As of today, October 24, 2026, I have played over 155 hours (Level 109 Wretch) with the Elden Ring Tarnished Edition on Switch 2 and another bunch of hours with the Shadow of the Erdtree edition on Xbox Series X. I only play on PC when I have to, I prefer not having to waste time on graphical and performance settings and FPS counters – and that’s basically all that I did with the PC version of the game; and that tells me all anybody needs to know about PC gaming and how ridiculous is that?
That being said, the game itself is the same on all platforms (but as far as I am concerned, the Switch 2 version feels the best – there, I said it).
Just like the first sip of Islay Whiskey like Laphroaig, you WILL hate this game when you first play it. And you will uninstall it in rage.
Then you will re-install it a bit later. And uninstall it in rage again.
When you re-install it for the third time, you’re testing positive for having caught “the Elden Ring bug”.
This is one of the most frustrating games in the history of gaming, if not THE most frustrating game ever created.
In a nutshell: You will burn 12 hours or more on trying to beat a “boss” that is so ridiculously overpowered and unfairly designed that you can successfully claim temporary insanity for even playing this nonsense.
And then you beat this boss.
You might have had to take long detours in the game to level up your character or find items or weapons or summons that help you beat him or her, but eventually you got there.
Strangely enough, when you finally succeed, you will feel nothing.
No rush of victory.
No satisfaction.
You just move on.
And then there will be a regular guard waiting for you around the corner who will kill you with one blow. Not a boss, just a puny little guard.
Once more, “YOU DIED” takes the center of your screen.
That’s the Elden Ring experience in a nutshell.
This is not a game anyone can recommend to any sane person.
Elden Ring does not have a story. It has lore that’s being told through the environment. But this game does NOT have an actual story.
It’s a brutal and broken world that drove everybody insane and turned all living or undead creatures into murderous lunatics.
It only has a fistful of NPCs that actually speak. Almost everything in this world is just out to kill you – without even saying a word.
The game has a gigantic amount of catacombs, tombs, tunnels and dungeons that LITERALLY (!) use copy and paste design. Apparently, this world only had one old socialist architect who reused the exact same design all over the country.
The music tries to be Richard Wagner’s PARSIFAL, but fails miserably. It is a depressing soundtrack that only adds to the constant frustration and this game is so much better when you just turn off the music and only listen to the wind and rain in the game.
The graphics are not as good as everybody says they are. But what they deliver unbelievably impressive environments. That extremely long elevetor ride down to that underground city alone makes it worth playing the game. These are the moments when Elden Ring feels like pure genius, when you know that you are playing something truly unique and special despite its astronomical amount of design flaws.
This is when you love the game.
A second later, you will get one-hit-killed again and hate the game and might even throw your controller into your screen, screaming and shouting and hitting the desk with your fist.
Then you keep on grinding, leveling up, exploring and picking the next fight until you win it – usually by using your brains instead of your brawns, because your brawns will never be powerful enough in this game.
That insanity of a game is Elden Ring. I will NOT recommend it to any sane person who wants to find an escape, entertainment or merely a few moments of fun when playing a game. Because that is NOT what Elden Ring is.
But if you are a defiant, grinding and ambitious type of gamer, then Elden Ring will be the hill you die on.