Shadow and flame

Why Elden Ring: Shadow Of The Erdtree is more than simple DLC - it's a huge new open world adventure that'll take over your gaming life

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FORMAT PS5, PS4 / ETA 21 JUN / PUB BANDAI NAMCO ENTERTAINMENT DEV FROMSOFTWARE / PLAYERS MULTI

Let’s hope you’ve not grown rusty since you last battled your way to the Erdtree and reclaimed the Elden Ring. Shadow Of The Erdtree will put you to the test.  Expanding FromSoftware’s debut true open world, the Land Of Shadow isn’t merely a massive new area to explore, it also reveals the developer has learned from developing the base game and thrown many more ideas into the mix (which is partly why this DLC has taken so long to come out). In a sense, this is FromSoftware’s second go at making a world worth exploring.

Make no mistake, Elden Ring’s Lands Between were already worth spending time in, but the density of design on show here is something else again, more elegantly connecting the large world with its legacy dungeons with more navigational challenges in between, from vertical ruins to large swamps and fortresses. On top of that, new powers give you additional ways to revisit the base game’s world as well.

Cracking up 

Making an omelette on your way to DLC land

After finally beating Mohg in his bloody palace, we tracked down Miquella. But as he was trapped in a weird egg, hand hanging out, that was all we got. Until now.