0
0
I suck at Elden Ring. Yes, I do love it (though my favourite Souls-like will always be Bloodborne, with its stunningly gothic art style), but I never did complete the game when it originally came out. I got as far as Mogh (though never beat him till I needed to as Shadow of the Erdtree made it a requirement) for my review and that’s…it.
The game languished in my backlog until a couple months back, when I rereviewed the game again, on the PC. This time I still didn’t beat Mogh though I did progress further into the game in the main quest. Each of my playthroughs, while incomplete, had one thing in common; they impressed upon me how absolutely HUGE the game was.
Prior to the DLC’s release, I was always assuming that the scale would be reduced for the DLC.
It’s not.
Size still mattered in Shadow of the Erdtree and the land of shadow is MASSIVE, both in scale and the areas you can explore. It’s a DLC sure, but it’s the size of full titles!
Does that make it good though? You can read on and find out!
What is Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree?
Shadow of the Erdtree is the first (hopefully of many) DLC for Elden Ring. It’s released on all the platforms the main game is and is available right now. The DLC’s created by the same dev team that created the base game (FromSoftware) and is published by Bandai Namco.
Bandai Namco graciously gave us TWO copies of the DLC, one for the Playstation 5 and another for the PC version!
As usual, I ran the DLC on our gaming rig.
I honestly wasn’t really looking forward to the DLC. This was coming from a place of dread mostly. I hadn’t even beated Mohg and the few times I did challenge him, I got my ass handed to me on a stick. I was unprepared, underleveled and ill equipped.
Since the DLC needed Mohg to die, there really wasn’t much choice for me other than to farm, grind and git gud. I love it when games integrate DLC into the main game itself but I honestly think that making Mohg the gatekeeper to access the DLC might be a bit too much for a number of reasons.
One, Mohg is one of the endgame optional bosses. Two, your character needs to be really strong to even consider fighting Mohg. Three, Mohg’s location is highly troublesome to get access to and many gamers probably didn’t even get to fighting him the first time around.
I do see why Mohg is so important (lore wise and also in Shadow of the Erdtree) and why beating him is essential but I wish there was a shortcut for players who don’t want to (or simply can’t) beat Mohg to be able to access the DLC.
Once you do get to the Realm of Shadow, you’ll find that it’s looking quite similar to what you’re used to…except for the gorgeous sky. Elden Ring’s art style is still incredible (I really do need to get the artbooks one of these days) and Shadow of the Erdtree drives home that point into the damn ground.
There are two new mechanics introduced in the DLC; the Scadutree fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes.
Collecting the fragments makes your character stronger (though the game doesn’t have an indicator of how much exactly a level improves you) while Revered Spirit Ashes raises the power of your summons. You lose your newly gained power when you go back to the main game though so don’t think the power increase is permanent.
While I like the intention behind the systems, I hate how opaque the whole thing really is. Yes I do feel stronger when I use the fragments, but a numerical sign in the stats menu to see how much improvement it bestowed upon me would’ve been nice.
That aside, once you’re exploring, you don’t care much other than finding the fragments or ashes. That’s especially true in the beginning.
As you ride up to the opening area in the Realm of Shadow, you’re greeted by a HUGE sprawling open plain that stretches far off into the horizon. The grass swaying in the breeze, the incredibly beautiful sky…and the ghostly tombstones populating the plain. Yeah, that last bit is pure Elden ring.
Like the main game, pretty much all the areas you can see are accessible. Not right of the bat, but you’ll get to them sooner or later if you explore. It doesn’t matter if it looks far away, shrouded in fog and totally inaccessible. You’ll get there if you’re diligent in exploring. Each of the new areas are pretty cool and fun to run around in.
All…except for ONE.
The Abyssal Woods.
I don’t know what the dev team were thinking when they did this.
An immense sprawling forested area and no way to ride Torrent (your horse) because (according to the alert you get when you try to summon it) it’s afraid of the location. Wuuuuuuuuut? This is the same damn horse that you ride to battle dragons and monsters and it’s afraid of a little foggy forest.
I call bullshit.
It makes traversal a supremely boring chore because not only is the area huge, it’s also sparsely populated (so you’re not even entertained with fights) and has ONE HIT KILL enemies that you can’t defeat.
You read right. I even checked the wiki to be sure!
Stationed in areas through the forest are these…things with a weird glowing orange head. Reminds me of the monsters from Bloodborne actually. Anyways, if they spot you, these monsters teleport right up to you, grab you and you die. No escape.
The only way to escape detection is to stealth it through the sections they’re present in. You hide in the tall grass and tiptoe your way through. The problem here is that Elden Ring isn’t known for its clunky stealth and that enemies seem to arbitrarily spot you, even if you’re concealed.
I’ve had times I’m hiding behind a tree IN tall grass and still get zeroed in. I’ve had times where I was hiding right beside one of those monsters and they didn’t even notice I was there. It’s pretty much a crapshoot.
Survive all that and what do you get? A cool haunted house to explore. Worth it for all the pain and suffering? Not really though.
I just feel that compared to the rest of the areas in Shadow of the Erdtree, the Abyssal Woods are too gimmicky and underdeveloped. Huge swaths of it holding nothing of interest, no items or enemies…just distance you have to cover to get to where you’re going. There’s not even a world boss to fight!
Speaking of bosses, Shadow of the Erdtree aren’t lacking in them. You have your regular bosses you have to fight to advance the story, optional bosses in dungeons and even world bosses that roam around the open world. Just like in the main game.
The difference here seems to be most of them are pushovers. I’m at NG1 (I never completed the game remember) but I have zero trouble going up against most of them.
Mimic + Tank and Spank (where you hide behind a greatshield and counter hit) with a colossal weapon = victory 99% of the time.
That 1%?
That’s Radahn. The final boss.
To date, I have NEVER beaten him yet, though not for lack of trying. I kill off his first form no problem, and then he goes Super Saiyan and just wipes the floor with me.
It’s not just me either.
You go to Reddit, Discord or whatever and you’ll hear the same things too! Radahn is NUTS! FromSoftware went insane when they brought him back. If you thought the Nameless King from Dark Souls III was nuts, wait till you fight Radahn.
Insane speed, insane combo strings and to top it off, insane AOE spells with crazy damage! Even blocking and turtling hurts!
There’s an insane leap in difficulty when you compare Radahn to pretty much any boss in the damn game. Even Messmer or Twin Moon Knight Rellana are nowhere near as bad…and they are some of the worst bosses in the DLC. When players have to resort to cheap tactics (like inflicting damage over time while you just plain block everything), that’s a sign of bad boss design methinks.
It’s just a weird wall to slam into because the rest of the DLC is relatively easy (for Elden Ring that is) and very fun to play through. Though the other open world can be a bit empty to traverse, finding hidden dungeons and nooks and crannies to explore is very rewarding!
I just wish the catacombs scattered throughout the map don’t look so similar to one another.
Similarity’s also another gripe I have with some of the enemies in the game. They’re just retextured baddies that you’ve already fought in the main game. So what if the doggies are red now instead of white? Or that the zombies are black shadows instead of undead bodies? They’re still the same damn thing.
The game even repeats some of the main game’s events. Remember going into a coffin and falling off a waterfall to access another area in the main game? You do that again here. Why even bother repeating that?
Shadow of the Erdtree also falters a bit in some gameplay areas. You get tons of new weapons and armor, but honestly, the majority of them are crap. I honestly only used only a few different new armor pieces and no new weapon at all.
That’s because there’s no way to know if the weapon will be better than the one you’re using after you’ve upgraded them.
Why waste resources (some of which are super rare like the Ancient Dragon smithing stone or its sombre variant) on a weapon that might turn out to be a turd?
FromSoftware really needs to integrate a preview system into the game (and I’m surprised they haven’t already) to let players know beforehand if something is worth using.
As for the game’s performance, I had no major issues running the game on our rig with a stable 60FPS on 4K on Max settings (without Ray Tracing) apart from some areas. The Cerulean Coasts just tanks the framerate if I spin the camera around too fast. I don’t know why…maybe it’s the bloom generation from the flowers or something that taxes the hardware.
Either way, I regularly get FPS drops there, sometimes to the low 40s before stabilizing again.
The Bottom Line.
Shadow of the Erdtree is one of the best DLCs I’ve ever played.
In terms of scale and content, it’s hard to match what you’re getting here with other offerings. I don’t think there’s any expansion from any modern game that comes close to the amount of stuff you’re getting and the gameplay hours you’ll need to devote to getting them.
If you’re looking for a meaty expansion to Elden Ring (or hell, any game) this is it.
It’s not a perfect expansion by any means though. Too many reused assets, an opaque new leveling system and location similarity mars and otherwise phenomenal experience.
The expansion is still a worthy buy no matter the niggles though and I really hope there’s more Elden Ring (in the form of a sequel or another expansion), that’ll come in the future.
TLDR:
Incredible expansion that has a few issues but is still more than worth it.
The Good:
- Immense scale.
- HUGE new map to explore.
- Lots of new items.
- Great art design that complements the main game.
- Stable performance.
The Bad:
- A lot of enemies are reskinned and reused.
- Abyssal Woods is just a bad area.
- Scadutree fragment leveling could be more clearer on its benefits.
- Admission to DLC could be easier
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
You must be logged in to post a comment.