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 more nuanced, with players voicing concerns about difficulty and performance.
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Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree - Falling Short of Expectations?
Shadow of the Erdtree: A Brutal Reality Check for Players ------------------------------------------------------------------------------Steam Reviews Reveal a Divided Playerbase
Despite pre-release Metacritic praise and high expectations, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's Steam launch was met with a significant number of negative reviews. Released June 21st, the DLC's challenging gameplay, while lauded by some, proved frustrating for many due to intense combat, perceived imbalance, and performance issues across PC and consoles.
Performance and Difficulty: Key Complaints
A major point of contention revolves around the increased combat difficulty. Players report battles feeling disproportionately harder than the base game, with some citing poorly designed enemy placement and excessively high boss health pools.
Performance problems further exacerbated the negative feedback. PC users experienced crashes, stuttering, and frame rate limitations. Even high-end systems struggled to maintain smooth gameplay, with frame rates dipping below 30 FPS in crowded areas. Similar frame rate drops during intense moments were reported on PlayStation consoles.
As of Monday, Steam shows a "Mixed" overall rating for Shadow of the Erdtree, with 36% negative reviews. Metacritic presents a more positive, "Generally Favorable," 8.3/10 rating (based on 570 user scores). Game8 offers a contrasting 94/100 rating. This disparity highlights the significant divergence in player experiences.
