Abyssal Woods weren’t as bad as feared - some unpleasantness and an unsettling atmosphere, but some careful sneaking avoided any major disruption (though I took down one or two of the nasty lads).
Midra went down on my first attempt - I think the only major boss (other than the old dragon before Bayle) I managed that with in the DLC. Good fight but felt like there was a lot more breathing room relative to some of the other bosses, and even had a few flasks to spare.
So I think that’s all the major areas at least explored and major bosses down, so onwards to the finale. I’m +14/+8/lvl 180 and hopefully don’t need to do too much more Scadutree hunting.
I think it’s an excellent, well considered review that makes very few points I’d disagree with (not that agreeing with a review is necessary to appreciate or respect it). It’s undeniable IMO that a lot of the signposting (and even mechanics) is oddly inelegant relative to the rest of Elden Ring - even taking into account the game’s tendency towards occasional over-obtuseness, there’s been plenty of times in the DLC I’ve encountered a developer signpost or note that’s pretty clunky or atonal. And while I haven’t tried the final boss yet, this very thread shows many people have found it more frustrating than enjoyable, which is the main issue articulated in terms of difficulty.
I still think it’s a wonderful, compelling DLC with moments of remarkable beauty, strangeness, discovery and challenge. I even prefer some of the denser, vertical level design here than the more sprawling plains of the base game. But if I was to score it, it’d be a solid 4/5 - and I’d have few qualms with anyone going a point below or above that based on their own experience (or even a few points below, if it was argued robustly and honestly enough). The Eurogamer review is still positive on the whole, and its criticisms are genuine and well articulated ones from someone who clearly both understands the series and cares deeply about these games.
I can't really blame her for that. It just seemed that she didn't have enough time to review it properly and I've been in a review cycle a few times before and there's nothing that will destroy your enthusiasm for a game than being forced to play it. I'd put the blame on the publisher here
When I first read Eurogamer's review I thought it was a well written piece. But on a subsequent reading, after having finished the game, I really don't think it is.
She spends two and a half paragraphs, out the total of 14 paragraphs, bemoaning the game's official messages as unnecessary signposting. Fair enough, they are a bit awkward and out of place in a From game, but the review gives the impression that they're going to be everywhere. I came across three of these instances in a 50+ hour playthrough.
She also gives the impression that she was quite time bound with comments like 'but frankly I didn't have the time to commit to that. My priority here was seeing as much of Shadow of the Erdtree as I could, and so to this end I mostly stuck with variations of what I knew.' Coupled with her exasperation with the difficulty with some of the bosses, the pressure from her deadlines seemed to have negatively affected her enjoyment of the game.
Even the lack of multi-player and lack of messaging, due to the early review window, seems to have heavily contributed to the low score as she states 'I know in my heart that finishing Shadow of the Erdtree will be a very different, more joyful experience when I can play with functioning multiplayer, because navigating an open-world Souls game without that key component is the most pleasureless kind of masochism, which is extremely not for me.'. If you know that systems, fairly fundamental to your enjoyment of the game won't be functioning properly before release, maybe you should hold off on reviewing the game until they are.
The game DLC isn't flawless, but when the review chooses to ignore or take for granted so much of the DLC's gameplay, that made Elden Ring the GOTY, and focuses on the above points, it's difficult not to see it as contrarian.
What they needed to do was replace torrent with a motorbike and a 3rd estus flask you use to refuel it.
Anyway, i only found the below a couple of days ago looking for the finger print shield. Could not believe what i had done across, absolutely incredibly haunting area and the violin player was the cherry on top.
Don't get me wrong, its a great DLC, it just didn't have the same impact on me as the base game. Been there, bought the T-Shirt.
Agree with Penn. I think Elden Ring is the pinnacle of the Dark Souls type combat. I am not sure if they can add anything else to it.
I’d personally like to see them try something different next game (bit like how they experimented with Sekiro)
It's kind of hard to see what they could have added which wouldn't otherwise break the game, especially as you can hop back and forth between the DLC and main game, and the DLC can be done before finishing the main game.
It's more of the same, but also a few new weapon types, skills/ashes/spells, and new boss fights which is one of the main appeals of this type of game.
I think DLC doesn't always have to do or add anything significantly huge or different, so long as once you've finished what it does provide, you feel like it was a worthy addition to the game. To me, Shadow of the Erdtree absolutely meets that expectation.
You can't improve perfection.
I enjoyed Shadow of the Erdtree, its a very good expansion of the main game but I think the rave reviews are a little overdone, it just felt more of the same as the base game which is by no means a bad thing, but it didn't really bring anything new to the table from a gameplay perspective.
I know they said pre-launch that the DLC was about the size of Limgrave & Weeping Peninsula, but it's absolutely massive in scale. It probably does take as long as Limgrave/WP because in your first playthrough of the game you probably do spend 20-30 hours in that area figuring out the game, whereas in the DLC you already have a build and know how the game works.
But considering what you get out of this DLC, absolutely it should be in GOTY contention.
Decided to go to the jagged peak and take on the boss again, beat him this time and Igon survived it, if that voice actor isn't nominated for the game awards later this year, then it's a bigger shenanigans than it already is.
Thanks Retro, went back and got his goodies.
Also swapped Bayle heart for a dragon incantation that doesn't need Fai, just high arc which i have. Is an amazing spell but i might be missing how to make it more powerful, could 1shot a sheep but a pack of wolves were unfazed by it. A dragon magic rebuild is tempting.
For now I'm gonna take a break from it and go back to Cyberpunk which is such a relaxing game compared to this. I know it's a hot take but this dlc should be in game of the year running.
On PC you have full control over resolution if that's the compromise you're willing to make.
Also there's this, I don't know if it's still there and it's been years since I tried it:
https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5280/~/how-to-enable-nvidia-image-scaling
It does seem to be running worse that when I initially played it. I was getting constant 60 fps other than shader stutter. Now the game is dropping into the 50s in random places.
The game’s pretty poorly optimised across the board so even the highest end machines are likely to get stutter and drops. Though I think a 3070 tier card should be able to get closer to 60 with ray tracing off.
My understanding from Digital Foundry is the only real way to play the game with a steady frame rate with limited dips is to play the PS4 version on PS5, which has a lower resolution and therefore runs smoother on the machine than the native app 🤷🏻♂️
The lack of support for DLSS and Reflex on a game that's so focused on quick reactions, 60fps cap and generally poor graphical quality and performance is something they can only get away with simply because the game is so fkin good.
Getting about a 43FPS Average now with some going up to 60 in less crazy locations. Will check it in a heavy battle later if/when I find time and see if the issue is totally fixed or not. Find me some Rune Bears.
I've only a 3070OC so maybe I was only getting good FPS at Max due to the base game being light. I am sure all kinds of patches and DLC have been installed since then. Probably screwed something up. 99.99% sure nothing else has changed between then and now.
But yes RT was on. I will turn it off and give it awhile and see if anything changes.
It could be that you have raytracing enabled, I disabled it on my system (3080ti / 10850k) because it caused poor framepacing and framerate drops with no obvious quality improvement.
Started the game up. As I said I was gifted it a long time ago and never really got into it.
However I notice my FPS in it has totally tanked. The game settings and the PC haven't changed. I wonder did the DLC or some patches before the DLC tank anything that anyone has heard of?
First run many months ago gave me really smooth high FPS on max. Now I am getting 25 to 35 and occasional hard stutters.
Dropped the Quality settings from "max" to "high" expecting at least some impact. Literally nothing. Not a 1FPS difference in the average. Updated all my graphics drivers and monitor driver and nothing also.
Mostly it's playable but I tried out that zombie who turns into a Rune Bear near the starting area and got serious stutters every time he charged. So I imagine boss fights would be worse if I played that far.
level 12 is the softcap now since the patch update. Not too much difference from upgrading after that
I got Mesmer last evening on my second try, but I'm lvl ~220 and blessing lvl 12(or 14, need to check) so probably I'm quite overpowered because certainly I'm not that good.
Just put messmer down. A classic FromSoftware boss - took some time to recognise his attack patterns but once that was done it didn’t take too long.
No idea where to go now! Probably hunt for scadutree fragments, only at 6 so have probably left loads behind.
And he's done. Jesus, don't know how many hours i spent on the final boss but I went through multiple rebuilds to test a few different things, nothing worked. Went back to my original with a couple of talisman tweaks that basically ramped up my stamina and hp to allow me to guard and spear without taking damage and then it was all about managing my stamina. Only took 2 and a half minutes in the end, absolutely epic.
If you return to where he is in the arena where the two dragons fought you'll find his dead body and gear. All he wanted to do was taken down Bayle in his life.
Yeah he survived mine too, quite handily even. Thought it seemed like a tough fight at first but given Igon is summonable in the arena you don’t have to worry about the additional boss health buff AFAIK. Only annoying part is summoning him in the first place when a bloody drake is legging it towards you 😅
The way he just yells ‘BAAAAYLLLLLEEE!’ when he’s summoned is a delight. He’s very committed to the bit. And then before he disappeared at the end he was just constantly switching weapons like a bored human summon 😂
He survived the fight for me. His dialogue after is fantastically deranged.
Additional note on Bayle: that ascent to the peak is one of the great bits of From ominous spectacle. That’s how you build up to a boss fight.
Also just beat Bayle and Igon is now my official favourite NPC in any Fromsoft game. What an absolute **** lunatic of a lad.
Damn, end boss kicking my ass. My shield is blocking everything, no issue with that, i only get hit when trying to attack and when i do land, it's not taking off much. The 2nd phase, I'm just not getting any hits in as the combos are too long and when there is a gap, my 1 little spear jab isn't cutting it. Then mimic dies and it's a matter of time before i join him. I just know there's a better setup i could be using to make the most out of my attacks. I can consistently bet him down to 25% so getting there.
