40 hour review of Alden Ring: 10%; Feeling uncomfortable;, It's also very top-notch

A week after the release of Alden Ring, the clamor on social media gradually subsided in the first few days, revealing deeper and more authentic feelings below: confusion over the vast open world, frustration over repeated defeats, confusion over whether what others are playing is the same game as what I am playing, and the subtle and tangled pleasure of repeating the above process.

My feelings for over 40 hours are mostly the same. The world of Alden Ring is undoubtedly immersive, inheriting the essence of the soul series's previous life hanging battle experience and map construction, making it a masterpiece. The global media average score of the game reached 97 points (PS5 version), which is the highest overall rating among From Software works to date. Steam player reviews have also reached positive reviews after several updates (80% of reviews over 130000).

Although my experience has experienced several ups and downs as I progress through the game, like riding a roller coaster, at this moment, my mood is still mostly excited. After defeating three of the six main kings and arriving at the city to advance the final storyline, the largest golden tree on the map was overhead, and the throne of the King of Alden was also within reach, although it was unclear how many ominous omens were separated and how many endings awaited me.

Due to work reasons, I have intentionally or unintentionally given up the right not to be spoilered. The approaching deadline has also made those seemingly mundane gaming experiences invaluable. However, this has given me more opportunities to think and exchange views on games with some friends. I would like to take this opportunity to share with you my gaming experience and my views on soul questioning such as "where is the fun of this game?".

Soul style open world

My first ten hours of gaming were relatively comfortable, just like the last 6-hour early experience, mainly focused on Ningmugfu (plain), with a slight foot in Lienia (lake area). Due to ample initial time, my exploration of the plain was carpet like, opening more than 40 blessings, breaking through all sizes of maze sealed dungeons, and killing all bosses.

After its official release, my focus on Alden Ring further shifted from the initial map scale to its structure. It goes without saying that the classic depth design of the series can still be seen everywhere, from Stonewall in the early stages of the game, the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, to the Royal City of Rhodes in the middle and later stages. The shadow of the soul series's large castle can be seen everywhere, with a large number of elevators and passages connecting the internal structure of a hundred twists and turns. The use of jumping can further expand the freedom of exploration within the maze, and the game also encourages players to jump more and discover more paths to reach the target from the walls and eaves.

There are deep mazes, and of course, falling is also essential. Jumping off buildings, cliffs, and pits are all available. Although the height determination for the fall this time has been much looser than in the past, most of the time only reducing energy rather than physical strength (even if it exceeds a certain height, it will still result in falling to death), there are still many thrilling fall scenes that are enough to evoke memories of players being afraid of heights in the past. However, these types of falling scenes often come with substantial profits, which may be treasure chests or hidden bosses, shortcuts, or even roads leading to another maze.

Internally at Stomwell

What surprised me was not only the interior of the large maze, but also the several main areas on the open map, including the initial plains, lake areas, and later volcanic areas and plateaus, all have a very clear sense of hierarchy. They are divided into two levels based on the height difference, and if we calculate the underground part, it is three levels.

The upper area of a large map is generally relatively flat and has a wide field of view, but it is impossible to observe areas below the horizontal line without climbing high or using a bird's-eye view mirror. The upper level can usually directly observe several main exploration targets in the area, such as Stoneville, the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Divine Tower in each area, and some medium-sized fortresses, which serve as reference points for exploring open maps in addition to guiding the main direction.

The lower level generally has a lower terrain, and the terrain is different from the upper level. There are more valleys, abyss, and dense forests, and coastal areas can be seen as well as small islands far from the mainland. Many caves and small mazes are also distributed in the lower levels, where there are more opportunities to encounter sub humans or alien monsters, and battles are more "underworld" than in the upper levels.

The ancestral design of the series, which reduces the field of view, was commonly seen in various forests and underground cemeteries in the past. Although there are not many successful cases (the design of the first generation giant cemetery was too extreme and difficult to use as a standard), I personally prefer a terrain with a full atmosphere. A part of the lake area adopts this design, and the middle swamp area is shrouded in thick fog. If you don't refer to the distant magic academy or move along the cliffs on both sides, it is easy to get lost. Even on both sides of the cliffs, it is still difficult to clearly observe the situation inside the swamp. To explore, you must go deep into the fog, with low visibility and sinister enemy configurations, which will be a headache for carpet style map players.

Below, there is also an underground world with a completely different appearance from the ground, which was my biggest surprise during my exploration of the big map. The underground world has a large map that is independent of the surface, and its scale cannot be overstated. At least 6 underground mazes have been discovered by netizens so far, and I have only explored two of them, the Hifra River in the plain area and the Ansel River in the lake area.

The name is River, but it is actually two underground mazes. Because the way of arrival is relatively fixed, they are not connected to each other and are closer to independent "dungeons" in nature. Although the scale of the two underground mazes is not huge, the unique terrain and visual style of the caves still make people admire the imagination and artistic design ability of the development team.

Underground World Hifra River

Returning to the topic of structure. The maps that players used to love to talk about in the Soul series mainly emphasized the deep box courtyard maze, connecting these mazes through channels and forks to form a group of layered large three-dimensional spaces. Guided by keys, one-way doors, and gatekeepers, they created a sense of exploration with twists and turns. The first generation of Soul of Darkness represented this design concept, which included the undead town upper and lower levels, disease villages, demon ruins, and chaotic wasteland.

In the past, most of the mazes in the Soul series were closed and connected in a relatively linear manner, making it easier for players to control their exploration rhythm and even emotional fluctuations. However, due to the limitations of development scale and production costs, there are also situations where the design level varies. Some mazes have a structure that can be considered pinnacle, classic like the first generation of sick villages, while others appear too rudimentary, such as demon ruins and chaotic wastelands connected to sick villages.

In the past, this layered three-dimensional space composed of complex enclosed mazes was not commonly seen in the open map of the Alden Ring. Instead, one or two exploratory areas with similar scale and design level to previous large mazes were placed in an open area. Mazes with relatively simple structures or connecting functions were now dispersed and diluted into the large map, becoming large buildings such as the City of Morn and the Tower of the Gods, as well as a larger number of small dungeons.

In order to give the large map of Alden Ring a sense of exploration similar to the past soul series maze group to a certain extent, the development team has also put some effort into combining the characteristics of the open world. The game will use the height difference and line of sight to guide players, such as allowing players to observe the southernmost castle on the map at a high point on the upper level of the plain, and during the exploration of the lower level, find map fragments to further confirm their position and ultimately head to that area.

Plains Landmark Stoneville and Divine Tower

Players can gaze at the final area of the map of Ningmugefu, Stomwell City, from their place of birth, and move forward with this goal. After arriving at Stomwell, they can also look back at the place where they set off. Examples of this "soul like" peak turn are ubiquitous in the game. Some areas initially give the impression of constantly climbing upwards, but as exploration deepens, they guide players to gradually fall and eventually return to the starting point in different ways, forming a complete exploration loop.

Previous works in the series have also been adept at using forks to connect different areas, and this type of design has also been reproduced in a certain form in the open map of the Alden Ring. For example, under normal circumstances, players need to find two runes according to the NPC's prompts in order to reach the Yatan Plateau where the King City is located through the large elevator. But you can also skip Stomwell and head straight to the lake area, all the way up from the deepest mountains, and enter the plateau through a mining tunnel. The two routes involve different regions and require a certain degree of exploration, but they ultimately lead to the same goal. This is also the specific presentation of the soul style open map in the game. These contents are combined to form the open world of the Alden Ring with a soul series exploration feeling.

Correct opening method

I am not an open world gaming enthusiast, but the open map of Alden Ring left a good impression on me.

On the one hand, the game is more restrained in presenting large maps and does not immediately tell me that the world is big and I am small, which is my preferred style. At the beginning of the game, even if the map scale is filled up, only the situation near the player's current area can be seen. However, as the exploration range expands and map fragments are collected, the visible range of the map gradually expands outward, and it cannot be fully displayed on the full screen.

In the process of measuring the world with my feet, the scale of the map repeatedly refreshed my cognition, which made me feel more than once. It was not only because of its size, but also because I was surprised that I had unknowingly climbed over countless mountains and rivers.

On the other hand, the guidance for the open map of Alden Ring is very limited. Even after obtaining map fragments, only the terrain and some large landmarks are displayed. Other locations ranging from castles to villages are only marked after the player arrives personally, so it is myself who truly fills the entire map. For players who are accustomed to exploring on their own, this design retains a certain sense of mystery and increases the satisfaction of unlocking the map. I even plan to explore each area on the big map one by one, collecting all the gold tree seeds, Holy Grail drops, combat skills, ashes, and those unique weapons that I can find, which also leads to a slow initial progress for me.

In order to complete the evaluation as soon as possible, I decided to speed up and abandon some areas that were not fully explored, including several fortresses, cemeteries, and two divine towers in the Gallid and Lake areas (which later led me to miss out on many important storylines), and head straight to various map bosses to advance the Golden Tree related plot in the final area. However, two issues that I had not previously paid attention to also emerged and became increasingly serious in the following hours.

Firstly, there is the game guide. Players often have different attitudes when opening a game. There are sightseeing enthusiasts or photographers, OCD players who like question marks, and players who hope to experience the plot or are accustomed to following the guide to explore. Open world games have a natural lack of coordination when dealing with these different needs. Strong guidance can have the opposite effect, while weak guidance can be confusing. Players almost inevitably go fishing, cooking, helping others run errands, or stubbornly hitting someone passing by halfway through saving the world

or seeking a hug

The Alden Ring provides ways for players to discover clues that advance the story, such as blessed light, high-altitude observation, dialogue with NPCs, and checking prop descriptions. However, these forms generally only provide a rough direction, and their guiding effect is very limited. If it is not a carpet style exploration, it is very likely to miss a lot of unmarked content on the map, and it is also easy to fall into a philosophical state of "who I am, where I am, what I want to do". In addition, some smaller locations, such as merchants, portals, mini dungeons, etc., will not be displayed on the map even if found, and can only be manually marked by oneself.

The method of using glowing items to guide players in closed levels of the previous Soul series has become less effective in larger and more diverse open maps. Players may indeed notice some kind of guidance, but when and how they will arrive, and even whether they will reach the event points designed by developers, there are too many variables involved, which is a common challenge in open world game guidance.

So after starting to advance the main storyline, the design of hiding the full map also became my nightmare. Sometimes I collide everywhere like a headless fly, and in order to avoid jumping over and running wildly, this game has also designed many enemies with incredible movement speed and attack distance, such as Gaillard's dog headed monster and crow, the "crayfish" in the lake area, and the ancestors of the underground world who can launch ultra long range high-precision guided arrows. I have even died in the hands of these enemies more than some bosses.

Lake Area Specialty Crayfish (Image from Network)

After finding my way, I began to fall into the problem of insufficient character strength again, struggling in large mazes, especially in the areas where the magic masters were clustered in the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. My mentally disabled were almost helpless in close combat, and the cost of clearing monsters one by one was huge. I was also repeatedly tracked by high-performance soul arrows, leading to doubts about life.

In order not to drive myself crazy, I decided to stop to take a breath and find a friend roast. Relying on the recommended leveling location by my friend, I upgraded to level 10 in half an hour and started to check out the gaming experience shared by more players. I was surprised to find that although there was no complete video recording of the process at that time, there were already a large number of players sharing powerful weapons, magic, combat skills, and ways to obtain ashes, some of which were strong enough to overturn the difficulty of the battle in the early and middle stages.

Due to the fact that players can almost move between blessings anytime and anywhere in Alden Ring, coupled with a spirit horse that can run and jump, which is very suitable for running, the player's range of action is no longer limited by the campfire as in the past, so they can obtain weapons or skills in the early, middle, and later stages. Although similar situations have occurred in previous works, this process is undoubtedly greatly accelerated in this game. This is also another manifestation of the combination of open maps and soul series design, including Faye's "Infinite Blue Ray Cannon", various combat power explosive ashes and souls, and even "Horse Battle" on large maps, where more and more new "skipping classes" techniques are being discovered by players.

I also adjusted my goals again and returned to exploring the big map, starting to collect while leveling up. I clicked on my intelligence, found a good staff, and collected stronger ashes and talismans. After making sufficient preparations, I returned to the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to avenge myself with one arrow. After defeating the Full Moon Queen, I washed up and reopened, and then went to Red Lion City to gather a group of heroes to challenge the Broken Star King side by side. These two bosses have completely different mechanisms, but both the combat and performance effects are above the standard. After the fierce confrontation between them, in addition to the joy of victory and visual shock, it also once again aroused my desire to explore the world of Alden's Ring.

Full Moon Queen

After mastering the correct way to open the game, I gradually regained my rhythm. I even tried two paths to reach the plateau where the King City is located, just to experience more details of the game. When I stepped out of the large elevator and stepped onto the Altar Plateau, behind me was a faint plain and lake area visible under the clouds. In front of me was the largest and most complex maze city in the entire game, Roder. At this moment, I was even grateful that I had pushed the map level before and did not face this situation with the state at that time, because it would inevitably lead to missing out on many carefully designed content in the game, which may be a greater loss than abandoning the pit.

It was also at this time that I remembered how precious the first ten hours of leisurely exploration were, and I realized that to better experience the fun of the game Alden Ring, not only patience but also finding the way and rhythm that suits oneself.

Where is the fun of Alden Ring

After the review and release, I spent nearly 10 hours of my 40 hour game time in chaos because blindly pursuing quantitative goals disrupted my rhythm, had no gaming experience, and devastated my body and mind. It can be considered a model of mistakenly opening this game. After communicating with more friends, I found that there are many people who have similar experiences with me, so in the end, I would like to talk about my feelings about playing the game Alden Ring.

Before and after its release, "Elden's Ring" really made a splash on social media, appearing on hot searches twice. On the day of its release, it briefly broke into the top 20 and appeared particularly eye-catching in current affairs news. On the same day, there was even a hot word "what is an old man's ring" on the list. In my impression, there are very few consoles and single player games that have received such attention.

But doubts followed closely afterwards. More than one of my friends asked me after playing the game, where is the fun of this game? None of them are purely console game newbies. Some have passed "Only Wolf", while others have completed previous works in the Soul series. The difference between them and my impression of a 2-hour refund player is too great, which also prompts me to rethink this question. Where is the fun of "Elden's Ring"?

The development of the Soul series has always been a continuous improvement in battles and maps, and it has undergone countless trials and tribulations to have the undeniable influence in this category today. The attempt to integrate open world maps in Alden Ring is an innovation by Hideo Miyazaki and From Software in moving towards mainstream RPG game modes. The new map interaction mechanism and improvements to the action system are commendable. But from the perspective of series players, innovation may also mean changes and new learning costs. Often, changing a game mechanism is more uncomfortable than increasing the difficulty of the game.

I spent some time exploring the practicality of the new actions of jumping and squatting in battles myself. These two actions already exist in Wolf Only, but they are brand new for players in the Soul series. In fact, "Wolf" and "Alden Ring" were almost developed in parallel, and the team likely initially planned to incorporate this mechanism into both games. The difference lies in the fact that there is a clear indication in "Wolf Only" about the timing of jumping to avoid enemy attacks and then counterattacking, which is essentially a set of QTE designs.

The Alden Ring does not have such prompts. It is necessary to observe the enemy's moves during the battle, determine when to use these two actions, and then verify them in the game. After repeated trial and error, add them to the actual combat strategy. The rewards are still obvious. Jumping can be used to avoid strong ground shaking or sweeping from some enemies, and combined with heavy hits, it can effectively sharpen and quickly empty enemy stance slots (which are also invisible). When dealing with some of the Luen Bear's extremely short forward swing moves, squatting forward has a miraculous effect.

In fact, the above process is a norm in the game for many players who prefer melee weapons. My level is far lower than that of a master, but I still found joy in this set of observation, response, trial and error processes, and after success, I gained enough satisfaction, which became my motivation to continue challenging.

: Persuade the person in charge of Big Tree Guard at the beginning of this game (as shown in the picture from the network)

I have also tried to give various suggestions to friends who have encountered setbacks in the early stages of the game and have developed a sense of retreat as a result. Don't be confrontational, don't act rashly, don't face two or even more enemies at the same time, and so on. I hope they can find joy in exciting battles like me, but ultimately fail. At first, this made me feel regretful, but later I realized that this combat style was just my pleasure. I wasn't sure what kind of fun he wanted from the game, so I suggested that he switch to a ranged profession, which might be more constructive.

So, where games are fun is essentially a question of what kind of fun to pursue.

Alden Ring is an open world game with combat as its core, and the ultimate goal of exploration is to continuously verify the most effective combat construction for oneself in real combat. The open map to some extent accelerates this verification process and makes it more free. Even if you don't challenge difficult large mazes, you can still find opportunities to become stronger in large maps, small dungeons, and sealed dungeons. By finding this opportunity, you have the opportunity to experience the joy of battle.

The Alden Ring also inherits the highly imaginative and unique artistic style of the Soul series, making it an iconic feature of the series alongside combat systems and map design. The terrain and architectural wonders of several large maps in the early stages of the game are already eye opening, while the royal city, underground, and sky world in the middle and later stages will definitely be stunning. For players who enjoy this type of artistic style, the joy of discovering and exploring these wonders is self-evident.

Soul experts can also find unique fun in the Alden Ring, in addition to the series of ancestral environmental narratives and massive prop texts, they can also uncover the truth behind the Golden Tree and Ring through NPC storytelling. The myth written by George Martin serves as a background board, depicting the love, hate, and enmity between demigods, showcasing the emotional entanglements that were rarely involved in the Soul series in the past, and the stories related to it also have a unique flavor.

I believe that players who can enjoy any of the above will find the motivation to continue the game, and liking all three is triple the fun. Of course, if you can't beat it, there's no need to force yourself. Watching your favorite broadcaster play is also a good choice. Find your own fun and experience the game in your own way, which is also my advice for all players who have already or are planning to enter the world of Alden Ring.