Caltrops - Elden Ring





	[quote name="Rafiki"]There's still invasions, but it requires a consumable. I didn't know this until I stumbled across a random pickup of them about 10 hours into the game. I appreciate them not wanting to turn the beginning of the game into a PvP invasion shitshow, but jesus. That being said, I've yet to be invaded. I can't stop playing this goddamn game, though. It's worth full price, provided you're not unlucky with performance problems some people are having. I've had 0 issues, apart from on 3 or 4 occasions the music and/or dialogue completely drops out for 20 seconds or so and then returns. The sound effects still work, it was just music and audio. Apart from that, everything runs flawlessly and maintains an immovable 60fps at max settings. There's probably, like, 100 hours of content in here. I've logged an embarrassing 18 hours so far, and I've killed 1 story boss, 2 "major" bosses (in that they gave achievements) and maybe a dozen or so "minor" bosses of varying difficulty. I've explored a tiny fraction of the world map. I found an elevator at one point that took me 500 miles underground and there was a super-gigantic open subterranean world lit up like the cosmos. When I decided to dedicate myself to just killing the first story boss you're directed to, I went to the castle he was in and it took <i>over 4 hours</i> to get through it. That doesn't include time to kill the boss, just running around, collecting items, and uncovering all of the secrets. The castle is only one small area on the map, it's just a massive, winding, multi-level labyrinth. The scale of this game is insane. Here's one of the biggest innovations this game brings to stamina meters: UNLIMITED STAMINA WHEN YOU'RE NOT IN COMBAT. When you're not being attacked, you can run forever without having to stop and wait for your stupid fucking meter to refill. Why did no one think of this before? The horse: great. When you summon it, it just materializes (for it is a spirit horse) underneath you and you immediately mount. You can summon it while running and seamlessly transition into a full gallop. The horse can double-jump! Horseback combat is great! There's a whole boss built around it, teaching you how not to fight on horseback like a dumbass. This game really is basically Dark Souls in open world. There's no sword-play like Sekiro, or timed interrupts like Bloodborne, however it does continue From Software's tradition of setting the gold standard for combat. I'm also completely sold on the open world. When you get stuck on a boss, you're not resigned to just mercilessly throw yourself at it, never to progress further in the game, until you beat it. Instead, you can leave and go explore a million other places. You can fight other, easier bosses and get new weapons, equipment, spells, etc. You have a million options when you get stuck now, so you can go do something cool and then come back when you're more powerful. I was concerned about crafting, but so far it's actual useful stuff like arrows, fire bombs, and assorted curatives. No need to hunt down a merchant, and you can craft anywhere at any time. It's just good. It's just really good. This is another open world game that gets it right and doesn't waste your time with tedious bullshit and idiotic quests. It's just non-stop Dark Souls combat, boss fights, exploration, and dungeon crawling. Unless the game takes a massive shit over the next 80 hours, even if I get bored and never finish it it still has $60 worth of content.[/quote]