Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree 'Too Difficult' for Players

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, with players voicing concerns about difficulty and performance.

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Steam Reviews Reveal a Divided Playerbase

Despite pre-release Metacritic accolades, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree launched to a mixed bag of Steam reviews. Released June 21st, the DLC's challenging gameplay is praised, but many find the combat excessively difficult, unbalanced, and plagued by performance issues across PC and consoles.

Performance and Difficulty: Key Player Complaints

The expansion's intense battles are a major sticking point. Players report encounters significantly harder than the base game, with criticism leveled at enemy placement ("rushed" design) and inflated boss health pools.

Performance problems are also widespread. PC users report 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 affect PlayStation users.

Currently, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree holds a "Mixed" Steam rating (36% negative reviews). Metacritic shows a more positive "Generally Favorable" rating of 8.3/10 (based on 570 user reviews), while Game8 gives it a 94/100.