My favored damaging reexamination is " Scadu approval are dumb pls do nt do this again From " ( They are n’t dumb )

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is currently suffer one of the more rummy fates in modern gaming : it has realize stellar critical acclaim and is move serious transcript while receiving amazingly mixed user reviews on Steam . chronicle will show it is n’t the first FromSoftware DLC in such a position , however .

beautify with the title " Universal Acclaim " and an impressive aggregate sexual conquest of 95 on Metacritic , Shadow of the Erdtree is certainly enjoy its status as a critical darling . And before long before the much - anticipated DLC released on June 21st , 2024 , the floor Elden Ring biz reach a intellect - boggle 25 million copies sold . You ca n’t debate with those number .

Emoting in front of the Scadutree in the DLC for Elden Ring.

Yet in what sense like a parallel universe , Shadow of the Erdtree has garner a " Mixed " substance abuser reviewrankingon Steam from 42,746 review as of writing . While gripes concerning the enlargement ’s punishing trouble grade are to be somewhat require , the bulk of thecomplaintsare focus on the game ’s poor execution on PC . Players are reporting that their framerate pearl to 30 or lower during certain boss battles – even for actor on high - end rigs .

But it ’s the constant framerate stutters that are specially debatable for a secret plan that is so focused on preciseness and timing . I myself know serious stuttering back in 2022 when I began playing the al-Qa’ida Elden Ring . So much so that I had to set it away for several months before returning to it and finding my issues to have mostly been resolve .

I am already seeing people post random things like chemical attraction change , hardware gadget handler tweak and more to affect the public presentation in Elden Ring : Shadow of the Erdtree . A little wind : the problem is not in your PC , the problem is From Software being bad at their jobs .

Ashes of Ariandel official concept art.

Image via Bandai Namco

Dark Souls III Ashes of Ariandel DLC was also hit hard on Steam

But if we look back to October 2016 , when Elden Ring developer FromSoftware free the Ashes of Ariandel DLC for their hit biz Dark Souls III , we can see that this championship too waspannedby user on Steam , with 2,254 negative reviews equate to 3,273 incontrovertible revaluation . The DLC is currently sitting at a 71 on Metacritic right now , garnering a " sundry or ordinary " critics score . This is n’t just agreatscore , and speaking candidly from personal experience , it ’s absolutely deserved . For a DLC that was n’t trying to go for theenormous scalethat Shadow of the Erdtree has to offer , instead prefer for a more focused and contained experience , the cracks on show in ash of Ariandel feel more foundational .

ash of Ariandel was the first major DLC released for Dark Souls 3 , and it did n’t set a great precedent . One of the first and most shocking issues with it was its incredibly poor overall playtime . For anyone with a mid level character , you could push through the entire package in an hour or two , which turn over the weighing machine of Dark Souls 3 , and see the hefty price tag of $ 15 ( which has n’t seen much in the manner of simplification despite being nearly a decade old ) , mass feel perhaps more than a small robbed .

It ’s not as if those handful of minute were particularly exciting either , as Ashes of Ariandel had minuscule center ; it was a collection of ( confessedly ) visually impressive surround interlaced with nothing more than a ridiculous amount of hostile , which hadveryannoying tendency to gang up on you , and one very impressive final hirer ( a review article that has been follow up more and more in the negative reviews for Shadow of the Erdtree ) .

Many thespian ( myself let in ) were gall by the clean-cut lost potential , and some warm showcases of that FromSoftware accomplishment we ’ve all grown to revalue . Sister Friede is one of the safe bosses in the entirety of Dark Souls 3 in my opinion , and that ’s a sentiment shared by a portion of the histrion base . Sister Friede ( and her daddy ) offer a challenging combat , congeal in a great arena , with an impeccable soundtrack and a visually and mechanically impressive three phase . But , Sister Friede is often theonlything you ’ll hear discussed at duration from Ashes of Ariandel , which does n’t betoken in particular well as to the quality of the product as a whole .

You could n’t pay me to remember a particular area name , or a particular piece of loot from Ashes of Ariandel , whereas I could recite youexactlywhat I was reckon when I first touched the orchis and got to see the hereafter of Lordran in The Ringed City .

If I were to describe The Ringed City in a single countersign , it would befinal . If I were to describe ash of Ariandel in the same way … it would beforgettable .

Now as for whether or not Shadow of the Erdtree share these take , the answer is a simple-minded no . Shadow of the Erdtree is not a arrant piece of DLC , and it is dead deserving of critique . Thedifficultyand performance issues aside , Shadow of the Erdtree has some wily boss coming upon , unmortgaged residual issues , and some rather unintuitive navigational paths . ( With Shadow Keep coming to take care in that it can conduct to either one of the last gaffer , an end - game surface area , oran other game political boss , and some excess areas to research at any degree . )

Is all of this deserving of the influx of minus inspection it ’s getting ? No , but my hunch as to why Shadow of the Erdtree is fix so much pom-pom on Steam is that in the midst of such shine critical praise and a skyrocketingplayer tally , a comparatively small but extremely point-blank minority of players need to air their grievance somewhere . And what better place to do so than in Steam reviews , where voicing your frustrations can have a palpable effect on a secret plan ’s exploiter review rating ?

What ’s for sure is FromSoftware desperately ask to desex the expansion ’s public presentation issue ( the1.12.2 updatereportedly has not helped ) . What I ’m not so sure about is whether Shadow of the Erdtree ’s " miscellaneous " rating on Steam will last as long as Ashes of Ariandel ’s . Eight eld is a long clip – and a lot can vary in that prison term . Hopefully people soon see the distinct caliber on offer despite the egress , and it can deliver to the military rating it deserves , whilst also ensuring these review article are made known in a constructive fashion .

Curious as to whether someone has achieved a hitless final foreman run in Shadow of the Erdtree ? Then be sure to take a look at our piece on theWorld ’s first hitless Shadow of the Erdtree final gaffer run has been achievedon Pro Game Guides .