Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC reviews drop to “Mixed” on steam

Saying Shadow of the Erdtree is difficult is an understatement. However, Elden Ring players have found more issues than just the challenging bosses. Criticisms of poor performance for the DLC have led to a “Mixed” rating on Steam.

An inconsistent frame rate can mean life or death for PC players; the issue has caused an influx of negative reviews from the player base to flood into the Steam store page, bringing Shadow of the Erdtree’s review score down.

“Dying in 2 hits to every enemy I come across gets very old very quick. Not even boss fights; just five minutes ago, I saw a random knight chunk me for 80% of my health with a single hit.”

Complaints about difficulty in Elden Ring are to be expected in a fresh area containing new enemies fans haven’t fought before, but, some bosses seem to be awaiting a nerf in some fans’ eyes.

“I think most main bosses need a balance patch. They are just too hectic, hit too hard, and almost never stop attacking. It is beatable, but you need to change your play-style to a point where it doesn’t feel rewarding.”

However, a technical issue plaguing the game has been players failing to maintain a consistent frame rate. One of many reviews from the Steam store stated their experience so far, mentioning bad performance for the PC version of Shadow of the Erdtree:

“In certain areas, it’s just completely unbearable, in other areas there are just random fps drops. One Greater Enemy feels more like a slideshow. For me, the only acceptable part was the Gaol so far. I do not recommend purchase until fixed.”

More comments revealed a consistent issue with performance from a Reddit thread discussing the Steam review status:

“Performance needs to be fixed. I don’t have it as bad as others, but I’m getting some major frame drops which never occurred in base Elden Ring.”

“My biggest gripe is the performance in certain areas. It’s very hard, but that’s the point; it’s very fun even if I am getting absolutely bullied.”

Thankfully, another player chimes in, providing a potential solution to the performance issues on the PC.

“For anybody with severe performance issues like me, double-check your settings and make sure ray-tracing quality is set to ‘off.’ I have a pretty beefy PC, and it was chugging badly until I changed that setting.”

Shadow of the Erdtree is now available on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. We wish all players good luck with defeating any challenging bosses and uncovering any hidden items to complete their adventure.