Elden Ring's Erdtree Shadows Challenge Players

While Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree received critical acclaim, its Steam reception is more divisive. Players have voiced concerns regarding difficulty and performance.

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Mixed Reception for Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree on Steam

Despite high Metacritic scores pre-release, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree launched to a wave of negative player reviews on Steam. Released June 21st, the DLC's challenging gameplay is praised, but many criticize its demanding combat, questionable difficulty balancing, and performance issues across PC and consoles.

Performance Problems and Difficulty Concerns Plague the Expansion

A significant complaint centers on the intense battles, described as excessively difficult compared to the base game. Reviews mention poorly designed enemy placement and excessively high boss health pools.

Performance problems are also widespread, with PC players reporting crashes, stuttering, and frame rate limitations. Even high-end systems struggle to maintain 30 FPS in crowded areas. Similar frame rate drops during intense moments have been reported on PlayStation consoles.

As of Monday, Steam shows a "Mixed" overall rating for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, with 36% negative reviews. Metacritic displays a "Generally Favorable" rating of 8.3/10 (based on 570 user reviews), while Game8 gives it a 94/100.