Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC Review
When I gave Elden Ring a 10 two years ago, I did so not just because it’s an incredible game, but because it also raised the bar for open-world games as a whole. The way it encourages exploration, rewards curiosity, and challenges you to find your own individual solutions to difficult combat encounters by including tons of different viable weapons, spells, and other build options is absolutely exemplary. Now, FromSoftware is back to raise the bar on everyone yet again, this time when it comes to what you’d expect from a “simple” DLC. Shadow of the Erdtree may not do anything radically different from the base game, but this expansion somehow feels like a scaled-down version of that same experience that recaptures all of the magic of playing Elden Ring for the first time, with more content packed within than many fully priced games. Its unexpectedly large realm is filled with new secrets, new discoveries, a ton of new build options to experiment with, as well as some of the most challenging and unforgettable boss battles Souls fans will have ever seen.
What’s The Best Soulslike (or Souls) Game?
Pick a winner!
What’s the best From Software DLC, Pre-Shadow of the Erdtree?
- Artorias of the Abyss (Dark Souls 1)
- The Lost Crowns Trilogy (Dark Souls 2)
- Ashes of Ariandel (Dark Souls 3)
- The Ringed City (Dark Souls 3)
- The Old Hunters (Bloodborne)
What We Said About Elden Ring in 2022
It is no exaggeration to say that Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s largest and most ambitious game yet, and that ambition has more than paid off. Even after 87 hours of blood, sweat, and tears that included some of the most challenging fights I’ve ever fought, and innumerable surprises, there are still bosses that I left on the table, secrets that I’ve yet to uncover, sidequests that I missed out on, tons of weapons, spells, and skills that I’ve never used. And this is all on top of PVP and cooperative play that I’ve barely been able to scratch the surface of. Throughout it all, while the fundamentals of combat haven’t changed much from what we’ve seen before, the enormous variety of viciously designed enemies and the brutal but surmountable bosses have brought its battles to a new level. Even with all the threads I didn’t manage to tug on my first playthrough (of what I’m sure will be several), what I was treated to can easily be held amongst the best open-world games I’ve ever played. Like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild before it, Elden Ring is one that we’ll be looking back on as a game that moved a genre forward. – Mitchell Saltzman, Februrary 23, 2022
Score: 10
Read the full Elden Ring review.
Weapons of Choice
While I haven’t had any “holy ****” moments of awe like the first time I took the elevator down to the Siofra River, exploration and discovery throughout the Realm of Shadow is still a delight thanks to its stellar art design, a great variety in the areas you get to explore, and the tantalizing rewards pretty much everywhere you turn. There are eight brand-new weapon types, ranging from throwing knives to beast claws to giant odachi samurai swords. My favorite of the new arsenal, though, is the light greatsword, specifically the Milady. True to its name, the Milady has a very regal-looking moveset with combos that flow nicely into each other and hit hard, but are also relatively fast compared to actual greatswords. For me, it’s a sweet spot. I actually swapped off of my powerful dual Bandit Curved Sword bleed build (albeit, minus the White Mask, which I ruined my chance to get) to instead rock a Strength/Dexterity-focused build using one of these and found great success for the majority of the DLC.
Mitchell’s Favorite Soulslikes
My 15 favorite soulslike games, ranked.
The Joy of Freedom
The journey through The Realm of Shadow is structured very similarly to The Lands Between, in that the map is split up into a number of different regions. Right from the get-go, you’re able to head anywhere you want to: you could follow the initial Miquella Cross to the first big “legacy dungeon,” called Belurat, and deal with the new horrific scorpion enemies; or head across a bridge to the east and work your way over to the magic filled Castle Ensis where you have to deal with this jerk (where you have go up against one of the most challenging bosses of the DLC right away), or find a way to bypass the need to go through either of those and get straight to the Scadu Altus, which largely serves as the central hub of the Realm of Shadow. Then you could head directly toward the Shadow Keep fighting your way to the top of it in order to take on one of the major bosses, or going through one of its other exits to explore otherwise inaccessible parts of the map. It’s a liberating sense of freedom, and the same masterclass level of open-world design as the base game, just on a scale that isn’t quite so vast.
Where to Buy
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Edition
Price: $79.99
Vendor: Amazon
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