The DLC of Elden Ring has now encountered negative feedback from players after a positive start. The bosses of Shadow of the Erdtree are at the center of the criticism.
What is the mood like? Shadow of the Erdtree was released on June 21, 2024, and received enthusiastic reviews from the press. The Metascore stands at 95 points.
On Steam, the sentiment also looked very positive on Friday. There were predominantly positive ratings and reviews praising the DLC. Additionally, the player count of Elden Ring skyrocketed, reaching a peak of over 550,000 players simultaneously shortly after the expansion’s launch.
On June 22, 2024, according to SteamDB, about 780,000 simultaneous players were recorded. The motivation is high, but the more people have played the DLC and the further they progressed, the more the overall sentiment changed.
This has led to Shadow of the Erdtree currently losing its “very positive” rating on Steam and now standing at “Mixed.” But what are players criticizing?
The biggest problem is the bosses
What do the ratings look like now? As of June 23, 2024, over 22,200 players have provided their rating on Steam. Only 63% of these are positive. Many of the negative voices have expressed themselves in detailed reviews explaining why they are giving the DLC a thumbs down.
One point that is repeatedly mentioned is the partly poor performance of the game. Especially in comparison to the main game, there are noticeable frame drops and even freezes, particularly during boss fights. This might be due to the fact that many of the battles are very effects-heavy, which puts significant strain on players’ PCs.
Regarding the bosses: they receive the most criticism. In the reviews, long-time fans of FromSoftware often voice their opinions. Players like the user Lars760 say: “It pains me to write this review, as I love the Souls games. But the boss fights are no longer what they used to be.”
FromSoftware has artificially made the bosses, in their opinion, more difficult. They act overly aggressively and have long combos that leave little time for players to attack.
The studio should reconsider its design philosophy, especially in light of the negative feedback. User Crimson finds the expansion itself great but criticizes the poor execution of the bosses. They rely on cheap tricks and do not reach the quality of previous bosses like Lady Maria.
“This DLC only exacerbates the core issues of the base game. Inflated HP pools, attack cycles that never end, scaling that doesn’t seem to work properly,” writes PossumPally while also criticizing the new system surrounding the Scadubaum fragments. Read our guide on MeinMMO to make your life easier.
“Every boss must now be like Malenia,” criticizes ThomasOfAstora, after explaining that he has been playing and loving FromSoftware’s games for 12 years. With the DLC, however, the studio went too far.
Currently, the mood is quite mixed. Many positive opinions stand against negative ones. Therefore, we are curious about your opinion. Have you played the DLC yet? What do you think of it, especially the bosses? Feel free to let us know in the comments. If you are looking for assistance, you can visit MeinMMO – here is our guide overview.
