Game On: Elden Ring is fantastic aside from inventory woes

The highly anticipated dark fantasy RPG Elden Ring dropped Feb. 25, and while a sizable portion of overhyped video games have fallen flat on their face upon release in recent years, this is not one of them. On Metacritic, the game currently boasts a 97/100 average score based on 51 critic reviews, placing Elden Ring in the top 10 highest-rated video games of all time.

So, what’s all the hubbub? Elden Ring comes from Japanese developer FromSoftware Inc., a team already held in high regard for games like Dark Souls, Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Interestingly, George R.R. Martin – the author of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which TV series “Game of Thrones” is based – co-wrote the game’s story.

Most importantly, the gameplay and dark fantasy setting are both reminiscent of Dark Souls. While that popular franchise is known for its punishing difficulty, FromSoftware evidently aimed to rectify their past wrongs by modifying and adding several mechanics to make Elden Ring a bit more reasonable – stealth mechanics, faster travel via horses, ranged weapons being more effective and so on.

While I’ve done my due diligence in researching the title and watching gameplay footage, I haven’t purchased and played Elden Ring. As a kid, my imagination was rife with medieval fantasy thanks to Baldur’s Gate, Lord of the Rings and even Conan the Barbarian, and that part of me desperately wants to explore the game’s immersive world and build up my own personal brand of badass character.

But then there’s the adult in me that’s grown more accustomed to playing straightforward games just as easy to pick up as they are to put down. I say this because the “soulsborne” subgenre Elden Ring is unashamedly part of is anything but straightforward.

The combat is nuanced, methodical and complicated, and that makes for a role-playing game with a steep learning curve. There are also the complications that almost always come with creating a character with a personalized set of abilities and equipment.

I have grown increasingly fearful of the term “inventory management” during my time as a gamer. If you’re storming a castle or navigating a dungeon and leaving behind a trail of corpses, it feels anticlimactic to stop and look through your pack – do I have new, improved weapons? Is my inventory full, and do I need to decide what to drop before carrying on?

We’ve all been there, and quite frankly, I think it’s an antiquated system in need of a serious overhaul. No rose-tinted glasses here – it’s just as annoying today as it was two or even three decades ago. It’s one thing to toss, upgrade, equip and unequip items and abilities in between levels, but if I have to stop in the middle of my quest, the pacing of the game is ruined for me.

For all its faults, the Destiny saga nails this aspect of RPGs. Most item drops come in the form of “engrams” that can only be decoded at the home base between missions. If a gamer gets a purple (legendary) or golden (exotic) engram, they know it’s probably something good, and they’re likely to get a sweet little hit of dopamine before carrying onward.

That also makes the classic “return to town” element of RPGs less of a chore and more exciting. With this system, Bungie made Destiny’s missions consistently fast-paced and the in-between phases less boring. It’s a win-win, and I’m genuinely shocked that similar games like Borderlands haven’t followed suit.

While Elden Ring is a stellar title that most gamers will surely enjoy, the few complaints I have witnessed often cite the never-ending chore of inventory management. And while I hope to give the game a shot someday soon, I can’t justify dropping $60 on a game that might bore me with occasionally haphazard pacing.

But for those of you not bothered by such things, I can almost guarantee that you’ll enjoy Elden Ring. The worldbuilding, setting and immersion are spectacular, and unlike many of the third-person action games that have been flooding the AAA game market recently, the combat is clever and compelling.

Riordan Zentler can be reached at riordanzentler@gmail.com.