“FromSoftware low-key made Elden Ring 2 and called it DLC"
HOW I PLAYED: I preordered on PC via Steam and PSN, getting the new gesture. I did my first playthrough on PC via Steam. I ran the game at a mostly locked 60fps (Game cap) with max settings at 1440p. My gaming PC has a Ryzen 7 7800X3D, 32GB DDR5 6000mhz RAM, and an RTX 3080.
STORY — 18/20
INTRO
The DLC starts right off the rip! If you have beaten Mohg, an optional boss in the base game (you should have! You had 2 years to do this!) an NPC is waiting for you at that site of grace. You speak with them, and they introduce themselves as Leda, getting the story of Shadow of the Erdtree going. You immediately warp to the Realm of Shadow and begin your journey into the DLC.
CUTSCENES
As is FromSoftware tradition, the cutscenes in the DLC are few and far between, but each one has an incredible impact on your emotions and deepens your understanding of the overall story.
WORLD BUILDING
Usually, I am not the type to read item descriptions in FromSoft games. I usually can get the gist of the story and wait until VaatiVidya makes a video explaining things. But this time around, I wanted to try and get the most out of my first playthrough, so I took the time to read each item description. I am personally glad I did! The NPC quest lines in the DLC are true to form, remaining incredibly cryptic and disheartening.
OVERALL STORY
The story in Shadow of the Erdtree gives us some answers from the main story but also a lot more questions. I was very drawn in by the characters and their motivations, and the overall atmosphere is top-tier FromSoftware. I will say though,
SPOILER WARNING
the final boss of the DLC was a little bit of a letdown. It was an amazing moment and cool to see, and it was a joy to play as it amped up the stakes. But I was left wanting more, and there was another character who I thought would have made a much better final boss than what we got.
GRAPHICS — 15/15
CHARACTER MODELS
So far, nobody can create and write characters like FromSoftware. This new band of NPCs is all excellent (Leda, Hornsent, Freyja, Ansbach, Thiollier, Moore, Dane). The bosses, even the minor ones, all look incredible. FromSoft stepped up their game in the DLC.
ENVIRONMENTS
There are some truly exceptional experiences in the DLC where I had to stop my character look at the environment and say, "Wow." I have never been one to walk around a game area to appreciate its beauty, but there are some truly jaw-dropping vistas and plains in the Shadow Realm. The level of art direction and design displayed in this DLC, and in FromSoftware games in general, should be studied at a university.
SPECIAL FX
As is tradition with any FromSoftware DLC, there are new abilities, spells, and weapons, and in Shadow of the Erdtree, this is tenfold. There are a ton of new special effects, and they all look incredible, further placing FromSoft as the top echelon of game design for RPGs and action games.
AUDIO — 15/15
AMBIENCE
There is a constant sense of dread and somber doom in the land of shadow. The ambient sounds and area tracks convey that in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. As soon as you enter, you get a sense that something is not right in this place, and that feeling follows you throughout the entirety of its playtime.
BOSS MUSIC
The boss music in each FromSoftware release always seems to find a way to outdo its predecessor, and I don't know how they possibly accomplish this. There are tracks in the DLC that legitimately make the hair stand up on my arms and neck. The tracks have amazing depth and nuance with their incredible orchestration and operatic vocals. There are also elements from the base game mixed into some tracks, which remind you of simpler times in the Lands Between.
SOUND DESIGN
No Souls-like games seem to understand how important sound design is when it comes to these types of games. FromSoftware just knows how to make satisfying weapon hit sounds or the amazing sound of breaking an enemy or boss's posture. All of the sound design in Shadow of the Erdtree is AAA status and is complemented with incredible voice acting and dialogue (even if small compared to other studio titles).
PERFORMANCE — 7/10
FRAME RATE
I played on PC via Steam and was at a mostly locked 60fps at 1440p maximum settings. I even had a setting in my GeForce Experience app where it upped my game resolution past 4k and down-res'd to 2k for sharper visuals, and even that was hitting mostly locked 60fps. There were rare times when my frame rate dipped to 59fps, which I could barely tell.
But this is not where the story ends...
I had been hearing from a lot of console players that the frame rate was not performing as it should, even on the current flagship consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series X). I decided to do some testing for myself and also found that there were lots of frame dips, and even in performance mode, the game would dip below 50fps at times. This is unacceptable, especially for FromSoftware at this point. If it was pre-Elden Ring days, I would give FromSoftware more of a break for this since they were a relatively small Japanese studio with limited resources. But now, 2 years past their most successful major juggernaut of a hit, having sold 25+ million copies, this type of under-optimization cannot be forgiven. Especially for a title that heavily requires players to rely on very tight timing for attacks and battles. Very disappointing, but the DLC has only been out for 5 days (at the time of writing), so hopefully we get some major performance patches soon.
STABILITY
Shadow of the Erdtree exhibited no game-breaking glitches or even any minor cosmetic glitches from what I could see in my playthrough. Some people have complained about the difficulty and feel that it is a bit "unfair" for players. But I am not one of those people. The reason why I did not give a perfect score is because I do feel that the frame rate issues will cause an added level of frustration and difficulty, which is not intended to be there for progression in the game.
GAMEPLAY — 36/40
CONTROLS
They are the same as the base game, so if you are a fan of this style of controller scheme, you will be right at home. I am a huge fan of the tried-and-true FromSoftware button layout for the Souls games, and I wish other studios would just straight-copy this scheme for their games.
MECHANICS
FromSoftware has found a way to make players who have been grinding the base game for 2 years feel like they are playing Elden Ring for the very first time again. The Scadutree Fragments is a super unique leveling system, and it means that no matter what level or equipment you enter the DLC with, you are going to feel like a starter class character entering Limgrave for the first time again. And I LOVED THIS! Sure, you can brute force your way through the DLC's main story elements and probably have a very difficult time (which a lot of players have been reporting). But if you explore the Shadow Realm and gain more map fragments, you will be rewarded with more Scadutree fragments and therefore be able to enhance your character as if you were farming for runes in the base game.
PACING
The pacing is excellent in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. There are no fetch quests or mandatory side missions. You just PLAY and discover this new hidden world on your own. If anything, I feel like you can easily miss a lot of the DLC's content by just going directly through the main story of the DLC as it is super close to where you start.
UI/UE
Just before release, FromSoftware released version 1.12 of Elden Ring, which added a bunch of QOL enhancements to the base game. There is a new "New Item" icon and a new "Recent Items" tab in the item menu, making it easier for players to find new items that they just picked up. This shows FromSoftware is learning and listening to player feedback, which is important since Elden Ring has essentially broken the studio out into the mainstream of gaming.
BOSS QUALITY
Hidetaka Miyazaki and the team at FromSoftware continuously show that they are just so far ahead when it comes to boss design in games. It makes the rest of the industry look like a joke in comparison. All of the "Remembrance" bosses have a new level of aggression that makes Godskin Duo look tame. This forced me to change up my play style and learn the new weaknesses of these bosses. I still got to play the way I wanted to, I just had to refine a little.
The best example of this is the ONE TRUE KING Asmongold playing the DLC with his previous build that he dominated the base game with. His build was focused on exploiting jumping attacks while dual-wielding heavy halberds. In the base game, this tactic was shown to be very effective, but I have a feeling FromSoft has been watching all of us dunk on their masterpiece with our broken builds and quietly taking notes and learning as the DLC bosses are much too aggressive for heavy jump attacks and will literally combo your HP to nothing as you try to regain stamina. Asmon left frustrated and defeated, toying with the idea that these games may not be for him anymore.
The next day he came back with a new approach, he used his vast intelligence and gaming experience to find a NEW way to exploit these bosses. He switched up his jumping-heavy attack build to a literal BRICK WALL. Utilizing Elden Ring's "Guard Counter" mechanic, from that point forward he then began to steamroll the rest of the DLC. It was a true spectacle to watch and mirrored my experience with the DLC exactly.
These bosses are very difficult, but this is what FromSoft veterans expected. If you are a new fan of the series, don't feel shame in utilizing everything the game has to offer (Summoning Ashes, NPC Summons, Co-op, etc). And if you are finding bosses too difficult, go out and find some more Scadutree fragments to enhance your character. Also, don't turn your head away from defense buff consumables like boiled crab and meats, etc.
ENEMY VARIETY
There are a TON of new enemies in the Shadow Of The Erdtree DLC. It makes you think when you look at a game like God Of War Ragnarok that took Sony Santa Monica 4 years to put out with the help of BluePoint and other Sony studios. And that game just had copy-and-paste enemies from the 2018 game with very few new enemies. And that game was sold as a brand new game NOT DLC. Then a pure contrast you look at Shadow Of The Erdtree, a $40 USD expansion that is essentially an entirely new game with brand new enemies with some repeats from the base game. It starts to make you see through the excuses that these bigger studios give players.
GAMEPLAY VARIETY
Yes, there are exploration and NPC questlines you can go on in the Elden Ring DLC. But I will be honest and say if you do not like the core gameplay loop, you will not find much variety in this game. I love being rewarded with combat and defeating bosses, but I know this play style is not meant for everyone. If you are feeling overwhelmed and fatigued from fighting bosses and enemies, I suggest players explore the map and just use torrents to get them out of dangerous encounters. Go talk to NPCs and run out their dialogue. Read all the item descriptions of new weapons and items you have picked up to enhance your understanding of the game's lore. But I will fully admit, the gameplay variety is limited.
REPLAYABILITY
If you love these games you will love replaying the base game + DLC with a new build. Maybe do some quests you missed out on in your first playthrough. Try crafting a broken build for yourself and enjoying its benefits. Or maybe challenge yourself by taking on bosses you could only beat previously by using summons. One thing I noticed from playing the DLC was that I saw a LOT of players who complained of the game's difficulty and had not played Elden Ring since its release in 2022. And many players are still using their same first build that is level 300+ due to rune farming in Mohg's domain (we all know the one!). So they have these characters that don't have min-maxed stats and are utilizing inefficient talismans and many don't even have a great rune equipped!
There is nothing wrong with casual players, and that is a symptom of releasing a very popular game, I just wish more people would put down their egos for a moment and take the time to look up a helpful guide to optimize their build a bit better so they can USE the mechanics the game gives you to succeed. Rather than take to Steam reviews to complain about the difficulty of the DLC.
BONUS — 1/4
Just like the base game, the DLC has removable controls. No other major accessibility features are available in Elden Ring. I hope as FromSoftware grows as a studio with their newfound mainstream success they start to include more accessibility features so more players can enjoy their games. NO, I am not talking about an "easy mode", I am talking about color-blind options, hearing-impaired options, and other creative accessibility options to help more diverse players have an opportunity to "Git Gud".
OVERALL — 92/100
Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree is an incredible bookend to the story crafted by a partnership of 2 legends, Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R.R Martin. FromSoftware low-key made Elden Ring 2 and called it a DLC only charging us $40 for something any other studio would want to make a AAAA $80 game. I am disappointed that the console experience is plagued with frame drops and stutters, but I am hopeful that FromSoftware will release future patches that will resolve those issues for players. This game is an incredible experience and I am so happy for this prestige Japanese game studio to finally start getting the recognition they have deserved for over a decade now of being the BEST there is in game development today. Don't miss out on this zeitgeist experience, it's never too late to pick up a copy of Elden Ring on your preferred platform and get captivated by its story and characters, and difficult but rewarded boss battles. Thank YOU FromSoftware for another life-changing game.
TLDR: 92/100 (INCREDIBLE) The Shadow of the Erdtree DLC for Elden Ring offers a captivating continuation of the base game with a rich story, stunning graphics, and impeccable sound design. While the PC version performs well, console players may experience frame rate issues, slightly dampening the experience. The gameplay introduces innovative mechanics and challenging new bosses that require strategic adaptation, reminiscent of the first time players explored the Lands Between. Overall, this DLC is a must-play for Elden Ring fans, providing an immersive and rewarding 40-hour adventure that enhances the original game's legacy.
PICK UP ELDEN RING: SHADOW OF THE ERDTREE HERE:
PlayStation: https://amzn.to/4cCi63Q
Xbox: https://amzn.to/3xMoAOJ
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