Broken, Battered Elden Ring Players Review Bomb Shadow of the Erdtree for Being Too Hard

This stuff always turned me off to the Soulsborne genre. Games back in the day were super hard because they were short and needed to keep people engaged or simply due to poor design. Now games are punishingly hard...for fun? I like a challenge, but sometimes now, it's too much.

This is the first From DLC I’ve ever played. I’m genuinely awful at all Souls games, but, I find the challenge so rewarding and addicting. Truly bizarre for people to give the game bad marks for…being what it’s known for…?

@nyr2k2 What exactly is so hard to understand about games being hard for fun? People like the challenge and feeling accomplished and especially with games these days holding your hand as much as possible because the devs thinks you're too stupid to figure it out yourself.

@nyr2k2 I describe Elden Ring and all souls like games to my non-gamer friends very similar to the risk in reward, addictive nature of casino games like blackjack. it’s the holding on to all your souls are and never knowing if around the corner, there’s gonna be some massive boss that’s gonna kill you. You’re gonna lose all of those and you might or might not make it back to that same spot to regain them. for me that is what keeps me coming back - at least one of the things. And there’s also nothing wrong at all with not liking the sorts of games. The warning is basically on the sleeve, so I think most gamers know what they’re signing up for when they play souls games.

Yes. You are allowed to criticize this game for it's difficulty.

I hope they don't change one thing. If you can't beat it then it's your problem, not the game. Play something else. All this whining from entitled people who think everything revolves around them. If I had my way I would delete Fortnite from the world but you don't see whining about it. I just play something I like.

I would think that most gamers where getting ready for the dlc by playing the game and therefore should be used to the level of difficulty. Is it really THAT MUCH more difficult or are people just not used to it yet?

@3Above It's not that much harder. It is giving me a good fight but that just means I have to be more careful. Souls dlc always ramps up because it has to or returning players will walk over it. People just want their participation trophy so they can feel special and pretend they are actually good at the game. They are lazy, plain and simple.

Yeah the problem is these people are going in with NG++ builds expecting it to be a cakewalk and finding out it isn't. Also i think people are forgetting From DLC is always much like The Old Hunters DLC what imo is far far harder.

Yes its much harder but that's why you go after the new items that make you tougher, speed running the game is not ideal as you will miss these items. Explore, learn and be patient instead of crying and review bombing.

@Enuo You're also free to play something else and not a game from a Dev known for making hard games if it bothers you.

I get some of the points and although this genre of games is hard by design and purpose , there should still be some assist options for players. It’s not about ‘get good or play something else’ as that would only alienate a mass majority . Some of us , like myself , only have a spare couple Of hours here and there, therefore , we want to be challenged but not to the point that would require us to practice for an abundance of hours, So an assist option is welcome . If you want the serious challenge , then don’t turn on assists , if you don’t , then turn it on.

Research Vygotsky's zone of proximal development . That will help you understand how challenge should be applied .

"The most delicious irony is that gaming journalists, famously worse at games than their readers, inexplicably cleared the content and wrote guides for others to follow"
This made me so happy. It's always hilarious to me that so many people who love games will be in a comments section slamming games media. It's so transparent that they just wish they had the job. It's also great when that comments section is under a YouTuber who is bought and sold with trips and free games, probably a video that is just said YouTuber reading a Polygon article. Lol.

@3Above Its a typical jump in difficulty you see in From expansions, yes its tougher but if you got as far as unlocking the entrance to the DLC then you have the skill level required for it. People are just crying because their Lv400NG+++ build can't carry them anymore.

This is extremely weird. It’s like buying a Slayer album and being pissed it doesn’t sound like The Beatles can’t understand the arguments I’ve read.

Been playing for about 15 hours total since Friday and I wouldn’t say this is on the level of old hunters or ringed city plus you still have mimic tear just stop. For the record I have 2 kids and get maybe 25 hours a week to game late nights. I’m no expert.

A Soulslike? HARD?!
These truly are strange days.

Another story about review bombing from Steam when a few players don’t like something.

This is sad...

So instead of be patience, learn, and adapt, these people decided to gave up and blame the game and From Soft for their skills issues. I can still understand if they gave up and just moved on to other games. But not just gave up but they also asking for a refund and then review bombed which is pathetic.

But i guess no wonder why fighting games never get as mainstream as FPS or sports genre because it requires a lot of patience for player to become better at the game. Even after devs gave a lot of pointers like robust training mode and in-game guides as well a lot easier control option where players doesn't need to do motion or charge input, a lot of people are still complaining that "fighting games is hard".

Oh well...

Lol steam users are such fickle creatures

To people needing difficulty modifications and assists, just know that all of these are already in the game. Mimic tear. Magic users. Summoning. These make boss battles more manageable. 1v1 a boss, or make yourself summonable, and you'll be getting a little better each time.

Weird. I’ve been playing it for hours now and it feels no different than the start of the base game. There are the encounters I can engage and the ones I cannot. I claw and scratch my way through what I can, slowly gaining the knowledge, experience and skills I need to come back and conquer what was once impossible. This has always been my experience with Elden Ring and why I think it’s so brilliantly designed. There is always somewhere else to go.

I will admit some games are hard then you might expect. Found with Cuphead I couldn't get pass the second boss and just quit the game. The two Middle Earth games shadows of war and shadows over mordor are just brutal and I gave up after get killed over and over by unwindable fights.

Not playing myself but talking to my kid every day. They said they spent about 5 hours last night beating 1 boss. They didn’t seem to be complaining, just telling me about it. They’re in college and have the summer off so they have nothing but time. Don’t think they’ll complain unless they get stuck. Don’t see that happening though.

Kinda happy I didn't buy it then. Platinumed Elden Ring back when it launched but seriously just don't see much point to playing the DLC. Difficult never interested me and honestly was the worst aspect of the base game for me.

I don't know, I get some people don't like the difficulty, but I feel like From Souls games just have to have that difficulty. Overcoming that difficulty with the bosses is the biggest gratification.

Elden Ring has a lot of the things that can help scale the difficulty a bit, like summons and buffs for example.

There is something absolutely incredible about the typical pile-on, this time against Eurogamer for saying it was too hard, immediately having gamers agree with it when the game actually comes out. It’s almost like the whole point of these sites’ previews is a look at the game before it’s out, to inform the reader.

When the DLC to a hard game is hard:

Summons, blessing, buffs, spirit ash, level up more. All viable options to beat something without needing to learn and respond to the boss moves.
To be honest these games give you so many ways to get around road blocks compared to many others.

@get2sammyb i love their games, but they could really improve combat, hit boxes, and ai. You should be able to beat any boss, first encounter, just through reflexes and reading tells. Instead, you are supposed to memorize. That's bad design. Like R-type, where you can just slam into a dead end because you chose the wrong path. From aren't the scrappy underdogs anymore. An enemy shouldn't be able to change directions mid-air and slam into me after a dodgeroll.
Anyway! Sorry I ended up venting. It's just cause I love their games, and so many of them are juuuuuuust shy of perfection.

This is just an echo of the original complaint and debates when Elden Ring first came out. It was the first Soulsborne game to reach the larger mass market, and people who weren't used to it started complaining about the difficulty. Opinion pieces and counter-opinion articles about difficulty sliders were flying left and right for a solid 6 months.

My take is, if you don't like bitter drinks, don't drink coffee. Go drink some orange juice. If you don't like hard games, that's valid, but don't play Soulsborne games.

By the way, Elden Ring is (by far) the easiest and most accessible in the series. I can't imagine what these people complaining would think about the original Fromsoft King's Field games. They would absolutely lose their minds.

I don't understand the term "review bomb", if players don't like the game, they will review the game badly.

The problem with many games of today is the spongy neverending lifebar bosses. I can understand that is putting people off.
But Erdtree DLC is pretty much on par with Elden Ring endgame, just as I expected.
But this is a he same way Nioh 1 was treated "it's to hard with double bosses" that many reviewer's complained about, but it was actually a pretty well balanced game if you gave it enough time. 🤷😎

@get2sammyb I don't remember seeing you complain about Horizon 2 being the opposite of a Fromsoft game? that game was constantly holding your hand and solving the puzzles for the player? All that was missing was the game playing itself and the player just watching 🙁

Fromsoft prides itself on making difficult games and it looks like the dlc does just that! Not sure what Steam players were hoping but yeah this is like going to see a horror movie and being mad that it scared you.

"While the game's performance on PC leaves much to be desired"

This is a an actual issue, not the difficulty, it's why I chose not to buy ER for my PC and bought a physical copy for my PS5 instead.

With my purchases I generally always go the PC route, even more so now I've a new build, but with From games, nope. Overall performance with their games has always been From's biggest problem, irrespective of platform. Just look at Bloodborne. A fantastic game, but performance is all over the shop. From Software titles on PC are often even worse, certainly at launch. I'm almost glad Bloodborne never saw a PC release.

Review bombing because your N+ build didn't let you cakewalk the DLC? That's just lame.

@wiiware

It depends on why it's being review bombed. In some cases there's genuinely good cause due to a publisher/developer taking the p*ss out of the end user in some respect. Sometimes though, as seen here, it's just a bunch of gamers throwing their toys out of the pram.

I wonder how many of these people who are complaining about it being hard completely missed the scadutree fragments. The DLC is challenging, but it's no harder than any of their previous DLC.

@get2sammyb If going by the comments in this article, a part of gaming population love the difficulty-reward curve, it does not means increasing the difficulty will keep increasing the fun factor proportionally. There must be some tipping point where the returns fall off.

I personally find souls find souls games too hard to play but I totally understand people who love it for their difficulty. Although I feel it’s unfair to claim higher difficulty as some sort of badge of honour. People who are unable to enjoy harder games are not necessarily ‘weak’ players. And accessibility has wide range of meaning including those who simply do not possess the kind of muscle memory needed to master these games.

That being said I don’t really complain about not being able to enjoy souls like.

@Tecinthebrain yes..100% agree. I dislike it when games constantly point you in the right direction as it destroys the immersion for me and just negates the challenge of puzzle solving. As much as I liked God of war ragnarok the hand helping (while nowhere near as aggressive as horizon) was a bit irritating. There should be an option to disable them completely.

@get2sammyb "I personally found the end of Elden Ring, particularly the last few boss fights, to just be borderline unfair. I know the series is "supposed" to be hard and I know you're "supposed" to gitgud — but I didn't find the last bit to be fun at all."
I totally get what you are saying, but you also have the ability to "trivialize" those bosses by using gear to make you more or less immune against their primary attacks, and that's one thing many gamers seem to forget about From Software games!
You can't beat every single endboss with your prefered cookiecutterbuild, you also need to adapt a little to the current situation. Same in this DLC as far as I got. I had to put on my best "antifire-setup" to beat the fire-miniboss in the starting field and after that it was back to my prefered gear, for a while at least.

Accessibility and general appeal is key in development in my view.

Sure, make the game as you intend it to be. Make it bloody hard. But it takes little effort to provide an option which is a story mode or an easier difficulty and you allow your game to be fully accessible to everyone. Why wouldn’t you do that?

I haven’t played Elden Ring, but surely the people who are finding the DLC difficult shouldn’t be too surprised after completing the original game?

So are these bosses Malania-level nonsense? I was okay with the other end game bosses, but got bored of retrying Malania

I would rather practice some guitar sweep arpeggios.

I wonder what these review bombers feels if they're playing games that are more punishing than Elden Ring or Souls games. Classic games like Ghost n' Goblins, Battletoads, Ninja Gaiden (Arcade or NES), Contra, or Mega Man are pretty brutal with difficulty spike and one mistake means you will die with just 1 or 2 hits. There's also no checkpoint like bonfire so when you used all your life, you will need to restart from the beginning again. These classic games really pushed gamers patience and gaming skills to the limit.

But i guess this is why nowadays we got less and less arcadey and challenging games. sigh...

@zebric21

The funny thing is there isn't an easy mode for guitar sweeping either. You've got to learn how to do it and employ a great deal of patience in the process. If it were easy then everyone would be doing it and in turn take away what makes it so rewarding. Much like Soul-Likes.

@PuppetMaster

Ghosts n' Goblins arcade would destroy most people these days. 😂

They shouldn't change a thing it's what these games are famous for

@Mustoe Could never finish it on the Sega Mega Drive either because of it's 2 hit system lol

@Mustoe Guitar is still a real skill though. Being good at video games not so..

@zebric21

The point still stands.

As for video games not requiring skill, perseverance and dedication? Gaming tournaments strongly suggests otherwise. Again, wouldn't we all be earning hundreds of thousands of dollars if it were as easy as just turning up with a controller in hand? 🤷

Maidenless behaviour 🤣

They should make it EVEN HARDER in response xD not that I'll ever play them

Never play a game for the desire to be broken. Never flashed up a Souls genre game. It's not what my gaming is for. Witcher is enough on hard for me. But if you know what you're getting into then why moan.

Ive not got the DLC yet but my mate said the difficulty is mainly in the NG levels, he was at NG5 and mentioned its brutal on the higher settings but seems fine on normal.

I imagine a fair chuck of the complaints are from people on NG+ just getting 1 hit killed as they don't know the fights yet.

Maybe it gets way more difficult later, but I've not found it any different to the main game so far. Some enemies can destroy me, others have been no problem.

@kailun Elden Ring does have assist modes they are just not as obvious as being in the main menu. The amount of build options alone in ER, or any FS game, will affect the difficulty. Magic builds are always known as easier builds as you can stay at a safe range. Then you have the signs / player summons which are another level of assist due to either being told where to go, or being assisted by another player on difficult bosses. Then you also have the regular summons which are a massive assist, especially the one which clones your character completely making any sort of bleed / frost debuff build comically overpowered.

So i would say it definatly has an assist mode, it just not in the menu or attached to a specific piece of armor that plays the game for you.

I'll take a hundred Elden Ring games over bland stuff that holds your hand from the first minute and doesn't trust you with exploring and figuring stuff out for yourself.

I haven’t got round to playing the dlc yet, I’ve still got ptsd from the orphan of kos from the bloodborne expansion 😱

I beat Demon Souls/DS1/DS2 and for me they were not easy. I have not finished DS3/Bloodborne/Sekiro yet it's a I don't feel like putting in the time at the moment. And as much fun as I had with the games i can totally understand that people don't want to put in so much effort. Gaming is a way to relax we all have our different ways of playing. And for me telling people to get gut to enjoy it who am i to tell them what to do.

@Fuzzymonkeyfunk DS3/Bloodborne/Sekiro these are the games I still have to finish I think it's the age and time i feel like putting in a game is difficult. I tend to play one game at a time and finishing it completely before moving on.

@Ilyn well I must say thank you for the information . I really was clueless to what you had mentioned . I’ll look more into that. Very helpful .

I really don't like this "review bomb" nonsense. Fromsoft makes challenging games. It's just the way it is. Don't like it? Don't play it. End of story.

And for the record I'm getting through it just fine by the way. I've only died like 4-6 times and I've defeated 3 side bosses and 1 main boss. I'm by no means an expert. It just takes patience and a little bit of strategy and if need be for some folks, a summoned helping hand.

@Flaming_Kaiser Orphan is next level torture, from the piercing screeches to how hyper aggressive that boss is.

@Lavishturtle I would so happily eradicate Fortnite from the gaming landscape 😭

@kailun I don't think it takes hours to get into a rhythm with ER, to be honest. There are a lot of weapons, which offers a pretty diverse moveset, so maybe finding your ideal weapon takes some time, but then you have summons and a "horse" to help with most of the combat, and even most enemies can be run away from, with the exception of major bosses (though you risk losing out on levels and secrets this way). It really comes down to knowing when to dodge and not being baited into dodging too early. It's a tug of war; you dodge once/ twice/ thrice and hit. Dodge and hit. If you're lucky (or skilled) you hit first and dodge less, but it isn't beyond the scope of most people's ability, I believe.

@Ilyn And i had difficulty with Bloodborne already. 😅

What makes these reviews "review bombing" if somebody doesn't like a game for being too hard then that's a perfectly legitimate opinion

@Jimmer-jammer It's like everyone is dying to the DLC version of the Tree Sentinel (remember that 1st guy?) and complaining about it, forgetting that you can actually avoid enemies and come back to them later...

@get2sammyb Can I ask what in particular felt unfair? I quite enjoyed the whole of Farum Azula, and think Placidusax (big dragon?) was probably one of my favourite fights. The final boss felt a bit cheap, because I spent half the fight just chasing, but since you can now ride Torrent, it sounds a lot easier.

@J2theEzzo maybe I’m just really bad at it . But although what you said can be helpful to players if the game , there is no denying that there is a huge market of casual gamers that either don’t have time , experience , or patience , but would also like to experience those type of worlds etc . In reality , the only affect it’s going to have is more sales for the devs as they do only cater to one audience . Not by genre , but my skill level . I guess that’s why the Wii was huge success as it was so accessible at the time , but that’s another topic for another day.

@Mustoe Not just destroy but i bet some people will swear a lot until their swear jar filled up in a minute and they probably not gonna touch Ghost n Goblins or any video games anymore lol.

@Toot1st

Is it though?

I remember back in the days of the "lads mags" Maxim, (I believe), gave Ninja Gaiden a 1/5 stars stating it was "unplayable" after not being able to get past the opening boss - ( that so called review always stuck in my head for some reason). I don't think not having any patience is a legitimate reason to dislike something.

@Flaming_Kaiser sekiro is my hardest platinum it made Elden ring feel easy to me. Your right and have to be in the right mindset to play souls games and I’m not feeling it at the minute

@DrVenture69 - I’ve found four bosses so far, and out of those, only one I’d say is that bad. The others are tricky, but not overly so.
@get2sammyb - Out of curiosity, which bosses are we talking about specifically? Are we including the optional bosses like Malenia and Mohg, or just the story bosses?

———
Yeah, I dunno about review bombing because a game/expansion was too hard. Even if it were (and from my experience so far, it isn’t really) why not just…..stop playing, and move on to something else? (Especially if it’s part of a series that’s known for high difficulty.)

@Nepp67 there's nothing particularly hard to understand about it and I think review bombing a difficult game because it's difficult is stupid. I'm more lamenting the fact that it seems more and more games are taking the Soulsborne or Soulslite approach and I'm not sure it's a trend I like. I do enjoy a game like Horizon that isn't as punishing (although on Ultra Hard it gets difficult), and it's why I'm looking forward to something like Astro Bot that looks fun just by being fun. I can only play 4-5 hours per week so I do enjoy the more "accessible" games mixed in with the more difficult, but it feels like things are skewing towards the latter.

So on a review site, those that liked the game rated it highly, and those that didn’t gave it a low score. Where’s the review bombing?

@FullMetalWesker thanks, that gives me hope😄. I’m starting from NG+, but I’d only just started it after I completed the game, so it’ll be a while before I get to the dlc.

@kailun I'd argue that playing fighting games or fps' online against other players requires much more skill, and I think probably still appeals to a large base of casual players, which is why people like single player content included. Admittedly, Soulslikes have such an appeal for the difficulty, and I guess there's a balance between earlier games having more limited ai (so easier) but less options (so harder), whereas ER goes the other way, and offers a lot of choice, but balances that with difficult combat/ ai.

I don't know man, I mean if I'm not having fun with a game, I stop playing it and find something else to do that is fun. It's really not that hard.

So I've come to the conclusion that a LOT of people find complaining fun for some reason.

This is the equivalent of going to a sushi restaurant for dinner and complaining to the manager because some of the menu items are raw. JFC these snowflakes...

People are really acting like this? Fromsoft games have always been difficult. If they’ve played the base game they should be more than aware of that fact

@nyr2k2 It's not like accessible games are going away and especially with Sony and Microsoft trying to support accessibility in more games. Hell we are still getting games that are just pure fun such as Helldivers 2, GTA 6, and Astrobot. I just want a developer to make a game and not hold my hand by making stuff incredibly obvious. That's why I love Fromsoft because they won't put white or yellow paint over something because they think you're a moron that needs help every step of the way.

@Nepp67 I don't know, I don't mind the yellow paint, LOL. It's certainly not because I'm an idiot. If you design the game really well, sure, you don't need it. I didn't need it in Horizon, for example. Stellar Blade, which I just beat again (on hard, FWIW)? Everything is completely indistinguishable, without the yellow you'd literally have no idea where to jump. Even then, accessibility...let me turn it on or off. I'm all about options.

I saw the article where Miyazaki said ER was very hard for a reason and to compromise would detract from the experience. I understand and respect that. While I do think accessibility would be nice, of they think it diminishes the game, that's fair.

@Fuzzymonkeyfunk I totally get it sometimes I just don't feel like it and that happend with Bloodborne.

I just didn't feel like going on a awsome game but my mindset was not up for it and I somehow just never got back to it.

If I have a terrible week then I'm not going to relax by getting frustrated with a game were i get mad and annoyed.

@nyr2k2 Yes but that's why the scanner exists in Stellar Blade, to scan the ledges, ropes, enemies, etc., etc. I think that was a good "Accessibility option" to have without it being forced on you like the yellow paint.

@Nappy fair enough, although I'm not sure why a developer choosing to add in yellow paint to make things more straightforward is "forced" because they think we're "morons," but intentionally difficult game design is ***** art. LOL. Whatever, though. Enjoy what you enjoy.

I think Elden Ring more than most Fromsoft games suffered a bit from balance issues, in part due to the open world nature and the sheer wealth of combat options and available buffs. It was pretty easy to get overpowered before visiting an area or to create an overpowered build that trivializes most encounters, so the devs really cranked the difficulty for some of the later bosses. Brilliant game overall, but I found that aspect a bit annoying at the time--large swaths of the game felt too easy, then you'd hit a wall because when a lategame boss has an absurd health pool and can oneshot your perhaps unoptimized build. But you learn from your mistakes and persevere; thus is the Fromsoft way.

I'm only 5 hours into the DLC and I think the same balance issues persist, but this area is clearly meant to be endgame level difficulty, and it's only "hard" until you pick up some of the DLC-specific upgrade resources.

I'm a pretty average player overall, and I still cleared Blackgaol Knight in 3 tries. He hits hard, but the moveset is easy to learn and once you realize how easy he is to parry or stagger, it's not particularly difficult. Yet people are absolutely raging that they can't beat an optional boss--I found many of the base game optional fights much harder than this, personally.

I suspect there are a few things happening to cause such a backlash: people are either way underleveled and just rushed to see the DLC; perhaps they're trying this on a late NG+ cycle, which is just absurd to try for any first run through Fromsoft DLC; or they're simply rusty at the game and forgot how Fromsoft games work. Fromsoft deliberately put one of the hardest nonboss enemies right next to the first site of grace, and then the first field bosses you encounter are of course way too hard the first time you encounter them. These are classic Fromsoft tactics. It's fine if you don't enjoy it, but this isn't particularly different than the base game.

Amusing and probably the only tip you'll ever get from FS.

https://x.com/BandaiNamcoUS/status/1804630213562962043?t=zmXXN3TV_hJqMr4Vu9gXBg&s=19

Sure its hard if you dont collect the shards and ashes, and dont use spirit summons. If tou do its not too hard. Certainly not harder than sekiro for instance which has no summons or other help systems.

@Colour as someone with a kid on the way, that is a very reassuringly decent amount of gaming time you get 😂

After just struggling through the base game I'll pass on this. Life is too short lol

FromSoft should just release a statement:

We heard you and decided to add difficulty options. With the next patch you can choose the new difficulty options Hard and Even Harder.

What a sad world we live in.