A spoiler-free review/analysis of Shadow of the Erdtree—an experience so vast that to call it DLC legitimately feels like a mistake. This might as well be Elden Ring 2.

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Elden Ring's much anticipated DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, marks the first time I've been able to review a new Souls-adjacent game in over eight years. When I reviewed Dark Souls 3, I asserted that thanks to the high difficulty of these games, reviewing them can be a stressful experience. In the case of Shadow of the Erdtree, the difficulty is that the DLC is so ridiculously vast and dense with things to uncover, that trying to talk about the game while maintaining that purity of experience for you as a player is difficult. All this to say, Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree is bigger than most games (it feels about as big as the entirety of the original Dark Souls), and it's an unbelievably special experience to boot. In this review/analysis, let's talk about Shadow of the Erdtree!

This review is spoiler-free—in order to ensure this, I only included footage from the two early areas that were already featured in the preview. Trust me, that's only scratching the surface.

Review code provided by Bandai Namco

0:00 - Intro
0:10 - Reviewing Souls games is weird
1:30 - Maintaining the mystery of Erdtree
2:43 - The enemies aren't what makes Erdtree difficult
4:25 - The artistry of the shadow realm
6:57 - Erdtree's world is difficult to navigate
8:30 - The shifting purpose of the map
10:21 - The perils of the Souls Content Industry
12:25 - Outro

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Animated text intro by Isaac Holland -   / drazgames  

#eldenring #shadowoftheerdtree