RPS Advent Calendar 2024, December 18

Today’s Advent Calendar may take you a while to draw. It’s ridiculously dense, darkly majestic, and popular with masochists. Come, then, touch a spy’s arm, and carry it behind door number 18…

is it. Elden ring: Shadow of the Erdtree!

Ollie: No matter where you go in or out of the Shadowland, no matter where you point your camera, software mastery is evident. Elden Ring is a punishing, memorable, and somehow better Shadow Of The Earthtree in one of the most stunningly designed worlds on PC. The world they travel through when they first touch the withered arm is an Escherian fantasy, a permanent labyrinth of interconnected landscapes, interconnected regions. The new gold standard for open world environment design, and it comes with DLC.

Like the base game, Shadow Of The Erdtree only gives you the bare and bland direction of the main story if you want it. But the sheer number of amazing sights and sounds around you ignites the desire to choose a direction, and the game’s many memorable encounters slowly hug you to death. The Land of Shadows is a place where you can spend hundreds of hours and miss parts of the map entirely. That may be offensive to some, but to me it’s a wonderful testament to the design of the world. This is a really ancient and complex place. The birthplace of the Goddesses before she ascended to godhood. A battlefield of many half-forgotten battles, its effects take dozens of hours of exploration and art-gathering to decipher. The land of the shadow knows you not, nor owes you anything; Until you give a reason.

The story is tighter and more compelling than Elden Ring’s rise from lowly progressive to god-slaying legend. The world itself is still full of some of the most interesting lore in any game, but Shadow Of The Erdtree benefits from a more focused journey. From the start, you know you’re following in the footsteps of Mikaela the Kind – by far perhaps the most enigmatic character in the game. Why and to what conclusion is a mystery that you and many other players in the field are racing to piece together. It’s a carefully thought-out story about free will, revenge, despair, and the greater good. It answers some long-standing questions about how the world and mythology of the Elden Ring fit together, and adds some interesting new points of uncertainty and speculation. It’s amazing, truly extraordinary world building.

Of course, the combat and the boss themselves are still the best in the class. Unforgettable experiences Melania, MohgAnd Placidusax A series of new encounters have been added to the base game, some of which I consider the most impressive and impressive boss battles of any game I’ve ever played. Entirely new weapons and schools of magic are free to explore as you wish, or to ignore entirely. Organically unlocking, DLC-laden side missions will provide you with even more memorable journeys if you so desire. And a new list of strange NPC friends for some real seat-bending conversation moments as you find out who your partner is and the enemy to betray, defeat, and advance their own ulterior motives.

Shadow of the Erdtree also cements Elden Ring in my mind as not only the premier open-world game, but perhaps the single most engaging adventure to play on PC right now. I’ll probably be replaying it every year until we finally get Elden Ring 2.

Nick: Good worms. Absolutely the best worms.

Ed. It is very dense and sometimes maybe a little. as well Dense. But what should I celebrate with its adventurous vibe, with its forests and crooked libraries and eyeball fields? I wish the base game had a weird level. Also yes, great worms.

James: I, uh, understood the voting rules perfectly and didn’t think this was eligible. But if I bothered to check, this would get more and more James votes. I had no desire to play Elden Ring beyond my professional duties, but the atmosphere of that opening journey into the Shadowlands was so intoxicating, the call to adventure so loud, that I decided to download the save files from my colleagues. A proper journey. 261 hours and two completed games later, my top game of 2024 is actually Elden Ring, and I have Erdtree Shadow to thank. Blame, blame.

Jeremy: I had an interesting experience with Shadow Of The Erdtree as I was one of the guides tasked with tackling all the intricacies of this massive DLC. I also only played the first Ring of Elden for a few hours, which I wanted to get through before Shadow of the Erdtree was released, but just didn’t have the time.

Thanks to a saved game mod, I jumped into the new stuff a week before release and was instantly hooked. Stove Golems And the crossbow a million times over Blackgall Knight. With my lack of experience with the base game, I felt I was beyond the collective Elden Ring knowledge needed to advance through the DLC to write about it, and while all Souls games are uphill climbs in their own right, this one was a particularly steep climb.

But as with most software output, it’s only recently started to get better and more efficient. Now, I’m happy to say that my Elden Ring experience has been amazingly played. Shadow of the Erdtree doesn’t touch the main game though. And as someone who really dislikes open-world Soulslikes (which is what made me want to play the original game, actually), maybe it’s best to do it this way. Shadow Of The Erdtree is the stuff of a guide writer’s nightmare with intricate mapping, stacking interlocking bits and bobs of tiles – but perfect for someone like me who prefers tight environments and well-designed linearity to a big sandbox. One day I’ll go back and try to play Elden Ring “properly” but for now I’m happy to dive into the DLC first.

And speaking of “early DLC” – if you’re like me and wondering how to get through those first hours of the Shadow Realm… hey, Instruction That’s why!

Graham: Soul Loves: Like Brutals, but for cowards. (I haven’t played Elden Ring or Erdtree.)

Head Back to the advent calendar To open another door!