Long before gaming became the huge industry it is today, games were insular and demanding. More often than not, you'd be dropped in at the deep end and left on your own, perhaps with a chunky manual for reference. Playing Elden Ring is evocative of those times, back when actually finishing a game was an achievement of note.

It's a vast action RPG very much focused on the action. You roam an enormous, beautiful yet horrifying fantasy landscape populated by a menagerie of astonishingly obnoxious characters, creaturs and monsters. Death hangs over everything as you gingerly progress across the land, and you won't know just how hard an enemy hits until you tentatively provoke a reaction. You'll sometimes lose every single pont of XP gathered through hours of play, but what you won't lose is experience: practice doesn't make perfect but you'll gradually learn how to master the game over time.

Elden Ring is slightly more forgiving than Hidetaka Miyazaki's previous games, such as the Dark Souls series and especially Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice; this one has a generous fast-travel system and stealth is a viable tactic. And if you really can't master the game's intricate fighting mechanics then you could always just level up so much that you completely overpower your opponents. Something you couldn't do back in the day.

Elden Ring is out now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.