It’s time to confess.
Although I’ve played a ton of different games, there’s a whole super-famous game series that I actually never touched, never even watched a playthrough of (even when it was streamed on https://www.twitch.tv/streamingthepast, so sorry!) : Dark Souls. I didn’t intentionally avoid this game or think I wouldn’t like it; it’s just not something that popped into my life naturally up until this point.
Then, last week, during our PlayTime stream, my first encounter with Elden Ring was broadcasted for the world to see. I immediately got benevolently warned that I still have a PhD to finish, so that I cannot lose myself into this game completely, which caused my expectations to be raised even further.
The opening scene: cramped with info I didn’t get. Epic. Great art. Loved the voice acting. Slightly disorienting: who am I supposed to be in this game? What is the world around me?
Next, my character is in — what I think of as — a church or chapel, familiar because of Gothic architectural stone elements. I interact with a couple of things before opening a door —Aragorn style— into the world. The world looks imposing, monumental, timeworn. It makes me curious as to what the stories behind it could be, and even though I know next to nothing about the Dark Souls series, I know that the lore pulls people in.
It doesn’t take too long before my first death, which is something I did expect. All the memes told me after all, that Dark Souls is hard. I venture into a kind of tutorial-canyon, which is where the problems begin. The flowing movements of my character turn into the viscosity of syrup. “Ah, it’ll get better” we state cheerfully, while I slash some walking skeletons/dead(?) left and right, still soldiering on. Narrator voice: It did, in fact, not get better. During the stream, we tried some troubleshooting, but alas, to no avail. We did get to check out some lore of inventory items, which is such a neat mechanism for storytelling to me. It features concepts, words, and people that I can’t place, but which make me want to learn more. But in the end, am I pulled in? No, I can’t say that I am.
I know how important first impressions can be, and how things like bugs, malfunctioning hardware and a meagre framerate can really dampen excitement for any game. So, a couple of days later, on a different computer, I boot up the game again. I start a new save, ready to give it another go. It’s amazing how much quicker and smoother things go, if the very air doesn’t seem to fight a battle with you by hampering every motion.
There I am. Out in the world. It, again, looks stellar. How long does it take for me to see the iconic “YOU DIED” screen? Not long. Not long at all. It’s not that surprising, as I suspect dying a lot (the “YOU DIED” screen got iconic for a reason, after all), but the moment itself stunned me. I didn’t think EVERYTHING would attack me at first sight, and that knight-thing in shiny armor moved real fast all of a sudden.
Okay, no issue. “Enemies” have a bigger circle of awareness around them than I originally thought. I sneak, pick my battles, and try to explore my surroundings. On the beach, someone left a message that tells me “beautiful view, esp sunset”. Close by is the first creature that doesn’t attack me on sight, and wants to trade. I have no clue what the items are, or what I should want. And this is a bit of a theme for the rest of the playsession. I fight and kill without knowing why. I explore around, not sure where to go or what to do. It’s part of the joy of figuring stuff out for me. I don’t want to look at guides or how-to’s on Reddit, I like to have my own personal moment of discovery. But that also means that a short playsession was probably not a good idea for this game. I’d like to report that I fell in love with this game, but I haven’t. Maybe something still needs to click, and I’ll be enchanted by it next time. But perhaps, despite my efforts, this is just a game that doesn’t do for me what it seems to do for so many others (which is also unfortunately the case for me and Clair Obscure, so sorry!). I hope to be able to report back at some point in the future with tales about that something that finally made me a fan, or with my regrettable resignation.
Hello! My name is Corine Gerritsen and I am responsible for the subproject ‘Mechanics’ in the project of Playful Time machines. I got both my BA degree in history and my RMA in Ancient Studies at Utrecht University. I started focusing on the past in video games during my internship at VALUE, and the topic stuck. Always up for checking out new, old, small, big, whacky, and serious ludic renditions of the past.
