Here’s what Elden Ring is, and why it’s a huge deal

Here’s a rundown on what the new action RPG that’s taking the games industry by storm.

So, all of your friends are obsessed with Elden Ring, but you have no idea what it is, huh? Worry not, foul Tarnished. We’ll have you battling eldritch monstrosities and crafting the finest steel in no time.

What is Elden Ring?

Elden Ring is a dark fantasy action role-playing game (RPG) by FromSoftware, creators of the wildly popular Dark Souls series. It quickly shot to the top of many “most anticipated” lists upon reveal at E3 2019, mainly due to Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin’s involvement. Yup, instead of finishing The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, Martin went off to work on video games for a bit — much to the chagrin of book nerds everywhere.

That’s the elevator pitch for Elden Ring, and we’ll get into more detail later, but first, let’s talk about the critical reception! To put it bluntly: Elden Ring is one of the best video games of all time by most quantifiable metrics. Look at the sea of perfect review scores from various outlets below to see what we mean.

GLHF’s Kirk McKeand was similarly glowing in his review for Elden Ring right here on ForTheWin.

“Elden Ring’s world is intimidatingly vast,” McKeand said. “But despite spending all this time crunching through it for review, I can’t wait to go back and see more of it unfurl.”

It may not sound like a high compliment, but trust us — when you’ve just spent 50 hours or more on a video game for review, you usually don’t want to sink any more time in unless it’s incredible.

Now let’s get into a bit more about FromSoftware, George R.R. Martin’s involvement, and how you can start playing Elden Ring.