Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree Review

I awaken from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the cocoon to the sight of a phantom graveyard, with tombstones there yet not there, fading in and out as I walk through them. It’s a graveyard of tragic maybes and could be's that stretch as far as the eye can see, littering the fields with the dead yet not dead. It’s a poignant farewell to 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Elden Ring, each grave reminding us of our frequent failures and rare triumphs, but 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Shadow of the Erdtree doesn’t linger on these somber tones.

As we climb its mountains, slay its dragons, and conquer its castle keep, this𒁏 long-awaited expansion reveals itself as a celebration of FromSoftware’s own de🐽cade-long journey of rare failures and frequent triumphs.

Shadow of the Erdtree is the studio’s most ambitious DLC yet, with a sprawling open world as v𝓰aried as the base game. The aforementioned graveyard makes for an ominous opening vꦜista, with Messmer’s soldiers mindlessly marching along the roads in their crusade, but before long we’re exploring a coast adorned with lush cerulean flowers and vivid red petals, as verdant ruins rise into the sky. The mystery of who Miquella is lures us along to each new site of grace, pulling us face-to-face with towering, still-burning wicker men, and valiant Black Knights cutting down stragglers.

Elden Ring Tarnished climbing a ladder down to a slithering finger ruin lit in blue

I went into Erdtree terrified. 168澳洲幸运5𒁃开奖网:I warned people against playing on New Game Plus, because Soulsborne expansions traditionally up 💙the ante so ⛄much that adding to the challenge will only sour the experience. But I’m an idiot who wanted to power stance a unique weapon, which meant going all the way back to Limgrave to be called maidenless once more. However, my worries were completely unfounded this time.

Shadow of the Erdtree has a unique leveling system exclusive to the Land of Shadow. You’ll find Scadutree fragments which, when kindled at a site of grace, strengthen how much damage you🅰 deal and how much you can take. Despite going in at level 160 and firmly in the endgame, I still felt a sense of growth, something that often stagnates by the time you beat a soulslike, let alone begin its expansions. I could feel my character getting stronger as I uncovered💫 the map, taking less damage and hitting much, much harder.

There’s a dragon harder than Midir, a final boss that makes Malenia look like the Soldier of Godrick, and an early fight that feels one part Artorias, one part Dancer, and yet the challenge was balanced even o⛎n New Game Plus. Yeah, I didn’t take my own advice.

While I was playing through Erdtree, director Hidetaka Miyazaki said that he believes the game has “room for improvement” if ꦓyou need guides to beat it. But Shadow of the Erdtree is the most intuitive FromSoftware experience yet. The main story is surprisingly simple to follow, as each site of grace clearly points you to the next along a straightforward path while barriers directly tell you what items you need to progress, until eventually you come face-to-face with the finale. I stumbled into the ending because it was that easy to find.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree ruins in the distance with a hazy orange sky

FromSoftware has alread💟y succeeded by its own measure, but there’s still plenty for those who want to unpack its world further, because Shadow of the Erdtree is even more expansive than we were led to believe, with so many optional areas hidden away that almost demand collaboration among other players to find. I can’t wait for this expansion to be unleashed into the big wide world and for a wider audience to embrace it. Even now, I have uncovered countless nuggets of lore that tie into not only the base game, but other masterstrokes of From’s library.

This communal synchronicity obviously wasn’t th🌼ere during the review period, but members of the press still left messages pointing each other to secrets, lending a helping hand while occasionally tricking each other into plunging off cliffs in true Soulborne fashion. Chatting with others at TheGamer about what we’d found encapsulated what makes FromSoftware games so special in a microcosm.

While they can be opaque—good luck figuring out how to start the first Dark Sꦚouls DLC without a guide—they invite collaboration, leaving breadcrumbs across worlds for others to follow while flocking to forums to see what everyone else has discovered. Like so much of what makes these games unique, Shadow of the Erdtree perfect𝕴s that philosophy and pushes it further.

Elden Ring is a masterpiece, and still sits comfortably as one of my all-time favourites. And yet, Shadow of the Erdtree is an improvement in almost every way. The map might be smaller, but it's denser and far more detailed, using verticality to loop areas back in on themselves and fill each region to the brim with interesting discoveries. It was a treat to find an open worl🔯d in Elden Ring without a checklist to follow, instead using little blemishes on the map or buildings in the distance to uncover new challenges of my own accord.

One o🍃f the most pivotal locations in Erdtree is💯 the Shadow Keep, which the game clearly expects you to enter through the front door. This leads you to the next story location and a mandatory boss fight, but if you loop around the map by venturing down completely unrelated ruins, crossing rope bridges and passing a cathedral, you’ll find the Church District to the side. This leads you into the Shadow Keep once more, but from a new perspective. Shadow of the Erdtree is filled with moments like this that invite and reward your natural sense of curiosity, with the world itself designed to support exploration in so many ingenious ways.

It’s incredibly rewarding because, instead of stumbling on variations of the same caves and catacombs, you’re unraveling more of the world and seeing completely new sidesꦗ of places you thought🌱 you’d mastered. Even when approaching legacy dungeons, they are infinitely more vast and organically interwoven into the Land of Shadow with meticulous care. One highlight was stumbling upon the factory behind the Living Jars we came to cherish in the base game, uncovering a conveyor belt of body horror as contorted, fleshy, once-human blobs are stuffed into ceramic.

It 🔯puts Alexander in a completely different light, 🍷huh.

Shadow of the Erdtree doesn’t just iterate on Elden Ring, it looks at FromSoftware’s past decade and enriches the best ideas to embellish them with all the lessons learned. The Land of Shadow feels as in-depth and connective as Dark Souls’ Lordran 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:or Bloodborne’s Central Yharnam, stretched to the size of an open world despite never losing 🙈any of that craftsmanship, but there are more obvious, blatant references.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Tarnished riding Torrent in a river towards a giant burning fire wicker man

There’s a flooded city you drain to uncover much like New Londo, albeit this time it flows into the wider world better. Deep in the bowels of the Land of Shadow lies an underground labyrinth that harkens back to the Tomb of Giants, a boundless void which you parkour across enormous graves, except this t💞ime without the crushing pitch-black and hordes of giant skeletons. Black Knights return as striking minibosses but this time they’re more varied in their designs beyond just weaponry. There’s even a boss who feels incredibly similar to Lorian in Dark Souls 3, but they’re far more formidable and the combination of two foes is less of a gimmick.

You’ll find myriad callbacks to🌠 past From games I won’t spoil here, but it’s clear that the team looked back at everything that brought them to this point, a Game of the Year winner more successful than any of their past work, eager to celebrate the journey. This is their linking the flame moment, a chance to be rebor📖n and usher in a new age, capped off by what can only be described as their magnum opus.