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, sparking debate over its difficulty and performance.

Related Video

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree - Falling Short of Expectations?

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree's Steam Debut: A Mixed Bag

Steam Screenshot Despite pre-release accolades and a high Metacritic score, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree launched to a wave of negative player reviews on Steam. While the challenging gameplay was praised, many players voiced concerns about excessively difficult combat, questionable balancing, and performance issues across PC and consoles.

Performance Problems and Difficulty Concerns

Reddit Screenshot The DLC's intense battles were a major point of contention, with players finding them significantly harder than the base game. Criticisms included poorly designed enemy placement, and bosses with excessively high health pools.

Performance problems were also widely reported. PC users experienced crashes, stuttering, and frame rate limitations. Even high-end systems struggled, with frame rates dipping below 30 FPS in crowded areas, impacting gameplay. Similar frame rate drops during intense moments were 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 reviews), while Game8 awarded it a 94/100 score.