There's a gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach. I've barely breached the bounds of Castle Ensis, an early location in Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree , but something's amiss. I've so far ran the gamut against hordes of half-dead, a towering giant whose thirst for blood was antithetical of Roald Dahl's greatest children's novel, and a huddle or intermittently disappearing mages who showered blue piercing sorcery on me without a second thought.
But now it's quiet. Too quiet. As I move towards the crest of a hill that leads to a clearing, I crouch in the opportune long grass that hugs the cliff face to my left.
I edge forward, slowly, before pausing. Nothing. I rise to my feet, take two steps forward and – BLOODY HELL! Where did that zombie dog come from, and why has half of my health bar vanished? It's a tale as old as time, isn't it? Just when you think you're safe in these types of games, you, very clearly, are not.
Just like Dark Souls . Just like Bloodborne . Just like Demon's Souls .
And just like Kalisto Entertainment's Nightmare Creatures, a game whose unnerving claustrophobia still haunts me to this day. Teach an old dog Given the obvious chasm in hardware capabilities between the two, Nightmare Creatures and Shadow of the Erdtree aren't immediately similar in visual terms, but there are stark overarching similarities off the bat. They're both set in gothic worlds, each filled with the most abhorrent and twisted baddies.
They unfold under the cloak of darkness a.
