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Official Elden Ring key art of the Tarnished before the Erdtree

Open Country

Elden Ring

A world with no arrows on the map, and one purchase with nothing behind it.

One of the great open worlds, priced honestly and built to be earned. Buy it, expect to die, and let the map teach you.

Pay once, no shopOpen worldSingle playerOptional co-opNo account needed

Elden Ring is FromSoftware's open-world action role-playing game: a vast, ruined fantasy country, the Lands Between, explored on horseback with almost no guidance and defended by some of the hardest bosses in the medium. It is a single purchase with a single large expansion and no shop. It is also demanding from the first minute, and it does not apologise for that.

The four bearings

  • N
    Newcomer · 20%
    5

    The opening is a boss designed to beat you, a tutorial you can walk past, and a world that explains nothing. Deliberate, but a real wall for some players.

  • E
    Every session · 35%
    9.5

    Every twenty minutes contains a discovery: a cave, a castle, a knight on the road. The combat is precise and fair, and the freedom to walk away from a fight and come back stronger is the design's masterstroke.

  • S
    Staying power · 25%
    8.5

    A hundred hours to see the base game, then an expansion of unusual size and quality. After that it is replays and builds, and the community is still finding things.

  • W
    Wallet · 20%
    10

    One price, one expansion, one small class pack. No currency, no pass, no shop. The model every game on this chart should envy.

Weighted 20 / 35 / 25 / 20 into an Atlas score of 8.5. How the bearings work.

What you are actually doing

You are a Tarnished, returned to the Lands Between to become Elden Lord, which in practice means riding across a huge, layered map, finding sites of grace to rest at, and fighting things that are stronger than you until they aren't. Combat is FromSoftware's usual precise dance of dodges, blocks and openings, with a wide choice of weapons, spells and summons. What Elden Ring added to that formula is the open world: if a fight is too hard, you can leave, explore elsewhere, level up, find a better weapon and return. That freedom turns a famously punishing style into something anyone patient can finish.

There is a story, told mostly through item descriptions and a few extraordinary characters. It rewards attention and does not require it.

The first evening, honestly

The first hour is disorienting on purpose. You choose a class, fall into a cave, meet a boss you are meant to lose to, and step out into Limgrave with a horse and a hint. The tutorial cave is optional and easy to miss; take it. The first mounted knight on the road will kill you, and the game wants you to ride past him. Most players say the moment the game clicks is the first time they get lost and find a castle.

Why it stays

The world is dense in a way that keeps rewarding return: a second character finds a different route, a different weapon, a different ending. Shadow of the Erdtree, the expansion, is close to a full game in size and is the best content in it. Patch 1.17 on 27 August 2026 rebalanced sorceries, incantations and critical hits and added two NPC invasions to the base game, so older guides may be slightly out of date. Optional co-op with friends softens the hardest moments, and the Switch 2 Tarnished Edition, out the following day, brought the whole thing to a handheld.

Elden Ring screenshot of Stormveil Castle
Stormveil Castle under a stormy sky
Elden Ring screenshot of a dragon in a river at night
A dragon in the river at night
Elden Ring screenshot of a torch-lit crystal cave
A torch in the crystal cave

Where it shines, where it drags

  • An open world that trusts you completely
  • Fair, precise combat with room to make it easier
  • A single purchase, a single expansion, no shop
  • Co-op and summons make the difficulty flexible
  • Hard from the first minute and slow to explain itself
  • The useful tutorial is easy to miss
  • No cross-play between platforms
  • Console online play needs the platform's subscription

The toll: what it costs in the UK

Elden Ring is a single purchase with no shop inside it. The Shadow of the Erdtree expansion is sold separately, and the Tarnished Pack, released on 28 August 2026, adds two starting classes, new weapons and armour and three looks for your horse. That is the entire list. Prices are Steam UK on 24 September 2026.

  • Base game (Steam, PlayStation, Xbox)£49.99
  • Shadow of the Erdtree expansion£34.99
  • Shadow of the Erdtree Premium Bundle (expansion plus extras)£39.99
  • Tarnished Pack (two classes, weapons, armour, mount skins)£3.99
  • Switch 2 Tarnished Edition (game, expansion and pack)Price shown in the Nintendo eShop

Randomised items: No. There is nothing randomised for sale and no in-game currency to buy.

Subscriptions and online play: No subscription on PC. On PlayStation, Xbox and Switch 2, online co-op and invasions need the platform's paid online service; the whole game plays offline without it.

Prices checked 24 September 2026 on the UK stores named above. See Paying for games in the UK for the rights that apply to each payment route.

Who it suits

Players who love exploring without a guide and enjoy a fair challenge. If frustration spoils games for you, play with summons and a friend, or choose the story-led road: Baldur's Gate 3 is the other great single purchase on the chart.

Where to go next

Start with the Elden Ring waypoint for a first evening that goes well. Or compare it directly: Elden Ring or Baldur's Gate 3.