Let’s get this out of the way first. No, Elden Ring doesn’t really ‘work’ in VR.
That is to say the RPG masterpiece was never intended for this medium, and trying to tackle any boss or enemy with a first-person camera, constantly diving to the floor to roll or getting lost in a chaotic mash of textures as you move into attack, is majorly disorienting. It’s not so much putting a blindfold on you and asking you to hit a pinata as it is constantly spinning you on the spot and demanding you take wild swings at one. Simply put, you shouldn’t try and play the game right the way through in first-person with a VR headset on unless you’re the kind of masochist that likes to finish Souls games without leveling up or using a Guitar Hero controller.
But that’s far from the end of the story for this VR mod.
Elden Ring VR Mod Gameplay
Developer Luke Ross has been releasing unofficial VR ports under his R.E.A.L. VR label for a while now, starting out with No One Lives Forever 2 and moving on to the likes of GTAV, Red Dead Redemption 2 and, more recently, Cyberpunk 2077. Not only has Ross been able to refine the performance and compatibility of his mods with each successive release, but he’s also gradually implemented an increasingly robust set of options. Clearly, the developer realizes that very few people are actually going to play the entirety of Elden Ring in first-person in VR. Malenia simply wouldn’t allow it, for one thing.
And so this incredibly impressive release has a few key options to help you get the most out of it. Beyond the standard third-person camera and the new first-person option, there’s two other modes. ‘Closer’ brings you, well, closer to your character without fully assuming their perspective. Then there’s ‘R.E.A.L. Close’ with brings the camera even further towards them. The idea is to give you a more meaningful VR experience that capitalizes on seeing the world in 3D without necessarily sacrificing the gameplay itself.
And that’s not all. Using the incredibly intuitive VR quick menu — which actually pauses the entire game, something you can’t do in the base Elden Ring — you can enable tourist mode, which means NPCs and bosses ignore you, even if you attack them. This means you can take in the stunning, haunted world of Limgrave and beyond without having to worry about combat. Certainly, if you’ve already got a near-complete save file on PC, it’s worth jumping in to fully appreciate From Software’s storied style in VR for the first time.
All that is to say is that, yes, you can try and beat Elden Ring in VR in first-person. It’s a really fun novelty to see towering bosses stand before you, or sneak through bushes to get a sneaky critical attack. There are novel issues of course, like armor clipping out in front of you and a disconnect between your camera and attack direction, but it’s undeniably entertaining to take in and this world hides from real treasures that you can see from a fresh perspective.
But this mod has far more useful options that also give you the best of both worlds, making it an unofficial port of the game that you might actually want to see through to completion. There aren’t many VR mods you can truthfully say that about. Ross will be releasing the mod via his Patreon campaign soon, and signing up gives you access to his past work, too.
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