Elden Ring Is the Best RPG of 2022 So Far - But the Achievements Tell a Different Story | MMORPG.com

System · March 2022

Elden Ring Is the Best RPG of 2022 So Far - But the Achievements Tell a Different Story | MMORPG.com

Elden Ring has mostly consumed the majority of my gameplaying time since it released in late February of this year. The fascination for the game took me utterly by surprise, especially after I spent several hours with the closed network test in November, and left feeling hopeful, but mostly unimpressed. Now that I've finished the game several times over, one thing still has me curious. If Elden Ring is so popular, why are there so few players earning the most basic achievements?

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skurk81 · March 2022

I've played for maybe 30 hours and have neither left Limgrave nor killed Margit yet. Everything in their own time.

I have finished all 3 Dark Souls games and a bunch of other souls like games, so it's not the difficulty. It's just me getting side tracked for hours.

Blowfeld81 · March 2022

With about 30 hours in I also have cleared all of Limgrave and the Peninsula, now clearing the castle.

I am taking my time, no need to rush through the game in a first playthrough. Nor do I want to use guides on how to get stuff. First run is vanilla discovery mode.

Given that the game is only out for about 2 weeks, I guess a lot of players with a job and life will not have made it much further, either.

Scot · March 2022

There is a hunger for difficulty that the soul like games prove gamers want. But equally not anything too difficult, that contradiction is demonstrated by the fact gamers are only doing what they need to do, the desire for difficulty is matched by the need for speed.

That said this is a world away from the hand held "journeys" where you ding a level every time you bump into a mob. Or the games which are really just stories masquerading as games and that comes from a gamer who advocates more story in games all the time. We still need actual gameplay not just a visual novel and more difficult gameplay at that.

So there is room for games which are harder but will there ever be room for a proper MMORPG that is harder? I really don't know but keep my fingers crossed.

Aeander · March 2022

Scot said:

There is a hunger for difficulty that the soul like games prove gamers want. But equally not anything too difficult, that contradiction is demonstrated by the fact gamers are only doing what they need to do, the desire for difficulty is nearly matched by the need for speed.

That said this is a world away from the hand held "journeys" where you ding a level every time you bump into a mob. Or the games which are really just stories masquerading as games and that comes from a gamer who advocates more story in games all the time, we still need gameplay and more difficult gameplay at that.

Some gamers have a hunger for difficulty. Some don't, and I'm very much in that crowd. I really don't care for hardcore gamers and youtubers projecting these things onto the gaming public. There are many motivations for wanting to play games, and challenge is just one of those.

I think the market is healthier for having games like Elden Ring, but I'd also prefer that this sort of game design remain just one substantial niche in a diverse market. I can't think of a single franchise I'd less like to see influence the games I care about.

Theocritus · March 2022

Scot said:

There is a hunger for difficulty that the soul like games prove gamers want. But equally not anything too difficult, that contradiction is demonstrated by the fact gamers are only doing what they need to do, the desire for difficulty is matched by the need for speed.

That said this is a world away from the hand held "journeys" where you ding a level every time you bump into a mob. Or the games which are really just stories masquerading as games and that comes from a gamer who advocates more story in games all the time. We still need actual gameplay not just a visual novel and more difficult gameplay at that.

So there is room for games which are harder but will there ever be room for a proper MMORPG that is harder? I really don't know but keep my fingers crossed.

Most gamers take the path of least resistance

Scot · March 2022

Theocritus said:

Scot said:

There is a hunger for difficulty that the soul like games prove gamers want. But equally not anything too difficult, that contradiction is demonstrated by the fact gamers are only doing what they need to do, the desire for difficulty is matched by the need for speed.

That said this is a world away from the hand held "journeys" where you ding a level every time you bump into a mob. Or the games which are really just stories masquerading as games and that comes from a gamer who advocates more story in games all the time. We still need actual gameplay not just a visual novel and more difficult gameplay at that.

So there is room for games which are harder but will there ever be room for a proper MMORPG that is harder? I really don't know but keep my fingers crossed.

Most gamers take the path of least resistance

Including hardcore gamers, that's almost a universal truth. You may train and grind more but you look for the short cuts.

skurk81 · March 2022

Blowfeld81 said:

Given that the game is only out for about 2 weeks, I guess a lot of players with a job and life will not have made it much further, either.

It's not that I have a life, it's just that I have several other no life things to do.

Scot · March 2022

Aeander said:

Scot said:

There is a hunger for difficulty that the soul like games prove gamers want. But equally not anything too difficult, that contradiction is demonstrated by the fact gamers are only doing what they need to do, the desire for difficulty is nearly matched by the need for speed.

That said this is a world away from the hand held "journeys" where you ding a level every time you bump into a mob. Or the games which are really just stories masquerading as games and that comes from a gamer who advocates more story in games all the time, we still need gameplay and more difficult gameplay at that.

Some gamers have a hunger for difficulty. Some don't, and I'm very much in that crowd. I really don't care for hardcore gamers and youtubers projecting these things onto the gaming public. There are many motivations for wanting to play games, and challenge is just one of those.

I think the market is healthier for having games like Elden Ring, but I'd also prefer that this sort of game design remain just one substantial niche in a diverse market. I can't think of a single franchise I'd less like to see influence the games I care about.

I agree, no way would I want souls like to be the default way games are made. But the thing is most gamers seem to expect games to only be made the way they like. That's why it took souls like games so long to emerge even though we had been talking about the direction of "ever easier" for nearly two decades.

ashiru_1978 · March 2022

I don't like Souls games, I tried to play it as an Open World RPG and it felt lacking - the world felt barren, samey, boring and there weren't enough NPCs or things to interact with outside of combat and loot.

I won't even talk about how bad the UI is on mouse and keyboard. I had to watch videos to learn how to equip and unequip stuff. I've been playing RPGs for about 15 years and this is the first time I'm faced with such a poorly designed UI, in fact a lot of newer games suffer from bad UI where it makes it harder on the player to navigate through the game, adding a new layer of difficulty.

sabrefoxx · March 2022

"Elden Ring Is the Best RPG of 2022 So Far"

StarField says: "Hold my chips."

Slapshot1188 · March 2022

I wouldn't put much stock in the accuracy of Steam achievements. Pretty much every game I play has them pop up with wrong info.

eoloe · March 2022

sabrefoxx said:

"Elden Ring Is the Best RPG of 2022 So Far"

StarField says: "Hold my chips."

Starfield has an official release date of 11/11/22, so it will available 05/11/23 ;p

BrotherMaynard · March 2022

Slapshot1188 said:

I wouldn't put much stock in the accuracy of Steam achievements. Pretty much every game I play has them pop up with wrong info.

Exactly. Some Steam games have their achievements all messed up. For example, I've been playing Warframe for years (pretty much since its 2013 "beta") and have reached MR 29 and done pretty much all the content (except Conclave). Yet Steam is telling me that I have done all this without levelling up a single weapon to level 10 or that in my entire WF career I have collected 20 mods (I sell more than that every day). It even tells me I have yet to obtain my second warframe (but then I guess getting to MR29 with a single warframe would be a true achievement).

Image: https://i.postimg.cc/Ssf9LDxh/WF.png

In this picture, Steam is telling me I have not yet reached the lowly rank of initiate, while also being a Middle Master. Makes sense, right?

Steam achievements should be taken with a bucketful of salt, especially for some games where they are completely broken.

Machkeznho · March 2022

crap console port, no 21:9 support, crap mouse/kb integration doesn't matter how good the game is mechanically a game is only as good as the companies dedication to the platforms its releasing on and clearly PC was an afterthought.

olepi · March 2022

I'm trying to enjoy the game, but as a PC player with mouse and keyboard, I have to say that the UI is the least intuitive and most f'd up I've ever seen. That alone makes the game very hard to play.

eoloe · March 2022

Elden Ring is my current favorite game, and I am mostly FromSoftware virgin too.

It is true that I own DS3, but the very first boss at the very beginning killed most of my will to continue. Yes I killed it several times, just to be killed just after by a regular NPC !!! Yes I reached the hub with the gothic blind lady and basically stopped here. Had something more fun to do!

The strength of Elden Ring is its open world. I got my ass handed to me? F U ! I'll be back! Take zaaaaaat you stupid rolling sheeeeeeeeeeep!

I am scared, there are easily half of dozen of these crazy looking harpies in this courtyard.... No way I can fight through them. Let's just stealth around he he!...
... for runes, i ll just farm the giants on horseback! I love horseback fighting.

Margit the Fell Omen one shot me

(may be two shot me)

But I killed Leonine Misbegotten thanks to my spirits. *pumping points in strength*.

Margit, I'll be back, I'll be back and...

...since there will always be stupid rolling sheep, never will I put my ambitions to rest!

eoloe · March 2022

Basically, just give players the time to outlevel the content!

nurso · March 2022

But the Achievements Tell a Different Story

The achievements do not tell the whole story.

Sovrath · March 2022

I only have about 10 hours in. For me, difficult games like this, or at least "more challenging games" require a certain amount of time and dedication. Therefore I need to make sure I've set aside that time.

I suspect a lot of people who have purchased this game are quite frankly taking their time.

Splattr · March 2022

eoloe said:

sabrefoxx said:

"Elden Ring Is the Best RPG of 2022 So Far"

StarField says: "Hold my chips."

Starfield has an official release date of 11/11/22, so it will available 05/11/23 ;p

Wow, you're quite the optimist expecting only a 6 month delay. ;p

Splattr · March 2022

Sovrath said:

I only have about 10 hours in. For me, difficult games like this, or at least "more challenging games" require a certain amount of time and dedication. Therefore I need to make sure I've set aside that time.

I suspect a lot of people who have purchased this game are quite frankly taking their time.

I stole the controller from my son and played just over an hour. As I expected, I still suck at souls games. Instead of trying to git gud at Elden Ring I'll just watch my son as he plays it.

Quizzical · March 2022

It's not just that most players don't get very far in most games that they pick up. It's also that the game barely launched two weeks ago. Why would you expect all that many people to get that far already? Is the game super short or something?

maskedweasel · March 2022

Quizzical said:

It's not just that most players don't get very far in most games that they pick up. It's also that the game barely launched two weeks ago. Why would you expect all that many people to get that far already? Is the game super short or something?

Speed runners have beaten it in about 3 hours. If you focus on just the story you could easily beat it in about 20 hours. The average playing time for the game so far has been something like 50 hours based on an article I read earlier today.

Sure there's a lot to do, but 50 hours is a lot of time to get through a good chunk of this stuff. I'm sure "average player" still breaks on the "less played" end of the spectrum, but if less than 20% haven't even gotten past rennala, that's a good indicator players are at least not focused on the story, or any of the other major non story bosses.

Angrakhan · March 2022

Personally I gave a big "meh" and refunded after 2.5 hrs of gameplay. I get why the "Souls" crowd likes it, it's just not my thing. Sure, I could dig in and "git gud", but why? The story is weird and not compelling. Who the hell am I saving? Who am I and why am I motivated to do any of this? The story didn't make a case to me for any of that and I have zero FOMO after refunding.

Big annoyance was the fact is doesn't support ultra wide resolution at all. Matter of fact it letterboxes the game on the left and right, so actually it very intentionally doesn't support it. Why? Also all the UI tooltips assume you're using a controller even without one plugged in.

So yeah... Meh... Whatever. I'm finishing up The Ascent which is a really cool cyberpunk game and much less expensive to boot.

skurk81 · March 2022

I don't get why you think mouse and keyboard should be the default controller for every game just cause it is on PC? Do you play sports games like NHL and Fifa with mouse and keyboard? Or platform games? Racing games?

RTS and FPS sure, but just get a controller and use it for games that are better with it.

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