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

Despite critical acclaim, Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has received mixed player reception on Steam, facing criticism for its difficulty and performance.

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Steam Screenshot While boasting a top Metacritic score pre-release, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree launched to a wave of negative Steam reviews. Released June 21st, the DLC's challenging gameplay, while praised by some, has frustrated many due to intense combat, questionable difficulty balancing, and performance issues across PC and consoles.

Performance Problems and Difficulty Concerns

Reddit Screenshot The expansion's intense battles are a major point of contention, with players reporting fights significantly harder than the base game, sometimes feeling disproportionately difficult. Reviews cite "rushed" enemy placement and excessively high boss health as contributing factors.

Performance problems plague both PC and console players. PC users report crashes, stuttering, and capped frame rates, with even high-end systems experiencing sub-30 FPS drops in crowded areas. Similarly, PlayStation users report significant frame rate drops during intense gameplay.

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