DO NOT BUY Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree - VERY Disappointing

Hello, welcome back to a new video. So

today we have to talk about Elden Ring

DLC. Shadow of the Erdtree is coming out

very soon, and I've actually had the

fortunate pleasure of being able to have

early access to the game, and I was able

to play it before everyone else. And I've

played over 110 hours so far on

the new DLC, and I have to say, so far the

experience I've had with this DLC has been

kind of disappointing and lacking in a

certain kind of luster that I wasn't quite

expecting. So as you probably know, I am a

massive fan of Elden Ring when it came out

in 2022. I played it so much, and I

have over 444 hours played on Elden Ring.

I have multiple New Game Pluses, and I

beat the game multiple times, and I'm like

level 242. So I thought when

DLC would come out, my character who is

level 242 with all of the weapons

unlocked, all of the abilities unlocked—

I've tested out all these different kinds

of builds to find the best build that can

destroy everything, which you can find

many videos on my channel. I've made many

build videos in case you are wondering

what my best builds are. I thought I would

be able to destroy this DLC when it comes

out with my ultimate overpowered

character. Unfortunately, that hasn't

quite been the case. The Elden Ring DLC

Shadow of the Erdtree is stupidly

difficult, and I'm not saying it's like

difficult in a fun, challenging way. It's

like a Souls game, and obviously it's

going to be difficult and challenging.

That's what makes it fun. It's not like

that. It's not fun. It's difficult in a

really stupidly annoying way and

frustrating way, to the point where I

actually want to smash my girlfriend's

phone into the wall. So basically, if you

didn't like aspects of Elden Ring, or if

you just didn't like Elden Ring at all,

then you're not really gonna like the DLC.

All of the problems that the base game

had, like clunky mechanics, slow movement,

annoyingly stupid bosses that take ages to

defeat, and the only way to defeat them is

not through skill, it's through

memorization of their attack patterns.

Once you've memorized their attack

patterns, all of the bosses are a

cakewalk. It's not difficult, it's just a

matter of memorizing what they do and then

just cakewalking them. So they've added a

bunch of new stuff to the DLC, but it's

not really new stuff in the sense that

it's new to the game, like new mechanics

or new way to play the game. It's just

basically more of the same stuff that was

already in the base game. So you've got

like, I don't know, 100 new weapons,

dozens of new Ashes of dozens of new armor

sets, dozens of new weapon classes, but

they're basically just the same as the

stuff you've already experienced in the

base game, just with like a different skin

or different movements or like a different

variation of fire, lightning, cold,

frost, poison, whatever kind of magical

element there is. It's just different

variants mixed and matched to create this

new Ash of War or new spells or new skills

or new weapons that are just like a

combination of the old stuff and then

rehashed into something that's supposed to

be new. And the same can be said about the

bosses, really. So there's new bosses,

but they basically are just like the old

bosses in the previous base game, but they

act and move in different ways. They've

got cool new art designs, but it's really

just the same kind of mechanics where

they'll do a bunch of attacks. They'll

just obliterate you in the beginning

because you won't really know what's

coming, but once you've memorized the

attack patterns, you can just easily dodge

and roll out of the way. Next, we have to

talk about the new map. So in Shadow of

the Erdtree, you enter this Shadow Realm,

and as you can imagine, it's a very dark

land full of shadows, and it just looks

kind of drab and dreary and ugly. It

doesn't look anywhere near as good as the

base game's map, where it was all

whimsical and glowing cool yellow golden

lights, and there's like a big tree in the

background. The Shadow Realm it's just

really boring to go around. And there's

lots of little hidden paths and ways to

get around bosses and stuff like that,

and little secret areas, and that's cool

and everything to explore, but I didn't

really feel like there was this incentive

or this massive burning urge to want to

explore all these boring caves and boring

dungeons that all kind of look the same

after you've seen a few. As for the

gameplay of the game, it is basically the

same gameplay as the base game. So if you

didn't like the gameplay in the base game,

you won't like the gameplay in the new DLC

game. And And that's just kind of like a

personal preference, I guess. If you like

fast action, highly responsive combat,

then you're not going to find it in Elden

Ring. You're not really going to find that

in any of these Souls games because Souls

games are traditionally very clunky, very

slow. You kind of just aim the camera at

the enemy and you pace around it looking

for openings and weaknesses to attack them

with, and then dodging and rolling or

blocking the attacks and trying to predict

the telegraphed slow charged up wind-up

attacks so you don't get hit in the face

by them. Now if you don't like that kind

of gameplay, then unfortunately they

haven't really added new ways to play the

game. As for the graphics of the game,

they're still not quite up to my

standards. If you're expecting a boost in

the graphical fidelity, you'll be sorely

disappointed because the game engine and

graphics look exactly as the base game.

They haven't improved the graphics at all.

In fact, all of the bad negative aspects

of the base game have all made their way

into the DLC. So for example, the

frustratingly long loading screens every

time you die. Sure, it only takes like 5

or 6 seconds, but every time you die, it

builds up because you're going to die a

lot and it takes like 6 seconds for the

dying animation for your character to fall

over, turn into dust, the you died text to

pop up, and then the black screen, and

then loading screen, and then waking up at

the Grace of Sight again, and then exiting

the Grace of Sight menu. All of that takes

like 15 seconds. Every time you die,

you'll wait like 15 seconds. And it might

not sound like a lot, it might sound

trivial, but when you're just trying to

get on in the game and make progress and

you're frustratingly dying all the time to

some stupid boss, you don't really want to

be waiting 15 seconds every time to get

back in and have, and have another crack

at it. So yeah, those are my 2 cents. I

found the DLC Shadow of the Erdtree to be

kind of lacking in luster, bland, boring,

and a little bit uninspired. It's

basically just a rehash of the base game,

some new weapons added, some new armor

added, some new bosses, and new part of

the story added if you really care about

the story. I honestly played Elden Ring

for like 440 hours, but I honestly didn't

care about the story at all. It's just—

the story's rubbish. It's just like a

bunch of gods who go crazy, and then they

start fighting each other, and then this

big thing happens where everyone dies,

and then you're trying to piece together

what happened. But it's all just basically

some god had children who are like

demigods, and then they fell out and had a

big fight, and there's a big war, and then

everyone died, and then everything's weird

and messed up. The Shadow of the Erdtree

story is basically more of that. The

gameplay is more of the base gameplay.

It's basically just more of the same as

the base game. So if you didn't like the

base game, you won't really like this too

much. I would have to give this DLC

probably a 6.2 out of 10. For £35 though,

I guess it's not too bad. It's not as much

money as like £50 or £70, but to get the

base game plus the DLC, you're going to be

spending like £60 to £70 based on your

regional equivalent, and that could be

quite a lot of money for some people, and

you might not be really feeling like

you're getting a lot of entertainment

value out of that money. Even though I had

a good time with the base game back in

2022, it is now 2024. It's been 2 years,

a lot's happened in the world, and

although the base game was quite fun and

quite epic and legendary at the time, I

don't really feel like I want more. It's

kind of like being offered second helpings

when I didn't really ask. I didn't really

feel like the community was really

desperate for more Elden Ring. People were

quite happy just playing NG+s and

experimenting with different builds or

just moving on to a new game. I want to

move on to new games, not go back to what

was really popular back in 2022. I don't

really like to stay in the past or live in

the past. I like to have my eyes forward,

move forward onto new things, enjoy things

in the moment. And then when it's done,

it's done. I don't really want like second

helpings or second iterations. So those

are my thoughts.