While the intense difficulty of FromSoftware's Soulsborne games may not be for everyone, something that's almost universally loved is their storytelling. Games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne have darkly fantastical worlds that offer up so many questions to players, with many of those questions actually having answers hidden between the lines. Elden Ring is no exception, as it has a massive open world with no shortage of stories to tell.
In many ways, Elden Ring's world has enough care put into it that it could very well be considered a modern fantasy epic along the lines of The Lord of the Rings. That's no easy task, so it's little surprise that there aren't too many video games that feel like they quite match the scale of FromSoft's latest adventure. That doesn't mean that Elden Ring fans craving more high fantasy aren't completely out of luck, as there's a massively underrated game that might just rival the Lands Between in scale.
Sorcery Is an Adventure Game Series That Can Rival Elden Ring
Sorcery, a 2013 adventure game series from Inkle Studios, has developed a serious cult following in recent years. The game is actually an adaptation of a gamebook series penned by author and Lionhead Studios co-founder Steve Jackson, and it includes new content not present in the original books. The plot of both the novels and the game is the same: players must travel from their hometown of Analand to recover a stolen artifact known as the Crown of Kings.
Sorcery is a choose-your-own-adventure game, but don't let that genre downplay the game's scale. The quest for the Crown of Kings spans four games, each featuring its own open-world environment that players can explore. While the first game's world is certainly on the smaller side, the second game raises the stakes by presenting players with the massive city of Kharé to explore. It's next to impossible to see everything that Kharé has to offer in just one playthrough, and that's just in one city.
Steve Jackson's Sorcery Has High Replay Value
Open-world fantasy games like Elden Ring and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim tend to put a lot of focus on replayability. Sorcery does the same, as there are many possible actions and paths the player can take throughout the four games. As the game is a text adventure at heart, players can expect the usual format of being faced with a problem and having to pick from a selection of predetermined solutions. What makes Sorcery so much more than a text adventure is the sheer number of options available, many of which come from the game's spell-casting system.
At certain points throughout their adventure, players may have the option to cast a spell. Only certain spells from their spell book will be available, though there are often several to choose from. For example, players may be able to cast a spell when presented with a locked door. While the spell DOP can specifically be used to unlock doors, players might also have the option to take a more violent approach with a spell such as HOT or ZAP, which are Sorcery's equivalents to fireball and magic missiles, respectively.
No matter what spell players elect, they'll get a unique paragraph of text that brilliantly describes what happens next. Even if the spell fails or doesn't end up providing a solution to the current problem, there's still unique writing for the situation. This also is true for the various branching paths in the storyline. In short, the game's writing will ensure that no playthrough will end up being exactly the same, which is a huge accomplishment for the normally linear genre of choose-your-own-adventure games.
The adventure is split into four equally massive games, with the player's choices carrying over between them. The player's decisions matter, with some even impacting the overall story of the entire Sorcery saga. Players are also free to roleplay the kind of character they want, as the options cover a wide range of moralities and options. There's almost always a way for players to work their way out of failure.
Sorcery encourages exploration and experimentation with its vast amount of content, making it feel much more like an open-world title along the lines of Elden Ring. Those who enjoyed exploring the lore of Elden Ring's world will find a lot to love in Sorcery's world-building, especially given the richness of the game world's lore. There are many different cultures, monsters and local legends for the player to explore at their leisure, giving Steve Jackson's Sorcery a sense of exploration that outshines many modern open-world adventure games.