After 3 hours with Shadow of the Erdtree, I can already tell it's going to deliver on my favorite thing about FromSoftware's games: Exploration

GamesRPGAfter 3 hours with Shadow of the Erdtree, I can already tell it’s going to deliver on my favorite thing about FromSoftware’s games: ExplorationWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Before my three hour session with Shadow of the Erdtree I was warned of two major bosses in the build: a difficult one in the northeast, and an even harder one in the northwest. It was assumed that I’d make a beeline towards these grand foes, but I did my best to avoid them. Forget the bosses—my most pertinent questions going into Shadow of the Erdtree were: What is the Land of Shadow like? What secrets is it hiding? How many swamps does it have? How much can I glean about its total size?

I wasn’t that excited about Shadow of the Erdtree before my preview session, for the same reason I don’t care much for expansions for any game. I’ve seen the way the world unfolds in Elden Ring; I’ve seen the designers' full intent. I don’t need an extension of that experience on a smaller scale, especially since Elden Ringneedsscale to differentiate itself from the three Dark Souls games before it. I loved Elden Ring because it was massive but nevertheless intricately detailed. Though the dull rational side of me knows that millions of other players have made the same discoveries as me across the Lands Between, its combination of scale and density upholds the fantasy that I alone am the pioneer.

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Coming away from Shadow of the Erdtree, it’s obviousFromSoftwareunderstands that a big part of this RPG’s appeal is not only the scale of its playground, but also the way the land folds in on itself in fascinating ways. A tiny crevice between a building and rock face might net you a chest in any other game, but in Shadow of the Erdtree, it might hide access to a whole other region tucked away on the other side. Following a river into the murky unpromising distance might net you nirnroot in another game: in Shadow of the Erdtree it instead leads to a narrow, barely perceptible crevice into a strange aquatic alter world (and crabs).

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This is FromSoftware operating in familiar melancholy grandeur mode: think Altus Plateau, or the more jagged limits of Liurnia, under a dusky red sky.

In my limited time with SotE, I didn’t see anything as bracing as, for example, that first bumble into Caelid, or Anor Londo. That may come, but the opening areas of the Land of Shadow isn’t aesthetically dissimilar to anything you’ve seen in the base game, though that may be FromSoftware holding its cards close to its chest.

(Image credit: Bandai Namco)

Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree

Gaol walking

More Erdtree(Image credit: Future)Shadow of the Erdtree is PCG’s next coverMiyazaki explains why Erdtree had to be such a big expansionGetting punchy with Erdtree’s new weaponsErdtree’s new leveling system explained

More Erdtree

(Image credit: Future)Shadow of the Erdtree is PCG’s next coverMiyazaki explains why Erdtree had to be such a big expansionGetting punchy with Erdtree’s new weaponsErdtree’s new leveling system explained

(Image credit: Future)

PC Gamer Shadow of the Erdtree cover

Shadow of the Erdtree is PCG’s next coverMiyazaki explains why Erdtree had to be such a big expansionGetting punchy with Erdtree’s new weaponsErdtree’s new leveling system explained

The first boss is reportedly in Belurat, but don’t worry: I never really got there. I stumbled a little way into the depths of its stronghold, killed a few ginormous spiders, but then thought better of it. Turning around, I accidentally awakened the aforementioned sleeping dragon and, in the process of pissbolting Torrent-top, took refuge in a dark wood beyond which lay a cave which led eventually—and presumably via the backdoor—into the Belurat gaol. Rather than the smaller map meaning less to discover, it’s just made the expansion’s points of interest closer together.

Later, south of the giant Castle Erdis where I fought Rellana, Twin Moon Knight (I died once and then ran away), I found a field of ruins where a gang of oversize trolls with misshapen spines roughhoused with some out-of-their-depth knights. Past these hooligans I find an entry to the Ruined Forge Lava Intake, where lava was once used—presumably during happier times, if ever they were—in the smelting of metal. This dungeon isn’t as sprawling as the Belurat gaol but it’s a fun and moody traipse with some nice the-ground-is-literally-lava platforming tension, reminding me a bit of the ye olde Demon Ruins of Dark Souls (though replace Capra Demons with trolls).

I didn’t feel like I saw all of what the first map fragment depicts in the Land of Shadow, and that’s assuming those two major bosses led to cul-de-sacs in my preview build (one of them, I’m told, guards the gate to much,muchmore). I found one tiny dungeon with nothing but a boss fight—the Blackgaol knight—and while I could be wrong, precedent tells me that there will be a small handful of these alone in the areas I explored.

But there’s a lot of assumptions involved in my impressions. Elden Ring’s amazing forward momentum relied on the simple pleasure of finding and exploring new frontiers. As Hidetaka Miyazaki told Edge in 2021, he doesn’t play the launch versions of his games because he “wouldn’t get any of the unknowns that the fresh player is going to experience.” After my brief hands-on, I can confirm the most important element is present in Shadow of the Erdtree: curiosity is amply rewarded.

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PRODUCTSElden Ring: Shadow of the ErdtreeElden Ring

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