Elden Ring and Telling Story in an Open World

Elden Ring proves a good story is almost impossible to tell in a truly open world. Open world games are often criticized for not giving the player enough options or just being a map full of icons with copy and pasted missions. The best example of this is Far Cry (or Halo Infinite or Ghost of Tsushima or Horizon or Spiderman etc.), go here, kill the guys, interact with a computer. Open world games are recognized for their greatness when they escape this formula.

I want to examine the Rockstar formula because it has some very stark differences from Elden Ring. Specifically Red Dead Redemption (the first one). The gameplay loop for RDR is, open the map, pick an icon that denotes an NPC is there (there are never more than three at a time on the map), go there, watch the cutscene, get on your horse and talk to NPC on the way to the real destination (usually a camp of bad guys), kill bad guys at the destination, ride back and have another conversation with NPC. What does this achieve that the Far Cry formula does not? It tells much more story. I, as the player, can understand the storylines and the relationships between characters much better than in the Far Cry formula. The time that would normally just be traveling to the place where the bad guys are is replaced with traveling to the bad guys with a buddy and talking about why you are doing this, the location, or other characters in the story. Secondly, it is longer. The player still has to travel to an icon, instead of directly putting the player in the action they are forced to listen to a character talk for a while. This can make sections of the game more boring because the amount of time to get to the action is extended by a lot. So, what are designers to do, tell more story but have less action? How do you tell the story but still have the action?

I think Elden Ring designers have put their focus on the diversity of opponents, diversity of scenery, and big boss battles. This gives I have spent over 30 hours in Elden Ring. I have experienced almost no story. I do not understand any of the relationships I have with the NPCs. I met a bunch of them at the very beginning and haven't seen them since. The only cutscenes outside of the very beginning have been before a couple of boss battles. There is some story being added there but not much as it is just an introduction to a character who will be dead within minutes. I have enjoyed a lot of my time with the game but I expected a lot more in terms of story. Because of George R. R. Martin’s involvement, I hoped for an in-depth story. I am not a fan of Game of Thrones (just never given it a chance) but I figured “He’s a talented writer, I’m sure there will be a strong story.”

There might be ways to play the game where you experience much more story but the nature of the game makes this very difficult unless you already know what steps to take. I also understand if I keep playing I’ll get more story moments and character relationships, but I think it is pitiful to have to spend over 30 hours before getting any interesting story.

A lot of the story is on the player, you pick who you want to be, pick your decisions and live with the consequences.

Note: I am not quitting Elden Ring, just taking a break. I’m sure I will have more thoughts on the game once I progress further.