Platforms: PS4/5, PC, Xbox One/Series X/S
Elden Ring was a big game. Huge, in fact. So much so that it comfortably sucked hundreds of hours from players’ lives as they scoured its expansive, secret-stuffed world and hoovered up every scrap of dense, George R.R. Martin-penned lore. It would be easy to make the case, then, that it was not a game crying out for enlargement. Shadow Of The Erdtree is here to prove otherwise. Bolting on another 50-odd hours, this belated expansion to 2022’s game of the year not only brings eager players more of the same brutal, masochism-fuelled adventure, but enriches and enhances the entire Elden Ring experience while doing so.
Taking players to an entirely new area, known as the Shadow Realm, the expansion has you following in the footsteps of lost demigod Miquella and uncovering his beef with stabby antagonist Messmer The Impaler. Not that it matters, particularly. As players will have come to expect from Elden Ring — and director Hidetaka Miyazaki’s Soulslike oeuvre as a whole — the storytelling in this dark fantasy is deliberately opaque, with plot gleaned largely from item descriptions and cryptic conversations. But the one language it speaks with absolute clarity is violence, and if you thought you’d levelled up to a point where Elden Ring was no longer challenging, prepare for a swift lesson in humility.
Enriches and enhances the entire Elden Ring experience.
From towering furnace golems and revenant dragons to an enraged sunflower and a giant golden hippo, Shadow Of The Erdtree’s menagerie of punishing bosses will cause even the most experienced player to curl in a ball and weep. Which makes a degree of sense, given the expansion isn’t even accessible to anyone who hasn’t made significant progress in the main game. But for those with nerve and skill to brave the precipitous difficulty spike, the Shadow Realm delivers the most arresting and inventive locations of the entire game. The desolate majesty of the Gravesite Plain, scattered with spectral tombstones; the vibrant yet deadly gardens of the Cerulean Coast; The gargantuan monolith of the Shadow Keep, with its myriad entrances revealing secrets at every turn. Each new area has a distinct identity and, with few constraints on where you can wander, it’s almost all available to roam from the off.
And roam you must, for there are treasures tucked around every corner, with all-new sorceries, abilities, summonable spirits and armaments to collect, many of which open up entirely new play styles. Want to go through the entire game as a wushu master, delivering lightning-imbued punches and flying kicks? Or accompanied by a giant scorpion-spider? Well, now you can. In fact, the greatest gift Shadow Of The Erdtree bestows is not just that it’s an all-consuming experience in its own right, but that it refreshes the game as a whole, making you want to begin the whole mammoth undertaking all over again.
Well worth the two-year wait, this is a superlative expansion that polishes an already astounding game to an even higher sheen, cementing its status as an all-time classic.