Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC: A Double-Edged Sword of Difficulty and Praise
While lauded by critics, Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has received a mixed reception from players on Steam, facing criticism for its difficulty and performance issues across PC and consoles.
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Despite pre-release critical acclaim and a high Metacritic score, Shadow of the Erdtree's Steam launch was met with a wave of negative player reviews. Released June 21st, the DLC's challenging gameplay, while praised by some, has frustrated many due to intense combat, perceived imbalance, and performance problems.
Performance and Difficulty: Key Complaints
A significant concern is the expansion's combat difficulty, described by many as excessively challenging and disproportionate to the base game. Criticisms include poorly designed enemy placement and bosses with excessively high health pools.
Performance issues are equally prevalent, with PC users reporting crashes, stuttering, and frame rate limitations. Even high-end systems struggle to maintain smooth gameplay in densely populated areas, with frame rates often dipping below 30 FPS. Similar frame rate drops during intense moments have been reported on PlayStation consoles.
As of Monday, Steam shows a "Mixed" overall rating for Shadow of the Erdtree, with 36% negative reviews. Metacritic displays a more positive "Generally Favorable" rating of 8.3/10 (based on 570 user reviews), while Game8 gives it a 94/100 rating. This disparity highlights the significant difference between critical and player reception.
