Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Launches to Mixed User Reviews on Steam Due to Difficulty Backlash

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree launched recently, and to no one’s surprise, the hotly anticipated expansion was met with universal critical acclaim. With a long list of perfect or near-perfect review scores, it has become the best-reviewed game expansion of all time, and upon release, it drew players it predictably large numbers.

It has, however, also attracted a fair bit of criticism from a number of players over its approach to difficulty. Over on Steam, at the time of writing, Shadow of the Erdtree has a Mixed user reviews rating, with over 35 percent of its 31,000-plus user ratings being negative. That’s over 14,000 negative user ratings.

FromSoftware is, of course, a studio that’s become known for putting out challenging content (to say the very least), and it’s worth pointing out that Shadow of the Erdtree is very explicitly designed as late-game content. Many in the community have criticized it for feeling too punishing even for incredibly high-level characters, but the expansion does also introduce its own new progression mechanics that apply only to its new content offerings that are well worth investing in.

In our own review of the DLC, we awarded it a score of 10/10, saying, “Shadow of the Erdtree’s focus on great level design and fantastic boss fights makes it a must play for the fans of the genre.” Read the full review through here.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.