Find it funny that the ER fan boys are pissed that am blasting through the game, I think they expected and hoped the game would wreck me. I chose the Mage class because it was a class I always loved, I did extensive research into the easiest starting class and was worried when it was not the Mage, in fact many people on the forums say don't use Astrologer as it's way to squishy and it is, one shot kills me most of the time so you can't afford mistakes when dodging. There are many sites that rank all classes by difficulty and most seem to place the Mage as 4th easiest class to play which was not very appealing to me, I almost went Vagabond as everyone agrees it's the easiest class. Anyway am glad I went Mage as it is quite a fun class, especially with the spirits (who the fan boys say is like cheating, lmao) Mages need something to take aggro in many boss fights due to the dodge mechanics which seem to be linked directly to button presses which means you simply can not hit some bosses with spells unless they are distracted and that's what the spirits are for when playing Mage. Anyway so far am having fun and I do apologise to the haters out there for destroying all the bosses so far, I look forward to blasting through a load more before the final part of my review goes live, deal with it :p
Astrologer and Mage are definitely some of the easiest early game experiences IMO. That gravity rock spell you're using is basically the best spell in the game, and even the starting glintstone pebble spell is the most efficient mana to dps wise. Mid to late game is when you will really struggle if you don't have many points in HP. This game really does a bad job at balancing stats and you risk having a bad time if you don't put much in health mack. Just fyi
As annoying as it sounds to have to deal with people like that, I find it really immature that you're so keen to jump straight into the defensive and leave a comment pinned like this on your video as opposed to just ignoring them, you seem to actively be trying to categorise and even antagonise certain people, I just don't think there's any need, especially when the subject matter is concerning something as menial as how hard of a time you're having playing a video game
Yeah ignore the fanboys and just have fun. Most of Souls/ER community are toxic, low brow, trogglodytes who want to dictate to others how to play the game. They think that just because they finished Souls/ER they are some über-gamer from next dimension or something. Then, when people who played much harder games in the 80s come and breeze through it, they get all pissy about it and say how using certain classes and summons is cheating. Or lord forbid if you have any constructive criticism... then they just assume you are critiquing their game, because you can't beat it. Hilarious stuff. 😅 But I am glad you are enjoying it. It is a good game overall imo. However, let me just say that I think Dark Souls games are very similar. So, I hope you give them another chance (at least the first one, which imo is the best). I mean, if you like ER, I really cant understand why you dont like DS. The only difference is that you cant use a mount, summons and that the world doesnt have big open areas. But there is still a lot of exploration to do. It is basically the same as those parts of ER where you explore huge beautiful castles. So, if you like that, DS might be worth looking into again.
Hope to get the next part out Sunday, been playing a bit more since I recorded this footage and have a much tougher time with some of the bosses but at the same time I am much more powerful so... :)
You can get more than 4 spell slots you just have to find Memory Stones, I had 8 extra slots by End Game. Also there are more spells, the spells fired from Staffs alone are called Sorceries but you can also get Arcane (Dragon Fire) spells, Frenzy (Curse) spells and Incantation (Buff/Debuff) spells. There are easily 100 different spells in the Game. You don't even have to be a mage character with a staff to use Arcane, Frenzy or Incantations you just need to put some points into the relevant stats.
Yeah that original review was not your best work man, not by a long shot. You were however, correct about the damn mouse and keyboard controls. I had to get a F***ing X-Box controller to play the damn game.......... Well worth it though 70 hours of pure stress (still not complete) and yet I have never felt more accomplishment that I did with this game, usually stroll through a game with no real stress just BS that blocks you for a bit
Oh Mack trying to pretend that you would've pick the warrior build because you're hard 😂😂yet you pussed out with the easiest build🤣sure man I believe you 😜Me too
It may be an unpopular opinion, but I like new reviews of old/older games. Sometimes I don't have time to buy or play them right when they come out, other times I just like to rivisit them after a while they're out, so this is a very well received surprise for me
Yeah, reviews on release day are very much a snapshot in time. A launch day review of something like Destiny 2 or No Man's Sky does nobody any favours today.
I let a friend borrow bloodborne once, got over to his house, dude was using youtube gameplays of areas he was in to know what was coming in every next 10minutes. Some people love their markers and their x ray vision and their over saturated HUDs. But then again, i mean he "was" playing Bloodborne and he was enjoying it so i guess that was the most important thing in the end . ^^
@@l0rdfr3nchy7 You're right. In the end, it doesn't matter, as long as he had fun. Every person is different. A game that bores me to death might be a blast for someone else.🤷🏻♂️ At the moment, I'm playing Stalker Gamma. It's for free and it's probably the most entertaining offline shooter I've ever played.
So it's fun when AAA devs dumb down and make the enemy Ai stupid so that casuals' feelings don't get hurt. Me who is chasing that thrill and adrenaline rush that I get when I beat a boss in a souls game, beat a monster in MHW, win a match in battle royale or just completed a roguelike game should not be allowed to have fun cause casuals want stupid Ai that gives no satisfaction cough cough far cry 6 cause of accessibility and the tagline by western marketing team ''gaming is for everybody'' when it should have been not *everything is for everybody*.
I put 30 hours in with a melee build before giving up out of frustration and just generally not having fun. Months later I started again with a mage build and now I'm absolutely loving it. It's just the right level of challenge for me to enjoy without wanting to smash my controller against the wall. I use a sword and shield but have the option of backing off and flinging magic if things get intense. Ignore the "it's easy mode" idiots, Mack, enjoy the game in the way you want to.
Elden Ring seemed to be telling me I needed ranged and close up combat abilities. That it was going to be unfair if I just chose one. At least that was my experience as a Paladin
@Gogu Chelu Not at all. Not everyone minds or gets put off by the difficulty, it's completely subjective. The problem is the people saying you must play a melee build and suffer playing it or you're not really playing it. That's just bullshit. The game is actually very accessible to all kinds of players.
I actually started off as a naked wretch, and worked my way to becoming a mage, because i always play mages, but by the time i found spells and a catalyst, i was already quite familiar with melee style. It's one of the few games i feel comfortable playing melee.
Is anyone else just dead happy to finally see Mac enjoying a souls game? Hope he finds all the other spells and even gives another build a go eventually!
Welcome to the fun that is Elden Ring Mack! Part of the fun of this game, imho, is doing what you want, and finding ways to take advantage of how things work, if you want. I think it is tons of fun that you can figure things out like that. Later, it'll get a bit harder, possibly, but you can also outlevel things a bit, if you are patient. Feels in some ways for me like an old school sort of game while being sort of a modern game. I don't know how else to put it. It's huge and it is great fun!
Kinda debatable, I found dark souls 3 somewhat easier in the second half once I learned the mechanics and got my build sorted, But I haven’t gotten too far in this game.
Depends... he actually uses everything... and paid attention. Meanwhile me 30h in, ok fk it's what's these items are all about... CLEANSE... Oh ffs, I could have used these so many times. We'll see when he gets deep under... those arrows man annoying af and of course 2nd immersion break :) "wasn't this a bosss???" :)
You can get more than 4 spell slots you just have to find Memory Stones, I had 8 extra slots by End Game. Also there are more spells, the spells fired from Staffs alone are called Sorceries but you can also get Arcane (Dragon Fire) spells, Frenzy (Curse) spells and Incantation (Buff/Debuff) spells. There are easily 100 different spells in the Game. You don't even have to be a mage character with a staff to use Arcane, Frenzy or Incantations you just need to put some points into the relevant stats.
@@darken2417 I found Genshin to be really fun. I’m a casual and a noob so I have no idea how combat works. But it’s fun for me to collect gear and run around. But since I know nothing about the combat mechanics I got bored quick lol
I don't care how long it took for the review I'm just grateful you still did it. Hope the house move gets done soon, I couldn't compehend the stress you and Cass must be feeling..
The one piece of advice I would give new players is dont forget to level VIGOR. It will afford you more mistakes before having to retry and it will usually keep you from ever being one shot by anything. If you're getting one shot especially by non-bosses you're behind in leveling it as a rule of thumb.
0:40 I have to disagree Mac, this is the first souls game thats been playable on mouse and keyboard, it required a bit of creative key binding, but it works very well for me.
I wasn't expecting anything out of this game because I didn't like a single souls game, but Elden Ring turned out to be one of the best game I played in the last 5 years.
Pc version was fine for me mac, was a bit meh at launch but it was fine before the week was over, they did some kinda patch within a few days which fixed my problems.
Can’t stand people trying to glitch out games and count it as progress. I read a “Tip” about battle brothers, instead of going into a tavern and paying people money to get a little word of the word about what’s been going on around town, a YT user thought it’s a great idea to instead exit the city, enter again and you’d get a new word from a town folk without having to pay. It really does add to the immersion :/
Sad that the PC version didn't work out for you Mack. I have it on Steam, playing on a 1080Ti and it's been more or less flawless and smooth sailing. Maybe one or two CTDs in 200-300hrs over three playthroughs. Would've loved to co-op a boss or two. Hope you enjoy the PS5 playthru and all the best for the move to the new house.
@@knives6683 Pretty much only framerate fluctuations on my end and I played it with a 1070 at the time. I can only imagine what a 3070 can get out of this, and mods are plenty there now too. Though the input reading and gameplay are the problem in this, imo not the technical state of it.
apparently there are some higher end graphics cards that perform worse than lower end ones. I think it was Strat Edgy who couldn't play it on his mega PC but then he tried it on his kid's crappy PC and the game ran perfectly fine.
Hello Mack I just want to say I'm glad you're having fun with the game, and I can't wait for part two of your review. I haven't played Souls games before but I've been having a blast with Elden Ring, I've been playing as a Samurai class. Anyway take care mate and greetings from Australia.
So, Mack is a mage... and uses a tank/tank proxies to fight while he does damage from afar. Isn't that the standard mage battle procedure? Team up with a tank and do damage while he distracts the boss?
@@knuckalar Mage with a summon is basically easy mode for this game, If you want a challenge at least don't have any summons. I don't get people using every tool the game has to offer to make the game easier like Comet Azur with the infinite FP tear and 80 Intelligence plus a mimic tear with shabriri's woe talisman and then they say yeah the game is easy m8, You just actively made it easier.
@@mohamedelbaz7271 Imo there is a huge difference between googling some meta OP build and copying that and just using basic game mechanics like Mac is doing here. As a mage not using summons is just stupid and counter intuitive, anyone who plays this game blind would just use them. I also played through other Souls games with Melee builds but I find it weird to argue that Elden Ring isn't balanced around Summons. It is designed to be easier and more mainstream than Souls games and that is exactly what FS went for and why it is selling so well, everything else is delusional if you ask me. And that is fine, I think FS did a great job giving both new players and experienced veterans what they were looking for. You can choose your own experience, but pure Melee build without Summons definitely isn't how this game is meant to be played purely judging it by its systems and options.
@@maxkaltenhauser9282 You don't get what I mean, I totally agree with you BTW. You can play whatever build you want but then don't complain about how easy the game is while using the easiest build to use to beat the game. It is like choosing the easy difficulty and then complaining about it, You want the challenge seek it out exactly the same you sought most powerful spells or summons.
yeah the launch of elden on pc was a bit disaster. huge frame drops etc. it still has frame drops in big areas with big "mini"bosses shooting glints and still hasnt got support for ultra-wide wich is no surprise when talking about fromsoft.
I started playing a few weeks ago on PC and I'm absolutely loving it. I've only encountered one bug so far (I'm about 150 hours in) and performance has been great at 4K and highest detail level (Ryzen 3600x, 32GB of RAM, RTX 3080)
You start as a mage class despite people telling you not to and then follow a guide because you couldn't be bothered to finish it BLIND. I'm so disappointed with this review. Well done Mack your bias clearly shows.
I have an Astrologer too, but I don't even use a sword. Just magic and a crossbow and of course summons. I don't just put points in Int and Mind, but also some in Dex because that controls how fast you cast spells. Since I'm one of those people that will play almost any class in a game, I had to try the astrologer. Then I started farming the little militia dirtbags in Caelid for runes. Have to be careful and deal with them from a distance.
I played it on a 6 year old laptop, and it ran just fine, i had no issues with keyboard and mouse configuration, other than there was a hell of a lot of functions to learn and remember.
Yeah, so, basically playing as a mage in dark souls/elden ring is basically an easy mode. (for all the ppl that complain the games too hard), and magic is by far the strongest in Elden Ring that its ever been in From Software games. The difficulty does still increase quite a lot though, I'm not sure how well-equipped (mentally and character-wise) you might be for some later biomes. Also, the whole 'bonfire reset' thing is an acquired taste, but trust me, there's always a lore reason for why they do what they do, so its not really an immersion break. Its fairly balanced when you consider the amount of threat there is in the game world.
I agree, Dark Souls games were never hard, despite so many people saying they were, it's a game about patience. If you are impatient, the game punishes you for it. But if you take your time, you will usually do well. The first Dark Souls game I played, I beat the game without dying once on my first play-through. (except for one of the very last bosses which basically makes the floor vanish underneath you and there's no way to predict which floor will vanish, so that one is just random chance - so I don't count that). But otherwise, Dark Souls games are actually pretty easy overall if you approach them the right way.
I don't play souls games and I played this as a mage. Had to look thing up online sometimes but like myself, i think you'll enjoy this Mac. My first 100hr single player game.
3:00 - Miyakazi confirmed time and time again in interviews that it was never about the difficulty. Whatever difficulty there is (and the game is chockfull of ways to make it easier) serves the narrative purpose of not giving up and if you stick with these games you will eventually become powerful enough to win any boss fight fairly easy. The only exception to this being Sekiro. That game is basically a love letter to Souls veterans. The games are ultimately about exploration and immersion into an amazingly well developed world that couldn't give two cents about whether you existed or not. NPC side quests will continue with or without you. World events will happen whether you are there to see them or not. Powerful loot will be hidden in hard to find spots where most players will never find them. One has to marvel at the commitment of these developers to create a game that by definition is still niche (i.e. the game they want to play themselves) and a large amount of the gaming world "secretly hates" but cannot deny the quality of it.
The shield skeletons army and the ancestrial spirit were my favorite spirit ashes to use for most of the game while playing a mage-ish build. until I unlocked Tische :D
Nice Mack that you get around to play this game and nice that you are enjoying yourself so far, thats the only reason I was pushing so hard for you to play this, because I knew this is was gonna be your type of game 😊 Now become an Elden Lord! 😃
@@clockmaister the man hands are missed up badly he can't use controllers and can't play anything requires fast reflexes because of that. It's painful and he do it anyway because he have to make the reviews A lot of people come here not knowing that and start blaming the guy without knowing anything about his health condition
@Tech Priest I doubt he will ever get there. Let alone bother to find her. Why the fuck is that the only thing folks talk about, btw? If he doesn't use a walkthrough on bosses, it's entirely possible he misses her. She is an optional boss in the worst area in the entire game, after all.
Not the class to play if you want a challenge, Souls games 101. You are generally a glass cannon regardless of class, here you just get the added bonus of range and auto aim. Happy to see you finally giving a souls game a good look.
Glad ur playing it i got it on pc never had any issues with it i know all pcs are different hardware. Im to the fire giants and havent picked it up in months i do need to finish it. games beautiful and so glad it dont hold ur hand like 90% of games now
Playing as a mage is relatively easy for like 3/4 of the game or more. Especially if you utilize everything in the game (optimized builds, spam attacks, summons, etc) The game becomes more fun when you experiment and run builds that aren't meta! Glad you're finally playing it though, it is my Goty
Thank you Mack! Been waiting since launch for you re-review this game! I knew you would like it! Loved it then and after watching your review I think I am gonna start another playthrough haha!
regarding the difficulty and scaling, it seems from what was discussed and the clips shown, that WAB is less than 25% (probably 15%) through the game. looking forward to pt 2
Your review was the main reason I gave this another try, I had uninstalled after horrible stuttering in PC. Now I'm playing in Max post all the patches and 55 hours in still not bored.
Nice little rant on following community meta. So annoying in the MMO space too where people expect everyone to be glitching and racing through content "because everyone else is doing it, so you do it too!" Would be an interesting topic to see a video on, as it's something that didn't plague games as much before gaming went mainstream.
From what I heard when the game first came out the mage classes in the game are ridiculously overpowered and make the game a lot easier than playing with some other classes that have close range combat
If you already feel like you've mastered dodging in previous games than yes. Albeit you will run into problems on occasion because enemies in ER can have very long combos, so you better play smart so you don't have perfect dodge 5 strikes in a row between your casts.
You'll love making your way up the Academy Of Raya Lucaria. The boss is Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon. I reckon this alone will tip you to loving the game. There's so much more to ER
It was challenging up until I learned the dragon build. I struggled with a STR and DEX build and hit a wall. Then I heard about dragon build, re-specked and breezed through the last quarter. Fun game but there are ways to make it very easy.
The funny thing about this is saying "it's not that hard" whilst being in the starting area. The trashloot is easy in most cases. But the bosses are the challenge.
i've tried several From Software games, I liked them but i couldn't get far. THIS game is incredible, I beat it with a moderate amount of deaths. I love it. THIS is the 'soulslike' game that i want. I love it to death, so much to explore, so many ways to cheese your way to the top (not glitches, doing stuff you're allowed to do and game the system). this is the perfect RPG. It is the ULTIMATE power fantasy, not because it's easy, but because it CAN be easy if you grind it.
I really loved the how I went from some caveman dude at the start, to a ninja 30 hours in, then by the end of the game I was shooting fire out of my eyeballs and flying about like a Sonic the Hedgehog one shotting whole armies.
Dude those bosses took me 20+ tries with a melee character. I literally learned all their moves and had to roll or block or parry most of the attacks to win.
What bosses? There are no bosses in this video... The Evergoals are not really bosses, neither are the guys that guard overworld loot... mini-bosses at best.
Coincidently, that is also where the whole thing peaks. In fact, I would even argue both Stomveil and Leyndell are by far the best designed areas in the entire game.
@@bazzy5644 Stormveil and Leyndell were the high points of the game for me. I loved a lot of the random little dungeons but the copypasta bosses made them all a bit anti-climactic for me.
Hopefully if your experience continues to be positive with this game, you would be willing to revisit the first Dark Souls. The interconnectivity and level design still remains some of the best I've ever seen. If you choose to play it on PC again, the remastered port is far better than the Prepare to Die Edition you tried years ago, with framerate and resolution issues resolved, alongside many other QOL improvements like keyboard mappings displaying instead of Xbox buttons.
I played on PC and it ran fine most of the time, but there were some stretches where the game would do this double stutter thing every few seconds. The only time I exploited a glitch was in the Fire Giant fight, because that boss is awful.
I will say, it doesn't look like you have fought any of the big bosses or the first real roadblocks for players. Which may be why you are feeling overpowered and that the game is easy. But I'm super excited to see the next part of your review! Love ya Mack!
WOW. I guess it is good you are looking at the game again. I remember you reviewed it when it first came out and gave it 0 with out ever really trying it. That is was when dropped my sub on you. I really enjoy your reviews when you actually go in with an objective try. Yes this game was over hyped but it is a decent game.
man im so happy youre finally getting around to this. what an amazing game and i predict you will call it your game of the year. two things ill add to your thoughts; you pointed out how guide are ridden with cheats and cheeses, well the souls or ER community is very segregated in that regards where a big part of of player base does not use any of those or consider them fair or true to the game, and want to play the entire game in its true worth, and another part just dont care how you get to some results i guess and will use any help they can get. that goes the same for spirit summons, a lot of players like me did not use one of them for the entirety of the game, or in some cases not for bosses because they were added to make this game easier snd more accessible to new players. so its really all preference and what you see yourself being able to achieve with whichever level of assistance you decide to need
I believe they did some balancing. I've played this game at the beginning. The level of difficulty is a bit easier then before. You still can get wrecked but its not the same as before...
Personally I went for incantations plus bloodhound sword very fun with Dragon spells, crucible spells, occasionally using carian spells, occasionally using the beast and rot spells too fucking fun af, had a whole lot of fun messing with weapon arts and goofy builds.
Not sure what’s up with your pc version mine runs absolutely perfect and I play with a few pals on pc, really hope it works for you at some point Mack.
Even though we all already bought it ages ago, I'll still give this a watch lol. I wouldn't advice "guides" or looking ahead. An amazing part of this game is the sense of discovery, and you shouldn't rob yourself of that experience.
I remember you reviewed this the day after release and you were absolutely pissed. Some patches in the first week helped alot and I didn't have a problem running it after that but it seems some people still did despite the power of there pc's.
It was really weird, I was like 60 hours in on PC while everyone was still saying it was unplayable, when I would say it worked fine for me no one believed me.
@Tech Priest Such a unique boss, I banged my head on that wall probably 2 dozen times... then I respec'd and killed her the first try after that... her difficulty is HIGHLY dependent on your spec, loadout, and tactics.
@@Chris-xo2rq, my tactic was flawless. Run around like a headless chicken and swing my weapon like a manic whenever I saw an opening. Only took me 174 tries. (Joking, about 12 attempts. My build was actually pretty good at keeping her at range)
I’ve been playing for 170 hours and tried four different builds,just started looking up stuff on RUclips and there’s loads I’ve missed! I still haven’t finished this game amd still finding new enemies and areas.Only thing wrong with this game for me is a lack of a conversation log.
Well your 8% through the game and if your second part is level 50 with a couple world bosses youll be 25% through the game. We gonna get a part 3 and 4?
Find it funny that the ER fan boys are pissed that am blasting through the game, I think they expected and hoped the game would wreck me. I chose the Mage class because it was a class I always loved, I did extensive research into the easiest starting class and was worried when it was not the Mage, in fact many people on the forums say don't use Astrologer as it's way to squishy and it is, one shot kills me most of the time so you can't afford mistakes when dodging. There are many sites that rank all classes by difficulty and most seem to place the Mage as 4th easiest class to play which was not very appealing to me, I almost went Vagabond as everyone agrees it's the easiest class. Anyway am glad I went Mage as it is quite a fun class, especially with the spirits (who the fan boys say is like cheating, lmao) Mages need something to take aggro in many boss fights due to the dodge mechanics which seem to be linked directly to button presses which means you simply can not hit some bosses with spells unless they are distracted and that's what the spirits are for when playing Mage. Anyway so far am having fun and I do apologise to the haters out there for destroying all the bosses so far, I look forward to blasting through a load more before the final part of my review goes live, deal with it :p
Astrologer and Mage are definitely some of the easiest early game experiences IMO. That gravity rock spell you're using is basically the best spell in the game, and even the starting glintstone pebble spell is the most efficient mana to dps wise.
Mid to late game is when you will really struggle if you don't have many points in HP. This game really does a bad job at balancing stats and you risk having a bad time if you don't put much in health mack. Just fyi
@@jamontoast Yep, I think Mack is going to get stomped once he gets mid game with that low vigor
As annoying as it sounds to have to deal with people like that, I find it really immature that you're so keen to jump straight into the defensive and leave a comment pinned like this on your video as opposed to just ignoring them, you seem to actively be trying to categorise and even antagonise certain people, I just don't think there's any need, especially when the subject matter is concerning something as menial as how hard of a time you're having playing a video game
You can walk a lot of fights as a mage but famous last words there dude!! 🤣 You've a long way to go but it'll be an enjoyable ride! :)
Yeah ignore the fanboys and just have fun. Most of Souls/ER community are toxic, low brow, trogglodytes who want to dictate to others how to play the game. They think that just because they finished Souls/ER they are some über-gamer from next dimension or something. Then, when people who played much harder games in the 80s come and breeze through it, they get all pissy about it and say how using certain classes and summons is cheating. Or lord forbid if you have any constructive criticism... then they just assume you are critiquing their game, because you can't beat it. Hilarious stuff. 😅
But I am glad you are enjoying it. It is a good game overall imo. However, let me just say that I think Dark Souls games are very similar. So, I hope you give them another chance (at least the first one, which imo is the best). I mean, if you like ER, I really cant understand why you dont like DS. The only difference is that you cant use a mount, summons and that the world doesnt have big open areas. But there is still a lot of exploration to do. It is basically the same as those parts of ER where you explore huge beautiful castles. So, if you like that, DS might be worth looking into again.
Hope to get the next part out Sunday, been playing a bit more since I recorded this footage and have a much tougher time with some of the bosses but at the same time I am much more powerful so... :)
Take your time mack no worries
Best of luck with the move 👍
Glad u gave it another go Mack, hope you and Rabbit are getting settled into the new abode 🐇💘
You can get more than 4 spell slots you just have to find Memory Stones, I had 8 extra slots by End Game. Also there are more spells, the spells fired from Staffs alone are called Sorceries but you can also get Arcane (Dragon Fire) spells, Frenzy (Curse) spells and Incantation (Buff/Debuff) spells. There are easily 100 different spells in the Game. You don't even have to be a mage character with a staff to use Arcane, Frenzy or Incantations you just need to put some points into the relevant stats.
Yeah that original review was not your best work man, not by a long shot. You were however, correct about the damn mouse and keyboard controls. I had to get a F***ing X-Box controller to play the damn game.......... Well worth it though 70 hours of pure stress (still not complete) and yet I have never felt more accomplishment that I did with this game, usually stroll through a game with no real stress just BS that blocks you for a bit
Oh Mack trying to pretend that you would've pick the warrior build because you're hard 😂😂yet you pussed out with the easiest build🤣sure man I believe you 😜Me too
It may be an unpopular opinion, but I like new reviews of old/older games. Sometimes I don't have time to buy or play them right when they come out, other times I just like to rivisit them after a while they're out, so this is a very well received surprise for me
So true
Yes, I would love to see more 'old' reviews.
Same, and often it gives you the opportunity to play a more complete game with the obvious issues fixed for a lower price. It just makes sense.
Yeah, reviews on release day are very much a snapshot in time. A launch day review of something like Destiny 2 or No Man's Sky does nobody any favours today.
^ This! We need a modern review of Eradicator from 1996! It's arguably a better FPS than the big 3 Build engine games but nobody knows about it!
Mack: I hate this hand holding shite in modern video games
Also mack: yeah so I had to Google where to go and looked at a few guides.
There needs to be a good mix of Both Side quests in this game sometimes are really badly designed.
I let a friend borrow bloodborne once, got over to his house, dude was using youtube gameplays of areas he was in to know what was coming in every next 10minutes.
Some people love their markers and their x ray vision and their over saturated HUDs.
But then again, i mean he "was" playing Bloodborne and he was enjoying it so i guess that was the most important thing in the end . ^^
Its fucking bollocks aint it lol.. One or the other please Mack
@@l0rdfr3nchy7 You're right. In the end, it doesn't matter, as long as he had fun. Every person is different. A game that bores me to death might be a blast for someone else.🤷🏻♂️ At the moment, I'm playing Stalker Gamma. It's for free and it's probably the most entertaining offline shooter I've ever played.
So it's fun when AAA devs dumb down and make the enemy Ai stupid so that casuals' feelings don't get hurt. Me who is chasing that thrill and adrenaline rush that I get when I beat a boss in a souls game, beat a monster in MHW, win a match in battle royale or just completed a roguelike game should not be allowed to have fun cause casuals want stupid Ai that gives no satisfaction cough cough far cry 6 cause of accessibility and the tagline by western marketing team ''gaming is for everybody'' when it should have been not *everything is for everybody*.
I put 30 hours in with a melee build before giving up out of frustration and just generally not having fun. Months later I started again with a mage build and now I'm absolutely loving it. It's just the right level of challenge for me to enjoy without wanting to smash my controller against the wall. I use a sword and shield but have the option of backing off and flinging magic if things get intense. Ignore the "it's easy mode" idiots, Mack, enjoy the game in the way you want to.
Melee is fine until the very end.
Elden Ring seemed to be telling me I needed ranged and close up combat abilities. That it was going to be unfair if I just chose one. At least that was my experience as a Paladin
@Gogu Chelu Not at all. Not everyone minds or gets put off by the difficulty, it's completely subjective. The problem is the people saying you must play a melee build and suffer playing it or you're not really playing it. That's just bullshit. The game is actually very accessible to all kinds of players.
@Gogu Chelu get Good Noob. million ways to play this game all OP
I actually started off as a naked wretch, and worked my way to becoming a mage, because i always play mages, but by the time i found spells and a catalyst, i was already quite familiar with melee style. It's one of the few games i feel comfortable playing melee.
Is anyone else just dead happy to finally see Mac enjoying a souls game? Hope he finds all the other spells and even gives another build a go eventually!
Welcome to the fun that is Elden Ring Mack! Part of the fun of this game, imho, is doing what you want, and finding ways to take advantage of how things work, if you want. I think it is tons of fun that you can figure things out like that. Later, it'll get a bit harder, possibly, but you can also outlevel things a bit, if you are patient. Feels in some ways for me like an old school sort of game while being sort of a modern game. I don't know how else to put it. It's huge and it is great fun!
“I’m not finding it hard so far” famous last words my friend
Kinda debatable, I found dark souls 3 somewhat easier in the second half once I learned the mechanics and got my build sorted,
But I haven’t gotten too far in this game.
Depends... he actually uses everything... and paid attention.
Meanwhile me 30h in, ok fk it's what's these items are all about... CLEANSE... Oh ffs, I could have used these so many times.
We'll see when he gets deep under... those arrows man annoying af and of course 2nd immersion break :) "wasn't this a bosss???" :)
I thought mage made this game super easy for most fights. Malenia was hard though.
It's litterally the easiest soul game out of all of them dude. Easy platinum.
Didn't find it hard either. Most things didn't take many tries. Only thing I struggled with was the bell bearing hunters whilst underleveled.
Always look forward to your updates...
You can get more than 4 spell slots you just have to find Memory Stones, I had 8 extra slots by End Game. Also there are more spells, the spells fired from Staffs alone are called Sorceries but you can also get Arcane (Dragon Fire) spells, Frenzy (Curse) spells and Incantation (Buff/Debuff) spells. There are easily 100 different spells in the Game. You don't even have to be a mage character with a staff to use Arcane, Frenzy or Incantations you just need to put some points into the relevant stats.
I was wondering when you were going to give this a proper review. Thank you for getting it a second shot
Elden ring is still the best game from 2022 imo
Yup nothing comes close. Not even GOW
Id love to see the amount of replaybility that GOW doesn't have compared to this XD
I unironically prefer Genshin Impact lol.
Probably because I'm a cheap bastard and like puzzles. Random puzzles everywhere.
@@darken2417 I found Genshin to be really fun. I’m a casual and a noob so I have no idea how combat works. But it’s fun for me to collect gear and run around. But since I know nothing about the combat mechanics I got bored quick lol
Yeah nothing really close to it.
I don't care how long it took for the review I'm just grateful you still did it. Hope the house move gets done soon, I couldn't compehend the stress you and Cass must be feeling..
Cheers
@@ice9735 You can't rely on the Arriva bus timetable. I've tried.
The one piece of advice I would give new players is dont forget to level VIGOR. It will afford you more mistakes before having to retry and it will usually keep you from ever being one shot by anything. If you're getting one shot especially by non-bosses you're behind in leveling it as a rule of thumb.
0:40 I have to disagree Mac, this is the first souls game thats been playable on mouse and keyboard, it required a bit of creative key binding, but it works very well for me.
It's really worth a buy! Really glad to see you jump it in the boat.
Glad to see you're able to play/review games while moving, much love and keep being you Mack
I wasn't expecting anything out of this game because I didn't like a single souls game, but Elden Ring turned out to be one of the best game I played in the last 5 years.
Pc version was fine for me mac, was a bit meh at launch but it was fine before the week was over, they did some kinda patch within a few days which fixed my problems.
Can’t stand people trying to glitch out games and count it as progress. I read a “Tip” about battle brothers, instead of going into a tavern and paying people money to get a little word of the word about what’s been going on around town, a YT user thought it’s a great idea to instead exit the city, enter again and you’d get a new word from a town folk without having to pay. It really does add to the immersion :/
Mack if you see a tower with some human guards defending it, make sure you go to the top and open the chest. Some good stuff in there!
Sad that the PC version didn't work out for you Mack. I have it on Steam, playing on a 1080Ti and it's been more or less flawless and smooth sailing. Maybe one or two CTDs in 200-300hrs over three playthroughs. Would've loved to co-op a boss or two. Hope you enjoy the PS5 playthru and all the best for the move to the new house.
Same here and played early and felt it was one of the most stable games in a long time.
@@knives6683 Pretty much only framerate fluctuations on my end and I played it with a 1070 at the time. I can only imagine what a 3070 can get out of this, and mods are plenty there now too. Though the input reading and gameplay are the problem in this, imo not the technical state of it.
@@bazzy5644 played on 3070. Still some stuttering but it's only in certain areas and not too bothersome.
apparently there are some higher end graphics cards that perform worse than lower end ones. I think it was Strat Edgy who couldn't play it on his mega PC but then he tried it on his kid's crappy PC and the game ran perfectly fine.
Hello Mack I just want to say I'm glad you're having fun with the game, and I can't wait for part two of your review. I haven't played Souls games before but I've been having a blast with Elden Ring, I've been playing as a Samurai class. Anyway take care mate and greetings from Australia.
So, Mack is a mage... and uses a tank/tank proxies to fight while he does damage from afar. Isn't that the standard mage battle procedure? Team up with a tank and do damage while he distracts the boss?
Yeah but everyone has meltdowns over how amazing and hard this game is and you could see Mack just standing back and 4 or 5 shotting these ‘bosses’
@@knuckalar Mage with a summon is basically easy mode for this game, If you want a challenge at least don't have any summons.
I don't get people using every tool the game has to offer to make the game easier like Comet Azur with the infinite FP tear and 80 Intelligence plus a mimic tear with shabriri's woe talisman and then they say yeah the game is easy m8, You just actively made it easier.
@@mohamedelbaz7271 Imo there is a huge difference between googling some meta OP build and copying that and just using basic game mechanics like Mac is doing here. As a mage not using summons is just stupid and counter intuitive, anyone who plays this game blind would just use them. I also played through other Souls games with Melee builds but I find it weird to argue that Elden Ring isn't balanced around Summons. It is designed to be easier and more mainstream than Souls games and that is exactly what FS went for and why it is selling so well, everything else is delusional if you ask me. And that is fine, I think FS did a great job giving both new players and experienced veterans what they were looking for. You can choose your own experience, but pure Melee build without Summons definitely isn't how this game is meant to be played purely judging it by its systems and options.
@@maxkaltenhauser9282 You don't get what I mean, I totally agree with you BTW. You can play whatever build you want but then don't complain about how easy the game is while using the easiest build to use to beat the game. It is like choosing the easy difficulty and then complaining about it, You want the challenge seek it out exactly the same you sought most powerful spells or summons.
@@mohamedelbaz7271 that's a lot of words to say that you have a skill issue and your build sucks.
Love this game. I started playing it a few days after release on PC and had no issues.
Great to hear you are enjoying. The PC isn’t as bad any more after the patches. But you were right to wait. Might want to try pc.
yeah the launch of elden on pc was a bit disaster. huge frame drops etc. it still has frame drops in big areas with big "mini"bosses shooting glints and still hasnt got support for ultra-wide wich is no surprise when talking about fromsoft.
I started playing a few weeks ago on PC and I'm absolutely loving it. I've only encountered one bug so far (I'm about 150 hours in) and performance has been great at 4K and highest detail level (Ryzen 3600x, 32GB of RAM, RTX 3080)
Not sure what guide you're using but all you need is Fextralife's wiki. Game Progress Guide and progress route map are great.
The atmosphere and music felt very special to me in this game.
You start as a mage class despite people telling you not to and then follow a guide because you couldn't be bothered to finish it BLIND. I'm so disappointed with this review. Well done Mack your bias clearly shows.
I have an Astrologer too, but I don't even use a sword.
Just magic and a crossbow and of course summons.
I don't just put points in Int and Mind, but also some in Dex because that controls how fast you cast spells.
Since I'm one of those people that will play almost any class in a game, I had to try the astrologer.
Then I started farming the little militia dirtbags in Caelid for runes.
Have to be careful and deal with them from a distance.
I played it on a 6 year old laptop, and it ran just fine, i had no issues with keyboard and mouse configuration, other than there was a hell of a lot of functions to learn and remember.
Yeah, so, basically playing as a mage in dark souls/elden ring is basically an easy mode. (for all the ppl that complain the games too hard), and magic is by far the strongest in Elden Ring that its ever been in From Software games. The difficulty does still increase quite a lot though, I'm not sure how well-equipped (mentally and character-wise) you might be for some later biomes. Also, the whole 'bonfire reset' thing is an acquired taste, but trust me, there's always a lore reason for why they do what they do, so its not really an immersion break. Its fairly balanced when you consider the amount of threat there is in the game world.
GG getting back to this game. We all knew you would like it :D
Good luck on Malenia, Godskin duo, and Starcourge Radahn !
I agree, Dark Souls games were never hard, despite so many people saying they were, it's a game about patience. If you are impatient, the game punishes you for it. But if you take your time, you will usually do well. The first Dark Souls game I played, I beat the game without dying once on my first play-through. (except for one of the very last bosses which basically makes the floor vanish underneath you and there's no way to predict which floor will vanish, so that one is just random chance - so I don't count that). But otherwise, Dark Souls games are actually pretty easy overall if you approach them the right way.
absolute bollox mate you should be a politician
@@kevinmlfc Eh. That was my experience. Take it or leave it. I never thought the Dark Souls games were hard personally.
@@kevinmlfc i agree with that
I don't play souls games and I played this as a mage. Had to look thing up online sometimes but like myself, i think you'll enjoy this Mac. My first 100hr single player game.
Hey Mack, I have been waiting for this. Finally it's here :)
I felt like a boob noob hearing Mack saying he feels overpowered. Then he mentioned the summons and it all made sense 👌
3:00 - Miyakazi confirmed time and time again in interviews that it was never about the difficulty. Whatever difficulty there is (and the game is chockfull of ways to make it easier) serves the narrative purpose of not giving up and if you stick with these games you will eventually become powerful enough to win any boss fight fairly easy. The only exception to this being Sekiro. That game is basically a love letter to Souls veterans. The games are ultimately about exploration and immersion into an amazingly well developed world that couldn't give two cents about whether you existed or not. NPC side quests will continue with or without you. World events will happen whether you are there to see them or not. Powerful loot will be hidden in hard to find spots where most players will never find them. One has to marvel at the commitment of these developers to create a game that by definition is still niche (i.e. the game they want to play themselves) and a large amount of the gaming world "secretly hates" but cannot deny the quality of it.
Mack, I'm glad you are enjoying the game how you want, the way you want, in the style/flavor you want. BADGER WOULD BE PROUD.
i have a lot of friends who hate souls games but loved playing mage in ER. perfect class for you
The shield skeletons army and the ancestrial spirit were my favorite spirit ashes to use for most of the game while playing a mage-ish build. until I unlocked Tische :D
Nice, i still havent really played it yet because i cant be arse to rebind everything on my KB+M
@Hitmuponnicegramworthabuy oh wow a scambot
Good luck in the future zones, they do get quite tricky later. Glad you’re enjoying it more than the previous souls games though!
Mage and magic have always been overpowered in souls games. Thats why i play them all as melee. Way more challenging
Nice Mack that you get around to play this game and nice that you are enjoying yourself so far, thats the only reason I was pushing so hard for you to play this, because I knew this is was gonna be your type of game 😊 Now become an Elden Lord! 😃
It seems Japanese games are more focused on the console versions with the PC ports being a forgotten afterthought.
I predict he quits when he fights those two bird bosses at the same time lol
Did the wolves and spells summon you as their spirit?
Favourite game of all time. 🐐
You're loving the views and haven't even seen Liurnia of the Lakes. My god you're in for a treat 😍👌🏼
Such a great game you're in for one hell of a ride if you're still in the starting area.
He probably won't go much further sadly, I'd gladly watch a stream in which he plays it
@@HorridDave Why do you think so?
@@clockmaister the man hands are missed up badly he can't use controllers and can't play anything requires fast reflexes because of that. It's painful and he do it anyway because he have to make the reviews
A lot of people come here not knowing that and start blaming the guy without knowing anything about his health condition
@@MaxUmbra thats a bummer
@@MaxUmbra nahh with summons an magic he will be fine
This is going to be hilarious
@Tech Priest I doubt he will ever get there. Let alone bother to find her. Why the fuck is that the only thing folks talk about, btw? If he doesn't use a walkthrough on bosses, it's entirely possible he misses her. She is an optional boss in the worst area in the entire game, after all.
Hey Mac, didn’t you make a review of carrier command 2? Did you Unlust the video?
Not the class to play if you want a challenge, Souls games 101.
You are generally a glass cannon regardless of class, here you just get the added bonus of range and auto aim.
Happy to see you finally giving a souls game a good look.
Glad ur playing it i got it on pc never had any issues with it i know all pcs are different hardware. Im to the fire giants and havent picked it up in months i do need to finish it. games beautiful and so glad it dont hold ur hand like 90% of games now
Playing as a mage is relatively easy for like 3/4 of the game or more. Especially if you utilize everything in the game (optimized builds, spam attacks, summons, etc)
The game becomes more fun when you experiment and run builds that aren't meta!
Glad you're finally playing it though, it is my Goty
Top review, Mack. 👍
I must have gotten very lucky on PC. My issues were very minimal.
Thank you Mack! Been waiting since launch for you re-review this game! I knew you would like it! Loved it then and after watching your review I think I am gonna start another playthrough haha!
i never had issues on pc with elden ring
regarding the difficulty and scaling, it seems from what was discussed and the clips shown, that WAB is less than 25% (probably 15%) through the game. looking forward to pt 2
Oh, you found that spot I found to, great for leveling.
Your review was the main reason I gave this another try, I had uninstalled after horrible stuttering in PC. Now I'm playing in Max post all the patches and 55 hours in still not bored.
Nice little rant on following community meta. So annoying in the MMO space too where people expect everyone to be glitching and racing through content "because everyone else is doing it, so you do it too!" Would be an interesting topic to see a video on, as it's something that didn't plague games as much before gaming went mainstream.
From what I heard when the game first came out the mage classes in the game are ridiculously overpowered and make the game a lot easier than playing with some other classes that have close range combat
If you already feel like you've mastered dodging in previous games than yes. Albeit you will run into problems on occasion because enemies in ER can have very long combos, so you better play smart so you don't have perfect dodge 5 strikes in a row between your casts.
Mack just proving that Old School ain't scared. We played the original Doom.
anyone else think "Elden Ring" sounds like a north Uk euphemism for piles?
You'll love making your way up the Academy Of Raya Lucaria. The boss is Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon. I reckon this alone will tip you to loving the game. There's so much more to ER
It was challenging up until I learned the dragon build.
I struggled with a STR and DEX build and hit a wall. Then I heard about dragon build, re-specked and breezed through the last quarter. Fun game but there are ways to make it very easy.
That’s the beauty of these games though. You have so much player freedom and expression that you can make it as hard or easy as you want.
The funny thing about this is saying "it's not that hard" whilst being in the starting area. The trashloot is easy in most cases. But the bosses are the challenge.
He doesn’t even know what a boss fight is compared to a strong opponent out in the open world.
@@Tmaster2006YT then part 2 should be interesting. Wonder how far he will get.
@@tehf00n, I know he will defeat Elden beast. It’s the amount of optional content he might miss or skip that worries me.
I see you got the “rolling around like a prick” part down pretty well
i've tried several From Software games, I liked them but i couldn't get far. THIS game is incredible, I beat it with a moderate amount of deaths. I love it. THIS is the 'soulslike' game that i want. I love it to death, so much to explore, so many ways to cheese your way to the top (not glitches, doing stuff you're allowed to do and game the system).
this is the perfect RPG. It is the ULTIMATE power fantasy, not because it's easy, but because it CAN be easy if you grind it.
I really loved the how I went from some caveman dude at the start, to a ninja 30 hours in, then by the end of the game I was shooting fire out of my eyeballs and flying about like a Sonic the Hedgehog one shotting whole armies.
Dude those bosses took me 20+ tries with a melee character. I literally learned all their moves and had to roll or block or parry most of the attacks to win.
same, approx 4 deaths per boss to learn.
What bosses? There are no bosses in this video... The Evergoals are not really bosses, neither are the guys that guard overworld loot... mini-bosses at best.
And I bet it felt pretty rewarding to beat them.
I’m glad he realizes he’s in the start zone lol cus boy does this game change once you hit the big city
Coincidently, that is also where the whole thing peaks. In fact, I would even argue both Stomveil and Leyndell are by far the best designed areas in the entire game.
@@bazzy5644 Stormveil and Leyndell were the high points of the game for me. I loved a lot of the random little dungeons but the copypasta bosses made them all a bit anti-climactic for me.
This game is one of my favourites of all time.
Lmao
@@JohnDoe-pu5gk Isn't exactly a fringe opinion 🤷♂
Hope your loving the house and it’s going alright mate. Take care and thanks for the great reviews Mack.
Hopefully if your experience continues to be positive with this game, you would be willing to revisit the first Dark Souls. The interconnectivity and level design still remains some of the best I've ever seen. If you choose to play it on PC again, the remastered port is far better than the Prepare to Die Edition you tried years ago, with framerate and resolution issues resolved, alongside many other QOL improvements like keyboard mappings displaying instead of Xbox buttons.
1:31 'the graphics are so good in this game...' - pans over to a tree made of cubes
They have integrated an easy mode, called mage and summons. ;)
I played on PC and it ran fine most of the time, but there were some stretches where the game would do this double stutter thing every few seconds. The only time I exploited a glitch was in the Fire Giant fight, because that boss is awful.
I will say, it doesn't look like you have fought any of the big bosses or the first real roadblocks for players. Which may be why you are feeling overpowered and that the game is easy. But I'm super excited to see the next part of your review! Love ya Mack!
I didn’t have any issues on PC
WOW. I guess it is good you are looking at the game again. I remember you reviewed it when it first came out and gave it 0 with out ever really trying it. That is was when dropped my sub on you. I really enjoy your reviews when you actually go in with an objective try. Yes this game was over hyped but it is a decent game.
didn't expect that one coming
man im so happy youre finally getting around to this. what an amazing game and i predict you will call it your game of the year.
two things ill add to your thoughts; you pointed out how guide are ridden with cheats and cheeses, well the souls or ER community is very segregated in that regards where a big part of of player base does not use any of those or consider them fair or true to the game, and want to play the entire game in its true worth, and another part just dont care how you get to some results i guess and will use any help they can get.
that goes the same for spirit summons, a lot of players like me did not use one of them for the entirety of the game, or in some cases not for bosses because they were added to make this game easier snd more accessible to new players. so its really all preference and what you see yourself being able to achieve with whichever level of assistance you decide to need
If you put into magic put into strength aswell because there's a few good INT STR swords. It's much more satisfying
@Hitmuponnicegramworthabuy you've won a prize aswell. Bend over...
Finally! He has seen the light! Hallelujah!
Btw you can get these stones from towers to add more spells :) they are called Memory stones.
I believe they did some balancing. I've played this game at the beginning. The level of difficulty is a bit easier then before. You still can get wrecked but its not the same as before...
they did, except for the guy with the horse that both republicans and democrats agree on killing.
Personally I went for incantations plus bloodhound sword very fun with Dragon spells, crucible spells, occasionally using carian spells, occasionally using the beast and rot spells too fucking fun af, had a whole lot of fun messing with weapon arts and goofy builds.
What's the deal with the "Body Type" option in character creation? Is it like human/nonhuman, or big/small?
Male or female lol
Current year happened, and all devs suddenly decided you can not name them what they are anymore.
Not sure what’s up with your pc version mine runs absolutely perfect and I play with a few pals on pc, really hope it works for you at some point Mack.
Even though we all already bought it ages ago, I'll still give this a watch lol. I wouldn't advice "guides" or looking ahead. An amazing part of this game is the sense of discovery, and you shouldn't rob yourself of that experience.
Get in touch with Max Thomas for a profitable business,✍️
I remember you reviewed this the day after release and you were absolutely pissed. Some patches in the first week helped alot and I didn't have a problem running it after that but it seems some people still did despite the power of there pc's.
It was really weird, I was like 60 hours in on PC while everyone was still saying it was unplayable, when I would say it worked fine for me no one believed me.
@@Chris-xo2rq Me too, my PC isn't the best but it ran fine and people were pissy. Hopefully it's better for everyone rn
Lol you ended up in Caelid in the beginning of your playthrough too eh? Hehe, that is a very high level area.
First souls game I played so amazing plus its gets brutally hard in the 3rd act which makes you feel like you're level 1 again.
@Tech Priest Such a unique boss, I banged my head on that wall probably 2 dozen times... then I respec'd and killed her the first try after that... her difficulty is HIGHLY dependent on your spec, loadout, and tactics.
@@Chris-xo2rq, my tactic was flawless. Run around like a headless chicken and swing my weapon like a manic whenever I saw an opening.
Only took me 174 tries.
(Joking, about 12 attempts. My build was actually pretty good at keeping her at range)
just wait until he gets to bosses that ignore magic lmao
but hes googling stuuf tho, i think thats why hes thinking the game is easy
I’ve been playing for 170 hours and tried four different builds,just started looking up stuff on RUclips and there’s loads I’ve missed! I still haven’t finished this game amd still finding new enemies and areas.Only thing wrong with this game for me is a lack of a conversation log.
Well your 8% through the game and if your second part is level 50 with a couple world bosses youll be 25% through the game. We gonna get a part 3 and 4?
"...thinking he's it." Cracked me up.
i wanna see mack's elder ring