I spent 20 hours in Elden Ring with the Wretch: Was it worth it?

I have spent an exact 23 hours in Elden Ring before its release, and to top it off, I started with the 'worst' class anyone could have started with — the Wretch.

And I must say, I am having a ball of a time playing the game.

Disclaimer 1; My copy of the game was provided by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Asia for Steam on the PC. This in no way affects my impressions of the game, and all thoughts are my own.

Disclaimer 2; I do not call myself a Souls veteran, but I have played and completed all three Dark Souls games, Bloodborne, Sekiro and both the versions of Demon Souls.

I play merely for the experience and story for my first playthrough, and I rarely dabble in the PvP aspect of the games.

So, starting with the Wretch made the most sense to me, because I wanted to figure out how to make my progression my own.

For those who are not familiar with the classes in Elden Ring, the Wretch starts the game at level 1, with an even distribution of 10 attribute points across all attributes.

Other classes start the game with higher levels, and have attribute points pumped specifically in certain attributes to define the playstyle of that character. They even start the game with weapons that compliment the character's way of playing the game.

I did not want to be locked into a certain playstyle, and I certainly did not want to have extra points in stats that I didn't need if I do choose to change my playstyle later in the game.

Like all Souls games, I am pretty sure the attribute respec ability will be available later as I progress, and choosing the Wretch will help me immensely with the conundrum of having extra stat points in attributes that I don't need for my playstyle.

Now, to answer the question, yes, choosing the Wretch was worth it.

20 hours in and I feel like I have only scratched the surface

No, I have not completed the game.

Not by a long shot. I merely cleared Stormville Castle, and that's all I am going to say about my progression because anymore elaboration will contain spoilers.

And believe me, this game should NEVER be spoilt if you want to enjoy the full glory of Elden Ring. There are so many discoverables in the overworld, and there were encounters that genuinely surprised me during my playthrough.

According to FromSoftware producer, Yasuhiro Kitao, Elden Ring can be finished in roughly 30 hours.

In my 20 hours playing the game, I cannot confirm nor deny the fact that you can do that, since I took my time with clearing the first open-world area, Limgrave.

But from my interactions clearing Stormville Castle, there is no chance in hell that you can speed run through the game in 30 hours, at least not on your first playthrough.

And even if you could do that, there is absolutely no point because the open world actually provides you with the weapons and items you need that will make your boss fights easier.

I'd say you could complete the game in 30 hours, minus the fact that you would probably be spending another 30 hours dying incessantly because you will be horribly under-leveled for later encounters.

Why the fuss over the PC Specs?

The minimum requirements for the game on PC stated on Steam are true, but also false.

Here's what is listed:

• Intel Core I5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 3 3300X

• 12 GB RAM

• Nvidia Geforce 1060 3 GB or AMD Radeon RX 580 4 GB

There was a big uproar online when the minimum requirements were revealed, because it looked like it required a good rig to run the game optimally. So I took it upon myself to also test it on the lowliest test rig I could build to see how true these minimum requirements were.

• Intel Core i3 8100

• 16 GB of RAM (more on why later)

• AMD Radeon RX 6500XT (this GPU is on par, and at times, even worse than the RX 580)

Here's what I found: the game would run ABSOLUTELY FINE at 1080p on these PC specs.

Sure, the game runs at a locked 60 fps, and will not run higher. I will have occasional stutters at maximum settings on this rig, but moving it to 'High' solved this issue.

I suspect that it may also be the game itself, as there were also occasional stutters in the same places while testing this game on a higher end rig with a Intel 12900K and a RTX 3080 Ti.

There are only two things that you would absolutely need to watch out for when running this game.

1) It absolutely eats 4GB of video memory unless you turn it down to 'High' settings at 1080p, but you can definitely play it at maximum if you are not running anything else.

2) This game is a memory hog. It doesn't boot with 8GB of memory installed, and will use up to 12-14GB of memory while the game is running, regardless of resolution.

So if you have a PC that is stronger than this potato of a rig, you will be fine running this game at 1080p.

Gameplay and Combat

Combat feels extremely familiar if you have played any of the previous Souls games.

If you are familiar with the beta, nothing much has changed gameplay-wise, except that the targeting system is much more responsive now.

That said, the auto-lock for the targeting system is still pretty janky though in my opinion, especially when you need to switch targets very quickly in battle, and I have died numerous times thanks to the auto-lock locking at an enemy that I do not want to target. I have since learnt that for big mobs of enemies, the free camera seems to be the best way for me to tackle them.

For the newcomers to the series, the game handholds the player much more than any previous Souls game.

They entice you to learn the ropes via a tutorial section, and there are a lot more tool tips appearing in game to guide the player for the many mechanics present in the game.

I would say this is the most beginner friendly Souls-like game out of all the titles.

Riding on Torrent (the mount you get in the game) also brings new ways to traverse the battlefield. While it takes a little getting used to, once you are acquainted with the horse riding controls, it is extremely easy to do combat while riding Torrent, and controls to do not feel janky at all.

Is it as difficult as Dark Souls?

Souls games have a very notorious reputation of being difficult.

This is because the game implements a few elements that require a lot of patience to execute, and timing attacks at the right time is also essential in staying alive while dealing damage to the enemies in the game.

FromSoftware also likes to put in sneaky little jump scares in the game that will throw the player off and make them lose focus.

Coupled with the high damage the enemies deal in the game, most players are automatically turned off by Souls-like games because of how many times you would die and get stuck in an area due to these mechanics.

The core of this is no different in Elden Ring. Enemies still deal a ton of damage if you get hit, but with the right spec and weapons this time around, you can also deal a lot of damage to your enemies.

In previous Souls games, the boss fights at lower levels will feel like a war of attrition. I'd have to study the boss' attack patterns, avoid their attacks, hit them once to deal some damage worthy of peanuts, and get out.

Rinse and repeat this strategy until the boss goes down. And I can tell you, it takes A LONG WHILE in the early game.

For Elden Ring, it really feels like I am doing enough damage to the enemies and bosses according to my level.

The Open World is really open

The biggest feature compared to the previous Souls games is the introduction to a truly open world.

Sekiro has a semi-open world feeling thanks to its multi-level level design, but Elden Ring takes it to a whole new level (pun intended).

You can truly go anywhere you like, explore any place, and there are always things to discover. This is how I have accumulated 20 hours in Elden Ring without progressing past the first big boss of the game.

Every time I thought that I have fully explored an area, I notice something else in the distance that catches my eye, and my exploration senses gets fired up again.

Coupled with the fact that I have had encounters that were not present in the beta, this made me feel extra exploratory on what else that could have been added to the game.

It also doesn't help that some events only trigger during specific times during the day cycle, so you end up re-exploring the same area to see if there are any new changes or new enemies during different times of the day.

There are so many things to do in the world that rushing the main storyline just to complete the game feels like a disservice to the effort that FromSoftware has put in into the game.

Was it worth it?

Again, yes. The time spent on the game is definitely worth it.

I haven't has this much fun in a Souls-like game before. I would also gladly pay for the game as well if I didn't get a review copy.

The mechanics are smooth (except the auto targeting system), the visuals are stunning (even on the potato rig I built), and there is just so much to do in the game.

The fact that the pre-release copy on the PC didn't have much bugs is extremely amazing.

This might change when the live version is released, but I am keeping my hopes up that fans and newcomers to the series will get to experience the effort put into the game without any hiccups. FromSoftware really knocked the ball out of the park with this one.

Elden Ring will be released on the 25 February 2022.

Dominic loves tech and games. When he is not busy getting headshotted in VALORANT or watercooling anything he sees, he does some pro wrestling.

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