When I gave Elden Ring a 10 two years ago, I did so not just because it’s an incredible game, but because it also raised the bar for open-world games as a whole. The way it encourages exploration, rewards curiosity, and challenges you to find your own individual solutions to difficult combat encounters by including tons of different viable weapons, spells, and other build options is absolutely exemplary. Now, FromSoftware is back to raise the bar on everyone yet again, this time when it comes to what you’d expect from a “simple” DLC. Shadow of the Erdtree may not do anything radically different from the base game, but this expansion somehow feels like a scaled-down version of that same experience that recaptures all of the magic of playing Elden Ring for the first time, with more content packed within than many fully priced games. Its unexpectedly large realm is filled with new secrets, new discoveries, a ton of new build options to experiment with, as well as some of the most challenging and unforgettable boss battles Souls fans will have ever seen.

I strolled into Shadow of the Erdtree thinking I was some kind of Elden Lord badass, having defeated Malenia, Mohg, Placidusax, the Elden Beast, and every other big threat around. My level 150 character was armed with fully upgraded gear and the maximum number of flasks… but let me tell you, it did not take very long for the Realm of Shadow to humble me. Even though the only requirement to access the new areas is to beat Radahn and Mohg – which, granted, is no small feat – you’re going to want to over prepare before stepping foot into this new arena, because it is brutal. FromSoftware definitely skirts the line between fair and unfair with some of the later boss designs in particular, perhaps getting closer than ever. But crucially, it never actually crosses that threshold, and that masterful tightrope walk – along with some truly spectacular boss design – results in some of the most thrilling and satisfying bosses Elden Ring, and the entire Soulslike genre, has to offer.

It’s not just the quality of those fights, either: Erdtree has them in quantity, too. According to our count, there are more than 40 bosses, with 10 of those being the big, showstopper fights that reward you with a Remembrance upon defeat. Compare that to the more than 100 in the base game, and it’s a significant chunk.

According to our count, there are more than 40 bosses.

When you bring up the map, it may not seem like The Realm of Shadow is that big, but it is incredibly dense because it’s stacked in layers. Paths lead upwards toward ruins suspended in the sky, others delve deep beneath the surface, and some even pull you in directions you might not have believed you could even be pulled. You might find a hidden ladder tucked away in the far corner of a castle rampart, only to follow that trail for an hour before it eventually spills out into a totally new, otherwise-inaccessible area.

But even with all of the discoveries to be made, I never felt lost or unsure of where I could or should go next. The main goal of this DLC is to follow the footsteps of the demigod Miquella, who left his flesh behind and fled to the Realm of Shadow. These footsteps are marked by large crosses that elegantly serve as subtle signposts to let you know when you’re in the vicinity of a plot-critical path, without it ever feeling like your hand is being held as you’re nudged in one explicit direction.

Apart from the main quest, there’s a whole host of new NPCs, including seven followers of Miquella that you’ll encounter at various points in the journey. Each of them have their own small questline that ties into the main story, and those can even have an effect on some of the latter boss battles, depending on your actions. And while I consider myself a fairly casual enjoyer of Elden Ring’s extensive lore compared to some of the scholars out there, even my limited knowledge of the deeper plot let me appreciate some pretty fantastic, eye-opening revelations towards the end of this story that are well worth the effort of getting to.

Shadow of the Erdtree is essentially a full Elden Ring adventure made miniature.

It took me about 25 hours or so to beat the final boss of Shadow of the Erdtree, but I could easily see myself putting in another 15 or 20 on just this one playthrough. I still have a handful of optional bosses I need to go back and cross off my list, areas on my map I haven’t fully explored, weapons and skills I haven’t gotten to play around with yet, and sidequests I still want to follow to completion. That’s pretty much exactly like when I completed my review of the base game after about 80 hours, which makes sense because Shadow of the Erdtree is essentially a full Elden Ring adventure made miniature. It condenses the whole experience down to something comparatively compact, all of it satisfyingly tuned specifically for end-game characters who thought they’d seen it all.

What We Said About Elden Ring in 2022

It is no exaggeration to say that Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s largest and most ambitious game yet, and that ambition has more than paid off. Even after 87 hours of blood, sweat, and tears that included some of the most challenging fights I’ve ever fought, and innumerable surprises, there are still bosses that I left on the table, secrets that I’ve yet to uncover, sidequests that I missed out on, tons of weapons, spells, and skills that I’ve never used. And this is all on top of PVP and cooperative play that I’ve barely been able to scratch the surface of. Throughout it all, while the fundamentals of combat haven’t changed much from what we’ve seen before, the enormous variety of viciously designed enemies and the brutal but surmountable bosses have brought its battles to a new level. Even with all the threads I didn’t manage to tug on my first playthrough (of what I’m sure will be several), what I was treated to can easily be held amongst the best open-world games I’ve ever played. Like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild before it, Elden Ring is one that we’ll be looking back on as a game that moved a genre forward. – Mitchell Saltzman, Februrary 23, 2022

Score: 10

Read the full Elden Ring review

Weapons of Choice

While I haven’t had any “holy ****” moments of awe like the first time I took the elevator down to the Siofra River, exploration and discovery throughout the Realm of Shadow is still a delight thanks to its stellar art design, a great variety in the areas you get to explore, and the tantalizing rewards pretty much everywhere you turn. There are eight brand-new weapon types, ranging from throwing knives to beast claws to giant odachi samurai swords. My favorite of the new arsenal, though, is the light greatsword, specifically the Milady. True to its name, the Milady has a very regal-looking moveset with combos that flow nicely into each other and hit hard, but are also relatively fast compared to actual greatswords. For me, it’s a sweet spot. I actually swapped off of my powerful dual Bandit Curved Sword bleed build (albeit, minus the White Mask, which I ruined my chance to get) to instead rock a Strength/Dexterity-focused build using one of these and found great success for the majority of the DLC.

I experimented with a couple of other weapons as well, something that is possible thanks to the ample opportunities to collect a bunch more Ancient Dragon Smithing Stones of both the standard and Somber varieties. However, in all my travels I found that while the new weapon types are fun – there’s certainly an appeal to going hand-to-hand against an army of hands – none of them ultimately measured up to the strength of the weapons that I carried over from the base game. It’s totally possible that there are some talismans I was missing to really make the new ones sing, but I was hoping to go through the entirety of Erdtree with a brand-new build. Instead, I found myself swapping back to my bread-and-butter bleed build to get the kind of damage I needed when the going got tough – but hey, that build did have two years to get optimized through the original endgame.

There are so many promising new builds that I couldn’t help but wish Larval Tears were more plentiful.

Besides, variety is the spice of life, and Erdtree is one hot dish. Not only are there a ton of new weapons, there are also plenty of new spells, Ashes of War, Spirit Ash summons, and talismans to cover an enormous range of different playstyles. There’s now a talisman that enhances two-handed attacks; one that decreases spellcasting time dramatically, but causes you to take increased damage; another that increases the damage of abilities that involve stances; and another still that increases your damage every time you defeat an enemy. Yes, there are also plenty that are just better versions of very useful talismans you probably already have, and there’s no shame in sticking to what works. There are so many promising new builds that I couldn’t help but wish Larval Tears were more plentiful so I could respec my character a little more freely, as I started to run out by the time I finished Erdtree’s campaign. I still have a ton of different builds I want to try, and I’m already happily onto my second playthrough to see them.

The Joy of Freedom

The journey through The Realm of Shadow is structured very similarly to The Lands Between, in that the map is split up into a number of different regions. Right from the get-go, you’re able to head anywhere you want to: you could follow the initial Miquella Cross to the first big “legacy dungeon,” called Belurat, and deal with the new horrific scorpion enemies; or head across a bridge to the east and work your way over to the magic filled Castle Ensis where you have to deal with this jerk (where you have go up against one of the most challenging bosses of the DLC right away), or find a way to bypass the need to go through either of those and get straight to the Scadu Altus, which largely serves as the central hub of the Realm of Shadow. Then you could head directly toward the Shadow Keep fighting your way to the top of it in order to take on one of the major bosses, or going through one of its other exits to explore otherwise inaccessible parts of the map. It’s a liberating sense of freedom, and the same masterclass level of open-world design as the base game, just on a scale that isn’t quite so vast.

Of course, whether or not you should make a mad dash towards the Shadow Keep is another question entirely. Even though this is endgame content and you probably won’t be leveling up quite as fast as you did in the original campaign, there’s a separate power-scaling system that only works while you’re within the Realm of Shadow. Scattered throughout the lands are Scadutree Fragments that you can collect and turn in at Sites of Grace to increase your overall damage and resistances. Likewise, you can also find Revered Spirit Ash blessings to increase the damage and survivability of your Spirit Ash Summons. These are two very smart inclusions as they add a much-needed sense of progression, a valuable reward for exploration, and something else to hunt for if you’re getting wrecked by a boss and need to come back when you’re stronger – all while cleverly preserving some of the original endgame’s balance if you’re bravely tackling this DLC before circling back to beat it.