Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree Review (Steam)

Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree Review, The Shadow of the Erdtree expansion features an all-new story set in the Land of Shadow imbued with mystery, perilous dungeons, and new enemies, weapons, and equipment. Discover uncharted territories, face formidable adversaries, and revel in the satisfying triumph of victory. Dive into the riveting interplay of characters, where drama and intrigue intertwine, that create an immersive experience to savor and enjoy.

Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree Review Pros:

  • Beautiful graphics.
  • 67.2GB Download size.
  • Scadutree Blessing is found in the world and used at grace sites. These improve your damage output and lessen the damage you take. It only has an effect in the Shadowlands. (DLC)
  • While a new map called the Shadowlands is complete with new map fragments to find.
  • Full controller support.
  • All new enemy types.
  • Soulslike gameplay.
  • You can use your character from the main game, no need to start again.
  • Graphics settings – screen mode, resolution, auto-detect best rendering settings, ray tracing quality, and quality settings preset.
  • New hairstyles though this is free to everyone, are worth noting.
  • HDR support.
  • Advanced graphics settings – texture quality, anti-aliasing, SSAO, depth of field, motion blur, shadow quality, lighting, effects quality, volumetric quality, reflections, water surface, shader, global illumination, and grass quality.
  • Mouse and keyboard support and you can remap the controls and Invert axis and sensitivity sliders for the mouse.
  • The DLC added an art book and soundtrack.
  • Can remap controller button.
  • Auto lock on, auto target, and manual attack aiming.
  • Cross-region play option.
  • Blood can be turned on and off.
  • Camera speed, sliders, and Invert axis settings.
  • Full 3D game world with 360-degree camera control.
  • Handy lock-on button for combat.
  • Tutorial tips pop up as you play.
  • All new characters and vendors to meet with some giving unique side missions.
  • Messages can be left by other players (and you can lay your own) and these can help or hinder you.
  • Bloodstains on the floor can be clicked so you see the ghost of the person who died and you see how they died.
  • Revered Spirit Ash Blessing – find in the world and use these at grace to increase summoned spirits and spectral seeds abilities to cause damage and take less damage from attacks.
  • Runes are the currency in the game for buying gear and leveling up, you can get them from enemies and find fragments of them in the world.
  • Full massive open world with only a few areas locked off initially.
  • Set the game to online or offline.
  • Online will mean you can be invaded by other players.
  • All new materials and resources to find in the land.
  • Offline will turn off the messages but also means you cannot be invaded.
  • Enemies can drop random items and gear.
  • Stonesword keys are limited but they open hidden areas that have great rewards.
  • Spend runes to level up and put points into your stats.
  • Massive boss fights can be the usual arena-based fight or it can happen naturally in the world.
  • Play how you want.
  • New cookbooks and talismans.
  • You can equip and be affected by elements like freezing, fire, scarlet rot, poison, etc.
  • Weapon types are massive like daggers, swords, dual blades, lance, bows, crossbows, great swords, and more.
  • Embue your weapon with an element for a short time.
  • Grace is the new bonfire where hitting it will unlock it as a fast travel point, staying at it will reset enemies, refill potions, and let you manage your inventory and level up.
  • Ashes of war are spectral allies you can cast and have fight alongside you.
  • You can dual-wield a weapon to increase its stats or adjust its attacks.
  • Load out lets you have multiple weapons in each hand so you can quickly swap between them, you can equip a set of items for quick use and magic spells.
  • Vendors in the world will have unique stock and you can buy and sell with them.
  • In the world, you can grab resources and materials for crafting.
  • Get Smithstones to upgrade your weapon.
  • Every np and vendor can be killed but it changes how the game goes later on.
  • Find and hit these little magic mounds to unseal a gust of wind travel point somewhere on the map.
  • Day and night cycle with rainy weather happening.
  • At Grace’s, you can change the time of day.
  • Nighttime makes it easier to avoid enemies as their aggro vision is smaller.
  • Chests can be found.
  • Roundtable Hold is an area you can find and here you get npcs you met who have moved there, and you have access to better blacksmiths and vendors.
  • You can attack the game in any order and go off anywhere to have your own unique adventure.
  • Unlock your steed so that at any time you can call your horse and travel faster, have a double jump and you can fight from atop your horse.
  • Full control over creating your character from the creator itself to how you build and spec your stats.
  • Weapons will have stat requirements and even if you don’t meet them you can still use it but it’s slower and does less damage.
  • Very atmospheric from the lighting to the music and locations themselves.
  • Backstab is a huge deal as it does major damage to an enemy.
  • The locations are instantly memorable and remarkable.
  • The Ashes and fragments are the new way to level up in the DLC as it still lets you do it with runes but the parts increase damage and decrease enemy damage. It helps keep the DLC seperate but still provides a challenge.

Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree Review Cons:

  • No new Steam achievements.
  • High game requirements in that you have to Mohg and Radahn bosses to open up the path to the DLC.
  • It’s a huge difficulty uptick.
  • A lot of weapons got nerfed in the patch for the DLC.
  • Few performance issues like pop-in and jagged edges. Managed to negate some of it by turning off the Nvidia experience.
  • A lot to take in and it never lets up.
  • To get the most out of the game and see everything you really need to heavily rely on guides and YouTube videos.
  • You can easily miss stories, quests, and interactions.
  • Glitches can happen which is usually fine but it can ruin the experience like falling through floors and walls, bosses getting stuck in animations, etc.
  • No easy way to clear all markers.
  • At times some of the scenery decoration hides Collectibles, resources, and your death spot.
  • Still a nightmare that people can place markers right on top of graces making it hard to hit them.

Related Post: Elden Ring Review (Steam)

Elden Ring Shadow Of The Erdtree:

Official website.

Developer: From Software

Publisher: Bandai Namco

Store Links – 

Steam

  • 10/10
    Graphics - 10/10
  • 10/10
    Sound - 10/10
  • 10/10
    Accessibility - 10/10
  • 10/10
    Length - 10/10
  • 10/10
    Fun Factor - 10/10
10/10

Jim Smale

Gaming since the Atari 2600, I enjoy the weirdness in games counting Densha De Go and RC De Go as my favourite titles of all time. I prefer gaming of old where buying games from a shop was a thing, Being social in person was a thing. Join me as I attempt to adapt to this new digital age!