While many have already reviewed the incredibly successful “Shadow of the Erdtree,” the multi-hour DLC for the smash hit 2022 game “Elden Ring,” I’ve been wandering the Lands Between and the Land of Shadow, obsessively trying to take in everything this ambitious venture has to offer before filing. To be honest, while I had put many dozens of hours into “Elden Ring” a couple years ago, I had in no way explored everything that game had to offer. So the launch of “Erdtree” allowed me not only to complete the main game, but explore so much more of it than I had before launching into this remarkable expansion (like 100+ hours more). For years, DLC often felt like deleted scenes from a movie, something that hit the cutting room floor in the first place for a reason. But “Shadow of the Erdtree” is much more than that, a lengthy expansion of the world of “Elden Ring” that builds on the main game while presenting fully-realized new settings, enemies, and even mechanics.
Rather than just add another chapter to the story of “Elden Ring,” the developers of From Software built “Shadow of the Erdtree” out of the game’s rich lore. It’s a massive game that always feels like it’s barely scratching the surface of its storytelling, and fans have sought to unpack the back stories and trauma of its many NPCs through hundreds of websites. The main game’s ending can radically differ depending on interactions with these non-playable characters (and if you complete what essentially amounts to side quests), and that questline structure continues in the expansion. So it makes sense that “Erdtree” would branch off characters already met in the main game while also reshaping a few of the ones we already thought we knew.
Most people know by now that, to enter the DLC, a player needs to have defeated two optional bosses in Radahn and Mohg before entering the Land of Shadow, a place with new challenges to overcome and secrets to uncover. Much of the success of “Elden Ring” has been chalked up to its open-world aesthetic, one that encourages players to explore instead of following a linear path through an RPG story. The world of “Shadow of the Erdtree” doesn’t just maintain this asset but feels even more encouraging of it. There are really only three bosses in the DLC that need to be vanquished to complete its story, but there are dozens more worth fighting and entire massive regions that would go undiscovered if someone tried to speed through it. One of the many things I love about this game is that sense of player freedom. Instead of other Soulslike games wherein a challenging boss merely stood in the player’s way until it was defeated, “Elden Ring” wants people to go find another thing to do, returning when they’re strong enough to win the battle.
On that note, since most people will be playing “Shadow of the Erdtree” at a high player level that makes traditional farming for runes to upgrade difficult – one needs more and more to do so with each level – the developers came up with a new upgrade system called Scadutree Blessings and Revered Spirit Ashes. The former makes you stronger, and the latter does the same for your beloved Spirit Ashes, but both enhancements only work in the Land of Shadow. It changes your strategy: you can’t just grind for what will make you stronger. You have to find it. This mechanic feeds into the aforementioned encouragement of exploration, although I think it works better for a late-game DLC than a full game.
What’s most remarkable about “Shadow of the Erdtree” is an element that made the proper game stand out, too: the world in which it unfolds. Not merely being content to replicate regions from “Elden Ring,” the developers have built out a whole new setting, opening with a field of tombstones in the Gravesite Plain that’s instantly visually captivating. From the deep blues of the Cerulean Coast to the haunted mansion aesthetic of the Specimen Storehouse, the world of “Shadow of the Erdtree” feels unpredictably alive (and deadly). It also feels darker and more foreboding than the main game, filled with undead, aflame creatures that want you to suffer.
It could be because it’s one of my favorite games of all time, but the nightmare-fuel enemies in this expansion also feel more like “Bloodborne” than any Soulslike since its release. From the swamps of practically unkillable specters that drive you mad to the ruins of massive fingers jutting from the earth, “Shadow of the Erdtree” sometimes feels like a cross between H.P. Lovecraft and J.R.R. Tolkien, in all the awesome ways that implies.
As of this writing, I am at the final boss of “Shadow of the Erdtree,” after struggling to climb the rise of Enir-Ilim in ways that no Soulslike has ever given me. More than the full game “Elden Ring,” sections of this DLC feel almost too unpredictably punishing, even though I know there’s no such thing for hardcore fans. (I raced through some bosses considered impossible and then struggled with the non-boss enemies that followed in confusing ways, creating some baffling between-boss difficulty spikes.) There are enemies in this game, like the lightning-wielding warriors of Enir-Ilim that almost drove me insane, that would be bosses in many other titles. It’s a game constantly asking you to reconsider your strategy, and the DLC encourages you to try out its new weapons and gear; even though I was pretty attached to the melee build that I’ve fully upgraded through the main game.
It’s easy to say that “Shadow of the Erdtree” works because it follows my grandpa’s favorite saying: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But that undersells what this game – and at 40 hours, it really is more of a game than an expansion – does well, not just content to replicate what worked but to shift it in a new and fresh way. The developers have said there won’t be any more DLC for “Elden Ring.” They said the same for “Dark Souls 3” and then released a second expansion, for the record, so don’t give up hope. If that happens here, I’ll be ready on day one. But if it doesn’t, “Shadow of the Erdtree” reminds one how much influence this game will have on the team at From Software and the competitors who seek to replicate its success. Even if many will falter, I feel like we’ll look back on “Elden Ring” and “Shadow of the Erdtree” as titles that unleashed a creative ripple through the industry. At least until “Elden Ring 2.”
The Publisher provided a review copy of this title.
