Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Review: Faith, Meet Futility

One of the first landmarks you’ll come across in Shadow of the Erdtree is a tall, brilliantly shining cross. Intersected at its peak by a thin crescent — most likely a representation of the Golden Order, the dark fantasy world’s ruling theocracy — it feels bluntly referential to saints and prophets and resurrections.

Shadow of the Erdtree, an expansion to the commercially successful, critically adored and deviously demanding action role-playing game Elden Ring, wants to know whose faith matters. And whether having the kind of blind faith required to follow a mysterious lord into unknown lands is a good thing after all.

Expansions to FromSoftware games tend to be steep-walled gantlets, meant to provide a heightened challenge for experienced players. Shadow of the Erdtree is no different. You will be tested. Your faith in your abilities, your belief in yourself, will be stretched to its limit.

You will need to trust, against facts and experiences, that you can take on tough enemies who would readily stomp you, that you can persevere against this new crop of knights, monsters and freaks, most of whom far exceed in rigor even the most demanding of Elden Ring’s late-game enemies.

The big bag of tricks I had gathered in Elden Ring felt largely useless against this new tier of adversaries, who casually shrugged off my fully upgraded spear tips and carefully honed sword edges. Collecting Scadutree fragments, an expansion-specific resource, grants you a much-needed boost in power.