Elden Ring is a terrific game in many ways. One of its greatest achievements is the RPG’s open game world. In my review, I went into detail about it and explained why Elden Ring has conquered the throne of open-world games.

In doing so, however, I focused more on the content than on what it does to you. And that’s where I noticed something recently: While I was in a dungeon, I found myself not paying attention to where I was going.

Instead, I’m constantly busy searching every corner, destroying every crate, and really looking everywhere to make sure I haven’t missed any loot. This goes so far that I would call it paranoia, but fortunately in a positive sense.

A little paranoia can earn you valuable rewards

That’s why it’s a good thing: The realization was initially preceded by a long journey through a dungeon. As is so typical of From Software games, these are totally convoluted and it’s easy to get lost. Therefore, you always have to examine the areas and rooms carefully and keep them in mind if you don’t want to go astray.

Or you do it like me: the other way around. Here is a scene that happened just recently like this:

• Whenever I set a goal for myself in Elden Ring, it doesn’t take long for that feeling to slowly creep out and a voice whispers in the back of my mind, “Hey… you! Look, there! There’s a ruin. Maybe there’s some loot there! Go over there, come on. You want it too, don’t you?”
• This voice cannot be ignored. It ensures that I permanently have in my head that I could miss something at any time.
• This is what happened the other day when I passed a cave on my way to a destination. After I fought an unbelievably long 2 second inner discussion that I actually wanted to do the next boss, my inner loot hound had won.
• The smallest suspicion and the prospect of Loot, pursue me while playing permanently. In dungeons it is even “worse”, because here everything is even more twisted and here even inconspicuous walls can lurk a path or a treasure.

The fact that you can get to more hidden places with the new jumping mechanic adds to the whole thing. MyMMO author Irina Moritz rates jumping as one of the coolest features in the game.

Often enough, I’ve gotten lost and completely disoriented because of it. But that’s usually rewarded, as in this case, with a cool spell, weapon, or other valuable item.

Such things experience I experience them all the time in Elden Ring. That’s why you see me almost only rolling through dungeons. Every damn wooden crate has to be destroyed, because there might be some loot hidden behind it!

All in all, I probably spent a few of my 80 hours of game time banging on stone walls, because there might be a secret passage behind them.