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

Despite receiving critical acclaim, Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has sparked a mixed reception on Steam, with players voicing concerns about its difficulty and performance.

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Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Falls Short of Player Expectations

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's Steam Debut Marked by Mixed User Reviews

Steam Screenshot While achieving a top Metacritic score pre-release, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree launched to a wave of negative player reviews on Steam. Released June 21st, the DLC's challenging gameplay is praised, but many players find the combat excessively difficult, citing poor balancing and performance issues across PC and consoles.

Performance Problems and Difficulty Concerns Plague Player Experience

Reddit Screenshot The expansion's intense battles are a major point of contention, with players reporting significantly increased difficulty compared to the base game. Reviews frequently mention poorly designed enemy placement and excessively high boss health pools.

Performance problems are also widespread, with PC users experiencing crashes, stuttering, and frame rate limitations. Even high-end systems struggle to maintain 30 FPS in crowded areas, severely impacting gameplay. Similar frame rate drops during intense moments have been reported on PlayStation consoles.

Metacritic Screenshot As of Monday, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree holds a "Mixed" rating on Steam, with 36% negative reviews. Metacritic shows a "Generally Favorable" rating of 8.3/10 based on 570 user scores. In contrast, Game8 awarded the DLC a 94/100 rating.