Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree’s Dungeons Clear the Base Game’s By a Mile

Summary

FromSoftware didn’t pull any punches withElden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, crafting a DLC that is every bit as massive and ambitious as the base game. In many ways, it’s more ofthe sameElden Ringexperience, leveraging a well-crafted open-world, tough-as-nails boss fights, and a diverse roster of weapons, all forming a gameplay loop centered equally on exploration and combat. But it also manages to distinguish itself from its root product in a few important ways.

For many players, especially those who were introduced to FromSoftware’s game design withElden Ring,Shadow of the Erdtreeneeded to deliver on its world design. The base game achieved near-universal acclaim for its meticulously detailed, rewarding open-world, which earned far more praise than even its combat or narrative design. IfShadow of the Erdtreedidn’t stick the landing in this area, then it would have been viewed as inferior to the base game by many, as this would have been a transgression of its most important feature. Thankfully,Shadow of the Erdtreedid stick the landing, and may have even improved uponElden Ring’s open-world design in some ways.

Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree Tag Page Cover Art

It must be noted that a good number of players actually doconsiderShadow of the Erdtreeinferior toElden Ring, though world design is not a common criticism.

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Has Some of the Game’s Best Overworld Dungeons

Elden Ring’s Overworld Dungeons Can Be Repetitive

Even the most ardentElden Ringfans can agree that, after dozens of hours of gameplay, running into yet another minor dungeon, such as a cave or catacomb, can be a bit of a buzzkill. There’s usually not anything inherently wrong with these areas, but they can feel a bit copy-paste. This is especially true for catacombs, which many have likened toBloodborne’s procedurally generated Chalice Dungeonsdue to their overly similar aesthetic and structure.

This has a generally detrimental effect on the game’s open-world exploration, as players can often feel a sense of disappointment upon stumbling into these dungeons.Elden Ring’s environment designis its crowning achievement, and much of its quality is due to how varied and unexpected it can be. Thus, these overly similar dungeons, which quickly grow stale, work against the game’s greatest strength.

Shadow of the Erdtree’s Dungeons Are a Big Step in the Right Direction

Catacombs and caves are present inShadow of the Erdtree, but they are supported by new dungeon archetypes likeforges that aren’t inElden Ring’s base game. These have the obvious benefit of novelty, but they also have some inherent traits that make them more interesting than what players can find in The Lands Between.

For instance, the thematic framing of gaols allows them to be more visually diverse than catacombs or caves, which stick to a strict, uniform aesthetic; gaols are dizzyingly large, bizarre caverns filled with living jars, ghostly prisoners, and pully systems, making them feel more expansive, alien, and dynamic than many of the base game’s dungeons. Forges have unique strengths of their own, including new enemy types and dungeon design that is more puzzle-focused, not revolving around a final boss encounter.

As for the returning dungeon types, like catacombs and caverns,Shadow of the Erdtreemakes some meaningful improvements. They are still aesthetically similar to one another, with more variety in terms of scale and puzzle structure. An example of this would be the Fog Rift Catacombs, whose series of spike platforms are a refreshing change of pace from the lever-centric design of the base game’s catacombs. The smaller number of these minor dungeons helps as well, alleviating the sense of open-world fatigue that players can experience in the base game.