Shadow Of The Erdtree’ is more of the blessed same

There’s a moment in Elden Ring expansion Shadow Of The Erdtree where it feels like you’ve taken a wrong turn. It’s a castle that’s so big, so grandiose, that it couldn’t be anything but the set piece for a climactic final showdown. It’s larger than any fortress that came before it, and ends with a boss that’s tougher than any foe in the base version of the action role-playing game. But this is only the expansion’s second major dungeon, and if there was ever a time for you to get good, it would be now.

In short, Shadow Of The Erdtree does not fuck around. Set after defeating bosses Radahn and Mohg, the expansion sends players to the gloomy Land Of Shadow. Here we retrace the footsteps of demigod Miquella, who has forsaken their physical form to make a mysterious pilgrimage through the war-torn realm. While developer FromSoftware’s stories are usually inscrutable without turning to Google, this one is both gripping and straightforward if you’ve got passing knowledge of what’s already happened (and if not, we recommend checking out this fantastic recap).

Even so, many players will be drawn to the Land Of Shadow purely for more of FromSoftware’s best-in-class boss fights. On that front, it doesn’t disappoint. We started the expansion at level 148 on New Game+ and massively struggled, even with the help of collectible Scadutree Fragments, which boost your damage output and resistance while in the Land Of Shadow. Two encounters in particular (no spoilers!) make Elden Ring’s tough-as-nails fight with Malenia look easy, and not since Dark Souls’ notorious battle with Ornstein and Smough have we been so hard-pressed to win.

Generally, new bosses offer a healthy mix of towering beasts and human-ish warriors to slay. Additionally, cinematic multi-stage fights – including enemies who change the weather and even shapeshift – make many of these battles even more interesting (our polite word for fucking hard). There are a couple of rare missteps, though. One fight against a larger-than-life hippopotamus takes place in a walled arena, which makes dodging a nightmare as your camera clips through everything. A few of The Lands Between’s same-y dragons have also snuck across, though this is made up for by a couple of their scaly siblings who feel far more unique – and again, more interesting.

Shadow Of The Erdtree’s heaps of new gear don’t make fighting these baddies any easier, but you’ll at least look cooler doing it. Despite falling in love with its flashy martial arts weapons in our preview, two brilliant Great Katanas proved irresistible and ended up sticking with them. Fashion Souls, the fan-dubbed art of dressing your character to the nines, has plenty of new options. That includes several sets of flashy light armour, which we ended up wearing purely for the cool-factor despite it being weaker than our old get-up.

There’s a lot more to love – did we mention there are reams of breathtaking scenery, if you can look past the pillars of ashy human corpses? – but this DLC is best experienced with as little forewarning as possible, in the same way that Elden Ring felt magical to play for the first time in 2022. That’s what this boils down to, really. Shadow Of The Erdtree is just more of Elden Ring: not game-changing for casual fans but essential if you’re a diehard.

‘Shadow Of The Erdtree’ launches on June 20 for Xbox, PlayStation and PC