Elden Ring

If you like getting your ass handed to you, you’ll love Elden Ring. It’s the latest game out of FromSoftware, a studio best known for establishing a relentlessly difficult live-die-repeat formula of action-RPGs with its Souls series (which has spawned a gazillion copycats). It’s also the first to apply that formula to an open-world framework. Unlike most similarly structured games, Elden Ring refuses to hold your hand, instead letting you roam free. Sometimes, that means meeting a boss who kills you 242 times. But more likely, you’re just…seeing what exists in the nooks and crannies of this carefully designed realm. Though Elden Ring can be frustrating at points, there’s truly no game like it (until, of course, it spawns another gazillion copycats).

A Good Match For: People who like dying in Demon’s Souls, exploring in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and watching the withering corpses of dead gods decay into dust.

Not A Good Match For: People who don’t like dying in Demon’s Souls, exploring in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, or watching the withering corpses of dead gods decay into dust.