I have a concern with Ubisoft. Despite the fact that I’m often left feeling let down and unsatisfied, I continue to engage in its offerings.
When Assassin’s Creed Syndicate came out, I returned like the worthless worm I am after being put off by Unity’s botched start and icon-stuffed map. Many years later, I believed I was done with video games after finishing the exhausting campaign of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (again replete with an enormous map full of symbols and uninteresting side activities because MORE CONTENT = MORE FUN, evidently).
After that, I purchased Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which had a campaign that was even longer. After that, I laid down my controller and vowed never to play another UBISOFT OPEN GAME again.
There will be no more big maps that seem both crowded and vacant at the same time. There will be no more cut-and-paste assignments where you have to collect three items or battle an adversary fist on. There will be no more needless crafts, stupid mini-games, or identikit enemy bases that you must clear out for little return.
Then, there was Far Cry 6… and then I played it. That’s right, I despise myself.
However, I’m happy to report that after completing Far Cry 6, which had all of the Ubisoft open-world annoyances as expected, Elden Ring was released to force me to wake up and take notice.
Excruciating lessons to be learned
Elden Ring is the first FromSoftware game I’ve ever played, although I was aware of its reputation for being very challenging. One of the first adversaries I encountered was able to kill me with only two punches.
I quickly noticed that the game was penalising me after a string of fatalities. Because I was mishandling the game, and not because the creators are scumbags. It was killing me because I was treating it as an open world Ubisoft game. Continually. Respected that.
When it comes to Assassin’s Creed, I’d have no problem going into a bunch of foes and killing them. As I’ve learned in Elden Ring, I’d be deader than a dead thing if I did it. Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry both provide players the opportunity to acquire powerful, over-the-top weaponry that make defeating adversaries a breeze. It’s entertaining, but only in the sense that it’s thoughtless and devoid of any meaningful difficulty. Increased power makes upgrades and levels less effective. Because you are so exposed in Elden Ring, every boost in your stats seems like a gift.
If I’m being really honest, the scale of enemies in Ubisoft open environments has become rather flawed. Enemies in their games are now scaled to your skill level, so you’ll never have an unfair advantage against them.
Enemies in Elden Ring each have a defined level, which means that if you initially come across one and it easily kills you (which is most of the time for me), you may walk away and do other things to gain runes (a sort of cash) in order to level up and get stronger. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it in the end.
Maps that are accurate
With Ubisoft’s massive worlds, I’m also accustomed to being informed precisely where to go, with symbols strewn throughout the area and visual cues that indicate your mission’s goals. As before, this may diminish the difficulty of the games and limit the discovery of new things.
You’re basically on your own with Elden Ring. In comparison to the Ubisoft approach, this leaves you bewildered and confused. When I didn’t know where I had to go, I chose a general direction and started off. I was able to immerse myself in a whole new universe, which is exactly what I believe FromSoftware was striving for with this game.
It’s also a breath of new air how the game deals with death. When it comes to Ubisoft games, death is a minor inconvenience. To finish a mission in Assassin’s Creed or Far Cry, you just restart from the previous checkpoint. When a task is very frustrating, it’s merely a matter of repeatedly dying and restarting until you reach to the next checkpoint. To their credit, Ubisoft included permadeath for playable characters in Watch Dogs: Legion.
Righteous death
Death has ramifications in Elden Ring. All of your runes and dead enemies are resurrected and transported back to the last Site of Lost Grace you visited if you die.
Runes may be retrieved by returning to the spot where you died, a mechanic that has appeared in prior FromSoftware games. This adds an element of uncertainty, as you must decide whether or not to return for more pain in exchange for your runes. If you die before you get to them, they’re gone for good.
However, the absence of map symbols makes me take extra attention when navigating throughout the planet, looking out for hidden treasures and locations of interest. Keep an eye on the mini-map as you go to an icon in a Ubisoft game. As a result, I lost out on a great deal of the care and attention to detail that the game’s creators placed into the setting.
Some of the design choices made by Elden Ring’s creators are puzzling to a novice like me. Even while I enjoy that it doesn’t give me a tonne of tutorials like a Ubisoft game would, it may be frustrating at times when there isn’t any guidance at all. For example, the game didn’t tell me how to access the map, so I had to search it out online. Making matters worse is the lack of information on how to improve your flasks and weapons in the early stages of the game.
While this anti-Ubisoft game by FromSoftware challenges my expectations and emphasises how formulaic Ubisoft titles have become, it’s still a fun game to play. If the corporation wants me to keep buying their games, I will probably play the next Assassin’s Creed or Far Cry, but I would like it if they did something different, as Elden Ring does. Source