Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition review – A great port of a phenomenal game

You probably don’t need me to tell you this, but the Nintendo Switch 2 is an impressive bit of kit. If you’d have told me a year or so ago that it would run games that look nearly as good as their PS5 and Xbox Series X counterparts, I’d have probably laughed at you. After recently playing Lies of P and now Elden Ring on the device, however, I’m happy to eat crow.

Elden Ring arrives on Switch 2 in the form of the Tarnished Edition. That means not only do you get the base game here, but also the hefty Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. On top of that, you get some brand new content, too: two new starting classes are available, giving you more build options from the outset, and there are also some skins for your trusty steed, Torrent, and some additional weapons and armour to discover. The new content isn’t game-changing, then, but it’s a nice addition nonetheless.

For anyone that hasn’t played Elden Ring before, you’re in for a treat with this Tarnished Edition. Well, as long as you’re game for a challenge. It introduces you to The Lands Between, a fantastical world inhabited by a wide variety of fearsome adversaries, ranging from hostile soldiers to giant ogres. Your quest: to overcome all of the obstacles placed before you and become the Elden Lord. Of course, it’s not going to be easy.

As it’s developed by FromSoftware, it’s understandable that the core gameplay of Elden Ring is very similar to that found in the studio’s previous titles such as Dark Souls and Bloodborne. This is a game that doesn’t hold your hand, having an air of mystery that only makes it more alluring. And when it comes to combat, there’s a large emphasis on stamina management, making you think carefully about every action.

What makes things feel fresh here, though, is the open world format. You’re largely free to go wherever you want, with rewards to be found in every direction. And if you ever find yourself stuck, it often pays to simply go somewhere else, find some new items and perhaps level up a little. But there are also plenty of major locations, or “legacy dungeons”, that offer more of a structured challenge. You typically need to conquer these to proceed through the game’s main path, so you can bet there are plenty of fiendish bosses along the way.

It all makes for a journey that’s assuredly arduous, but also wonderfully compelling and infinitely rewarding. As I stated in my review of the base game back in 2022, “this is undoubtedly FromSoftware’s best game yet by a large margin”. And the good news is that it’s been ported to Switch 2 without any real concessions. This is the full-fat Elden Ring experience, but now you can play it pretty much wherever you go. You can play it during your daily commute if you like, or even while you’re sat on the porcelain throne.

For a start, Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition looks great on Switch 2. There may be some small visual compromises, but on the whole this compares extremely well to other versions of the game on more powerful hardware. What’s more, performance is surprisingly solid, too. There are no graphics modes to switch between here – what you see is what you get – but it’s clear FromSoftware has worked hard to strike a balance, providing visuals that push the hardware while sticking closely to a 30fps target.

If you’re planning to play it solely on a big TV, then, there are better ways to play Elden Ring. But if you only have a Switch 2, or want to play it handheld, the Tarnished Edition will serve you well. My biggest complaint here isn’t with the port but with the game itself, with the included expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, introducing a new blessing-based progression system that artificially increases the difficulty. Still, more Elden Ring is only a good thing.