"Shall I hold you?" asks the veiled woman in black.

A selfless offering in a cruel world where a little closeness never hurts.

You lay your helmeted head in her lap and forget the pain for a moment.

What nobody tells you: The hug costs five percent of the life energy, which can be deadly in the fight against the next tree guard.

Nothing is given for free in “Elden Ring”, and nothing is explained either.

Patrick Schlereth

Editor on duty at FAZ.NET.

  • Follow I follow

How do I activate the Dectus elevator?

Where can I get the double blade talisman?

And how do I defeat the Red Wolf of Radagon?

Google searches are full of tutorials for the new video game from the creators of Dark Souls.

No wonder, since the Japanese development studio From Software is known for confronting the players with such overpowering opponents that one is often tempted to throw the controller against the wall.

The "Soulslike" - a game in the vein of Dark Souls - has meanwhile become its own genre, which promises a dark atmosphere and a frustratingly high level of difficulty at the same time.

A "tainted" between life and death

The new Elden Ring is no exception.

It doesn't even bother explaining its own plot, you just get a glimpse here and there between numerous screen deaths.

It's not particularly complicated: the eponymous Elden Ring was destroyed, and its individual parts are owned by five powerful demigods.

The protagonist, a "tainted" between life and death, rides his ghostly steed through the intermediate lands to seek out and eliminate the demigods in their strongholds, put the ring back together and become the Elden Lord.

The first thing that springs to mind is Lord of the Rings, but the Elden Ring isn't a ring you put on your finger - it's more like a great circle that holds the world together at its core when it's not broken.

The intrigues of Game of Thrones are less thought of when playing, but series creator George RR Martin was involved with Elden Ring.

However, as he explains on his blog, it was less about the plot and more about the “world building”.

Also, the collaboration dates back years: "Video games are as big as movies are now (bigger).

.

.

and take just as long to develop.”

It's hard to imagine how long the development of such a gigantic game must have taken.

Elden Ring offers material for three games, at least.

For the first time, the creators of Dark Souls are going for a truly open game world with a huge world map that even the best scouts will have a hard time navigating.

The cryptic clues you get from other characters don't help you much either.

New enemy types, optional boss fights or strange items that you don't know what they are good for are waiting everywhere.

Conversely, when riding over hill and dale, it can easily happen that you miss an essential item.

The reviewer wondered for hours why he couldn't summon spirits like the pros do in the YouTube videos.

At some point he realized

When it finally worked with the professional necromancy, the game suddenly became a few difficulty levels easier.

If you are faced with an overpowering Obermotz, simply send out a couple of Ghost Wolves to distract you.

The giant thrashes them and they stab him in the back unnoticed.

Otherwise, it is important to meticulously memorize the movement patterns of strong opponents.

If you panic and dodge a moment too early, you lose, and the time window for attacking is tiny.

The overpowered enemies, massive game world, and cryptic storytelling make Elden Ring a game you can lock yourself in for days if you choose.

In any case, the developers understated the announced 30 hours of playing time for the main story.

Streamer and Youtuber Michael "Lobos Jr." Villalobos, one of the most well-known Souls players, claims to have struggled with a single optional boss fight for 14 hours.

In view of the lack of new blockbuster games in Corona times, the community seems to have been waiting for a time-fulfilling activity of this kind.

On the Metacritic rating platform, Elden Ring debuted as one of the highest rated games ever.

Nevertheless, a warning should be issued here: It is best not to start with Elden Ring at all, otherwise you will put your partnership to the test.

It's not for nothing that the player gets smeared on bread everywhere in between that he is "maidenless", i.e. "without a woman" or simply "virginal" - if you have to save the world, you have no time for tenderness.

Elden Ring

is available for PC, PS5, PS4 and Xbox, 49 to 68 euros.