Playing a FromSoftware game like Bloodborne or the newly released Elden Ring is already challenging enough for many, but there are those who want to test their mettle even further. With one player beating 10 LEGO games in under 20 hours recently, the speedrunning community is very much alive and kicking and presents a new challenge for anyone dedicated enough to take it on. It also doesn't appear to matter whether a game is old or new, as it's possible to beat world records even on titles that have only just come out.
Take the aforementioned Elden Ring as an example. People have already been spending hours learning how to speedrun the brutal game, and now one user has managed to get to the end credits in less than 18 minutes. With a time of 17:43, YouTuber Distortion2 continues to beat their speedrun records nearly on a weekly basis, thanks to continuing to find optimized routes and tricks to further cut down the time.
Some reading this may be wondering how they were able to achieve this. The answer is, similar to user Hazeblade who beat Elden Ring in less than 25 minutes, they were able to employ a bug known as the "zip glitch." The way it works is it allows the player to zip forward at incredible speeds, covering a lot of distance. This method enables the bypassing of a lot of large areas of the map. However, there are some in the community, speedrunning or otherwise, who feel that there will be a category of runs for the game that will eventually ban the glitch. While it doesn't break the rules of a speedrun, some feel it may remove the spirit of a run.
In any case, achieving a time of under 18 minutes is very impressive, especially given that Distortion2 managed to get 22 minutes a couple of weeks ago and around 25 minutes before that. It would be interesting to see whether they beat this new record as well or whether someone adds even greater challenge to it, such as speedrunning the game completely blindfolded.
Elden Ring is one of the highest rated games ever made, with a Metacritic score of 96 on Xbox Series and PS5 and 95 on PC. It's impressive that people are dedicating time and effort into smashing world records in a game that's only been out for a month. It shows just how active the community is, but also how popular the game is as well.
Elden Ring is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
