They say it’s possible to have too much of a good thing, but no one knew about the Elden Ring when the phrase was coined all those centuries ago. A standout winner of plentiful Game of the Year awards, the experience remains relevant to this day – and that’s even without this month’s massive Shadow of the Erdtree DLC beckoning veterans back to The Lands Between. Ahead of release, Bandai Namco kindly invited us to Paris to play the opening three hours of the expansion. On the move, just within the first zone, is the most comprehensive expansion of a game FromSoftware has ever created.
After choosing from one of three different classes (a warrior, knight, or mage at level 150), we entered the Shadowland via a new portal in Mohgwyn Palace, accessed by interacting with Miquella’s hand emerging from the cocoon in the back. From there, the task was simple: Bandai Namco allowed us exactly three hours to freely explore the DLC’s opening area, taking in its main story path, optional areas, and new features and mechanics. It’s more Ring of Elden at first glance, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find things to set Shadow of the Erdtree apart from the base game.
The initial mass of land upon entering the Shadowland puts even the dreariest places in the original experience to shame. Seemingly once a proud land, it is now overcome with decay and ruin. Set under the cover of night, this is an extremely dark place that feels deliberately desolate. Her fields have few enemies, with only a few patrolling demons and gargoyles choosing to attack. It’s a setting not even your rivals wish to inhabit, with magical tombstones and massive gallows taking their place in the distance.
However, the enemy density increases as you approach the region’s landmarks, as new legacy dungeons and other optional locations provide excellent distractions for Miquella’s main pursuit. With new bosses at the end of each – we only managed to skip one of the three big battles encountered in the preview session – the labyrinthine paths to those arenas and beyond remain just as engaging as in the base game. One boss bore the face of a lion but was nothing but one elsewhere, another wielded a great sword and flaming arrows to cover close and long range combat, and a third was the twin sister of a familiar face .
If you’re jumping into Shadow of the Erdtree after a long hiatus, these boss battles can prove to be a bit of a brick wall as you work to regain the muscle memory lost in the two years since the base game’s release. However, Shadow of the Erdtree offers its own helping hand via a brand new mechanic called Scadutree Blessing. By collecting special items in the Land of Shadows, you can turn them into a Site of Grace and improve your ability to deal and negate damage, as well as improve your spiritual grace. These upgrades are only active while in DLC; they do not apply if you return to the original game.
It was impossible to tell how much impact the blessings had during our session, but it’s an interesting addition that will benefit both new players and returning pros. Another new feature that we didn’t have enough time to work on is the presence of new golden crosses both in the game world and on your map. The linked description said they were meant to mark Miquella’s tracks, and the three we found were near Sites of Grace. It looks like there’s something to them, but exposure to the opening area alone wasn’t enough to understand their use.
Then there were Ashes of War to discover, more items with unique uses, additional talismans to equip, and variants of popular consumables that let you use them much faster in the heat of battle. FromSoftware has already promised 10 massive boss encounters and 100 new weapons across eight bonus categories, so our three hours of DLC was really just scratching the surface.
They were enough at least to prove that Shadow of the Erdtree is mostly a very good thing with some new ideas sprinkled in. The expansion is almost certainly keeping its biggest secrets close to its chest, but in terms of how you play and interact with it, this is more Elden Ring. Building on all the greatest aspects of the base game, The Land of Shadow invites another brutally engaging experience with industry-leading art direction, tense combat, and the greatest sense of exploration. In its opening hours, Shadow of the Erdtree mimics the basic enterprise of the Elden Ring – no bad thing when, to this day, it remains genre-defining.
Not So Holy: Playing the Ring of Elden in a Church
There couldn’t have been many other prequels with a greater contrast between the place and the game in question than playing Elden Ring in a church in Paris. The venue, called Village Reille, has likely never before so proudly displayed the statue of a demon, in a physical recreation of the Messmer Impaler on its altar.
Afterwards, promotional curtains bearing the Elden Ring brand were hung from its balcony and ceiling, sometimes near stained glass windows depicting religious events. Along the center were two rows of stations with Shadow of the Erdtree DLC installed, complete with keyboard and mouse, as well as Xbox and PS5 controller options. A stunning place to briefly play an expansion to one of the best PS5 games around, Bandai Namco clearly knows how to pick them up.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree releases for PS5, PS4 on June 21, 2024. Will you be back in the game and then venturing out into The Land of Shadow? Tell us in the comments below.