Elden Ring Gets Mixed User Reviews Over Shadow of the Erdtree's 'Excessive' Difficulty

Elden Ring recently released its first and supposedly last expansion, the Shadow of the Erdtree, and recent user reviews have been mixed with players complaining of "excessive" difficulty.

The release of the DLC caused a surge of players helping bring back Elden Ring to the top of Steam charts, which was not surprising given how widely anticipated the expansion was. The game, developed by FromSoftware, recorded 781,000 concurrent players on Saturday, at 3:00 p.m. UTC.

Elden Ring Gets Mixed User Reviews

However, not all players on Steam were of a receptive mindset going into the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. Based on recent user reviews, tens of thousands of players did not leave positive comments, leading the game to a "Mixed" reception.

Some of the common complaints that were made include the expansion's excessive difficulty with its new content as well as performance issues. The latter is something that was also cited in some analysis of the DLC since it was released, according to WCCFTech.

These issues were also present in the base game but that was something that was not really an issue that many players complained about. This has gotten some people to speculate that FromSoftware may have gone a tad bit too far with how difficult they have made their recent content.

The complaints about Shadow of the Erdtree's difficulty are somewhat justified, as the Elden Ring expansion's content is immune to players' overpowered endgame builds from the base game. This is primarily due to the new Scadutree Fragment scaling mechanic.

However, even more than that new feature, the DLC is also filled with new bosses that will completely decimate any player who comes unprepared. Some enemies have extremely dangerous attack patterns, aggressive AI, and unforgiving levels of damage.

One reason for the complaints could be because of people stubbornly choosing to face bosses without collecting the Scadutree Fragments beforehand. This is due to having the ability to fast travel to any Site of Grace, said PCGamer.

Complaints About "Excessive" Difficulty

A Twitch streamer, Kai Cenat, has hit back at players who were complaining about Shadow of the Erdtree's apparent difficulty spike. He defended FromSoftware's decision with the new expansion despite spending 32 hours leading to 404 deaths in the DLC.

Cenat had previously beaten the base Elden Ring game after recording 1,700 deaths across 167 hours before shifting his focus to the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion. At the time of his comments, he had already spent more than 50 hours and another 500 deaths getting to the final boss of the DLC.

Roughly 32 hours into his Shadow of the Erdtree marathon, Cenat said, "I'm getting through these motherf**kers," referencing the game's bosses. He then told the people who were making difficulty complaints that "it's a skill issue."

He said, "I'm as* and you're as*. But you're as* though, because you really say it's too hard. Put your big pants on, go out there, and go fight." He explained that the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is Elden Ring's first major release since launch two years ago.

The streamer argued that if the people who complained put up with the difficulty of FromSoftware's game at the time, then they should put the same effort now with the new DLC, according to GamesRadar.