The openness of Elden Ring impresses more than the semi-openness of God of War. How did Elden Ring beat GoW Ragnarok to GOTY?

Although we are talking about two, structurally very different games – Elden Ring is a full-fledged, monumental open world, while God of War: Ragnarok offers semi-open hubs full of numerous, but rather linear branches – both competing titles reward thorough exploration. But which rewards you more generously, and in which of them is exploration more exciting?

Well, Elden Ring starts like Breath of the Wild – in a dark crypt, which we leave as soon as possible, to then stand at the threshold of a completely open realm. A realm to explore, exploit and dominate on your way to the Elden throne. Although the general direction of travel is hinted by the magic rays oozing from the bonfires, we will quickly veer off course and run where our eyes and legs take us. The excitement that comes from exploring every square foot of digital surface occurs right away and I don't think any other open-world game made me so fixated on exploring absolutely every last inch of them.

Ragnarok, on the other hand, opens up in segments between the main story missions. Very often, exploring the nearby areas is encouraged either by a new side quest, or by a dialogue line of one of the characters to the effect of: "We're in no hurry, let's explore, it will be fun." And it's really a lot of fun, because you can discover not only a lot of loot boxes, but also more quests or mythological secrets. When it comes to the optional content, there is usually a piece of intriguing story behind it – the creators admitted they were strongly inspired by the achievements of CD Projekt RED in this field, and it can be seen, heard and felt.

What about side quests in Elden Ring? They exist, but the game never clearly communicates that these are your typical missions. We just meet an NPC, who asks us to go to a given location in search of an item, sometimes even getting a marker on the map, but it's ultimately up to the inquisitiveness of the player whether they will want to push a specific thread towards resolution. And there's no telling if a quest that seems inconspicuous at first, will, for example, lead you to an alternative ending, for example. Therefore, it's worth thoroughly exploring the world of ER not only because of the possibility of obtaining valuable equipment, but also to combine fragments of the story, ever so scarce and fragmented.

Both games can take a lot of time if you want to "max them out," both also offer an endgame filled to the brim with additional content. God of War lasts for about 50 hours, while Elden Ring can easily exceed 100h if the player wants to discover everything (I don't know if that's even possible), and then, for dessert, comes an extensive multiplayer module and the ability to complete the next playthrough in new game plus. FromSoftware has therefore provided players with a product of enormous proportions, devoid of annoying, redundant fillers. GoW is much more modest compared to it in terms of content, although the variety of side activities that go beyond the standards of typical action adventure games has to be appreciated.