I'm Elden Ring Review

I am a gamer! Since I was three years old, I have been playing video games, and Mario was hopping across the screen. I've played everything from JRPGS to Western RPG, FPS, Adventure games, platforms, MMORPG, etc. Some of my favorites are the Zelda series, Assassin Creed series, Border Lands, and World of Warcraft (from back in the day), but yes, my heart belongs to RPGs.

I said this upfront because I've been bored.. I'm so bored with almost all games lately. I enjoy playing online with my friends, well, mainly two friends that my daughter now believes are my only friends. But nearly all the games I've played, I have put them down in a few days or just stared at them and thought, Do I want to waste my time?

That is until I fell on Elden Ring! I didn't want to write a review until I beat it; in fact, I've never written a video game review before. So, *Drum roll*, that tells you all something! This game took me 102 hours to beat, countless deaths, and frustration. Sometimes I cried alone in the dark, and my kids seek me out for my mental well-being.

I must say, I've played other "From Software Games" who are mainly known for their hard-ass difficulty and Souls Games, but I always put the controller down and walked away. I'm not sure why I kept this one, but it was well worth it.

Granted, the story is by George R.R. Martin, and much like the ending of Game of Thrones, you may be wondering what the hell is truly going on here. If you want to dig deep into the lore, the game is vibrant with it, yet I had to go to Reddit and many other sites to get all the story. The Gist is you wake up as a Tarnish, and everyone wants you to become the next Elden Lord and save the day, well almost everyone. The battle to become the Elden Lord is challenging; however, if you have a couple of friends, you can have them join you. When your allies join you, your abilities are cut in half; you can no longer ride horseback; your friends lose half their health, and it's more brutal. I found that getting spirit ashes (little spirits you can summon to your aid) works out more. Speaking of friends to help you, many can also jump into your game and destroy you, and they will at inconvenient times.

Expect to see the words "YOU DIE" a lot; that's ok, though. It is well worth it! The game has a class system, but that does very little as you level up. It's mainly cosmetics, and though some beginner skills can help early on, I found that rune farming is the best bet. (Runes are like souls that help you level). I started with the Prisoner class, thinking I'd do a battle mage, flinging magic and beating things down with a sword. I forgo the magic and just duel-wielded two swords with heavy armor by the end of the game.

There are plenty of weapons, and they scale; you can level standard weapons up to, I believe, +25. Also, you can customize them to add different abilities and stats and magic weapons to +10; the same goes for the spirit ashes up to +10.

There are six different endings; I worked hard for one of the secret endings. However, they have a new game+, but after 102 hours, I was like, "No, Thank you!" There is no quest guide, so you must remember it or write things down.

I will say this, though, it has been a long time since a game has kept me glued to the screen, and I wanted to keep going. To me, this should end up becoming Game of the Year! Do yourself a favor; if you haven't picked this title up, go and do it NOW!

Tarnished, see you out there, and remember, "Try Fingers but hole."