Allow me to dispossess you of a notion that may be in your head. Even if you’ve played the band out of Elden Ring for triple-digit hours, you’re going to die in Shadow of the Erdtree. Often.
Repeatedly. As sure as the sun rises. As sure as this game will contain some corpse hanging half off a cliffside for some reason. Take me, for example, an overachiever who spent months grinding in prep. My character was levelled to the absolute zenith of Attributes (99 points across the board for Vigor, Mind, Endurance, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Faith, and Arcane).
Didn’t matter. The first enemy shredded my HP to a bee’s dick before finally dying, at which point I limped back to a checkpoint with a whimper.
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Review
Likewise, in terms of equipment, I had a British National Museum’s worth of S-tier boss-melting swords, spears, and occult death-staffs from the base game. All of them were sharpened to their most lethal states, and I knew their moveset quirks and elemental boons like the back of my Malenia gauntlet.
Didn’t matter.
The first boss I found within one minute’s ride of the initial Site of Grace took multiple attempts before I managed to fell him.
Basically, Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is almost a square one experience, for everybody. That cocky feeling of galloping around Miyazaki’s nightmare as an uber-cocky Lord of All Awful Creation will flee from you quickly. And hey–I adored being back in this world as a snivelling coward, jumping at every noise and eyeing every alleyway with extreme paranoia.
I’ll not bore you with too much talk of plot today. At worst, it might somehow spoil something for you. At best, it would just be the ramblings of a man who possesses full knowledge of every cutscene but doesn’t yet fully understand what the hell all of those revelations mean. Chalk that up to the classic, obtuse FromSoftware storytelling that we all love.
The basic gist is that you enter a Limgrave-sized Shadow Realm on the trail of Miquella, a demigod Empyrean, and the elder twin brother of Malenia. As this enigmatic somebody is making their way across said realm for reasons not quite known, they’re shedding parts of themselves (which is a convenient video gamey checkpointing system that breadcrumbs you along).
Also of note: there’s a small crusade of half a dozen heroes who are on a similar quest. They’re a fascinating and diverse crew of legendary fighters in their own right, and they’ll provide interesting dialogue and optional boss cooperation should you require it. And you absolutely bloody will.
Why? Because in the early game of Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree, your effectiveness during some ski-jump-esque difficulty spikes will be hugely reliant on how many special collectables you have sniffed out. Scadutree Fragments turned in at a Site of Grace will buff your damage output to some unquantifiable (but clearly massive) degree. Meanwhile, Revered Spirit Ash will do the same for your Summons.
Initially, for science, I completely ignored this system and did okayish in the overworld. The vast opening starter field was perfectly survivable–bar the huge Fire Golem colossi wandering about, who require special items to fell. However, venturing into the two boss housing castles that gate this area, one of which opens this world up quite a bit more, resulted in no cakewalk.
Expect to recoil from these fights with an imperative plan to do a few things. Firstly, you’ll hunt the aforementioned buff items like a pathetic junkie looking for their next fix. Second, you’ll be on the sniff for one of a hundred new weapons whose movesets, special techniques, and elemental stings have clearly been designed to make those bosses (slightly more) bearable.
For my money, may I kindly suggest you make a beeline for the Milady blade, which rests in close proximity to your North East. She was an incredibly versatile bit of steel that remained at my hip for at least 10 hours of my 20-hour playthrough. My beauty gets even more potent when you find and apply this incredibly elegant and evasive Wing Stance ash of war to her too.
Beyond my dearly bladed beloved, I fell for a bunch of other attitude adjusters from the eight new classes implemented. I found a stack of perfectly functional and tactically interesting Great Katanas, Light Greatswords, Perfume Bottles, and Thrusting Shields.
But everybody has their favourites and mine included the short-range, crowd-controlling berserker barrages of Beast Claws and the lethal pirouetting “ninja style” Reverse-hand Swords. Sadly, my plan to use Hand-to-hand Arts all game came to naught as they showed up way too late in the proceedings (though I relish in their badassery during my post-game mop-up).
What caught me by surprise was how much I fell for Throwing Weapons. My first love became an infinite supply of throwing knives whose special attack could enhance throwing range and pierce shield-turtling foes. That progressed to a series of javelins that had yet crazier range and could be hoiked from horseback for lethal circle-strafing efficiency. Better yet, their speed in deployment meant I could ping archers before they could notch and release.
So take the tip (of the spear), right now. Find yourself a big chuckable stick, Make it your own. Thank me later.
When it comes to environment design, I once again have to tip my Alberich’s Pointed Hat to the artists at From. I’ve traversed every sandbox that’s ever mattered in gaming, but the rolling prairies and the impossible vistas of the Shadow Realm frequently made me stop and gawp. And when one finally finds the means to reel in those distant structures on the macro to one’s micro, they’re revealed to be devilish labyrinths brimming with detail and death.
One thing I will say, however, is that I had an atypical experience compared to most other reviewers. When presented with an obtuse puzzle to “find the back section” of a keep, I made my own solution by sequence-breaking the DLC by making a near-impossible jump. Long story short: it provided access to many a section and boss that I don’t believe I had any right to meet and destroy. At least not in the order intended.
These are the things you do, my friends when you have a dwindling timeframe to review and no Fextralife FAQs to fall back on.
Interestingly, even when I wasn’t trying to game the system there were two points in the overworld where I was penalised for “not doing a thing” as intended. I’d gallop across an invisible line, hear an awful shattering sound effect, and be informed via pop-up that “a great rune had been shattered and a character lost” or some nonsense to that effect.
You should also be warned to exhaust all dialogue and sidequests with more or less every NPC while you can. I’m not sure if it was a quirk of my tampering, but at some point, a huge chunk of these people became “no longer” available via some off-screen event. With no means to glean info or ask for advice on certain key items, it made me aimless. Or more so than usual.
When it comes to other minor gripes, I found the overwhelming majority of boss fights in this game to be visually dazzling, surprisingly well-scripted, and beyond the challenge expected. I will say, though, that one key fight was not From’s best work. I enjoyed it, but the spectres of asset and animation reuse from other From titles stuck in my craw. I also found many of my opponents to be rather tight-lipped during our showdowns. More back and forth would have been nice.
Beyond those minor triflings, I don’t wish to say anything more about this DLC, lest I spoil something. All you really need to know is that Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree represents a hefty chunk of time, effort, and fascinating new revelations that are all well worth the asking price. At this colossal length, it’s basically a sequel to one of the most celebrated Game of the Years in modern gaming. You’d be out of your Scadu Tree to not saddle up Torrent and take the leap into it.
Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree was reviewed on PS5 using digital code provided by Bandai Namco
