Shadow of the Erdtree Reviews! Elden Ring DLC is top-rated game of the year (2024)

Elden Ring won wide acclaim on its release in 2022, and when studio FromSoftware announced in February 2023 that additional content was coming, expectations were high. As initial press reviews start rolling in today ahead of the June 21 release of the downloadable content, it seems those expectations have been met, and the Elden Ring DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, preserves the beauty and difficulty of the base game -- if not elevating them.

FromSoftware announced some basic facts about Shadow of the Erdtree ahead of its upcoming release: It'll add over 100 weapons in eight new weapon categories, 10 (or more) large bosses, a number of large legacy dungeons (as well as medium and smaller dungeons too), all in an area the size of Limgrave, the starting zone in Elden Ring.

The early reviews for the Elden Ring DLC add detail to that boilerplate and how Shadow of the Erdtree compares with the base game: The area is more dynamically vertical, with more multilevel plateaus and zones. The expansion also preserves the difficulty of the original game, if not raising it a few notches, which reviewers found both challenging and frustrating.

Read more: Elden Ring Creator Hidetaka Miyazaki Talks Shadow of the Erdtree, New Weapons and More

Media sites that provide scored reviews have largely weighted them at the high end, with multiple 5/5 and 10/10 scores from sites like IGN, GameSpot, RPG Site and more.

Most reviews touched on the expansion's difficulty. FromSoftware recommends that players enter the DLC at levels 120 to 150 to meet the challenge of the enemies and bosses in store, and they can pick up specific items to increase their stats (within the DLC area only) to help. Multiple reviewers started Shadow of the Erdtree at level 150 and still struggled with its difficulty, though they were split on how it impacted their enjoyment.

"FromSoftware definitely skirts the line between fair and unfair with some of the later boss designs in particular," wrote IGN's Mitchell Saltzman in his review. "But crucially, it never actually crosses that threshold, and that masterful tightrope walk -- along with some truly spectacular boss design -- results in some of the most thrilling and satisfying bosses Elden Ring, and the entire Soulslike genre, has to offer."

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Other reviewers felt FromSoftware's difficulty goes too far, even folks like Inverse's Hayes Madison, who, after playing every game in the unofficial "Soulslike" series since Demon's Souls, noted that Shadow of the Erdtree's difficulty is uniquely punishing.

"A vital part of the Souls experience is learning from your defeat and using ingenuity to come up with ways to circumnavigate tough bosses or areas. Shadow of the Erdtree is quite literally the first time in almost a decade that I felt needlessly frustrated by a From game's challenge. This expansion takes every opportunity to be harsh," Madison said in his review, which he scored 8/10.

Likewise, despite praising the art direction and difficulty of early bosses, Eurogamer's Alexis Ong found the difficulty, especially with the final boss of the DLC, extensively brutal.

"This, however, feels like difficulty for difficulty's sake, turned up to eleven," Ongwrote in her review, which she scored 3/5. "I go through dozens of deaths over a period of several days, and despite taking breaks to go off and do other things and explore other areas, I realise that I just don't want to do this anymore."

Across reviews, differing evaluations of the difficulty reflect the varying skills and appetite for getting rocked by FromSoftware's particular brand of punishing play -- but the consensus seems to be that it's just denser and harder than the base game.

Difficulty aside, reviewers praised the art direction, and though they didn't feel it largely veered too far from what's seen in Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree has "a profound understanding and mastery of light and colour theory drawn from a long line of European religious art and architecture," as Ong put it.

Likewise, there's plenty of lore to discover that folds back in on the base game and that's drip-fed to players in the same way it was in the base game. Kotaku's Alyssa Mercante noted that the DLC fills in gaps on characters such as the colossal dragon Placidusax that players took on in Crumbling Farum Azula, as well as expected lore on Miquella, the demigod at the center of the new expansion.

"It's clear that [Elden Ring director] Hidetaka Miyazaki wants you to know more about his magnum opus' world, that he hopes you walk away from the DLC with a better understanding of the gods ruling this strange land; their machinations, their mistakes," Mercante wrote in her review.

The reviews also touched on the length of the DLC, with some mentioning 25 to 30 hours of play and others speaking of even more time. IGN's Saltzman noted that he could've spent an additional 15 to 20 hours checking out optional bosses and unexplored map areas.

For a $40 expansion, players have plenty in store for them when Shadow of the Erdtree launches on June 21.

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