Dr Disrespect praises Elden Ring but claims key gripes stop it from being perfect

Brad Norton

While Dr Disrespect has since come around on Elden Ring following his early criticism, the two-time still believes a few major issues hold the FromSoftware title back from perfection.

Dr Disrespect has been one of many venturing into The Lands Between since the highly anticipated Elden Ring finally launched to record-breaking hype. Although the YouTube star was left fuming after his initial run, Doc has continued coming back for more with each passing stream.

Now claiming he’s the “best Elden Ring player” out there, he’s clearly taken to Elden Ring’s punishing gameplay loop. Yet while he’s far more positive towards it a few dozen hours deep, it’s still not quite meeting his expectations after near-unanimous critical acclaim.

Despite his praise for the overall direction, a few critical issues prevent Elden Ring from being a truly flawless experience in Doc’s eyes.

elden ring dragon
Dr Disrespect has praised everything from Elden Ring’s bosses to the open world, but still believes a few key issues hold it back.

Originally handing out a 6/10 rating for the game during its first week, Doc was critical of not just the overall grind, but of Elden Ring’s “terrible” camera as well.

When asked if his initial score had changed, however, the two-time had far more to say. Doc had nothing but praise for the game’s design in terms of both specific enemies and the overall world.

Moreover, he was stoked with Elden Ring’s highly customizable combat.

“I haven’t even begun to explore other possibilities with my character yet,” he said. Having mainly stuck to a melee-focused build, he has far more left to explore “in terms of abilities.”

Now bringing his rating up to an “8.8” or an “8.9,” his outlook is far most positive. Though even with this higher score, Doc still struggles to understand the near-unanimous praise due to a handful of glaring issues hindering his experience. 

“There’s a lot of third-person camera stuff going on that I don’t like,” he explained. “I don’t want my camera to go through the bodies of creatures. It seems like we spend a lot of time seeing that stuff when we’re fighting bosses.

“How can they fix that? I don’t know, I’ve heard third-person camera design is tough.”

Beyond that, Doc also believes Elden Ring’s menus can be clunky at times, along with the game’s overall control scheme. Claiming it’s “something you have to get used to,” he continuously finds himself “irritated” by both systems.

Doc’s latest Elden Ring comments begin at the 6:10 mark below.

Given Doc’s Elden Ring rating has only gone up the more he’s played, there’s still every chance he goes higher in the days and weeks to come. 

With no signs of completely ditching the title anytime soon, we could see the YouTube streamer completing his first full single-player game in quite some time.

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About The Author

Brad Norton is the Australian Managing Editor at Dexerto. He graduated from Swinburne University with a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and has been working full-time in the field for the past six years at the likes of Gamurs Group and now Dexerto. He loves all things single-player gaming (with Uncharted a personal favorite) but has a history on the competitive side having previously run Oceanic esports org Mindfreak. You can contact Brad at brad.norton@dexerto.com