Elden Ring Review: Become Elden Lord

Elden Ring is the rare blockbuster that still lets you get lost on purpose. Miyazaki and Martin's collaboration is less a lore dump than a weather system: you feel the history before you can name it. The first ride into Limgrave remains one of the great opening hours in the medium.

Freedom with teeth

Souls combat is intact — stamina, poise, the religion of the roll — but the map changes the psychology. You can leave. You can see a castle, decide you are under-levelled, and come back three nights later as a different build. That is not a checklist; it is a relationship with a landscape.

The Legacy Dungeons are the thesis. Stormveil, Leyndell, Farum Azula: vertical, cruel, and authored in a way most open worlds never attempt. When the game opens up, it never dilutes those spaces. It just gives you more of them.

The scars

PC performance at launch was a mess we have not fully forgiven. Some late-game runbacks still feel like a dare. PvP remains a sideshow. None of that moves the score the way the first view of Liurnia does.

Consensus, credited

We wrote this review from our own playthrough. The wider critical weather is useful as a temperature check, not a source text.

According to IGN's Mitchell Saltzman, Elden Ring is a 10/10. Rock Paper Shotgun called it "an unmissable journey through the most impressive open world to date." The Guardian called it "an unrivalled masterpiece of design and inventiveness." We are not restating those pieces. We are noting that the consensus and our 9.6 occupy the same postcode, with our deduction sitting on launch PC and the occasional spiteful runback.

Still worth it in 2026

The Lands Between did not expire. If you have a PS5 and a stubborn weekend, start at the Elden Ring hub. For the expansion argument, our Shadow of the Erdtree preview still stands. For what else belongs on the same machine this year, see Best PS5 games 2026 — including Ghost of Yotei if you want a different kind of open-world violence. Xbox households should read Game Pass Ultimate Australia before paying full price for a catalogue game they might already be able to install.

Verdict

9.6/10. Become Elden Lord, or do not — the Lands Between does not care. It will still be there, golden and hostile, when you are.