Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree has garnered attention for its critical success; however, it has received a “Mixed” review tag on Steam due to various issues.
A prevalent concern revolves around technical issues affecting the DLC. Users have reported problems such as FPS limited to 60, noticeable micro-stuttering, lack of ultra-wide support, and the absence of DLSS or Frame Generation. These performance challenges persist even on high-end hardware, such as RTX 4080.
Another issue is related to the new update that has made the game unplayable on the Steam Deck. While From Software is working on solving this issue, it could be a reason for these negative reviews.
Additionally, criticism has emerged regarding the perceived imbalance within the DLC. Despite possessing high stats, players often find themselves easily overcome by most enemies. The design approach, characterized by excessive damage and health for enemies, results in a rather vexing gameplay experience. Users have also expressed frustration with boss mechanics that feel overwhelming and overly convoluted, shifting the focus away from skill to memorization of erratic patterns.
Criticism has been directed towards the difficulty and balance of the DLC. Bosses are noted for their highly intricate attack patterns and high damage output, which are viewed as frustrating rather than challenging. The new upgrade system, intended to address the heightened difficulty, is deemed flawed and unnecessary—giving the impression that the difficulty has been dialed up to an extreme degree, testing players’ resilience and survival capabilities.
FromSoftware, known for its challenging difficulty in games, has seemingly upped the difficulty curve with the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, which might be a reason many players are finding it hard to complete. The requirement of beating Mohg and Radahn just to access the DLC is already a problem for a majority of the players who have the base game, but even then most are not prepared for the spike in the difficulty curve in the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.
Elden Ring and its expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree, is available for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, and PC.