Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC: A Double-Edged Sword of Difficulty and Praise

While Shadow of the Erdtree has received critical acclaim, its Steam reception is decidedly mixed, with players voicing concerns about difficulty and performance.

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Despite pre-release Metacritic accolades, the June 21st release of Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has sparked a flurry of negative player reviews on Steam. While the challenging gameplay is lauded, many find the combat excessively strenuous, the difficulty poorly balanced, and performance issues prevalent across PC and consoles.

Performance and Difficulty: A Toxic Combination

A major complaint centers on the intensified combat encounters. Players describe battles as significantly harder than the base game, with some citing "rushed" enemy placement and excessively high boss health pools.

Performance problems further compound the difficulty. PC users report frequent crashes, micro-stuttering, and frame rate limitations. Even high-end systems struggle to maintain 30 FPS in densely populated areas, rendering gameplay frustrating. Similar frame rate drops during intense moments have been reported on PlayStation consoles.

Currently, Shadow of the Erdtree holds a "Mixed" rating on Steam (36% negative reviews). Metacritic shows a more positive "Generally Favorable" rating of 8.3/10 (based on 570 user reviews), while Game8 gives it a 94/100 rating. This discrepancy highlights the significant divergence in player experience.