Today I will consider the wildly popular game Elden Ring and try to find out what this popularity is based on. Bonus a small test on the I7-8700T + GTX 1070. | Overclockers.ru – the largest information website of Russia dedicated to computers, mobile devices, computer games, electric cars and information technologies.

Elden Ring: RPG, George Martin and so on

I warn all the fans and fans of the game, as well as all the work of Comrade Hidetak Miyazaki: you will not know anything good or new here. Therefore, proceed immediately to another article.

The game comes out on the consoles and the PC in 2022 and immediately begins to gain popularity. This is not least due to competent marketing. And the name of the co-author of George Martin meant something. In addition, the open world was announced, which had not previously happened in games of this kind.

Very short in the plot:

advertising

Like a Souls series, Elden Ring setting is a fantasy in the western spirit. Elden Ring action takes place in the Mezhdozem – a country that is ruled by Queen Marika Eternal. In the past, the life of the Interight depended on the name of the play of the Elden ring, from which the world tree grows. They are growing. Both endowed the Meaning Earth with a “golden light” – a special kind of grace sent by all the inhabitants of this country, great and small. The bearers of the light recognized each other in the eyes in the eyes, and those who lost the light of grace called the extinguished and expelled – among these exiles were there And the ancestors of the game character.

When the ring was broken, the demigods-heroes, the descendants of Marika, shared his fragments, known as the Great Runes. They received huge forces – each of their own; But the damage inherent in these wreckage drove them crazy, and they entered the internecine war, known as a split. The playing character – the extinguished – was expelled from the Mezhdemye to distant lands in the past, but after the Elden ring was broken, he heard the guiding call directed in the Intermeline, and felt grace lost by his ancestors. The hero returns to get the power of the Elden ring and become the Lord himself. (Authoritative source)

I did not go through the game completely, consider, I did not pass at all (it is not considered six evenings). And there was no task. I am aware of what the worlds of Miyazaki are. On the one hand, I just wanted to see the open world and understand whether Miyazaki was able to get away from his stereotypes. In addition, I personally wanted to see the influence of Martin. Regarding the passage itself, I know it. I watched it at YouTube on several channels at once. Maybe they are not the most popular and famous, I don’t know. This is not the point, the main authors are fans (from their words) of games in the style of die a hundred times on each boss.

I will try to look at the game from the angle of a person who (supposedly) is not familiar with the “perverted genius of Miyazaki”, but aware of who George Martin is and loves games in the RPG genre, and even in the open world.

advertising

We launch the game and immediately see the menu screen that migrated from previous games.It's good that the name was changed from Dark Souls to Elden Ring. This was probably a clear call: you can close and delete the game if you are not a fan of the genre. I have no other explanation. After all, the game is not a continuation of something. Strange approach.

Next, select a character class (there are quite a lot of them here), gender, do customization (although you can’t see a damn thing under clothes / armor) and go on the warpath. The very beginning – Dark Souls 3, neither give nor take. Until you get out of the cave into the open spaces. And everything here is just amazing. Yes, the graphics are not far from the third part of the souls left. But the visuals are great! This is one of the most beautiful games.

Not always and everywhere, but in most cases you can just stand and explore the location for a few minutes. But the locations themselves are huge! Here the creators of the game did not lie. You don’t understand the true size at the very beginning. Everything that looms on the horizon could be just a backdrop, a decoration. But no, you can get there!

advertising

Castles and dungeons (not all) are also very well done:

After a short and completely incomprehensible conversation at the first bonfire on the surface with a one-eyed stranger, I hand over the horse to which his wife, the horse, has set the horns. I have no other vision of a strange mutation. And then it becomes clear that the game is the flesh of the flesh of other games maestro. Bonfires, souls, endless deaths, slurred conversations with taciturn interlocutors, completely incomprehensible third-party tasks – all this has safely migrated from past games. Yes, they changed their legend and changed their names. But that's all. Now there is a map, absolutely idiotic and incomprehensible (not yet open until you pick up the pieces). Yes, it is possible to move not from bonfire to bonfire, but from any point to the bonfire. For mobility – a goat horse. And that's all there is to it. And this is not enough! Management, as it was bad, so it remained. Just do not tell here that the joystick is needed. Since it is possible to change the keyboard layout and mouse settings, then this opportunity must be brought to mind, and not as it happened. And why can you still be damaged when you exit the menu? Does Miyazaki still believe that there is nothing more important than his creation in the world? Can't you be distracted by all sorts of worldly nonsense at the time of the battle?

The fights themselves haven't changed since the last Dark Souls (essentially). As before, you can die not only from the boss, but also from a completely ordinary enemy. Particularly amusing are fights on narrow stairs, where you can easily fall and then stomp to the place for several minutes again. Why are you in a hurry somewhere? It's a game for the ages!

Since the creators, according to their samurai tradition, did not provide for a choice of difficulty level, then I can, with a slight movement of my hand, turn all existing enemies into vegetables. Consider the game from this point of view, removing hardcore from it. What is left in the balance? Nothing.There was nothing left without fighting with bosses in the game. Here we move on to the next statement of the developers: a game in the RPG genre.

RPG, it is RPG – role -playing game is a modeling of events taking place in a certain world at a certain time. Its participants play their own characters, guided by the character of their role and internal beliefs of the character within the framework of game realities. The individual and collective actions of the players are the plot Games. As a rule, there are rules for conducting a role -playing game, which describes the framework of the actions of players, their behavior, modeling game situations. The actions of the players are free improvisation in the framework of the selected rules, and also determine the essence of the game and its result ”(authoritative source).

What do we really have? Forget about what you know about the classic RPG of the era of the origin of games. There is nothing in common and with a new approach to the genre. This game is not RPG in its purest form. This is not RPG at all in the European sense. Yes, there are some tasks. But what and why, what the result will be, is unclear. The ornate conversations resembles a conversation with a patient in a mental hospital, who is under the influence of strong antipsychotics. Even after the third conversation, not the devil becomes clear! Therefore, many resort to the services of the Internet. Yes, the Genius games cannot do without that. It can be seen that such a deep meaning that it must be sought in the World Wide Web. All conversations are carried out somehow distant and allegorically .. Maybe you will be lucky and you will understand, or maybe not. And this is in all games from Miyazaki!

There was a hope that it was in this aspect that the genius of dragons and incest, George Martin, would say his thick word. But I did not find his influence at all. Where is it and when? Just marketing, no more. I saw on one stream a sword outwardly similar to a throne from the Game of Thrones, but that's all. Somehow there is little Martin in the game. And dragons and strange family relationships between key characters were in the Dark Souls series.

In addition, the huge size of the open world needs to be filled with something. This is the problem of all the games in the open world. And almost all games do badly. This problem was not by Eden Ring. The world is huge, but empty. At first it is interesting to investigate it. But then he is already boring. A variety of monsters quickly begins to repeat. Some entry -level bosses turn into ordinary, ordinary enemies. And strong borrowings from previous games are noticeable. The appearance of some causes strong bewilderment: Mr. Miyazaki, you, by chance, did not overdo it with sake?

And now we go to the schedule in the game. I have already said earlier that it is not very different from that in Dark Souls 3. We will consider how the game looks on the main preset graphics.

Low graphics settings:

Average settings:

Maximum settings:

The difference is not particularly noticeable. More details can be compared here.

Now I will make a small test on the I7-8700T + GTX 1070 system. Castle settings are mainly high.

Graphic settings.

The segment was recorded by Capframex. The FPS in the game is flooded on 60 FPS, so you only need to guess about real performance by the percentage of downloading a video card.

Test result:

Framrameite schedule.

The result of the test.

As you can see, the strong subsidence of the FPS is noticeable. But if you lower the settings of the graphics to medium, then nothing will change dramatically. The game is poorly optimized. And this is a tradition from the master. In addition, dynamic weather and a change of time of day also affects the loading of the system. And this is also not particularly optimized, although it looks decent. The loading of processor flows is also not optimal:

My subjective assessments on the game based on my own experience and viewing numerous streams.

1. Supply: 3 (pure Japanese in the spirit of Miyazaki)

2. The open world: 4 (huge, but empty)

3. Visual component: 5+ (excellent work)

4. Graduations: 3 (typical Souls, for fans of the series)

5. Management: 3 (bad and point)

6.RPG component: 3 (disgustingly realized)

7. The pulse of George Martin: 0 (no.)

8. Graphic: 4+ (normally, I'm not picky)

9. Optimization: 4- (there are problems, and at the start there were even more)

10. Epity: 5 (which is, that is)

What is my conclusion on the game? I will not consider it to be a masterpiece and a game in the RPG genre at the muzzle of a machine gun. Maybe this is a special RPG in the style of Miyazaki, but has nothing to do with the normal understanding of the genre. In addition, this game is strictly in the spirit of Dark Souls, so a priori cannot like everyone. But there are already many fans. And this is somewhat incomprehensible. Although the Marvel crafts bring huge income.

The game of a special genre, excessively fused. Moreover, the open world did not benefit her, then the developers stepped on the same rake as their rivals from Ubisoft: there is a world, filling. so-so.

Is it worth playing it? If a fan of Tresh and endless deaths. If you like the masking to kill from 102 attempts, then yes. If you are a fan of European understanding of the RPG genre, then no. You will find nothing in common with the style of scrolls or the era of the dragon.