Elden Ring, while imperfect, is the best implementation of an open-world action RPG that I've ever played. It feels like the culmination of every iteration of FromSoft's 'Souls' games into one truly amazing experience filled with intrigue, struggle, and eventual triumph.

Fantasy, third-person, open world, action RPG, 'Souls' game

Elden Ring is basically Dark Souls 4, or Dark Souls but now you can sneak, jump, and ride a steed around the open world areas. You start by creating a character and choosing a class to determine your starting gear and stats (e.g. Astrologer to be a spellcasting sorcerer, or Samurai to be a katana-weilding DEX melee build). You progress through the game by traveling around the map and finding items/gear to upgrade your equipment setup and defeating enemies to gain 'runes" that you can spend to level up or buy items from shops.

'Sites of grace' are the bonfire equivalents in Elden Ring, and most of the time they visually display a path of light that indicate the direction you need to head in to progress the main story through locations of major bosses. There are plenty of these grace sites littered everywhere in the open world and within dungeons so it is easy to fast travel to where you want to go immediately.

Elden Ring is an open world game and there are various minidungeons/secrets hidden away in every corner of the map. It is to your advantage to seek out these locations to find rare materials and unique weaponry that may or may not change your play style altogether. The open world feels like there is always something waiting for you to discover, such as powerful enemies that drop unique weapon arts (ashes of war) or an NPC standing around waiting to offer you a quest. With the introduction of a day/night cycle, there are even some bosses that only spawn at nighttime in specific locations waiting to ambush you, but offer unique drops as well.

Elden Ring, at launch, was pretty shaky in terms of PC performance. I personally played this game to completion with below minimum specs (AMD FX 6300, RX 480) averaging 40-50 FPS at High settings. I encountered no game-breaking bugs/detrimental FPS hiccups in any playthrough, though the only issue I encountered was that enemies would sometimes become invisible on my screen whenever a large group of enemies were in an area, but they were still lock-on-able and would render again when I got closer/killed some of the group (this is probably just because my CPU is ancient).

In terms of graphics, Elden Ring doesn't break new ground when it comes to overall presentation, but it is a very colorful game compared to previous Souls games. You can really tell when you enter a new region when all the colors transition from one palette to another and the sky/landscape dramatically changes as well. Dark areas are also pretty spooky as you can only see far enough from the light of your torch or lantern and enemies hide in the shadows very well.

The long story short is: the Elden Ring was shattered into fragments and various demigods took the pieces to gain the fragmented powers within them. You are a 'Tarnished' which is basically a pseudo-undead human who is guided by grace to seek out the pieces of the Elden Ring, put them back together, and become Elden Lord in order to bring the world back to "order". (All of the details in between for NPC's and items is basically found in NPC dialogue and item descriptions for you to piece together, or until a genius puts all of the information together in a YouTube lore video)

•Combat feels the best it has ever been for 'Souls' games. Sneak attacks, jump attacks, ashes of war, NPC summons, mounted combat, guard counters, power-stancing, and everything else feels very, very good.

•Touching more on ashes of war, they basically allow you to add (and remove later) a unique skill to most non-unique weapons in the game. They also allow you to change the scaling of a weapon to a different one of your choice (if you also have the right whetstone) so you can make a weapon scale with INT or FTH even if it originally didn't.

•Boss encounters are exciting and challenging. If you feel underprepared, you can always to back to the open world and look for missed locations and items to better prepare yourself. (Also, feel free to use your ash summons whenever possible; it is a game mechanic after all)

•You can build a character however you desire, whether it be dual-weilding greatswords, holy knight, melee-spell-casting wizard, or pure archery.

•There are lots and lots of weapons to try, leading to more replayability as you try a new one in a future playthrough

•The crafting system is interesting as you can create consumables and throwable items when out of combat. You can even create bow/crossbow ammo which is very neat.

•Just when you think you're near the end, the map expands further and there is even more to discover.

•Compared to the other Dark Souls stories, Elden Ring's story feels the most digestible at face value without feeling completely puzzled from the outset.

•PC performance isn't stellar if you are bothered by occasional FPS spikes or the rare game crash on loading screens.

•Not game-relevant, but the game doesn't fully "exit" when you quit out until a while later.

•Early game bosses reappear as 'mini-bosses' or just wandering around later game areas leading to some feelings of reused content.

•There is a massive spike in game difficulty from the mid-game to the late-game. It feels weirdly balanced when enemies all of a sudden go from doing 1/5 of your HP in damage to 1/2 of your HP in damage.

•UI could use a feature to compare stats of shop items with currently equipped items

•Online connectivity can be hit-or-miss. Sometimes when you are summoned to another world, you get a "connection error" and the game boots you back to single player.

•Be wary of hackers when playing co-op/PVP. Previous exploits have occurred where upon death, you would return to single player but be instantly dying forever because the hacker put you in an endless death loop. That exploit was patched, but we all know how hackers don't just give up.

•(Not a negative for me, but maybe if you like PvP): You can only invade other players if they are participating in co-op. Basically, unless a host uses a specific item, invasions usually lead to 1v2 or 1v3 scenarios (note: AFAIK fight clubs are only affected in that # of summonable participants is limited). I don't invade, but I've seen many people whining about this change when it makes sense why it is this way.

•So many important names sound very similar to each other that it could be difficult to remember who is who (e.g. Godwyn vs Godfrey vs Godrick).

•'Great Runes' are pretty underwhelming in terms of power.

•Although I enjoy the game design of not having a dedicated questlog ingame, it is still to your benefit to just read an NPC's quest guide off the wiki to keep yourself on track.

9.9/10; easy recommend

Elden Ring has set my bar for 'open-world RPG' standards. The added gameplay features like jumping, horse-riding, sneaking, etc. make the game's action much more interesting and fun than previous FromSoft games. The game kicks my ass at every step of the way, but the struggle and eventual triumph is worth all of it. Though it is not without fault, I love this game and can't wait for future DLC.

Checkbox reviews are lazy copy & paste bullsh*t. ASCII art reviews tell you nothing. "Let's be honest, I only wrote this review for awards" is a waste of everyone's time. If you are interested in genuine & detailed game reviews, feel free to check out my others here (or don't, I don't tell you what to do).

OSRS is the 2013 rerelease of 'Runescape 2' after the main game became RS3 with the Evolution of Combat update in 2012. The base game is free-to-play with a limitations on available content like areas, skills, and quests. You can acquire "membership" by buying bonds with ingame gold or paying $11 monthly. OSRS is incredibly grindy, but the grind is ultimately satisfying as you usually unlock better and more fun content the further you progress your account. The graphics of the game are from the 2007-2008 era so you either like them for nostalgia or you might not like them because they are dated.

OSRS has a lot of fun content available, but unfortunately the game remains plagued by issues that have seemingly existed since its inception in 2013 including but not limited to bots, gold farmers, lack of successful PvP updates, negligible customer support teams, and questionable account security guarantees. OSRS's dev-mod team is seemingly growing, but it remains to be seen if the team will ever take these issues more seriously than it appears to be doing already.

Also, once you've been exposed to the game, consider using the RuneLite[runelite.net] client. It is an open-source, third-party client that 70% of the playerbase uses because the default client Jagex provides lacks many (or any) quality-of-life features/"plugins" that simply make the game easier to play.

Medieval fantasy sandbox MMORPG

After completing Tutorial Island, you are completely free to do whatever you want in the world of OSRS. You can enter combat with monsters, go on quests for rewards and experience, and train your skills up by performing related activities. Much of the game is notoriously just a "medieval clicking simulator" in that you repeatedly click things on the screen until you level up your stats and receive a rush of dopamine when you hear a level up medley or see the drop you have been farming for after ages of grinding appear on the ground.

OSRS's appearance is based on a 2007 snapshot when the game was reintroduced. The game's charm for veterans is based on its low-polygon models and jagged animatedions. This default Steam client currently removes the 50 FPS limit.

OSRS is a sandbox MMO game that takes place in the world of Gielinor. There isn't one overall story, but you can experience various adventures by taking on quests. There are various story-driven questlines you can take part in about dwarves, goblins, elves, and more. Aside from quests, the "story" can be what you want your character to be: you could be someone who wants to max all of your skills and to achieve the coveted max cape, or you could be someone who doesn't train combat and remains a level 3 skiller, or you could be an ironman who gathers every resource for him/herself without trading or using the Grand Exchange.

•The "base" game is free-to-play and limited in both playable areas and in the availability of most skills. Consider the F2P areas a "trial" period, and that a huge amount of content is unlocked via purchasing membership.

•On a normal schedule, OSRS usually receives a game update once per week. Updates are (for the most part) presented by the devs in the form of blogs and proposals either weeks/months before "polling" players about whether or not they are in support (although lately, Jagex have gone on to sometimes go against this polling system in the guise of "integrity updates", thus making some players wary).

•There is a plethora of content to partake in ranging from killing various creatures, exploring large continents, completing legendary quests, defeating boss enemies for rare loot, and completing group raids.

•There are many ways you can "build" an account: you can play as a 'main' normal account with no restrictions, you can choose to play as some form of a 'pure' who limits their combat stats in order to restrict the combat level tier they compete in within PvP, you can play as a 'skiller' who does not participate in anything combat-related, or you can play an 'ironman' account who is unable to receive items via trade with other players by any means.

•There are no intrusive pay-to-win microtransactions aside from bonds if you consider them to be so. OSRS is subscription-based and priced at $11 USD for a month of membership. You can alternatively choose to purchase membership with ingame currency by buying bonds and redeeming them for 14 days each. Of course, that means that you can buy bonds with real money to sell for ingame gold.

•For new players without nostalgia, OSRS probably looks awfully dated. The artsyle/appearance of things in the game tries its best to remain faithful to its 2007 roots. Jagex has said they are open to the idea of creating a client with improved graphics, but has not said anything beyond that. Currently, RuneLite has a togglable plugin available to apply HD graphics to the game, but it is uncertain if it will remain available in the long term.

•OSRS is incredibly grindy (moreso if you are used to RS3 experience rates). Level 99 in a skill is reached at 13,034,431 xp and some skills can be excruciatingly painful to train at with relatively low hourly exp rates (e.g. runecrafting). Enemy drops are RNG-based so it is entirely possible that you can go dry over an item's drop rate before expecting something.

•OSRS's default client lacks a lot of quality of life plugins found in third party clients. 70% of the OSRS playerbase uses RuneLite, an open-source client with features including but not limited to: timers, item highlights, drop logs, tile marking, increased render distance, GPU rendering, etc. RuneLite is probably the recommended client to use (completely legal) until Jagex decides to invest more effort into their own client.

•Most updates are proposed to the players and then polled for whether or not the devs should introduce the content. This means that unless a proposal reaches a certain % threshold, content you might support could simply fail and not be introduced. There is also a slippery slope as the devs have several times passed "game integrity" updates which are unpolled changes to content, and players see this as an abuse to the relationship trust of only passing updates that players have deemed fitting for the game.

•OSRS's customer support is a meme because they present themselves as if they don't employ a dedicated group of human beings to respond to issues like hacked accounts, ban appeals, and player concerns. The concensus is that the only way to get in touch with a Jagex employee for customer support is to either DM a Jmod on Twitter or to post on the OSRS subreddit. In the latest drama, it even appears that they favor the appeals of content creators over regular players.

•OSRS is plagued by bots and gold farmers/sellers. RuneScape throughout its entirety has had these problems and it remains to be seen if Jagex can actually come up with a solution.

•There is a divide in OSRS's community between PvM'ers and PvP'ers. It's a long discussion but the TL;DR version is that PvP'ers feel neglected since they have not received significant gameplay updates, and PvM'ers are affected because devs have been putting PvM content in PvP zones in order to promote PvP activity, but instead that has created much friction.

9/10 - biased score as a long-time player
8/10 - unbiased score for a new player's perspective

OSRS is fun for me because it is recognizably the game I first started playing in 2006 and went on to continue playing for 6500+ total hours. The nostalgic graphics/combat/overall gameplay is appealing for a veteran like myself, but I can't help but feel discouraged that vital issues like tackling bots and having a dedicated customer support team has eluded the devs for so many years.