Gaming Continued

Horizon: Forbidden West finished out its story solidly. I haven't done everything in the game (such as arena fights and collectable hunts), but with a vast majority of side missions done and the main story complete, that's good for now.

The ending wraps up a few things and still leaves more to do and a lingering threat.

I'm still struck most by the emotiveness and development of characters. There's a scene at the end where one character is absolutely prepared to leave and do his own thing, but watching the others there is a subtle (but apparent) dip of his shoulders telegraphing his decision to stay and help that is only stated a few moments later.

There's personal bias, sure, but Forbidden West was awesome.

And so I started in on Elden Ring over the weekend.

About the only thing shared between the two games is the "open world" tag. In fact, some contrasting controller commands have been tripping me up on occasion. Crouching instead of running, for instance, is a bit of a problem.

From Software's "Soulsborne" games have a distinctive tone, feel, and look, so I knew what I was getting into in general. There's a dark, fallen-fantasy aesthetic to things. Combat is methodical and control for it is tightly-tuned. Locations are built with interlocking, multi-layered design and often have shortcuts to be found. There is a design excellence to these games that never fails to impress. They're also known to be hard - but it's less often commented on that seemingly minor increases to stats/weapons/etc. can make some things radically easier.

There isn't so much story as lore. It gives at least the illusion of depth, but really only provides tidbits. Most NPCs speak less than ten paragraphs of dialog over the course of the game. There are occasional plaques to read, but no audio/text logs. Some lore tidbits are offered in item descriptions. There really isn't much there, but what exists is evocative of a once-grand fantasy world that has fallen into decay and ruin. And the player may be vaguely charged with making things better in some way.

What Elden Ring offers to the formula is an open world, and it really changes the feel of the game for me. There isn't so much pressure to overcome the next big boss because I can ride off somewhere else instead. I may need to return in time, but the sense of desperate urgency isn't there when the game isn't so linear. And while there's something to be said for both approaches, I like this. I have enjoyed riding around and exploring even when not really accomplishing anything, just seeing new sights and terrain and my own pace is liberating. It also offers the ability to pick up gear, abilities, and levels from cunning searching rather than just getting through enemies.

I have noticed almost no bugs, though there was one crash while going into the map and the came normally seems to take a long time to close, but I have no particular performance complaints.

It's a very good game and I'm enjoying my time playing, though the light storytelling style means it probably won't ever impact me as much as the Horizon games.