The media rating of Miyazaki's open world masterpiece "Eldon's Law Ring" was officially lifted yesterday, and many media, including IGN, Gameinformer, GameSpot, VG247, etc., have given full scores!
However, is Old Man's Ring really the perfect one? Is there really no drawback?
Not necessarily, because bones can also be picked out of eggs (funny expressions)
Foreign well-known game media Gamingbolt yesterday commented in detail on "Old Man Ring", after listing the advantages of this game, but also objectively pointed out the shortcomings of this game, let's take a look at it!
Gamingbolt Ultra Detailed Full Review:
I had thought Old Man's Ring was a Dark Souls 4 set in an open world, but after dozens of hours of playing, that suspicion vanished. Although Old Man's Ring has done the world that every Soul Game has ever done, it has succeeded in doing so this time in an open world where players will be eager to explore every possible nook and cranny, and the end result is an incredible adventure that will bring an experience unlike any previous FS title.
Games developed by FromSoft like to tell stories in an unusual way, which is one of the reasons why they stand out when it comes to gaming experience. The Old Man's Ring is no exception in this regard. Set in The Lands Between, a game full of mysterious and fascinating NPC characters, the game weaves a complex story in which the player embarks on a perilous journey to restore the Eldon Ring of Law.
The game's main storyline is closely linked to side quests, and they are linked in an engaging way that keeps you interested in the story at all times. As expected, most stories are told indirectly, whether through dialogue with NPCs, descriptions of props, or by exploring the world.
Of course, the world of Old Man's Ring also "talks" to the player, but not in a clear and direct way. However, thanks to FS's excellent artistic style combined with darkness, orchestral style and weird music, the game's environment can tell its own story. It's up to the player to string together these "beads" that tell the story. This narrative approach helped shape the world of Old Man's Ring and made the game's exploration a delight. As a result, the way FS narrates has not changed much, but this is not a bad thing, because they are already comfortable in this regard.
Open World is undoubtedly one of the biggest highlights of Old Man's Ring. FS brings players a huge map divided into different regional locations, a world that has all the elements that FS games are well known for. From secret locations, tunnels, dungeons to ruins, from towering castles to dilapidated homes, The Old Man's Ring is a fusion of some of the most terrifying, dark, and oppressive environments.
What really makes the open world stand out, however, is that each location will give you some rewards. On my journey through the Gaplands, I found hidden items, side quests, merchants, and more. If you get to a place, if you have the courage to face danger, your efforts will always be rewarded. The game will give players the curiosity to visit those locations, so when you come across a ruin, you can't help but go inside and find out the secrets it contains.
In addition to the open-world architecture, the game's main flow is still similar to FS's previous games, but side quests can also take you through the map. Both the main line and the side lines are designed to be as good as the previous soul games, and thanks to the game's open world architecture, the new design architecture has improved the game experience of the main line and the side line, bringing a new feeling.
The open world of Old Man's Ring also benefits from its vertical design. There are some underground locations in the game, most of which are as large as dungeons in Dark Souls 3. And these locations are cleverly connected to the main map. Level design has always been one of the most powerful elements in Souls games, but in Old Man's Ring, level design has been elevated to a completely different level due to the sheer size of the game world. The Legacy Dungeon is where we've seen this great design come into play.
Unfortunately, some of the smaller dungeons have a sense of similarity. It's clear that FS reused some of the previous game development footage and then made these dungeons in some way that the program automatically generated them. But given that there are so many dungeons in the game, I also understand the need to use this method to quickly make dungeons, but some players will find these dungeons somewhat repetitive.
As mentioned earlier, Old Man's Ring offers a huge open world, but luckily you can ride a horse. Using this mount, you can collect resources scattered around the world and reach different blessing points in the game.
Although FS offers such a fascinating open world for players to explore, it misses the opportunity to make it even more distinctive. For example, when I played the game, I didn't see any effect of day and night on enemy patrols. So, whether it's day or night, or if the weather changes, enemy patrols will use the same route. And we can't seem to lure the enemy to attack each other. I did encounter these encounters a few times, but these were pre-set and recurred each time they were reset at the Blessing Point.
Objectively speaking, some boss, enemy, and NPC encounters can only be triggered at specific times, but in my games, this is rare. The game also lacks something similar to an activity log that helps players keep track of game activity and interesting locations. In such a large game world, it's easy for players to get lost or forget things, and I think if the game could include some sort of mission activity tracking system, it might make exploration a little smoother.
In addition, the battles and players' strategies in Old Man's Ring are more of an evolution than a revolution. The core system of the game's combat is very similar to that of previous Souls games, but FS has added some clever improvements to make combat more suitable for the open world. The game borrows from the stealth elements of Only Wolves: Shadow Death Twice, and considering that stealth is the most basic operation in the game, it's easy to ignore the stealth elements in Old Man's Ring.
However, I found myself sneaking around the game a lot to avoid fighting as much as possible. Of course, its use is limited to specific situations, but it feels natural and not like an extra-added system, and I've found many times that stealth is a viable strategy against the enemy. The game also has a dedicated jump button that allows players to fight flying enemies. It's a small addition, but it makes a significant difference in gameplay.
Then there's the item crafting system. Open-world games are always closely related to item making, right? Players will collect resources from a variety of plants and animals scattered around the world that can be used to craft important items such as arrows, healing potions, fire bombs, and more. The item crafting system also encourages exploration, and crafting items can help you if you have no chance of winning, such as severe poisoning.
Old Man's Ring offers in-depth weapon customization through a new system called Ashes. When equipped with Ashes, your weapons will have special abilities such as lightning weapons, intelligence boosts, damage cancellation, and a host of other skills. Using war ashes can make a significant difference, and it is important to choose the right use of war ashes in different situations. In one of my boss battles, using the right ash made fighting a boss a breeze.
Speaking of bosses, Old Man's Ring probably has the largest list of bosses in the Souls series. However, due to the open-world nature of the games, their difficulty seems to be a little more balanced than in games like Only Wolves. There is no doubt that these boss battles are still very difficult, you need trial and error, repeated challenges to knock them down.
The bosses in the game come in several types – one that you might encounter on the go, one that you encounter in dungeons or side quests, and one that you have to beat if you want to push the main storyline. What makes Old Man Ring's boss battles so interesting, in addition to their intimidating action design and stage form, is their visual design and their high level of integration with the environment. FS pours a lot of detail into the boss's movements, armor, appearance, and even weapons, as well as for ordinary enemies. The Old Man's Ring is very attentive to detail.
I played Old Man's Ring on PC. It has a range of decent picture quality options, from global illumination quality to depth of field, and I'm able to run games at 4K and 60fps on a PC with RTX 3080 Ti/Ryzen 9 5900X/32GB of RAM. Unfortunately, I occasionally experience a drop in frame rates and some delays in the game. It's a shame because Old Man's Ring looks so gorgeous.
I don't know what FS plans for the future holds for the future, and whether they'll continue to make open-world soul games, but if they can really be the vanguard and develop a whole new type of game, then they might be able to raise the bar for open-world games tremendously. Because a lot of open-world games are torturous, they're so bloated and simple.
Finally, get ready to "die again"!
Overall Evaluation:
Eldon's Ring of Law is a compilation of everything FS has learned over the last 10 years or so. With a few exceptions, it is an outstanding achievement in developing the design of the world game. Few games have been so successful in piquing players' curiosity to explore the game's world, and Eldon's Ring of Law is one of them.
Gamingbolt Rating: 9 (stunning)
Overall: The Eldon Ring of Law encompasses all the traditional elements of The FromSoftware game, but what really makes it shine is its unique, outstanding open world.
merit:
Excellent open world design
A huge map that is fun to explore
Solid combat system
Excellent soundtrack
The difficulty is balanced
· Boss battles are as daunting as ever
Extreme attention to detail
shortcoming:
· Performance issues with the PC version of the game
Some dungeon mazes have a sense of repetition
The game requires a tracking and navigation system