Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree is sitting at a "mixed" rating on Steam because it's just too dang hard

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree has done well critically, but Steam reviews are painting a different picture.

After a long, long wait, Elden Ring's highly anticipated DLC Shadow of the Erdtree arrived, and critics were generally a big fan of it - our own James gave it full marks, and plenty of other reviews were equally strong. But despite all that critical praise, the DLC is currently sitting at a "Mixed" rating on Steam. There are plenty of positive reviews, but there are several users that are finding a lot of issues with it. One review notes that there are constant "micro-stuttering and frame drops" and suggests waiting for performance improvements before picking it up. Another reviewer also noted the DLC's performance issues, despite the base game working fine, with one particular enemy feeling "more like a slideshow."

However, it wasn't just the performance issues that people had a problem with. Everyone knows that FromSoftware games are tough, that's kind of their whole thing, but a lot of players seem to be finding this particular bit of DLC just a little bit too hard. A player who left a lengthy negative review of the DLC wrote that the game's combat just doesn't work for the fast-paced boss fights that would fit better in something like Sekiro or Bloodborne, but Elden Ring's slow-paced Dark Souls style combat just doesn't work for it.

Another negative review did say that the DLC is "so magical and rewarding to explore. Just like the base game, this world is amongst the best and most beautiful there is in all of fantasy," however on the combat front they wrote that there are "obscure and weird movements with awkward timings that seem designed to roll catch, unless you memorize the weird timing for each attack specifically. Why? Massive health bars are fine with me, but only if the fight is fun."

There are plenty of other reviews that feel the same way, (over 11,000 of the 29,000 total reviews are negative), but FromSoftware does regularly update its games with tweaks and fixes, so maybe over time it won't be such a frustrating experience. The base game was just recently updated to make the final boss a touch easier, so you never know how the DLC might change.