Introduction

It is hard to find a Game Developer as revered as From Software in this current climate of video games, delivering back-to-back critical darlings that continue to iterate and evolve on the formula that has both birthed and evolved what we know as today as the Souls-like Genre.

The Soulsbourne series in a lot of ways reminds me of the evolution Rockstar had in the 2000's with the continuous iterations to the open world genre with GTA, Bully, and eventually Red Dead. There was a certain prestige and continued culmination of previous learnings that would crown push each iteration forward. Elden Ring is that crowning achievement for From Software. Whilst it isn't my favorite Soulsbourne game, it is had to not notice the culmination and everything From Soft has learnt from the initial release of Demon Souls up until this most recent release with the Shadow of the Erdtree Expansion.

Shadow of the Erdtree is a fantastic expansion and it continues to explore the blueprint left by the base game, finding creative ways to encourage exploration, new locations with interesting mechanics and stellar visual splendor. It provides a satisfying expansion that answers the critiques of enemies being too easy, and provides an expansive world to explore and a system to go hand in hand to help with the challenge. Whilst it didn't blow me away to the same proportions the base game did, it continuously reminded me why I love Elden Ring in its entirety, and more broadly From Softs games. So let's get into my review for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree.

Story

So to kick this review off let's talk briefly about the story, and an important disclaimer for this review is that I won't be diving into the specifics for this story. So to begin the DLC you'll need to defeat two separate enemies in the base game and one of those being Mohg, Lord of Blood, and once you defeat him you'll be teleported to the Shadow Lands and begin your pursuit of Miquella. You'll be traversing the Shadow lands and be encountering various NPC's on your journey shedding light on the situation, along side these Signs left behind by Miquella which feel like touch points of this journey across the land.

Much like with every other souls-like game the forms of storytelling take root from both the environments along with many of the various items that you'll pick up and collect. But here in Shadow of the Erdtree it does feel like its main story is more streamlined and breadcrumbed in contrast to the base game.

But overall in terms of storytelling this is another From Soft game through and through and the Shadow lands is just as visually succinct with the storytelling and atmosphere, as the base game.

Gameplay

Overview

So as I mentioned in the story segment, to get to Shadow of the Erdtree, you'll need to make your way through some key bosses, so with that in mind I'd assume most people watching this understand the core loop and combat for Elden Ring, so I want to more focus on what Shadow of the Erdtree changes here and how I believe this improves or hinders the experience.

Exploration - The Shadow Realm

Elden Ring was developed with it's open world and exploration in the front of mind making an expansive world the replicates the labyrinth like structure of Dark Souls, but on a much more grander scale here with Elden Ring.

There was something truly special about Elden Ring's approach to open world design and exploration, and one of the first videos I made on this channel talks about the beauty of worlds driven by curiosity and Elden Ring was one of my key examples. I reccomend checking it out, but the cliff notes are that the best open worlds are the ones that thrive on player curiosity and using landmarks and the sense of discovery to drive the player to explore, there is this sense of epistemic curiosity that is baked into the adventures of the Lands Between, this sense of discovery and acquisition of knowledge found through your ventures.

Shadow or the Erdtree is no different in its sense of discovery and exploration that has been the key driver in the base game, and it takes place in a new location called The Realm of Shadow. This expansion for me reignited the sense of wonder and curiosity lead exploration that made The Lands Between such a marvel to explore. From the moment you step out into the Shadow Realm you're greeted with multiple landmarks that'll pull you in a particular direction and have you lost in its wonder. Unlike the base game Shadow of the Erdtree will feel very direct and intentional with were some of the main story landmarks are that'll guide you towards the completion of the main story. But it is filled to the brim with caves, dungeons and coves that will pull you away and lead you on some interesting adventures.

One thing that I noticed with Shadow of the Erdtree was the amount of platforming puzzles and verticality that had been added to some of the different caves or locations in the open world. There were some puzzles like this in the base game, but it is interesting to see more of them take form in a way that builds on the exploration and atmosphere of the different locals found in the Shadow Lands.

One thing that I will say is that I did find the Shadow Lands a little awkward to navigate at times in terms of finding my bearings around particular parts, but at the same time I feel that this lent itself to helping me further explore every nook and cranny and try to discover any hidden routes or secrets that good lead me on a new adventure.

Much like in the base game there is a wealth of new world bosses roaming throughout The Realm of Shadow, especially this big towering furnace golems which towering across the different biomes of the land, and will hunt you down, kicking balls of fire your way. It's absolutely crazy, and honestly just traversing through The Realm of shadow and encountering these various kinds of enemies and continuously being surprised again, made me feel the rush I experienced two years ago and reminded me what I loved so much about this game to begin with.

Progression Systems

One of the main conversations that surrounds the release of Shadow of the Erdtree revolves around the games difficulty and this discussion ties into how From Soft have tackled the element of progression available in Shadow of the Erdtree. So at the core of this experience like with the base game you'll be wanting to explore, defeat enemies and acquire new weapons, spells, ashes of war and the like, along with the essential currency of runes to level up your character. However, on top of this, there is an additional item for levelling up throughout this expansion which is purely effective for your escapades throughout The Realm of Shadow. These are of course the Scadutree Blessings which I've probably mispronounced as it seems to be one of those situations where everyone says it in their own creative way.

These blessings essentially are a core staple to this expansion as they will impact the amount of damage you deal within the shadows lands, and also will reduce the amount of damage that you take, making this a pivotal component to chase down throughout your journey.

I do think that there is something that can be said for how this system ties into progression, as I do believe that most players will need to do some degree of exploration and level up their blessings over the course of their playthrough, as The realm of Shadow is a challenging and punishing world. But to me in some respects it feels like this should be the default method of experiencing Elden Ring's open world, whether it was the base game or the DLC. However, I'm still on the fence that if the approach to having some sort of collectible that is randomly scattered across the world as the main driver of progression.

I feel like one of the things that makes the core experience of Elden Ring's and most of the soulsbourne games is this level of buildcrafting and various unique tools that cater to a particular playstyle that the player has honed in on in throughout the experience. Whilst think it is a great incentive to explore, I guess it'd be a much more rewarding experience if they introduced something that further built upon different playstyles and particular build. I know there are new Ashes of War, Incantations, Spirit Ashes, and Spells, but I just feel like something new that has a much more prominent effect on builds and playstyles would have made progression feel more meaningful, opposed to finding fragments that make you stronger and more damage resistant.

It's a minor gripe, and really is something that I feel dominates the exploration more than the sense of sheer wonder and curiosity which feel the original handled exceptionally well.

But don't get me wrong, there is plenty to explore, and The Real of Shadow feels just as dense as The Lands Between.

Boss Encounters

Now I'd like to touch on the meat, like with any Souls-Like much of the allure is the sense of challenge and difficulty that arises in the boss encounters. The level of mechanics, multi-phases and meaningful challenge that arises from a particular encounter, and man Shadow of the Erdtree, is no different, and in many ways is the epitome of this. The various bosses of Shadow of the Erdtree provided a good challenge asking the player to recall all of their learnings from the base game, and are designed to counteract much of the cheese build that players have crafted over the years.

I'm no souls-bourne expert, as you can probably tell from my gameplay. But I've made my way through many of the games, and found Shadow of the Erdtree to provide a good challenge that will knock you on your ass if you aren't prepared or haven't been collecting enough Scadutree blessings to soften the blow from the encounter. Another thing that I've noticed here is that these bosses are way more aggressive, they won't wait for you to grease your weapon or some a spirit, much like their base game counterparts. They offer a real threat here and really do serve as the culmination of all the lessons learned throughout the Elden Ring experience, topping it off with a final boss that will puts hair on your chest. I can understand why people are calling these encounters too difficult, but I feel that From Software have for the most part done a good job trying to balance this game, given the sheer amount of tools and builds available to the player. It honestly is a tug of war, where you have veteran players rinsing the bosses health bars, and more novice players struggling with the first, and Erdtree for the most part I feel does strike a good balance and I feel with time and people exploring The Realm of Shadow and upping their blessings, the sentiment around this expansion's bosses will change.

Conclusion

To bring this video together, the whole Elden Ring experience has been a lighting in a bottle moment that is the culmination of all From Softs learnings throughout the years from the original Demon Souls. It captures the magic of exploring an open world begging to be explored and whilst I do feel like there is a better progression mechanism that could be incorporated to the exploration and level scaling loop, that aren't these blessings, I believe that the overall experience that is Elden Ring and more importantly Shadow of the Erdtree is a must play video game, and one that I think we'll all be talking about for years to come, if you were on the fence about jumping into this one, than the tldr of this video is, yes, Shadow of the Erdtree is more Elden Ring, and Elden Ring is a masterclass of a game and one I highly recommend.