Nicely over a 12 months after developer FromSoftware and writer Bandai Namco Leisure first introduced the Shadow of the Erdtree enlargement for its wildly profitable 2022 motion RPG Elden Ring, the discharge of the extremely anticipated DLC is lastly imminent.
For followers of the landmark open world Soulsborne title, it has been an extended wait — however having spent the final week galloping, hacking, slashing, and rolling my manner by way of my first playthrough of Shadow of the Erdtree for this overview, I can say with nice aplomb that it was completely value it. This enlargement represents Elden Ring at its most refined, with a tighter, denser, and fewer “gamey” world design that provides option to a few of FromSoftware’s best-ever boss fights.
Scheduled to reach on June 21, 2024 on Xbox Collection X|S, Xbox One, Home windows PC, PlayStation 5, and PlayStation 4, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will undoubtedly go down in gaming historical past as the most effective DLCs ever made — and in my seven years writing about video games, I have not reviewed a launch extra deserving of an ideal rating than this one. Let’s delve into why that’s.
This overview was carried out with the Home windows PC model of Elden Ring, and made attainable due to a overview code supplied by Bandai Namco Leisure. The corporate didn’t see the contents of this overview earlier than publication.
Elden Ring DLC: What’s Shadow of the Erdtree?
Earlier than entering into the meat of this Elden Ring DLC overview, it is essential to provide some context about what Shadow of the Erdtree really is and what Elden Ring gamers can anticipate from it.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC
Worth:Â $39.99 | $34.89 at CDKeys (Xbox) | $37.09 at CDKeys (PC)Developer:Â FromSoftwarePublisher:Â Bandai Namco EntertainmentGenre:Â Soulslike RPG (open world)Set up dimension:Â 15.06GBPlaytime:Â 35-40 hoursPlatforms:Â Xbox Collection X|S, Xbox One, Home windows PC (Steam), PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4Reviewed on:Â Home windows PC (Steam)Launch date:Â June 21, 2024Xbox Sport Move:Â No
Put merely, Shadow of the Erdtree is a large enlargement for the Sport of the 12 months-winning 2022 motion RPG that encompasses a new map fully separate from the Lands Between. It takes the Tarnished to the Land of Shadow — a realm nestled within the umbra of the Erdtree that towers over the bottom sport’s areas — and duties them with the pursuit of Miquella, one in all Queen Marika’s Empyrean youngsters destined for godhood. Getting into, the explanation why Miquella got here to this place and what particularly he hopes to perform there may be unclear, although advertising and marketing supplies for the DLC word that he “awaits the return of his promised Lord” after “divesting himself of his flesh, his power, his lineage. Of all issues Golden.”
Very like the bottom sport of Elden Ring, Shadow of the Erdtree is a really exploration-focused expertise, with gamers inspired to comb by way of the Land of Shadow on horseback as they seek for dungeons to journey by way of, treasures to assert, characters to fulfill, and fearsome bosses to problem. All of those and extra await, with the overwhelming majority of discoveries fleshing out each the enlargement’s narrative and the broader lore of Elden Ring’s world. By all of it runs FromSoftware’s trademark “tough-but-fair” design ethos, full with a particular new mechanic that ensures endgame-level characters cannot breeze by way of the DLC’s challenges (extra on that later within the overview).
I went over how one can entry the DLC and begin Shadow of the Erdtree in a information lately, however the TL;DR is that the method requires you to beat each the Starscourge Radahn and Mohg, Lord of Blood bosses. Then, in Mohg’s enviornment, you may discover one of many enlargement’s new NPCs together with the choice to enter the Land of Shadow.
Elden Ring DLC: The Land of Shadow
Elden Ring, wealthy and layered because it was with really unimaginable quantities of content material, had one notable drawback: a few of the Lands Between’s open world was overly formulaic, which made parts of the sport’s secrets and techniques somewhat predictable previous the mid-game. Although every of the map’s areas do function a wholesome variety of extra authentic, bespoke dungeons, it grew to become robust to get enthusiastic about discovering caves, mines, and catacombs when you realized that each space had these, and infrequently a number of of every.
Earlier than taking part in Shadow of the Erdtree, I used to be hopeful FromSoftware would handle this criticism with the DLC, maybe narrowing the size of its world down a bit however filling it with extra distinctive discoveries to stumble throughout. Having now journeyed and performed by way of the overwhelming majority of the Land of Shadow, I am past completely happy to say my hopes have been made actuality.
Certainly, whereas the map is large for a DLC — concerning the dimension of Limgrave and Liurnia of the Lakes mixed, for those who positioned them side-by-side — its particular person areas are smaller, but in addition significantly denser with a higher variety of distinctive secrets and techniques which might be an absolute pleasure to search out by way of Elden Ring’s natural, icon-free exploration. That is to not say there are not any widespread caves or catacombs right here, as a result of there are; there’s only a considerably decrease ratio of them in comparison with extra outstanding sorts of facet content material than there was within the base sport, they usually’re scattered far wider, too. Primarily, Shadow of the Erdtree is the open world of Elden Ring refined to near-perfection, with the DLC handsomely rewarding the attentive and the curious with layer upon layer of wonders.
After all, an enormous a part of what makes the secrets and techniques Shadow of the Erdtree has in retailer so particular is FromSoftware’s world-class artwork route, which makes up for what Elden Ring lacks when it comes to uncooked graphical constancy tenfold. Like the bottom sport, the Land of Shadow is a wealthy and colourful feast for the eyes, with all the things from grand castles and colossal towers to sequestered villages and war-torn ruins scattered all through its quite a few fantasy biomes (together with some significantly particular areas and factors of curiosity I will not spoil right here). Fittingly for a world in shade, although, there are placing darkish overtones right here, each visible and thematic. That is made instantly obvious when the DLC begins in fields of golden grass — partially bathed in shadow and strewn with a whole lot of spectral headstones — that stretch so far as the attention can see.
There’s additionally an unimaginable quantity of jaw-dropping verticality to this realm, with the builders in some way managing to construct a map that feels corresponding to the Lands Between’s highest peaks and deepest depths regardless of solely being a couple of third of its dimension. There is a little bit of neat interconnectivity to find on this planet’s format, too, although do not anticipate one thing on the extent of Darkish Souls’ Lordran.
Shadow of the Erdtree, very like the remainder of Elden Ring, reserves its extra structured and interconnected Darkish Souls-style degree designs for its Legacy Dungeons, that are the biggest zones you may discover within the Land of Shadow. There are three of those, and though their sizes fluctuate — one specifically is so unfathomably huge that it took me a complete day of playtime to discover, and I am nonetheless in all probability lacking one thing there — all of them are put collectively expertly, and I had a blast taking part in by way of every one.
Elden Ring DLC: Gameplay, bosses, and fight
One factor that is at all times made FromSoftware motion RPG DLCs interesting is their inclusion of a number of new enemy varieties to battle, with base sport foes typically both utterly absent from or positioned very sparingly of their environments. Provided that Elden Ring is way grander in scale than one thing like Darkish Souls or Bloodborne, I used to be curious to see how the studio would deal with “populating” Shadow of the Erdtree’s areas, particularly after some gamers voiced issues concerning the reuse of enemies within the vanilla expertise.
A number of the enemies you may encounter in your journey are wholly new, with brutally sturdy curved greatsword-wielding horned knights, unsettling gargoyle-like birds, giant half-spider, half-scorpion beasts, and quite a lot of different threats able to ship you again to your newest Website of Grace. Some, nevertheless, are certainly repurposed from the Lands Between, although most simple troops within the Land of Shadow have been given sizable changes to make them really feel extra distinct. Generic troopers are extra aggressive and wield giant axes or pikes with fully new movesets, whereas knights battle with greathammers and twinblades as an alternative of greatswords and spears.
Total, I feel the builders struck a terrific steadiness right here, solely reusing mobs in restricted portions and the place applicable in order that encounters with new ones can shine, with tweaks to the rank-and-file spicing issues up significantly. Relaxation assured, even seasoned Elden Ring veterans have loads of partaking new challenges to grasp with this DLC.
On that word, let’s discuss bosses. Bandai Namco has beforehand revealed that there are 10 main bosses in Shadow of the Erdtree; I encountered and defeated eight in my playthrough for this overview — together with the enlargement’s last boss — together with a myriad of minibosses discovered off the overwhelmed path in facet dungeons or different hidden places (the remaining two are probably within the pair of areas I wasn’t capable of finding earlier than scripting this).
A few of Elden Ring’s bosses are criticized for having overly prolonged assault chains or unreasonable offensive flurries (taking a look at you, Malenia’s Waterfowl Dance), together with extraordinarily slim restoration home windows that may make getting hits of your personal in really feel unattainable generally. Although I tremendously get pleasure from many of the base sport’s bosses, I do agree that some have these points, and had excessive expectations going into the DLC for FromSoftware to design its bouts with higher balancing.
Shadow of the Erdtree has exceeded these expectations utterly, and I am assured in saying that a number of of its bosses will grow to be often called a few of the greatest in Soulsborne historical past. Each main one I bested was an incredible battle, and whereas one’s second part is a bit a lot, all of their movesets are pretty telegraphed and intuitive to be taught, making certain that every has finely tuned mechanics to match their unimaginable visible and musical spectacle. Be able to get humbled, although, as these are unquestionably a few of FromSoftware’s hardest ever encounters.
Talking of issue, the builders have carried out a brand new “Shadow Realm Blessing” improve mechanic to provide the Land of Shadow its personal development curve for endgame characters that is paying homage to leveling in the course of the base sport, whereas concurrently encouraging widespread exploration. Although you may begin the DLC fairly prone to incoming assaults, you may acquire the flexibility to completely scale back the injury you are taking whereas additionally enhancing the injury you deal within the Land of Shadow with Scadutree Fragments. Equally, each Torrent and your summoned Spirit Ashes will get these advantages whenever you discover and use Revered Spirit Ashes.
Each of those will be discovered throughout Shadow of the Erdtree as particular treasures, with upgrades ultimately requiring two, after which three to carry out. If you happen to’re combating a sure battle or space, you could need to come again later whenever you’ve discovered and buffed up with extra of those, very like how exploring to degree and discover gear might allow you to overcome hurdles within the Lands Between. I like the sensation of development that Scadutree Fragments and Revered Spirit Ashes add to the expertise, although even with the stat enhancements they grant, I might say incoming injury within the enlargement feels a bit overtuned.
Along with these two improve supplies, you may additionally discover loads of different loot as you discover the Land of Shadow, together with crafting recipes for highly effective buff consumables, max degree Smithing Stones, randomly dropped gear from defeated foes, and tons of Shadow of the Erdtree’s new weapons, armor units, Ashes of Struggle, talismans, spells, and extra. There’s nice selection and creativity in these sandbox additions, which ensures you may discover thrilling issues to make use of irrespective of which of the most effective Elden Ring builds you’ve got chosen; a sword able to afflicting minor enemies with Sleep completely, a Frostbite-applying weapon model of Perfumer aromatics, and sorcery bolts that break up into smaller fragments as they assail a goal are just some of the issues I walked away with that play properly with the Energy/intelligence character I used for this playthrough.
Elden Ring DLC: Story and characters (no spoilers)
As I wrote earlier than, the narrative of Shadow of the Erdtree is centered round Miquella, Queen Marika’s son. Miquella has mysteriously traveled to the Land of Shadow within the aftermath of the defeat of Mohg, the Lord of Blood — his abductor — at your arms (give this explainer a learn for those who want a refresher on pre-DLC context), and now you, together with a band of his followers, are tailing him to be taught what he plans to do.
The Empyrean’s motivations unravel as you progress by way of the enlargement and discover cryptic crescent-shaped crosses he is left in his wake. These are sometimes the place you may encounter his followers as they, too, seek for “Kindly Miquella” in lands scarred by the flames of Messmer the Impaler, one other main character you may meet with important ties to the Land of Shadow’s previous.Â
There are seven — sure, seven — of those devotees, and every one has a questline that connects to each the principle story and the arcs of the opposite characters in fascinating methods. Although a couple of of those are straightforward to overlook and a bit complicated to progress, I really feel that general, they’re fairly compelling, full with nice dialogue and voice appearing. Finally, all of them coalesce on the climax of the DLC’s core narrative, which culminates in some enjoyable and genuinely surprising twists.
Finally, there’s a terrific character-driven story right here that is enriched by FromSoftware’s wonderful world constructing and environmental storytelling, and it is one I sit up for taking part in by way of once more alongside Elden Ring’s group.
Elden Ring DLC overview: Conclusion
Previews for Shadow of the Erdtree typically described it as “extra of the identical,” and provided that that is Elden Ring we’re speaking about, that alone was sufficient to rocket my hype ranges into the stratosphere. Now that I’ve performed by way of the total expertise myself, although, I really feel compelled to emphasize that it is not simply “extra of the identical.” It is higher. It is all the things you’re keen on about Elden Ring, however amplified, and with not one of the design points that detracted from the bottom sport’s excellence. Not solely does it rekindle the enjoyment of discovery on this unimaginable world, nevertheless it elevates it to new heights.
The builders have given an official warning that spoilers for the DLC are out within the wild, so I strongly advocate staying off social media and out of remark sections till it is out, and also you’re taking part in. And whereas I agree with Elden Ring sport director Hidetaka Miyazaki that utilizing guides is “a wonderfully legitimate playstyle,” my suggestion is to enter and journey by way of the Land of Shadow blind. Do not rob your self of the magic.
Come up as soon as extra, Tarnished champions. The Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is slated for launch on Xbox Collection X|S, Xbox One, Home windows PC, PS5, and PS4 on June 21, 2024.Â