Test report for the Elden Ring: Undead people can jump, but their soul odor still persists

Since the release of the first trailer two and a half years ago, the name "Alden Ring" has been lingering in the minds of players around the world. In the past two years, the game has not released any new videos to satisfy people's cravings, only the language revealed by Hideo Miyazaki in an interview, just like the soul series games he previously led the team to produce, which is ambiguous and fascinating.

It wasn't until E3 this year that From Software finally released the actual game trailer, showcasing some NPCs and enemies that will appear in the game, and slightly revealing some new actions, maps, and so on, that we truly felt that "this game is real, not fantasy.".

Although the Alden Ring, originally a must-have pastime for most players during the Spring Festival holiday, has been postponed to the end of February next year for release, fortunately this month players finally have an opportunity to explore and play on their own. At the invitation of Bandai Nanmeng Palace, we had a complete experience of the vast majority of the online testing of Elden Ring one week in advance. Before the comprehensive testing begins, let's take a look at this article to have a preliminary expectation of the game.

This article is a media preview report based on the PS5 version (version 1.000.000). The online beta version of Alden Ring is provided by Bandai Namco, and the descriptions and viewpoints contained in the report only represent the author's subjective opinions. The actual gaming experience varies from person to person.

A map that stimulates the desire to explore

The story of Alden Ring takes place in an area called "Borderlands". According to previous official accounts, the game consists of six major areas, each with a demigod as the lord. The beta version of the map is called "Ningmugefu", and the player's goal is to go to the castle in the north, "Cliff City · Stomwell". The demigod living here is the latest challenge in the demonstration, Boss "Splinter Grick". However, this beta version only provides a portion of the map for exploration of "Ningmugfu West", and the castle only has a play time of about ten minutes, so we cannot challenge Greg at the moment.

Let's talk about the beta map first.

Unlike previous Soul series and Wolf Shadow Twice, players can directly view the map in Alden Ring. As long as players have spoken to NPCs, interacted with blessings (equivalent to a bonfire in the Soul series), or come to certain specific locations, they will leave marks on the map. Players can open the map to teleport to most blessing points at any time in non combat mode, which is much more convenient than Soul series works.

If it is the first time coming to a new area, the map will be blank, but any blessings, NPCs, and other things discovered will be directly labeled. To make the map complete, you need to find a signpost at a specific location and obtain map fragments in order to refresh the map of this area. In the test, you can find the map fragment "Ningmugfu West" and use it.

Although it is only the western part of Ningmugfu, it contains a very rich internal capacity. Due to the adoption of an open world format in this game, players can freely explore every corner of the map, except for the water area, as the faders cannot swim... The test version of the map is roughly composed of three parts. Firstly, there is a vast wilderness, which is a very traditional open map. The map is arranged with various strongholds, dungeons, and other areas of exploration value. In some specific areas, a "bird's-eye view mirror" will appear, allowing players to observe the surrounding terrain, enemy distribution, and so on from a high place.

The open map is also composed of different ecological environments, with indescribable tentacle monsters appearing on the beach, fierce grizzlies in the forest, and giant crabs by the lake being objects that cannot be easily provoked. In response to these environments, the game also adds a variety of (neutral) creatures, and during testing, a large number of animals such as birds, deer, turtles, and wild boars can be seen. They generally do not actively provoke players, and killing them can obtain materials for prop making. At the same time, there will be plants that can be harvested on the map, which can also be used to make consumption items.

Props can be made directly, which can be considered an evolution. Props in the Soul series either rely on buying or brushing. There is not much to say about operations such as chopping mice in the first generation sewer and brushing human nature, and even ordinary props like the Flame Pot are sometimes not enough. The Alden Ring slightly simplifies the steps of brushing props. Many props, such as the fire pot, which can be used to attack, improve the character's ability, or give special effects to weapons, can be made from materials. As long as you buy them from a merchant or get the corresponding drawings when you explore the map, you can make them anywhere at any time. Of course, if you really want to brush, the materials themselves may need to be painted repeatedly. For example, lightning flowers that grow when lightning strikes the grass, or rare materials such as water lilies that are rare at the edge of the cliff, you need to spend some time to find them.

The day and night in the border area have obvious changes in weather, with time divided into morning, afternoon, and evening. In blessings, one can choose the departure time; I have noticed several types of weather currently, including rain, dense fog, and blizzard. Time has a certain impact on the distribution of enemies and the appearance of NPCs. Enemies patrolling during the day will return to nearby bonfires to rest at night, making them more prone to sneak attacks; At night, near the bridge in front of the fortress, you can encounter a sub human NPC who has been transformed into a shrub by magic; At night, powerful knights resembling the Ring Spirit in Lord of the Rings will appear on the map, and perhaps these are not the entirety of the testing content.

morning

afternoon

In addition to wandering special enemies and encounter battles, there are also various strongholds and camps. When exploring a large map, you often encounter the second part of the map - the dungeon.

Dungeons are mostly distributed at the bottom of rock walls, and currently encounter three types of dungeons: tunnels, cemeteries, and caves. As long as you pass through the entrance of the dungeon, their positions will be marked on the map. The starting point of the dungeon will have a blessing that allows players to adjust their equipment. At present, the dungeons I have encountered are all very small in scale, and there are no complex designs that require players to repeatedly explore and find shortcuts. Basically, they are just going all the way to the end, or interacting with mechanisms deep inside to open the entrance door near the entrance. However, some caves are too dark, and players must buy torches to explore them properly. In the depths of the dungeon, there will be special rewards, such as accessories, combat skills, and other equipment items. Sometimes, treasure chests are placed directly for people to open, while others will show bosses. Defeating them will earn rewards. In the beta version, I encountered four dungeon bosses.

The third part is the castle that must pass through in the main storyline, and in the beta version, it is the "Cliff City Stomwell".

When players first leave the drifting cemetery and arrive at Ningmugefu, they will see the NPC "White Mask Van Ray" in front of them. He will disdain the player who is a Fader while telling the player the main storyline content - follow the guidance of the Golden Radiance on the Blessing and head to Stormwell, so that the player can ignore all other map content and come to the Blessing in front of the Storm level in one breath. He will converse with NPC Melina, who is equivalent in nature to the previous Firewoman games, to obtain the item "Spirit Horse Whistle" to summon the Spirit Horse Torret, ride through the level fortress, defeat the main line boss, and arrive at the entrance of Stormwell City.

The NPC "Gatekeeper Getok" at the entrance of the castle suggested that I take the left side path, as there are fewer enemies and it is easy to sneak into the city. If I take the main gate, it will be a dead end. Players can choose between two paths. Entering the castle on the path gives a slightly more complex map like the Soul series, but unfortunately, they didn't walk much before reaching the end of the testing content; If you enter the main entrance, you will face a massive number of enemy soldiers and high damage crossbow vehicle attacks. However, the map of the main road is vast, without the darkness and narrowness of the small path. However, it will soon be blocked by the test version's mandatory placement of blocking stakes, making it impossible to explore further.

Trail

Main Gate

In fact, from the latest demonstration, it can be seen that using the terrain and newly added jumping ability, players can strategically choose multiple routes to explore. The demonstration shows jumping to a high exterior wall, entering from the outside of the window, and observing the movements of enemies on the platform below from a high position.

Screenshot of demonstration

It is a slight regret that the beta version cannot experience more content about exploring castles along multiple routes. The castle type map should maintain the complex and exquisite map design of the Soul series, layered up and down, surrounded and connected to find shortcuts, giving people a refreshing and refreshing feeling. Before entering the castle, I saw that there seemed to be a way to enter the northeast direction of the city wall, but it was blocked by the test version of the air wall. Looking at the map, I could also see that there were gaps in the city wall. Perhaps there were more than just two options to enter Stomwell: the path and the main entrance.

There is no need to worry about the quality of the soul flavor map in the three parts of the map. Players are more concerned about whether the open world will bring familiar "canned flavors", which will stimulate exploration desire and make it difficult to grasp the degree between a large number of boring question marks. From the current content provided, it seems that there is not yet a situation of getting tired and annoyed from running maps. The content distribution of Ningmugefu has guaranteed quality, but the experience content is limited, and I dare not make a hasty judgment - whether the official version of Ningmugefu's added east, south, and north regions, as well as the remaining five large maps, can still maintain this level is hard to say, but I am very optimistic about the design strength of From Software. From the test version, it can be seen that they may have learned the open map design of Zelda's Legend of the Wilderness Breath.

The distribution of map content in the Alden Ring is relatively uniform, and the sense of exploration is enhanced through the setting of distant visual content. For example, when you come to a steep rock wall and look down, you can see a small enemy stronghold several hundred meters away. Mark it on the map and it will always be highlighted in the picture. On the way to this stronghold, it is very likely to see a patrol giant carrying a giant sword nearby, or a slave giant pulling a truck forward, and sometimes even a powerful boss suddenly appearing, allowing players to continuously discover new things and ensure a continuous desire to explore, but without placing a large number of highly repetitive things, making players tired of collecting.

It's hard to say if this immersive sense of exploration will create a sense of immersion, as if seen in some open world games before. However, "The Elder Ring" did successfully arouse my desire to wander on large maps, and with the fact that I can still ride a horse to explore this time, running maps is not a tiring thing. During the game, I often feel the familiar and delicious taste, which is great.

Next page: Flexible Soul Flavor Battle