Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Review – Worthy of the Greater Will’s Blessing

The release of DLC expansions for games developed by FromSoftware is often met with plenty of anticipation, as the Japanese development studio is known for releasing additional content that is often even better than the base game. With Elden Ring, however, this was not very easy to achieve. The studio's latest game is a masterclass of action role-playing games and open-world design, which is difficult to top, something that FromSoftware is surely aware of, as the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion does not present a markedly better experience than the base game. At the same time, it is undeniable it is an excellent continuation of the long and grueling journey of the Tarnished in the Lands Between.

The Shadow of the Erdtree expansion takes place in the Shadow Realm, which can be accessed after defeating Starscourge Radahn and Mogh, Lord of Blood. As soon as the Tarnished enters this hauntingly beautiful world, dominated by the looming figure of the Scadutree, they will meet the enigmatic Leda and several other companions who are trying to ascertain what happened to the missing god Miquella, a task that is far from being easy, as retracing the god's footsteps into this mysterious land will get the Tarnished to face countless challenges, including some of the most powerful beings seen in the Elden Ring universe.

As is tradition for FromSoftware at this point, the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree story is masterfully told with environmental storytelling, leaving players to piece together every little detail gleaned from the environment, item descriptions, and the small amount of information revealed by the many new NPCs they will meet in the Shadow Realm. Leda and her companions play an important part in the expansion events, and completing their sidequests provides additional information on a story that makes the experience even more engaging once everything has been more or less understood. The story and some of its reveals, which also involve characters from the base game, also feel very coherent with what has been seen in the base game, taking full advantage of the world and expansive lore crafted by FromSoftware in collaboration with A Song of Ice and Fire's author George R.R. Martin.

Gameplay wise, the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree expansion doesn't push boundaries. For all intents and purposes, the expansion plays exactly like the base game does. With little to no guidance, save for items that, once gathered, reveal the Shadow Realm's map in great detail, the Tarnished has to explore a huge open-world map whose size is very roughly the same as the Limgrave region in the Lands Between, venture inside a variety of dungeons, ranging from smaller optional ones like caves and catacombs to main story Legacy dungeons, and defeat countless enemies. Once all the mandatory bosses have been defeated, the way will open for the final confrontation of the expansion and a big reveal that not too many expected.

Being a combat-focused action role-playing game experience, enemy design is one of the elements that could have made or broken the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. Thankfully, FromSoftware did not disappoint in this regard. The new enemies roaming the Shadow Realm are some of the best-designed and most challenging designed by the Japanese studio. Those coming in unprepared will suffer greatly: even the weakest-looking mob can put up quite a fight, and their complex movesets can be a nightmare to deal with, even when using some of the most effective builds that can easily carry players in the base game. The only enemies that are unlikely to give too much trouble to veteran players are recycled enemies from the base game, whose number is balanced out by that of the new enemies.

Bosses, unsurprisingly, are the highlight of the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. While the minor, optional bosses are not particularly inspired in terms of movesets nor especially challenging with an appropriately built Tarnished, the Remembrance bosses, those that reward the player with a Remembrance that can be used to unlock new weapons and spells in the Roundtable Hold, on the other hand, are extremely unique, and extremely challenging. The Divine Beast Dancing Lion and Rellana, Twin Moon Knight, the first two Remembrance bosses that most players will fight first, are only the tip of an iceberg that goes very, very deep, although one of the bosses, whose identity I won't mention to avoid spoilers, was definitely a little disappointing, in terms of design. No matter who you are facing, however, expect to die in just a few hits and defeat them by the skin of your teeth.

Thankfully, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree provides plenty of tools to deal with the difficult challenges it presents, starting with a new progression mechanic, the Shadow Realm Blessing. By using Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes, which can be found in specific locations in the Shadow Realm, it is possible to enjoy improved stats and Spirit Ashes, respectively. These improvements are applied only in the Shadow Realm, so the Tarnished stats will return to normal when traveling back to the Lands Between.

The remainder of the tools the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree expansion offers are additions to the systems already in place in the base game. There are some rather unique new weapon types, including a new Light Greatsword with a unique moveset, Hand-to-hand gloves that finally make it possible to create a proper monk class Tarnished, Great Katana to expand samurai builds, and throwable weapons. Added to the mix are also new armor sets, a new Talisman that gives access to some very nice perks, such as automatic FP recovery, new Ashes of War that grant new weapon skills, new Spirit Ashes for new summoned companions, new Crystal Tears for use in the Flask of Wondrous Physics (including a new tear that provides access to Spontaneous Guards) and new spells. All of these additions are extremely worthwhile and will make everyone looking to come up with new builds quite happy. On the other hand, those who wish to continue using their base endgame builds will be able to do so effectively for the most part. For example, my Samurai dual katana-wielding, cold/bleed build worked fine for pretty much the entirety of my time in the Shadow Realm, and I only switched things up to try out some new strategies using the new weapons and talismans, and not because I felt I needed to. As the new additions can be brought over to the Lands Between, I expect future New Game Plus playthroughs of the base game to be more interesting than ever before.

Alongside the lack of innovation, which can be an issue for some, where Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree definitely disappoints is in the performance, at least on PC. Nothing has changed over the base game - it still fails to keep a smooth performance most of the time. In a benchmarking session held in the Scadu Altus open-world area, a pretty busy area with plenty of enemies and vegetation, the game ran at an average of 58 frames per second at 4K resolution, max settings, and no ray tracing on my machine (i7-13700F, RTX 4080, 32 GB RAM). Unfortunately, the experience wasn't smooth, as highlighted by the recorded 18 FPS 1% low, with some frame rate drops that did not impact the gameplay in a major way but were still quite noticeable.

Though rare, I also experienced some seconds-long stutters where the game completely froze for an unknown reason, which never happened to me in the base game and on a much weaker system (i7-10700, RTX 3070, 16 GB RAM). In this regard, FromSoftware still has much to do, especially if they will go the open-world route for their next major game.

If you have already checked the score I have awarded the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, you may be wondering why it deserves such a high score, given how it is, essentially, just more of the same. There are two reasons for this. For starters, the quality of the content included in the expansion is excellent and possibly among the best offered in the entirety of Elden Ring. Everything, from the new, dense Shadow Realm map (which requires well over 40 hours to explore to the fullest) to the Legacy and optional dungeons, is extremely well-designed, with multiple paths and plenty of secrets, making exploration a joy. The real reason Shadow of the Erdtree deserves a perfect score, however, is because it manages to evoke the same sense of wonder the base game offered over a hundred hours later.

The moment I reached the Gravesite Plains, I felt the same way I did when I emerged from the Stranded Graveyard for the first time to see the huge plains of Limgrave ahead of me, the Erdtree shining on the horizon, and the Tree Sentinel roaming about, ready to take down unaware Tarnished, ill-prepared for the challenge it posed. The Erdtree was, of course, replaced by the ominous Scadutree and the Tree Sentinel by the first, fearsome Fire Golem, who, much like the mounted knight of the base game, can make very short work of an unprepared Tarnished.

After that, it did not take long to get back into the engaging adventuring loop of the Elden Ring experience, searching for map fragments to get a better look at the map, placing markers where points of interest are seemingly located, and getting amazed by beautiful vistas, immense castles, and sprawling haunting forests, unaware of the dangers that lurked inside of them. With open-world fatigue setting in earlier this year due to the many open-world games released in 2024—like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Rise of the Ronin, and the PC versions of Horizon Forbidden West and Ghost of Tsushima—Shadow of the Erdtree's open-world design stands out as a testament to how the Elden Ring experience still surpasses anything else on the market. As such, I believe a perfect score is justified, even with the evident lack of significant innovation and some technical hiccups.

PC version tested. Review code provided by the publisher.

10

WCCFTECH RATING

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree expands the base game by offering more of what made it one of the best open-world games ever. It features a well-sized map dense with secrets to discover, new masterfully designed dungeons, and introduces new, fun tools to help the Tarnished tackle some of the most challenging enemies in the game's dark and brutal world. While the lack of new gameplay mechanics may disappoint some, don't let this deter you. Shadow of the Erdtree is every bit as good as the base game, and it is an essential purchase for all those who loved FromSoftware's amazing action role-playing game.

Pros

• Nicely sized map dense with all sorts of secrets
• New weapons, talismans, Ashes of War and spells to create more powerful character builds
• Challenging new enemies and bosses
• Impressive visual design of the Shadow Realm

Cons

• Some recycled enemies, including bosses
• Lack of innovation
• Performance still isn't the best

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