Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC: A Double-Edged Sword of Difficulty and Praise
While Shadow of the Erdtree has received critical acclaim, its Steam reception is more nuanced, revealing a split between praise and player frustration. The DLC's challenging gameplay, while lauded by some, has also drawn significant criticism for its difficulty and performance issues across PC and consoles.
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Steam Reviews Reveal a Divided Playerbase
Despite pre-release Metacritic success, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree launched to a wave of mixed player reviews on Steam. Released June 21st, the expansion's demanding combat encounters have proven divisive. While the challenge is appreciated by some, many players find the difficulty unbalanced and excessively strenuous.
Performance and Design Concerns Surface
A recurring complaint centers around the perceived intensity of battles. Players report enemy placement feeling rushed and poorly designed, with bosses boasting excessively high health pools.
Performance issues further compound the negative feedback. PC users report frequent crashes, micro-stuttering, and frame rate limitations. Even high-end systems struggle to maintain a smooth 30 FPS in densely populated 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 currently displays a "Generally Favorable" rating of 8.3/10 (based on 570 user reviews), while Game8 gives it a 94/100 rating. This disparity highlights the significant difference between critical and player reception.
