Changing the "world". Deepening into Elden Ring success

December 11, 2022

When anyone thinks about "open world" design today, they will most likely think of a game from Ubisoft, or one similarly designed. "Open world" design for a lot of games is about a very repetitive experience: with tons of side quests, and "bare" things to do. One of the most famous is having to climb a tower or high structure to unlock the map for an area and get the entire list of chores to do there. When it comes to the actual moment-to-moment gameplay, these titles are often very thin. Combat will play out the same way, and the mechanics at this level are kept basic so that the player can focus on the objectives and bonus stuff.

Melina: Elden Ring character

There is this feeling that you’re not exploring a world but going on an amusement ride with everything curated to you. You can really get that feeling out of the trailers for any Far Cry. You can only go where the game tells you to go but you cannot climb the mountain you saw and got your attention when you were chasing the enemy. Things only really happen on missions, and the world feels very barren to go around. The first thing that Elden Ring does is exemplify one of the major themes of the Souls games.

THE WORLD DO NOT NEED YOU

In most stories, the world needs a hero, someone who is going to go out there and save the "princess", beat the bad guy, and bring happiness and sunshine back by the end of the game.

In the world of Soulsborne genre, you’re not the hero and the world can’t be saved. A major theme of these games is that the world is for all intents and purposes broken beyond repair. Anyone who could have saved things is either dead or corrupted. Even the villains have long since won and are nothing more than husks with no other purpose. At best, all you can do is restart the cycle for the inevitable next collapse of the world centuries later. This is the reason why Souls games are often poor when it comes to storytelling but they are amazing when it comes to environmental design and lore.

Tarnished looking at a lake

There is this somber realization that happens as you wander through the streets and countryside of these games that a whole lot has happened here a long time ago, and you’re just a visitor to a dead world. Elden Ring continues this style but in a far larger space. Towns have long since been abandoned or destroyed, no one is really interested in saving the day, and you are given complete freedom to go on the most horrific walking tour of the land.

BREATHING MEANWHILE

From Software has become masters at getting out of the player’s way and letting the player absorb what is happening around them. The adage “less is more” can be applied here and sits in stark contrast to other "open world" games. It is common to be bombarded with things to do: UI tooltips to read, and constantly going to the various submenus to see what to do next. This is by far the largest game space that From Software has done to date, while still providing their trademark level design.

Battle with a dragon enemy

Unlike other "open world" games, there are far fewer diversions to do, but the quality of each point of interest is far higher. The game splits its content between small areas with a single reward like the ruins, larger areas to gather resources like the mines and tombs, and the larger set pieces that feel like a traditional level in a previous soulsborne. Instead of just a constant drip-feed of content, the game makes the player want to go out and explore. If there’s something unusual in the distance, chances are there is going to be a unique situation waiting for you. Elden Ring is proof that good pacing can be a teacher unto itself.

GAME TEACHES YOU

For the clearest distinction between Elden Ring and other "open world" games, you can look at the differences between their openings. In other "open world" games, the player is treated to a required and scripted tutorial sequence, constant popups as to what everything does, and all this with high octane excitement. In Elden Ring, you can literally skip the entire tutorial. The game purposely features a very simplified opening that passively introduces the open world, the grace points, and like other soulsborne games, doesn’t immediately unlock leveling up.

UI/UX work showed in a battle

The player is given time to focus on the immediate play without the game trying to stop them from doing so. As soon as you start the game, the first thing you see is a huge castle (the place where the first big boss Godrick will be waiting), although a little closer you can see the silhouette of a destroyed church that stands out from the surroundings. This is how Elden Ring tells us that the first place where we should go is that church, but he does it without any dialogue or popup. On our way there we will meet a giant knight on horseback. Unless we are very good we will not be able to defeat him. The game speaks to us again without using any words: the game is hard, don't run, take your time or what you will get is death. Once we have visited the church, some flashing lights will call our attention. They are held by guards. Again the game is showing us the way, so we will get to the entrance of the castle that we saw at the beginning.

The Elden Tree

The video game itself has shown us the way and what we should do (including how we should do it) in an organic way, leaving the player to explore and discover, rather than forcing him to do it. If we’re being generous, the only real forced interaction you need at the start is getting Torrent, and that can take about 10 minutes if you rush. Out of all the previous soulslikes, Elden Ring is the fairest in terms of providing options and routes. If you want to rush through the castle and beat Godrick right at the start, you can do that. If you want to spend 6 or more hours exploring the world around the castle, that’s fair as well. You decide what to do and when do you want to do it.

WHAT'S NEXT?

What are the takeaways from all this? Is Elden Ring perfect? From an "open world" perspective, the game does a brilliant job of laying out this world to explore and inviting the player to go as far as they want. Instead of the game telling the player to do something by default, it lets them create their own route through it. It lets them create their own game experience (leaving aside the intrinsic difficulty in this type of games).

The player is the one who creates the mental map as to the rules and discoveries.

Enemy magic showed up

When it comes to "open world" games, there are too many video games focus on macro gameplay, whereas Elden Ring builds its "open world" from its moment-to-moment gameplay. For a lot of "open world" games, the “world” itself feels secondary to the challenges and hoops the designers want the player to jump through. Here, this feels like a world that has existed for some time, and all the exploration and challenges are organic to the setting itself. The player doesn’t know where they’re going or what they’re going to find, but they know they’re going to be in for a challenge no matter what. This is the most outstanding feature of Elden Ring: the surprise factor. The player does not know what he will find and when he will find it, but it is clear to him that if he explores he will be rewarded. Although, being objective, this feeling of amazement at the discovery of the world is gradually diluted as we move forward, but that is not the subject of the conversation.

Elden Ring exudes confidence in its design that basically rewrites the entire book on Soulslike and "open world" design.