Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree review

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is a staggering expansion, not only for its massive size—it's about as big as half of the original map—but for all the ways it challenges the assumptions I had about the nature of its world, coming from the main campaign, and the limits of an open world narrative.

What is it? A massive open world action RPG expansion set in a dark fantasy world
Release date June 20, 2024
Expect to pay $40/£40
Developer FromSoftware
Publisher Bandai Namco
Reviewed on RTX 4090, Intel Core i9 12900K, 16GB RAM
Multiplayer Yes
Steam Deck Verified (base game)
Link Steam 

SotE rivals Dark Souls with a corkscrew world design layered with wondrous and horrific secrets to discover. FromSoftware has perfected its command over creating a dark fantasy world layered with history and details that cement Elden Ring as one of the most creative and satisfying action RPGs ever made. Old enemies return in new contexts, new weapon and spell types stretch your approach to combat with acrobatic animations and potent synergies with existing items, and new characters come to blur the morality of major figures we've spent hundreds of hours learning about. Shadow of the Erdtree's storytelling is so masterfully embedded into the fabric of everything you see and do that it's practically elemental.

The gnarled tree at the center of the Land of Shadow, a shrouded counterpart to the golden plains of the Lands Between, anchors you to the anguish of SotE, inescapable no matter where you go. Razed by the Golden Order long before your Tarnished shows up, the Land of Shadow is an ancient, festering wound that won't heal. In the first major dungeon, a blind old woman—who mirrors the Finger Reader crone that proclaims you Elden Lord in the original game—calls you a villain and asks if the years of bloodshed weren't enough. Even if you don't consider yourself an oppressor, to her, being a graced-touched Tarnished makes you complicit in the atrocities committed by Messmer, and by extension, the