The dust is starting to settle after FromSoftware's Elden Ring: Shadow of The Erdtree, one of the biggest games of the summer, was launched this week, and some players aren't happy.1 The long-awaited new DLC fell to Steam's "mixed" review score over the weekend amid growing complaints of performance issues and a spike in difficulty. 

At the time of writing, more than 26,000 players have turned their attention to Steam. And while more than half of user reviews (14,500〜) talk very positively about the first major expansion of the Elden Ring, some recurrent criticisms have gained traction, most importantly SHADOW of Erdtree's performance on PC. 

Indeed, the original Elden Ring had its fair share of PC problems when it debuted in 2022. But given its record 25 million unit sales, now, two years later, its goodwill is waning, and cracks are beginning to appear as players experience stuttering frame rates, a 60fps cap, and one of the best rpgs modern games have to offer. 

"The base game runs great, but for some reason I have a serious FPS drop and stutter in the dlc," one player said, and another review marked "useful" by nearly 600 people "in certain areas" said that they "have constant micro stutter and frame drop, freeze as well as a lot of other features." "It can be difficult to enjoy and play the game.""The early boss battles that took place near the puddle were a particular pain point, which for many players resulted in reduced frame rates and consistent problems.

In some reviews of Shadow of The Erdtree, fromsoftware seems to put on hold the purchase of dlc until it rolls out 1 or 2 performance patches like the original.

As for difficulty, I think the new weapons and tools available in the expansion are too weak to pose a real threat to bosses. I've seen reviews complaining that they are overwhelmed or otherwise they're practically the equipment needed to beat it. Game of Thrones is known for their ridiculously tough bosses, but the DLC seems to be obsessed with dialing that difficulty up to 11. In his shadow of Erdtree review, my colleague Rory Mellon, in something like the Elden Ring in hard Mode, packs in some of the game's most memorable, fun, and (most important) difficult encounters

"I absolutely love to pick up random supplies I'll never use against a boss who is insanely troublesome to fight." It's a very distressing experience to run for 20 minutes in an open area with nothing in it," another player said in a Steam review.

Isn't it a matter of "You can do it"?But rather "Do you want to do it?"". In the case of this dlc, the answer is no," said yet another disappointed discoloration.

Here, FromSoftware hopes to cook some balance and performance patches in the near future. In the meantime, if you're just venturing out into the Shadow land, check out our top three tips for you to get started with Erdtree's Elden Ring Shadows