Steam has no option for a 'mixed' review so I will lean more towards negative. There's some great stuff in this DLC such as awesome new weapon types, enemies and bosses (not all of them though). But it's overshadowed by the map design and lacking open-world experience compared to the base game.

In this DLC you traverse gargantuan, sparsely populated fields that have very little of substance to do. The most noteworthy loot to find most of the time is just some stupid cookbook and low level weapon upgrade materials. Very occasionally a weapon but all too rarely. And while the vistas are gorgeous to look at initially, the luster wears off quick as the game is mostly transformed into Torrent Simulator as soon as you enter the DLC.

All this is compounded by the very questionable decision of tethering character baseline power in the DLC to a random collectible item that's found in the most random of places at times. Very bad for replayability. I love exploration in open world games but this ain't it. The base game of Elden Ring has a lot more density compared to this DLC. The developer has seemingly become fixated on large, enormous scale areas with no regard to the gameplay experience. For example, there's certain ruins in this DLC that encompass a vast chunk of the map and they contain almost nothing. Just utterly pointless.

The thing I'm most excited about is being able to add these new enemies and items to a randomized playthrough. But I'd rather comb through The Lands Between ten times over before ever considering another jog through the empty fields of this DLC.

Steam has no option for a 'mixed' review so I will lean more towards negative. There's some great stuff in this DLC such as awesome new weapon types, enemies and bosses (not all of them though). But it's overshadowed by the map design and lacking open-world experience compared to the base game. In this DLC you traverse gargantuan, sparsely populated fields that have very little of substance to do. The most noteworthy loot to find most of the time is just some stupid cookbook and low level weapon upgrade materials. Very occasionally a weapon but all too rarely. And while the vistas are gorgeous to look at initially, the luster wears off quick as the game is mostly transformed into Torrent Simulator as soon as you enter the DLC. All this is compounded by the very questionable decision of tethering character baseline power in the DLC to a random collectible item that's found in the most random of places at times. Very bad for replayability. I love exploration in open world games but this ain't it. The base game of Elden Ring has a lot more density compared to this DLC. The developer has seemingly become fixated on large, enormous scale areas with no regard to the gameplay experience. For example, there's certain ruins in this DLC that encompass a vast chunk of the map and they contain almost nothing. Just utterly pointless. The thing I'm most excited about is being able to add these new enemies and items to a randomized playthrough. But I'd rather comb through The Lands Between ten times over before ever considering another jog through the empty fields of this DLC.