PC Gamer - UK (2022-07)

A

s a recovering
completionist, any
open-world game
I try in 2022 poses an
inherent dilemma:
how much of this world do I
experience? Historically I’ve given
into the guilty pleasures of
Ubisoft-style games, merrily
chasing question mark-laden maps
and filling progress bars to 100%.

Recently, I’m taking a more direct
approach. Rather than attempting
everything, I’m being more selective.
With Dying Light 2 and Horizon
Forbidden West out this year, too,
there’s only so much time.
Elden Ring presents challenges to
both halves of my virtual tourist, it
turns out. As you’d expect from a
FromSoftware open-world game,
trite modern conventions like
question marks are absent. You do
have a mount and fast-travel points
to help you get around the Lands
Between, but with the fact that
hidden map fragments are necessary
to reveal parts of your map, and that
most enemies besides bosses are

resurrected when you rest at a Site of

Grace, seeing every last thing in these

perilous lands can be arduous.

Beyond rewarding you with all

available Steam Achievements,

nobody at From is patting you on the

back for visiting every location and

speaking to every NPC.

Instead, since I’m starting the

game a month later than most, I

needed to tap into my other open-

world self. Feeling my usual paralysis

as I step into Limgrave for the first

time, I’m buoyed by a golden ray of

“As Margit the Fell Omen points out

to me, this is absolutely not the way”

light pointing the way. But before I

follow that I stop to speak to my first

NPC, a man wearing a white mask

called Varré. He tells me to head

towards the dramatic Gothic

fortification behind him: Stormveil

Castle. The ray of light is pointing a

little to the right of it, so that must be

the way to go.

WHITE-FACED LIAR

I’m right, but also extremely wrong.

As my new nemesis Margit the Fell

Omen points out to me figuratively

and physically with his glowing

golden swords, this is absolutely not

the way. Varré must be sniggering

behind his mask.

Of course this is the way, just

eventually. Varré wasn’t messing me

around completely, he just left out a

crucial part in his instructions: get

more powerful first. I needed to level

up. Find better weapons and upgrade

them. Gain experience from other,

lesser bosses.

To conquer the Lands Between

I must explore like never before, but

still take my time. In the meantime,

other worlds can wait.

Learning to stop and smell the vicious murder in ELDEN RING

NOBODY AT FROM IS PATTING

YOU ON THE BACK FOR

VISITING EVERY LOCATION

HARRY SHEPHERD

THIS MONTH

Discovered that FromSoftware

NPCs aren’t always ‘good’.

ALSO PL AYED

A Memoir Blue, Little

Nightmares 2

EXTRA LIFE

NOW PLAYING (^) I UPDATE I MOD SPOTLIGHT I HOW TO I DIARY I WHY I LOVE I REINSTALL I M U S T P L A Y
I look forward to
dying there. And
there.