Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree 'Too Difficult' for Players

While Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree has received critical acclaim, its Steam reception is more mixed, with players voicing concerns about difficulty and performance.

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Mixed Reception for Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree on Steam

Despite pre-release accolades and a top Metacritic score, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree launched to a wave of negative Steam reviews. Released June 21st, the DLC's challenging gameplay, while praised by some, has frustrated many due to intense combat, perceived difficulty imbalances, and performance issues across PC and consoles.

Performance Problems and Difficulty Concerns

Many players cite the expansion's brutal combat encounters as a major issue, describing them as significantly more challenging and sometimes unfairly difficult compared to the base game. Criticisms include poorly designed enemy placement ("rushed" layouts) and bosses with excessively high health pools.

Performance problems are also widespread. PC users report crashes, micro-stuttering, and frame rate limitations. Even high-end systems experience frame rates dipping below 30 FPS in crowded areas, severely impacting gameplay. Similar frame rate drops during intense moments have been reported by PlayStation players.

As of Monday, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree holds a "Mixed" rating on Steam (36% negative reviews). Metacritic shows a "Generally Favorable" rating of 8.3/10 (based on 570 user reviews). Game8 offers a more positive assessment, awarding a 94/100 score.