90%PlayStation 5

More of the same from the main gane. Some great additional boss battles and landscapes.

80%PlayStation 5

Shadow of the Erdtree has fantastic legacy dungeons, and a really empty overworld. Theres only 12 Caves/Catacombs/Tunnels in a map thats almost as big as the base games.The Caves and Catacombs are a lot bigger than they were in the base game which is really cool and i liked going through them, but i would have really liked more. The Legacy Dungeons and bosses are really where the DLC shines, although the final boss is so annoying. The difficulty is of course, very hard. It is a fromsoft game after all, but it felt unfairly or artificially hard at times. A normal enemy in the starting area can lock you into 5 hit combo and instantly kill you, while also having a lot of health. Its still a great DLC with lots of content, I just wish there was a little bit more.

85%PC

Brabaralho. (brabo pra caralho)

100%PlayStation 5

I mean, holy shit. This may be the only DLC in history that I would basically consider a sequel. It's a spectacular game in its own right, and honestly put the base game to shame. One of the best gaming experiences I've had. There's a reason a DLC was nominated for Game of the Year 2024. There's really nothing like this.

80%PC

There were a lot of empty areas where there was no incentive or reward to explore. Unlike the base game, I eventually got tired of going down paths that had no items or anything to show for going down there. Otherwise, it was good DLC, but a big step down from base game in terms of reward for exploration. New environments were stunning and the few secret areas we very cool.

90%PlayStation 5

***SPOILERS FOR BOSSES/CONTENT IN SHADOW OF THE ERDTREE***

First, the positives. I absolutely loved this DLC, the map was beautiful (despite some barren spaces), the new weapons and talismans are pretty good, and there is a lot of drippy new armor. The Fire Knight set in particular is gorgeous, esp with the Winged Serpent helm, as is the Oathseeker set, Black Knight set, and the direct style upgrade to the Raptor's Black Feathers, the Gravebird's Blackquill armor. For weapons, I wound up maining the new Milady sword w/ the Wing Stance ashes for a majority of my playthrough, with the Dragon-Hunter Katana on-hand if I needed something against dragons or the golden hippo. I tested out almost all of the new weapons, went through all of my larval tears to do so, and those two swords just spoke to me the most. Dryleaf Arts are super fun, too, especially once I discovered the Dryleaf Whirlwind ashes. But the heavy L2 attack from Milady's Wing Stance was the MVP of the DLC for me. It was a true equalizer. Whether or not you use Rellana's talisman for the buff to the stance, the heavy L2 hits so dang hard, and there is a seamless flow from light L2 into heavy L2 that completely deletes smaller enemies and chunks massive damage on larger, slower enemies. I loved Milady, and I will use it on future playthroughs and in PvP. Great weapon.

All right, let's talk bosses. This is where my problems with the game begin and end. First, I will say, I loved many of the boss fights, and most of the ones I did not like while I was in them, seem much better upon reflection (now that I've won). My favorites were Rellana, Bayle, Midra, Romina, and the Putrescent Knight. Honorable mentions to Messmer, the Scadutree Avatar, and the Golden Hippopotamus. I liked the humanoid fights out there, too. Logur, Red Bear, Rakshasa, Dancer of Ranah, Blackgaol Knight, etc. Those were all really fun.

My least favorite fights were the ones that felt the most AOE-spammy. Just about all of the major bosses had a wide variety of delayed melee attacks as well as arena and screen-engulfing AOE attacks that really drove me crazy at times. Messmer and Midra are examples of AOE-heavy bosses that worked well for me. I thought those were well-designed and looked great, and had clear paths to victory. The Putrescent Knight had a really wacky and fun moveset, and his AOE attacks were extremely easy to avoid (just jump) so they didn't bother me. Aside from Bayle, I did not love the dragon fights. I only killed them because I heard they all dropped +25 or +10 smithing stones. Dragons just look cool, it's awesome to see them just walking around. Fighting them is repetitive and annoying. The Mother of Fingers fights were icky and boring. I won them really easily just by being aggressive.

***FINAL BOSS SPOILERS***

And, finally, Radahn. The big surprise boss at the end of the game was a version of a boss we've seen before. Elden Ring really isn't afraid to recycle bosses, and they threw some fresh window dressing on this one, but the new Radahn is nowhere near as cool and fun as Starscourge Radahn from the base game (armor excepted). Phase 1 is fine. Gravity attacks and long melee combos, that was all fine and good. However, Phase 2? I think we need to hand it to FromSoft, they have united us Soulsborne players in a way they haven't since Bloodborne. But whereas we were all unanimous that Bloodborne was a work of art and sheer masterpiece, this time we all agree that Radahn's Phase 2 was overtuned and excessive. It took me 225 attempts to defeat him, the most of any boss in the entire game for me. Even Malenia only took me ~100 tries the first time. But the difficulty isn't comparable because it felt artificial with Radahn. With Malenia, there was a clear path to victory, the patterns were learnable and visually clear. For Radahn, Consort of Miquella, I needed some RNG help. In my winning run, he repeated his most predictable and punishable attacks several times (gravity torpedo, Miquella grab, Lion's Claw) and hardly used his most brutal AOE attacks. I was able to whittle him down and finish him off with Milady. When it was finally over, I got that relieved feeling you always hope for from a FromSoft boss, but the whole thing just didn't feel right. As weird and annoying as the Elden Beast is as the final boss for the base game, at least it was visually unique. Radahn was just frustrating and the holy AOE vomit made the fight unenjoyable visually. So, for that very reason, I can only give the DLC a 90.

Elden Ring is still a masterpiece, I will replay it many times, but the final boss fights in both modes leave much to be desired.

The final loadout:
RH: +25 Lightning Milady w/ Wing Stance
LH: +24 Fire Knight Seal, +24 Wolf Crest Shield
Talismans: Dragoncrest Greatshield, Golden Braid, EF+2, Shard of Alexander.
Incants: Golden Vow, FGMS
Relevant stats: 60 vigor, 30 mind, 35 stam, 80 dex, 25 faith.
Overall level: 185. 20 Scadutree blessings.

80%PC

An Enchanting Expansion with Some Rough Edges

Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is a captivating addition to an already phenomenal game. The new world is nothing short of breathtaking, filled with intricate details and a hauntingly beautiful atmosphere that perfectly complements the base game. The exploration feels fresh and exciting, with every corner of the map hiding new secrets and lore to uncover.

The fights, while not all groundbreaking, are definitely solid and provide enough challenge to keep you on your toes. There are a few standout battles that are particularly memorable and well-designed, showcasing FromSoftware's talent for creating engaging combat scenarios.

However, the performance can be a bit of a letdown at times. The traversal stutter is noticeable and can pull you out of the immersive experience, especially during intense exploration or combat sequences. It's not a deal-breaker, but it's certainly something that could use some polishing.

Overall, Shadow of the Erdtree is a fantastic DLC that expands on Elden Ring's rich world and lore. If you can overlook some performance issues, you're in for an unforgettable adventure.

80%PC

Pretty good, bosses were a bit weirdly balanced where they were either really easy with summons or really difficult without (because they do not ever fucking pause their attacks so you may retaliate). Or you just had one of the many cheese builds which I personally do not find fun.

70%Xbox Series X/S

Last boss is shit. Overall good DLC. Not even close to the base game

100%PC

Epic and difficult, just how I like it.

80%PC

June 22, 2024 – Started Playing

90%PC

Definitely the best Souls DLC.

90%PC

DLC rules, final boss sucks out loud - I ended up cheesing the final boss and I don't regret it in the slightest, the rest of the DLC was so good I refuse to let one boss fight ruin it.

100%PlayStation 5

A DLC que mais parece um jogo à parte, com muito conteúdo, muita exploração, novo mapa muito grande, novos chefes, novas mecânicas e mantendo ou melhorando tudo que o jogo já tinha de bom. Jogando explorando, revelando todos os mapas e buscando matar a maior parte dos chefes, devo ter levado umas 40hs, mas se quisesse completar tudo que a DLC oferece, daria facilmente para dobrar este tempo de jogo.

85%PC

A welcome addition to Elden ring. Beautiful environments, new weapons and spells, and some difficult and satisfying boss encounters. The difficulty is talked about a lot in discussions of this DLC and in my opinion overblown. There is a separate progression in the DLC from the base game that hinges on the player finding items to level up damage dealt and taken. I explored to a point where the majority of the bosses were not very challenging, so if a player is having a tough time there is a very actionable solution in exploration for all bosses except the final boss and maybe one other. Another common complaint is vast areas with not much to find. I can see this as having some merit but it did not diminish the experience of what was there for me. Since the DLC is operating on a much smaller map with the same general design principles as the main game, the problem of areas being hard to find has a more severe impact on the enjoyment of the game. The player has fewer alternative routes to go when they exhaust their main route, making it possible to have the player done with the routes they know of and just confused on how to progress in other areas. This is possible in the main game but the vastness of the world made so it happened less and caused less frustration.

80%PC

Beautiful scenery.
Performance issues
(low framerates, big frame drops etc)

80%PC

A great game, but also a game completely breaking apart at it's seams. The dark souls formula has been pushed to an extreme where its base is falling apart.
Some of the added weapons like the backhand blades break some enemies completely. The ridiculously strong builds you can make without much thought also destroy many bosses without much trying.The difficulty being pushed to such extremes makes some bosses because of this dichotomy either feel completely unfair and like you are doing something wrong, instead of feeling like there is a path of learning in front of you, or you feel punished because your build makes the boss feel like a cake walk.
Discussing around difficulty around these games is usually tiring, but this DLC really made me wish for options. The feeling of git gud is replaced by ups, wrong build I guess be it because it's too hard or too easy. By too hard I mean things like the time your weapon takes to swing usually misses the opponent or is too slow for their speed or something like that.

My other big gripe with this DLC is how the story and its pacing is handled. There seems to be a bigger focus on characters initially, but as soon as you venture out into other zones apart from the main route, it seems like the whole world and characters disappear too. Messmer's story is cut short and thrown to the side, and with it the entire World of the DLC created because of him and Marika. This is to focus on Miquella and their deeds. Miquellas story is one of looking at the base game and going, aha! That was not what it seemed like, and takes a pretty interesting and grim narrative and switches it with the most boring grifith wannabe story that seems to care about plot and not the emotions it delivers. I really fucking hate it.
The initial idea of Miquella being different from the other deities and having devout followers from different places, just to be hit with a twist was a real letdown. Having a good intentioned godlike being was far more interesting than what we have already seen with 95% of the royals in the base game.

The last boss is also a huge disappointment being only a retread of one of the base games most popular dudes.

Lastly, midras story goes nowhere and does not change depending on if you have chosen frenzy or not in the base game. And the big fire giants are fun once, maybe twice but then become just about the worst thing to fight. Just boring.

75%PlayStation 5

I replayed all of Elden Ring to have a fresh character going into the DLC. I think having a little break from ER instead of jumping right into the DLC will do wonders for your enjoyment with it.

This DLC is a little overhyped. Don't get me wrong, it's more Elden Ring, more exploration, more epic boss battles, more weapons, more everything. But the cohesive feel of the base game just isn't there in this map. The map is very confusing and is gigantic, not because it needs to be, but just because. So it leaves it feeling very empty and like exploring isn't really worth it because the rewards just aren't there. The biggest offender of this are the finger locations. They are massive, but aren't worth exploring because there literally is nothing in them.

You can miss entire areas just because you forgot to look one side of a wall and didn't notice a tiny tunnel that ends up leading to an entire region. This just doesn't seem fair or intuitive at all. And the placement of the map fragments are used in a way to create more frustration than anything else. The map should have been twice as small and more detailed than what we got.

Lastly the bosses. Too many huge bosses that have terrible move sets and only rely on delayed attacks and quick, borderline unfair barrages of attacks. I saw someone describe a lot of enemies and bosses in the DLC as just having the moveset of the "lightsaber kid" from Youtube's golden age. And so many people complained about how boring fighting dragons were in the base game, but for some reason they decided to double down and have you fight like 10 dragons in the DLC. So lame.

Even with all this criticism, it was still extremely enjoyable and the new weapons, armor, and talismans were fun to mess around with. Beautifully designed areas abound, even if there really isn't much to do in any of them. Best boss in the DLC was Midra Lord of the Frenzied Flame. Everything you want in a boss. Killer move set that is learnable and dodgeable, and he just looks bad ass. Perfect difficulty level for a souls boss.

80%PC

Pros:
+ New soundtrack is INCREDIBLE
+ Every new environment is genuinely breathtaking
+ I love a lot of the new builds & weapons. Armor too!
+ Almost every boss fight was lots of fun & tested my reflexes lol

Cons:
- Framerate wasn’t as solid as the base game’s but it was mostly good
- I actually didn’t like a lot of the open world design in this expansion. I personally find it extremely annoying to have to find a random hidden path or cave on the other side of the map to access a far away point which could’ve been reached normally. I’m not asking for a linear experience but constantly scratching your head on what to do next wasn’t fun, sorry.
- Ending felt very abrupt & let Elden Ring’s story end on a hollow & disappointing note. I expected more from this DLC’s narrative since Elden Ring 2 isn’t on the horizon but I guess we don’t get much of anything instead.

100%PlayStation 4

Imo one of the greatest dlc of all time, very long, rich lore, and good bosses.

90%PC

The description of "Elden Ring 1.5" does this justice due to how insanely massive this expansion is. While I adore this expansion and think it is incredible value for its price, I do think it falls short of the main game. It improves on some of the flaws of the main game, but debatably suffers from the issue of repetition even more. I find most of the boss fights less enjoyable than the main games, but the lows are not nearly as low. Mesmer, Rellana, and the final boss are all amazing in my opinion and can go toe to toe with the best bosses of the base game, but they fall off pretty hard after that point. The exploration is phenomenal in this dlc as it was in the main game, but I found it frustrating how easy it was to miss huge areas of the dlc. The abyssal woods was a huge letdown and feels rushed and unfun. Visually, this DLC is probably even better than the main game, which is saying a lot. Areas like the Cerulean Coast, or the final boss arena, are stunning to look at. Definitely worth purchasing and playing through overall.

90%PC

Shadow of the Erdtree is a lot more of the action and combat we enjoy in Elden Ring's base game, but a bit light on story. The combat is harder, the enemies are faster, but they feel a bit more like tasks instead of book end to the story. Overall, it is a fantastic adventure in the lands of shadow, but FromSoftware could have put a bit more time into the narrative.

90%PC

Really great. Probably not my favorite FromSoft DLC, but it's very generous. The difficulty spots of Rellana, Storm Lion guy, and Radahn were kinda annoying, and then I remembered I was OK with using summons. The legacy dungeons are just OK. Why were the NPC questlines SO easy to mess up? Some cool lore moments for sure. Highlights were Elim Ilir, Rauh, Cerulean Coast, Rot boss, Frenzied Flame Boss, and all of the new weapon types (especially Martial Arts and Giant Katana).

80%PC

The DLC was very hard. I thought I was just rusty but no it is very challenging. The dragon side boss took me 3 days alone to beat and the final boss took me two days to beat. I really enjoyed the DLC regardless though.

80%PC

Great DLC and insane art direction. Tons of new content added, along with day 1 iconic bosses like Messmer and Bayle. However, some of the bosses just felt like filler bosses and weren't fun.

85%PC

Shadow of the Erdtree is an overall very good DLC that is worsened by its bad ending.

I really like the massive amount of content this DLC has. The map is absolutely huge and is stuffed with things to do. This DLC could be an entire From Software game by itself. Going on the journey with the NPC's following Miquella's crosses and learning about the path he took was very interesting. The NPCs had some fun quests, and it was intriguing to learn about Miquella through them.

I did the whole DLC with no summons or spirits, and I did a fun challenge of +1 Scadutree Fragment per boss defeated. When I reached the last boss, however, I was so disappointed in the story that I ended up bumping my Scadutree Fragments to +16. This still took me at least 4 hours of attempts.

I was so extremely disappointed when I was forced to fight Leda and the rest that I almost wanted to just quit the DLC.
Other than the last boss being completely uninteresting story-wise, it also had a lot of unfun game design. For example, if you dodge early to avoid beams, you get hit and die. If you wait to dodge the slash instead, you get hit by beams that true combo into the slash. Also, for a game with a lot of varying story endings, it is absolute garbage that you can't side with Miquella in the story.

Even though I lost almost all motivation to continue playing because of the disappointment of being forced to fight Miquella, I still think this DLC is undeniably good, with a lot of fun content.

90%PC

The atmosphere is tasty.

100%PC

Пик. Все боссы были пройдены без прахов, статусов, баффов и прочих приколов. Чистейший пацанский махач 1 на 1, даже если эта гнида может создавать свои копии и призывать кентов. Главное — вновь учиться и совершенствоваться: зубрить комплексные мувсеты, привыкать к новым условиям, подбирать нужные шмотки с амулетами, ну и отдавать себе отчёт, в какую сторону перекатывать свою тушку. После такого DLC заходить в оригинал даже особо смысла нет, ведь всё самое интересное и захватывающее находится в Землях Теней!

Ну а каждому сгоревшему от местной сложности додику, что прямо сейчас строчит дополнению негативный отзыв, могу сказать только одно: git gud, casual

100%PC

Cemented itself as the best game I've ever played. Incredibly difficult but so so rewarding.

90%PC

This was simply an amazing experience. One of the best pieces of DLC i've ever played. Easily 40+ hours of content (not counting replays). It's basically an expansion of Elden Ring as you can expect. Not too many new features except for some weapons. That doesn't mean it's bad. The more Elden Ring I get, the happier I am. No complaints there. The bosses are much tougher than the base game bosses, especially Consort Radahn. I only managed to kill him because of the nerf in the last patch.

The layered level design is also breathtaking, even better than the base game. Areas like the shadow keep are huge and have many different hidden or hard to find areas within them. Kept surprising me over and over again.

I think my favourite boss from this DLC was Relanna. Felt like a fair but very difficult fight. Didn't use too many new weapons, I guess I suck too hard for trying that. Might do it in the future though. Not in the mood for a replay right away, since the DLC caused some frustration that came with difficult bossfights. Overall an insane experience though, would rate it 9/10.

90%PC

If Elden Ring were a game with a movie wrapped around it then Shadow of the Erdtree is a movie with a game wrapped around it; it's absolutely breathtaking! The environments are definitely more varied and jaw-dropping and that's saying something because the base game is stunning!

The DLC expands a bit on the lore of the base game and includes a new feature that you need to find and gather (similar to the Golden Seeds in the base game) that makes you stronger in the new area. These are a necessity if you're wanting a normal run through the game otherwise you'll get trounced not too far in XD

Def a recommend from me but the last boss (up until the patch that came out 7 days ago as of writing this review) can absolutely kick rocks, lmao!

You can watch my livestream gameplay of the DLC (with Crowd Control enabled!) over on my [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swSmMUii8iM&list=PL0q93Rkkmx_sEz-kc7wCa59UxRp-iOg2z&pp=gAQBiAQB]YouTube Channel[/url]!

100%PC

O MELHOR

90%PC

The perfect DLC to end an excellent game. Bosses with unique designs and challenging but mostly fair combat. The world is very nice and enjoyable to explore, though perhaps some areas could be a little smaller. The new weapons introduced are also very satisfying to use.

90%PC

Very good Addon with high class bosses and phnomena graphics. The Ending ist somewhat strange.

90%PlayStation 5

Shadow of the Erdtree improved on pretty much everything I liked about the base game. The gorgeous and haunting world was fun to explore! Fromsoft did an amazing job with the environments. I especially liked how condensed all the content felt compared to the base game! There were so many cool new weapons, gear, and items that added to the robust character customization. Plus, the new level scaling system helped make exploration feel more rewarding! The only thing holding back the DLC for me are a few boss fights. On the whole, most of the fights were totally exhilarating; however, I do agree that some of them went a step too far in difficulty. I still had an amazing experience nonetheless! Anyone who loved playing Elden Ring is going to find even more to love in this expansion!

8.7/10

95%PC

Peak map design and bosses, at least most of them. Lengthy enough to be a full game.

Overworld issues still exist, such as boring reused field bosses and some lack of enemy variety. A few of the new areas are also rather empty.

Side areas like dungeons and points of interest are a bit better designed now, and continue to be very rewarding, but still not enough to feel as engaging as legacy dungeons.

As of writing, PC optimization issues are still quite bad for low/midrange PCs with stuttering and shader issues.

Score = 85-90% as full game, higher if judged as DLC

90%PlayStation 5

9/10

80%PC

The DLC had the best bosses in all of Elden Ring but I wish the map was more dense with content.

Top 5 bosses:
- Bayle the Dread
- Rellana, Twin Moon Knight
- Midra, Lord of the Frenzied Flame
- (1st) Divine Beast Dancing Lion
- Promised Consort Radahn

90%PC

I liked the DLC but defiantly have some complaints. Firstly I believe the Scadu Tree fragment system is quiet flawed by comparison to the rune leveling system. I loved the leveling system in the base game. You are just simply rewarded for taking enemies down by being able to make your character stronger. Even when you get to a spot where you feel like you are under leveled there tons of other routes/options you can do in order to level up and come back with new items. I feel like there is no way for FromSoft to win given the circumstances of adding a DLC to a game that has been out for quiet sometime. If they let people come in who are on new game plus 7 and are level 500 they would just roll through everything but others might come in and be super underpowered if they rushed to come straight to the DLC. I played the DLC with my brother in the seamless co-op mod it was super fun. I think I made a mistake by playing the base game over then going straight to the DLC. We were feeling good and feeling strong and then boom we were getting absolutely humbled again, I don't think this would have bothered me that if I had just came back to the DLC without replaying the base game right before. I really like the area it is very cool and interconnected in interesting ways. The bosses and enemies are dope designs but the are not always fun to fight, some absolutely suck. We organically explored for a little while but when we started hitting some of the harder bosses it just became apparent that we would need to find as many tree fragments as possible just to save ourselves the headache of throwing our heads at a wall hundreds of times over. The bosses themselves are mostly good but my good some are unreal levels of difficulty compared to anything in the base game. Difficult enough that we were needed to re spec our characters to do totally different things to feel like we had a chance. The punish windows are so small the margin for error is minimal the speed is so much faster many bosses felt closer to the Sekiro boss. I am thankful I did not play this solo on my own because I don't think I would have enjoyed memorizing all these bosses patterns. They just added everything that made some bosses so hard in the base game and made sure that everyone had them. Rush down moves, huge AOE shockwaves, moves so fast one mistimed dodge snowballs, and of course really small windows for hitting the boss. On the difficulty scale they cranked a game that some would consider a 10/10 to a 15/10 or higher. Overall I think it was good but my god they did not let off the gas for those who are a glutton for punishment this is great addition to an already hard game.

95%PC

It's more Elden Ring

95%PC

Very solid open world, less dense than the lands between tho. Contains great bosses, but also very shitty ones

100%PC

10/10, a worthy expansion to the greatest game of all time

100%PlayStation 5

What more can I say. From Software is a guarantee of top notch crafted games but everytime I'm still amazed by how good every single one of their releases good are. Challenging bosses and areas. Awesome level design and art direction. DLC better than 95% of games released.

100%PlayStation 5

Como siempre, From dando lo mejor de sí en un DLC, es bárbaro la de postales que deja en la galería y la de momentos inolvidables que se quedarán contigo toda la vida, me es muy difícil poner con palabras lo buena que me parece esta expansión

100%PC

Vaya paja mas buena.

Me falta el boss final. Cómo se las ingenian los cabrones estos para sacar tremenda droga.

Update: A tomar por culo el boss. Vaya juegazo padre

85%PC

8.5/10

60%PC

It's like a condensed version of the main game, but the devs took the worst parts of the main game and cranked it up to 11.

You have your Liurnia - Gravesite plains, mountain region, rot region etc. You do the same actions like ascending the great elevator (not so great in this DLC), burning the tree to ashes, climbing on top of city rooftops and so on. But holy shit was everything frustrating. I knew straight from the start after getting my ass handed to me by Blackgaol knight that I was in for a ride, but I didn't know that the tracks for this ride are non existent and you are just freefalling into a pit of despair. It was difficult just for the sake of being difficult. This has been said hundreds of times before, but the fucking non stop auto aiming combos, insane damage from bosses, severe camera issues and bosses gliding and flying around made a lot of fights unbearable, to the point where I just turned godmode on to progress and explore the rest of the game.

Fuck any big monster bosses, like dragons or ulcerated spirits and guess what, FromSoftware decided they're amazing without asking anyone and introduced a whole slew of these dragons and spirit bosses to the DLC, when nobody asked for them because they SUCK to fight. Fuck abyss woods and those booty chasing buck eyed goblins. Rennala was difficult, but still manageable. Honestly that's where the difficulty should have peaked, but it didn't. You have the hog riding hillbilly commander Gayus. Mounted hog that has insane reach, which you can't outmaneuver even on top of a horse, bullshit long combos, where any hit will almost 1 shot you. Any goddamn dragon was a pain the ass, but the Boyle dragon and Sussysnax fight each other for the crown of bullshit (Boily wins). Mesmer needs no introduction into the famed hall of assholes and Radagon with his clingy thot wife are a good (terrible) outro as the end boss of this clown fiesta of a DLC (Don't forget the schizoid Midra).

The fall distance still sucks, and since this game is more vertical than ever now, it amounts to dying constantly to fall damage, until you find some obscure passageway or cave to go down to the river area. I mean one of the waterfall places in ruins of Rauh is only accessible by a portal which you have to activate using an imbued key, which is all the way in the goddamn gravesite plains, the starting area. I missed this portal entirely and only found it after beating Radagon.

The lack of cutscenes is a big disappointment. There's like 2 or 3 cutscenes that I can remember, opposed to the base game, where every major boss was introduced in a badass little cutscene that made the fight that much more epic (Goddamn Godrick, Rycard, Malenia and many other intros were so iconic).

Quests are still as obscure as ever, and you pretty much need to follow a guide to do most of them. There's a lack of any interesting characters or sequences with them. The only real character that I remember is Leda, who was a maniac and tried to kill everyone for some reason and Trina, just because she's a weird deformed (kinda hot) plant, oh and her simp thiollier. Nothing even close to the amazing cast that was in the base game like Rania, Melina, Dung Eater, Alexander, Fia etc.

Now the locations in this DLC is where it's at though. There's a lot of variety and they look gorgeous. Thundering mountain, flower plains, madness forest and some other places looked gorgeous (although I wish the textures and shadow lines were a bit more refined). And again, you have that great dark souls style where bosses look like an eldritch nightmare, so it all comes together and gives you a great world and atmosphere. But that's about the only thing I enjoyed in this DLC.

Call me a filthy casual who needs to git gud, but the difficulty in this DLC was way too frustrating for me and I wish it was along the lines of the base game. So sadly I can't recommend it for the more casual enjoyers of Elden Ring.

80%Mac

Solid DLC, more like an expansion in the old days. plenty of content that I wish they wouldn’t include rehash content at all as it’s not necessary. Some cool new characters and story… didn’t like the lack of choice for the ending nor the final boss (both the character and the difficulty)

95%PlayStation 5

Goated DLC

85%PlayStation 4

New From Software material always gets my senses tingling and for this DLC I started a complete new playthrough. 120 hours later I felt confident enough to dive into the shadow realm..

It starts similiar like the first hours in Limgrave, it is new, exciting and dangerous. The soundtrack is solid and drags you into the mystery of the shadow tree. Enemies are also way tougher than normal and feel more aggressive. I started the first legacy dungeon (Belarut) with a lot of excitement, the Chinese Dragon boss was kicking my ass and I had to step up my game. The challenge was good and things were looking good going onward.

The DLC of Elden Ring has a problem with its relationship with the base game though. You have to be an endgame character which is already quite the task (a fun one I might add). But after spending so many hours you expect the DLC to have a different face and vibe. It is really just more of the same, including reskins of known bosses and the same approach to open world exploration.

If I compare it to the brilliant DLC worlds of DS, DS2 and DS3 it is clear that there is not an interesting take on world building and mechanics but just a new layer of the same solid earth. There is not much wrong with that, I still had a great time and some locations and bosses were unforgettable but Elden Ring is now done. Everything got squeezed out of it and its time for some fresh new idea.

A dark, golden layered swan song for the genre!