is exactly the deal FromSoftware offers. You earn every inch. When the inch is finally yours, nothing else on the shelf feels like it.