Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Review: Gameplay Impressions, Videos, Top Features

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree from developer FromSoftware faces the daunting task of following up on one of the greatest games of all time.

In 2022, Elden Ring released to "Universal Acclaim" with a Metacritic score of 96, landing it inside the top-30 reviewed games of all time.

Granted, that base game had massive expectations chasing it to its own release too, considering the involvement of names like George R.R. Martin and the promise of evolving the Soulslike formula into an open-world RPG.

With an expansive DLC, though, the task is trickier beyond even following up an all-timer of a hit—the add-ons must strike a balance between innovating too much on the base formula while also not simply providing more of the same.

It should go without saying, but Elden Ring's past triumphs position it to handle the task just fine.

Graphics and Gameplay

Shadow of the Erdtree's Land of Shadow throws so much depth and diversity of environments at players that the fact overall graphical quality remains the same as the base game is an afterthought.

While it might look and sound the same as the base game, the original effort was so quality and immersive that it's certainly hard to complain. Players encounter legions of different-looking enemies, engrossing NPCs that offer up lore and expansive open-world segments and layered dungeons with hidden paths and environmental storytelling.

Expansions like this usually get put under a microscope for the mundane—is the map size as big as the base game's map? As big as one of the base game's regions? Something else? It's best to keep it simple here—the map feels huge because of its density and variety of biomes, regardless of actual physical size.

Right upon arrival in the DLC, it becomes apparent that even the most over-leveled and well-equipped characters from the base game are going to have a hard time here. Whether it's new-looking enemies with unfamiliar attacks or even massive monsters that tower over nearly anything encountered in the base game, there's a blend of challenge and newness that will have seasoned players backpedaling.

Those lessons happen early and often. Another highlight—at least one boss offers multiple NPC summons to assist the player. And rest assured, players will likely die the first time attempting it with two allies by their side...and quite a bit more.

At its most basic, players are still free to choose their loadouts and overall builds while working through the paces of the attack, block and parry system with stance breaks and other details included. It's still a blast to experiment with ranged attacks or magic alongside more traditional things and the clunky-but-fun feel remains.

One of the new gameplay loops is seeking out Scadutree Fragments, essentially shavings of this new realm's own Erdtree that bump a character's stats. Also new is the concept of Revered Spirit Ash, a collectible that boosts Spirit Ashes and mount. These are akin to empowering flasks in the base game's original world, but only apply in the DLC's realm.

While there aren't droves of new additions to core concepts, there are a handful of new weapon types and one is significant. The light greatsword is fantastic at breaking an opponent's poise, while the Dryleaf Arts is simply a highlight for giving players another way to throw down with hand-to-hand combat.

Enemies take on more of a magical slant at times than in the past and those boss battles, as veterans know, can leave a player reeling when new late-fight wrinkles emerge. The feeling of happy exasperation after a fight that felt like it took four hours (it was really 10 minutes) is back in all its glory.

Overall, that marriage of personal touch to builds and no enemy permitting players to casually grind without devoting their full attention remains, as does the sense of wonder and exploration that made the first game's gameplay and presentation such a classic.

Story and More

Given the brutal nature of the base game, it shouldn't come as any surprise to hear that players won't be able to actually access this DLC without first accomplishing two major feats:

Defeat Radahn and Mohg, Lord of Blood.

So yes, the barrier to entry is absolutely massive. But doing so kick starts a narrative in which players seek those around Miquella and seek to solve the mysteries around the character.

Once again, the story isn't exactly shoved down a player's throat. There are loose things to follow that move the narrative along, sure, but the real treat is paying attention to the environmental storytelling or carefully piecing together what NPCs and otherwise have said.

Notably, there is a more pervasive sense of hope in this DLC's world. And hey, that's not saying much given the gloom and doom of the base game, right? Not a hard thing to do. But then again, this sort of engagingly creates an underlying sense of dread in a possibly too-good-to-be-true sense, too.

Elden Ring itself said "no thanks" to the usual open-world tropes over the medium and didn't present big collection quests or towers to climb, etc. But it was engrossing for its uniqueness around every bend, the lethality of every single enemy encountered and the reward of crafting materials.

That returns full-throttle here. And beyond new weapons there are droves of fresh new cookbooks, crafting and armor to uncover out in a world that manages to feel more dense than the base game.

Multiplayer falls into the as expected column too, with it going to be fun once again to recruit help or see how online PvP metas emerge and shift as the playerbase dives into all the new stuff available to them.

With this merely an expansion, some of the base-game nitpicks like clunky and convoluted menus return. But the expansive list of options and strong performance return, too.

Conclusion

Sometimes, when one describes a video game offering as "more of the same" it signals a negative.

But this is Elden Ring.

Shadow of the Erdtree doesn't take major risks. Instead, it smartly expands on what made the base game an all-timer of a hit, to the point it's almost like Shadow of the Erdtree just flexes its superiority over the genre landscape it now oversees.

Granted, players who didn't like Elden Ring won't have their minds changed here. But the base game and a this-is-how-it-should-be-done expansion remain the best way for new players to break into the formerly niche genre.