Elden Ring really has some amazing artistry, visual and audio. I had been playing Horizon Forbidden West, but while technically proficient, the game's rarely trying to show you anything. And Elden Ring is filled with those visually striking scenes. I can't remember a time I ever saw such a striking contrast of visual mastery. And I like Horizon Forbidden West FWIW, but I've taken more screenshots in Elden Ring already...
Haven't had too much poor performance, but I did stop playing online pretty much immediately. I got a huge stutter really early on when playing online and I could kind of tell it was network related. It's generally smooth offline (but of course there are hitches). Smoother than say, FF7 Remake in DX12 or even Halo Infinite IMO.
I feel like it's definitely more forgiving than any Souls. Every Souls had jerk deaths and extremely difficult optional enemies / paths, even really early on. This one has a token one, but then walks it back to general safety. Of course I come in having beaten every one of those, so I know what to look for and how to behave by now. Of course I am still very early, and maybe they actually balanced this one a bit. Many Fromsoft games have a sudden difficulty drop. Bloodborne was easy after the first boss!
The core to me will be the exploration, just like any action adventure of its like.