Despite critical acclaim, Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has received mixed player feedback on Steam, sparking debate 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 Reactions

Steam screenshot While boasting top Metacritic scores pre-release, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree launched to a wave of negative player reviews on Steam on June 21st. The DLC's challenging gameplay is praised, but many players criticize its demanding combat, questionable difficulty 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 many reporting them as significantly harder than the base game, sometimes feeling disproportionately difficult. Criticisms include poorly designed enemy placement and excessively high boss health pools.

Performance problems are also widespread, with PC users reporting frequent crashes, micro-stuttering, and frame rate limitations. Even high-end systems experience frame rate drops below 30 FPS in crowded areas, significantly 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 reviews. Game8, however, gives it a much higher rating of 94/100.